Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

taricha · Mar 2, 2018

Bret Brinkmann said:
I bought the Hanna Si tester and ran it and the Salifert at the same time. Salifert was crystal clear, as in no Si while the Hanna maxed out at 2.00 ppm. I suspect my Salifert test kit is no good. Just my particular one not trying to bash Salifert. I even put a few drops of SpongExcel in a fresh sample and still Salifert detected nothing. I'll have to start a product review thread. But I believe my Si has been very high for a long time now. I stopped dosing a week before the Hanna came in and it still maxed out.

Unfortunately, I have to chime in on this. I pulled a 1liter sample of water and tested it straight, with ~1ppm, and with ~5ppm Si added. Salifert showed clear zero on everything. :-(

zachxlutz · Mar 2, 2018

taricha said:
Unfortunately, I have to chime in on this. I pulled a 1liter sample of water and tested it straight, with ~1ppm, and with ~5ppm Si added. Salifert showed clear zero on everything. :-(

Agreed. I've been unable to get a reading even after a known dosage to my tank. Do you know of any other viable testing options?

taricha · Mar 2, 2018

zachxlutz said:
Agreed. I've been unable to get a reading even after a known dosage to my tank. Do you know of any other viable testing options?

Bret was using a Hannah meter and got readings.
Whatcha think of the Hannah Si tester @Bret Brinkmann?

Mike S · Mar 2, 2018

So just a quick update on my battle. My 350 gallons system bottomed out on nitrate and phosphate at the end of a fallow period. Fish went back in the tank and shortly thereafter dinos (Ostreopsis) started to appear (about 2 weeks ago). The first week they weren't too bad and I used a baster to knock them off the rocks each evening and cranked up the flow. This week they appear to be a little worse. Last weekend I started dosing phosphate and nitrate slowly trying to get the tank to 0.10 ppm PO4 and 5 ppm NO3. I have gotten to those levels but haven't been able to maintain them yet testing once or twice a day. I took another look at my 80 watt UV sterilizer this week. Even though the bulb was only a few months old it appears to be burnt out. Ordered a new one yesterday. Also got the flow meter working on it again and too my surprise it was up around 1400 gph. Bumped it back to around 600 to 700 gph. I'm starting to see a little bit of green algae on my back glass so I guess that is progress! Also order a little fiji mud. I've always thought of that as snake oil but the bacteria can't hurt right? I was thinking about dialing back my ATS but ultimately that should help compete against the dinos correct?

wopadobop · Mar 2, 2018

so something very interesting to report. specifically. I had jaeger heater break on me. temps got low. this happened along with a water change. (i cracked the heater when i bumped the skimmer over too hard. ) but interestingly enough. it killed every dino in the tank over night. What element would do that? tank was spotless for weeks . of course im not advocating to do this as all my sps died except the montipora digis . odd. anyway. could it have been copper? I immmediatly put in some poly filter and scrubbed out the water and now they are back again. Just thought i would mention that as its some type of data towards finding an iradication method.

these things are killing me. Ive got po4 up to .10 and nitrates at 20 . then i just grow algae that the dinos stick to.

ostreopsis . ozone or uv effective? what can we do to trigger them to no longer benthic? do they skim out?

dwest · Mar 2, 2018

Thanks @taricha. Just shut off my lights and blasted. Will continue each night. If anyone has any more suggestions how to eradicate my small-cell amphidinium, please chime in. So far my UV (55W and 57W) hasn't done anything . One other thing. I've removed half of my siporax. Was planning on removing the rest at some point. Anyone have any comments about that? Of course, I will maintain PO4 and NO3 to proper (o.1 and 1) levels.

Beardo · Mar 2, 2018

wopadobop said:
so something very interesting to report. specifically. I had jaeger heater break on me. temps got low. this happened along with a water change. (i cracked the heater when i bumped the skimmer over too hard. ) but interestingly enough. it killed every dino in the tank over night. What element would do that? tank was spotless for weeks . of course im not advocating to do this as all my sps died except the montipora digis . odd. anyway. could it have been copper? I immmediatly put in some poly filter and scrubbed out the water and now they are back again. Just thought i would mention that as its some type of data towards finding an iradication method.

these things are killing me. Ive got po4 up to .10 and nitrates at 20 . then i just grow algae that the dinos stick to.

ostreopsis . ozone or uv effective? what can we do to trigger them to no longer benthic? do they skim out?

