Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[fragit]

I did a complete black out from this past Friday (6/30) to Tuesday (7/4) early evening. Lights on all day yesterday and not much in the way of growth in my tank (yet and fingers crossed). I still don't know what kind my are, but if they do come back I will be sending a sample out to somebody here for and ID. Keep your fingers crossed, I will check my parameters soon for a full report.

 

[Paullawr]

An early sign of recovery!!! Yay!

The toadstool is just getting ready to shed....as long as he's getting good flow it shouldn't be an issue.



That's some gnarly growth.....dino's over turf algae? A buddy had that....only place dino's would grow is on the one rock where turf algae was growing – and it'd grow over the top of the turf. Weird.

Is it me or do all of your corals actually look kinda great?!

That's what I thought​

 

[reeferfoxx]

That's what I thought​

*crossing fingers*

 

[Paullawr]

So update on tank nuke. So far so good. Calc precipitation I felt killed them just as much as ph swing.
No new strings in three days.

Samples from sand look very promising. Still got super speedway Dino things (no idea what they are), pods and a few Dino cysts.

As a result started siphoning sand tonight. Will do it in stages over next few days. I've only a nano tank and could do it in an about twenty minutes but don't want to upset inhabitants anymore than already have.

Once sand is gone I'm going to turn mp10 on to floor and rock work. I've bought a small canister filter and will load that with floss. I think long term I may replace reactor and run carbon / small amounts of phosphate remover when needed. Th space that creates will leave some small space to covert to a refugium area.
Just wish I knew someone handy with acrylic that could custom make me a chamber. I bout one of th aio but it's to short for my tank. I could use I guess just not ideal.

 

[fragit]

Got home from work today and things still look pretty good. There is some growth on the sand but it looks more like diatoms than anything else. Gonna see how things go for the next couple days.

 

[mcarroll]

So update on tank nuke.

How many tanks do you have?

 

[Paullawr]

How many tanks do you have?

Just the one but this is my third

 

[mwilk19]

Consider stocking up on a little NO3 and PO4 supplement (DIY, Brightwell or Seachem seem to be the prevailing options.) and start a daily dosing regime to keep a small supply of N and P available all the time. (Extra feeding doesn't seem to have the same effect in the short term, but in the longer term that's the answer.)

I have both KNO3 (Stump Remover) and Brightwell NeoPhos. I tested NO3 today and it was 5,PO4 was .10. I've run the lights at 4 hours per day for the last three and the dinos have diminished. I don't know if that's a reflection of nutrients becoming more balanced or just the reduced light period. I'm going to increase it tomorrow and see what happens. I'm going to try to handle nutrient export minus the additives. I'm going back to a refugium with chaeto and see how that works.

 

[fragit]

So my dinos are back after the 4 day black out. They are not as bad as before yet but still not great. I've been micro bubbling at night for like 6 hours for the last week. I have also been feeding my 6 fish 2 cubes of frozen daily. I need to check my parameters to see where everything is at. Next up for me is getting some garf grunge and some macro algae and restarting my refugium.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting on when this started and what thing have changed. First off is dosing Vibrant to kill some bubble algae. This in turn killed my Chaeto. Second thing that I just realized and noticed and it definitely coincides with the Dino bloom, is that all my pineapple sponges died off. They had completely colonized my sump, they were everywhere. Now I can't see a single one. This may be a coincidence but I can't help but think that there was a huge swing in the balance of the organisms in my system. Maybe the dinos are toxic, but my snails don't seem to be affected by them. That's all I got for now.

 

[Jolanta]

So my dinos are back after the 4 day black out. They are not as bad as before yet but still not great. I've been micro bubbling at night for like 6 hours for the last week. I have also been feeding my 6 fish 2 cubes of frozen daily. I need to check my parameters to see where everything is at. Next up for me is getting some garf grunge and some macro algae and restarting my refugium.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting on when this started and what thing have changed. First off is dosing Vibrant to kill some bubble algae. This in turn killed my Chaeto. Second thing that I just realized and noticed and it definitely coincides with the Dino bloom, is that all my pineapple sponges died off. They had completely colonized my sump, they were everywhere. Now I can't see a single one. This may be a coincidence but I can't help but think that there was a huge swing in the balance of the organisms in my system. Maybe the dinos are toxic, but my snails don't seem to be affected by them. That's all I got for now.

My pinaple sponges also died, they are filter feeders so I think the most probably is they died becouse of dino toxin, I also had some kind of swinging arm worms and they also died all. I think its not the cause of dinos that they died, its just the result. With ostreopsis my tank looked really like a cementary at the end I think your best way for dinos is just to keep your tank the best you can and dont do more black outs or dont add any chemicals, just keep your levels of nutrients stable and be pacient. Dont nuke your tank as I did.

