Dinoflagellate’s vs Rock type and Substrate

[brandon429]

hey thats a striking reef tank. the orange goni on the right/alveop couldnt tell/ is worth about $300 in my area. dang man.

thats probably 4 grand in corals from the austin area. 0% bad algae, aiptasia, problem invasions, just pure corals/sharp wow.

 

[ELChingonsReef]

hey thats a striking reef tank. the orange goni on the right/alveop couldnt tell/ is worth about $300 in my area. dang man.

thats probably 4 grand in corals from the austin area. 0% bad algae, aiptasia, problem invasions, just pure corals/sharp wow.

I paid 125$ for that orange goni . I got it locally at my LFS. It was tiny when I got it. It's grown alot in a year. The one up top the dark green one is the glitter bomb goni. I paid a lot for that one and it grows the slowest. I try to keep my tank simple. I got some good advice from my friend at holy grail corals. He said "buy stuff you are good at growing" and leave everything else alone. Lol I'm good at growing gonipora and acans. Sps well that's a different story but I've done well so far..yea I have thousands of dollars in corals. I try to keep it simple and be patient. Test water twice a week and stay on top of things. Patients is the key man.. mother nature will bless you with big beautiful corals if your patient and consistent. Thanks for the compliment man..

 

[HankstankXXL750]

I have a 2 yr old tank that was set up with dry rock from a previous customer at my lfs. It is Tonga rock. I have fought cyano several times, but now think I have a Dino outbreak. My first one. I know my nutrients are out of balance, but it is generally a FOWLR with a BTA for the clowns and long polyp GSP. Nitrates are in the 20’s but phosphates are sky high. Max out my Hanna ULR tester. Haven’t worried about the nutrients as much since everything has been looking great.

So I don’t know what causes them in a nutrient Rich environment.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I got dinos in my tank on week 7. I am still finishing them off at month 5.

I stopped doing water changes and have been dosing .08 ppm phosphates daily and it still drops to .01 on the hanna ulr if I skip one of my 5ml doses in a day. I am considering adding it straight to my ato.

I have 1 single marco dry rock in my tank, about 1lb chunk.

My dinos were very close to being done, and i did 1 10% water change after not doing one for a couple months, and they came back quick. There is some trace that it must have depleted causing it to return on the change.

Idk what species of dino I have, but its very hard to scrub off, and reforms within seconds if the lights are on. It does no go into the water column at night, and produces bubbles at an absurd rate. A spot to small to see with my eyes will produce a contant stream of bubbles on one of the types of rock I have. Makes for easy filtering out of the water column at least.

This is my first reeftank, and I did what I could to seed the hell out of my micro biome. Had diatoms for 2 weeks, disappeared overnight, with cloudy water coming in, added uv, 2 days later dinos came.

The dinos took over very slowly, I was an idiot and thought it was a gha, loved my ph from it, thought it was blenny food.

I just did a pretty big clean last night, siphoned my entire vollume twice back into my sump through a sock and scrubbed every surface.

My sump with lights on for 16hours a day has 0 signs of dinos, nore does my overflow by some miracle.

I have lots of bubble algae (i think) that is a very pretty emerald green, and chaeto and caulepra in my fuge.

Been dosing phos for 3 months, nitrates as well, 1 ml of chaeto grow, daily. I started silica dosing 1 week ago, and I think I just saw some diatoms for the first time this am. Hopefully its a turning point.

But I suspect whatever this white "live rock" that does not seem to be a kond of rock from the ocean, is at fault. I have no vasis for the assumption other than, i definitely think it was not in saltwater before the lfs the person that gave them to me got them from did. Its a very heavy smooth rock, almosy seems like there is 0 porous to it, aside from some smooth large holes, but it does appear to have a ton of microscopic betwork of holes just based on air escaping from it over a couple days when first placing it in the vat.

Half of my rock was dried, the other half was in 70degree water with flow for a month, then cooked at 78 for another couple months before going into my tank. I did not do water changes during the cook.

My most prominent hypothesis to me was, the chaeto droping my nutriants because I put it in during the end of the cycle, but after learning about rock binding po4, i blame the ehite and marco rocks.

 

[Reefahholic]

I'm already past the one year mark . I started the tank in August 2021 . The rock is covered in Coralline algae. I have a bunch of healthy acropora mini colonys. Thats what makes me nervous about disrupting the system. But I'm tired of the dinos. I run a UV sterilizer every day 24hrs a day. I can't imagine how much worse it would be without it. I also get cyano outbreaks once and a while too. So at 1.5 years that's where I'm at right now. I still have trouble keeping phosphate up.