I have found UV to be effective against ostreopsis, as long as it is sized correctly.
I never could grow any algae when dinos were running rampant, since you are it sounds like you are atlas moving in the right direction.

reeferfoxx · Mar 2, 2018

Mike S said:
Bumped it back to around 600 to 700 gph.

I would bump it down to the 200-300gph range. It's also best to have it installed after the overflow or after the filter compartment. Not in the return line.

reeferfoxx · Mar 2, 2018

Mike S said:
I was thinking about dialing back my ATS but ultimately that should help compete against the dinos correct?

With elevated nutrients it would help with combating any hair algae that would grow in the display. Otherwise ATS soul purpose is nutrient reduction which is opposite of what this thread is promoting.

RedneckReefer68 · Mar 2, 2018

48 hrs since I installed the UV. Dinos still didn't show their selves again today which I'm totally surprised by.

mcarroll · Mar 3, 2018

wopadobop said:
I had jaeger heater break on me. temps got low. this happened along with a water change. (i cracked the heater when i bumped the skimmer over too hard. ) but interestingly enough. it killed every dino in the tank over night. What element would do that?

The temperature element! Do you know how cool it got and for how long?

wopadobop · Mar 3, 2018

Got down to 71 for just a few hours . I was thinking more along the lines of the metal inside ? Could be the temp though. They definitely died as my phosphate skyrocketed .

Blanch · Mar 3, 2018

What do you think? Dinos?

Blanch · Mar 3, 2018

Repeated post

fragit · Mar 3, 2018

Just wanted to update on my results. I’ve defeated dinos late last summer. Then had 6 days with no power last October. Tank bounced back and in early December dinos returned. Been keeping phosphates and nitrates up 0.06-0.1 and 10-16 since, by dosing. Started vacuuming sand bed early February. First vacuumed deep, then just the surface. Did this weekly for a month ran water through 2 filter socks. Dinos were weekend but were still present. Got some Garf Grunge a week ago, and dinos are pretty much visually eradicated. Still keeping nitrates and phosphates up, my tank is a softie/lps tank anyway. I have a 40 breeder refugium full of macros which is where I put the grunge. I added some pods back in late December and noticed an increase in populations around the same time dinos started to decrease. This is the second time I’ve beat them back by dosing nutrients and using grunge type material to increase biodiversity. As soon as there is an imbalance in the web they pop back up. Stability in the individual ecosystem is as just as important as stability in chemistry.

bh750 · Mar 3, 2018

fragit said:
Just wanted to update on my results. I’ve defeated dinos late last summer. Then had 6 days with no power last October. Tank bounced back and in early December dinos returned. Been keeping phosphates and nitrates up 0.06-0.1 and 10-16 since, by dosing. Started vacuuming sand bed early February. First vacuumed deep, then just the surface. Did this weekly for a month ran water through 2 filter socks. Dinos were weekend but were still present. Got some Garf Grunge a week ago, and dinos are pretty much visually eradicated. Still keeping nitrates and phosphates up, my tank is a softie/lps tank anyway. I have a 40 breeder refugium full of macros which is where I put the grunge. I added some pods back in late December and noticed an increase in populations around the same time dinos started to decrease. This is the second time I’ve beat them back by dosing nutrients and using grunge type material to increase biodiversity. As soon as there is an imbalance in the web they pop back up. Stability in the individual ecosystem is as just as important as stability in chemistry.

Great news! And timely for me as I've been debating ordering some grunge to add to my biodiversity and fight. But have been hesitant 1) not sure how things are running over there lately and 2) was afraid to add something to my tank that might include unwanted inhabitants (part of 1st point). How did you order? Website or Facebook?

fragit · Mar 3, 2018

bh750 said:
Great news! And timely for me as I've been debating ordering some grunge to add to my biodiversity and fight. But have been hesitant 1) not sure how things are running over there lately and 2) was afraid to add something to my tank that might include unwanted inhabitants (part of 1st point). How did you order? Website or Facebook?

I ordered through the website. You can probably just get some funk from your LFS. The first time I beat it back I just asked my LFS for some detritus and bits from their live rock vat. They gave me a decent hand full. The Garf worked out pretty good, came with a nice big handful of Chaeto. If I were to do it again I would probably go with the LFS only because it was free.