 

[fragit]

My pinaple sponges also died, they are filter feeders so I think the most probably is they died becouse of dino toxin, I also had some kind of swinging arm worms and they also died all. I think its not the cause of dinos that they died, its just the result. With ostreopsis my tank looked really like a cementary at the end I think your best way for dinos is just to keep your tank the best you can and dont do more black outs or dont add any chemicals, just keep your levels of nutrients stable and be pacient. Dont nuke your tank as I did.

I have no plans of nuking my tank. I'm an old school reefer that decided on this new tank to try the contemporary approach. That has back fired on me in every way. Almost a year after filling the tank and I'm no where even close to where the tank should be. I'm not going to start over, just going to start adding back my old time techniques and husbandry practices.

 

[Paullawr]

Good on you, though I went the tank nuke approach. The damage by amphidium and osteo combined was total loss in 10 days.

No string snot or bubbles for over a week.

I'll do what I do and jump start it all again in a few weeks but moving from bacteria to remove nitrates and instead go with some macro or turf

 

[mcarroll]

So my dinos are back after the 4 day black out. They are not as bad as before yet but still not great. I've been micro bubbling at night for like 6 hours for the last week. I have also been feeding my 6 fish 2 cubes of frozen daily. I need to check my parameters to see where everything is at. Next up for me is getting some garf grunge and some macro algae and restarting my refugium.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting on when this started and what thing have changed. First off is dosing Vibrant to kill some bubble algae. This in turn killed my Chaeto. Second thing that I just realized and noticed and it definitely coincides with the Dino bloom, is that all my pineapple sponges died off. They had completely colonized my sump, they were everywhere. Now I can't see a single one. This may be a coincidence but I can't help but think that there was a huge swing in the balance of the organisms in my system. Maybe the dinos are toxic, but my snails don't seem to be affected by them. That's all I got for now.

It seems very likely that some liquid nutrients could help, so consider starting that. (But lets see your latest test results first.)

Depending on the amount of effort you're applying to other measures, I'm not sure I'd bother continuing them.

Sponges are passive feeders, BTW, so they can't really avoid the mucus strands in the water. (Dino's mucus is apparently the main carrier of their toxins.) Snails can take a nasty bite, go "Ew!!!" and slither off elsewhere for a different meal.

So do you actually see your snails eating it, or are they just (smartly) avoiding it?

Let us know on those test results and what course you pick! You're also welcome to PM me for any reason.

 

[Rakie]

On another forum, a lot of people remove their sand bed and have had success that way. Has anyone here removed their sand to battle Dinos? I know Dinos can take hold in BB systems, but I wondered about this the other night and hadn't seen anyone here remove their sand.

 

[mcarroll]

Could be effective on some Amphidinium which don't seem to leave the sand bed. But there've been cases (not sure of dino ID) noted where the bloom that was happening on the sand bed just migrated to the rocks, so if results are more important than sand bed removal, then ID would be crucial. And a nutrient approach might still give better results. Even along with sand bed removal.

2¢

 

[Jolanta]

On another forum, a lot of people remove their sand bed and have had success that way. Has anyone here removed their sand to battle Dinos? I know Dinos can take hold in BB systems, but I wondered about this the other night and hadn't seen anyone here remove their sand.

I removed my sand bed and they just finished sitting on rocks

 

[reeferfoxx]

Little early in the day but let me know what you guys think? Here is a picture about 10 minutes after lighta hit it's peak after ramping. The sand was mostly white before lights started ramping.



It 'almost'..almost..looks like cyano is trying to compete for space.

The snotty brown still lingers though..


I did a full tank shot and tried editing with my phone. I am in a hurry. I have to go out of town for the evening. I wont be able to monitor things. I'll be back tomorrow. Nitrates at 5ppm. Po4 at 0.09ppm.

 

[reeferfoxx]

On another forum, a lot of people remove their sand bed and have had success that way. Has anyone here removed their sand to battle Dinos? I know Dinos can take hold in BB systems, but I wondered about this the other night and hadn't seen anyone here remove their sand.

I thought about doing that. But my shrimp and goby wouldn't be happy.

 

[K. Steven]

Ostreopsis update...

No mucus strings seen in DT or sump and haven't dosed phosphate or done a WC in weeks. Lots of pods covering glass and rocks. Cyano seems to have decimated the Ostreopsis strings that were in the sump. Still skimming dry.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Ostreopsis update...

No mucus strings seen in DT or sump and haven't dosed phosphate or done a WC in weeks. Lots of pods covering glass and rocks. Cyano seems to have decimated the Ostreopsis strings that were in the sump. Still skimming dry.

Did you just wait it out or what did you do?