So keep the rock. What is the Phosphate level? You need to dose up if it’s sitting too low. Otherwise the Dino’s will never go away. Follow my some of the helpful things below. The PO4 level is a loose number. My tank needed about 0.2-0.25 ppm to really hurt their numbers, but 0.1 ppm is a good place to start. That is how I beat mine:

 

[Reefahholic]

I have a 2 yr old tank that was set up with dry rock from a previous customer at my lfs. It is Tonga rock. I have fought cyano several times, but now think I have a Dino outbreak. My first one. I know my nutrients are out of balance, but it is generally a FOWLR with a BTA for the clowns and long polyp GSP. Nitrates are in the 20’s but phosphates are sky high. Max out my Hanna ULR tester. Haven’t worried about the nutrients as much since everything has been looking great.

So I don’t know what causes them in a nutrient Rich environment.

I have been very happy with a ratio of anywhere from 50:1 - 100:1

 

[ELChingonsReef]

So keep the rock. What is the Phosphate level? You need to dose up if it’s sitting too low. Otherwise the Dino’s will never go away. Follow my some of the helpful things below. The PO4 level is a loose number. My tank needed about 0.2-0.25 ppm to really hurt their numbers, but 0.1 ppm is a good place to start. That is how I beat mine:

Thank you for your help. My phosphate usually stays at 0.03. I have to dose 20mls every couple days to maintain. If I do nothing it drops to zero fast. 20 MLS is alot in a 300 liter tank. Corals seem happier at a phosphate of 0.08

 

[Reefahholic]

Thank you for your help. My phosphate usually stays at 0.03. I have to dose 20mls every couple days to maintain. If I do nothing it drops to zero fast. 20 MLS is alot in a 300 liter tank. Corals seem happier at a phosphate of 0.08

No problem. 20mL could mean anything. You need to know the actual ppm you’re adding to the system. I was adding 0.16 ppm to a 105/G for almost a year before it started to saturate. Definitely run the PO4 up higher 0.8-0.1 and you’ll see better days.

 

[Necrodaemus]

I’m gonna necro this post with a very interesting observation and experience.
I just setup a 90g almost 2 weeks ago. I purchased 80 pounds of what I was told was mature, live rock…and most of it is. However, several pieces are obviously Marco rock that was placed in the sellers stock tank less than a year ago…more than likely for more recent than he let on.
I also purchased 15 pounds of Jakarta live rock that had been curing for about 8 months, from another supplier.
The tank has been setup for nearly 2 weeks and I’m going through the typical algae stage as nutrients balance out and reach equilibrium with the water….started out at 10ppm NO3 and 0.3ppm PO4.
Fast forward 2 weeks and I’m now seeing dinos covering ONLY the newer looking Marco rocks….the older rocks look great….the Jakarta looks amazing….the Marco rock is a brown, snot bubbly mess! Nutrients. Are currently 2-5ppm NO3 and 0.1ppm PO4.
My first tank was a 25g lagoon that I set up a year ago this month using 95% dry white Marco and I went through the whole dino stage…fought and won against ostreopsis, small and large cell amphidinium.
I’m determined that Marco rock is the culprit and it just acts differently than other rock types.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I’m gonna necro this post with a very interesting observation and experience.
I just setup a 90g almost 2 weeks ago. I purchased 80 pounds of what I was told was mature, live rock…and most of it is. However, several pieces are obviously Marco rock that was placed in the sellers stock tank less than a year ago…more than likely for more recent than he let on.
I also purchased 15 pounds of Jakarta live rock that had been curing for about 8 months, from another supplier.
The tank has been setup for nearly 2 weeks and I’m going through the typical algae stage as nutrients balance out and reach equilibrium with the water….started out at 10ppm NO3 and 0.3ppm PO4.
Fast forward 2 weeks and I’m now seeing dinos covering ONLY the newer looking Marco rocks….the older rocks look great….the Jakarta looks amazing….the Marco rock is a brown, snot bubbly mess! Nutrients. Are currently 2-5ppm NO3 and 0.1ppm PO4.
My first tank was a 25g lagoon that I set up a year ago this month using 95% dry white Marco and I went through the whole dino stage…fought and won against ostreopsis, small and large cell amphidinium.
I’m determined that Marco rock is the culprit and it just acts differently than other rock types.

I put my money on that the marco wasn't cooked any where nearly a year. Or it wasn't cooked in the sellers same tank at least for very long. I think dinos only really get to show up if there is bacteria free surface.

Or whatever did colonize on that marco, it didn't survive the move.

 

[Necrodaemus]

As it turns out, what I’m seeing developing in the Marco rocks is actually Chrysophytes. I’m currently running PhosGuard to pull silicates and bring PO4 down a bit.

 

[kevgib67]

I’ve had my tank up and running for just over two years. I used live rock that had been in a friend’s sump for decades. I’ve had diatoms, gha and bryopsis but I haven’t had dinos (excuse me while I knock on some wood). My nitrates are currently 10-15 and phosphates .1. They have been higher but never lower than these levels.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

As it turns out, what I’m seeing developing in the Marco rocks is actually Chrysophytes. I’m currently running PhosGuard to pull silicates and bring PO4 down a bit.

That makes more sense since it was established

 

[Necrodaemus]

That makes more sense since it was established

Right. The recipe was perfect….high NO3, PO4 and silicates.