Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[attiland]

Been dosing silicates, and my diatom population is increasing....See attached picture. Do I keep dosing silicates? When do I leave it alone?

I was keep going till I had no more Dinos

 

[taricha]

Been dosing silicates, and my diatom population is increasing....See attached picture. Do I keep dosing silicates? When do I leave it alone?

I'd keep some available Si so that diatoms are strong competitors to dinos for any nutrients that become available.

 

[pitvi]

Hi Guys,

so i discovered that i got a serious dino outbreak (obviously thru 0 phosphates).
Here a little video of the dang dinos i made


i got a 20 gallon nano (beta marine compact 40) and the dinos nearly 100% disappearing when the light is off.

So my plan is to take a 13W UV Light that i will put into the tec-back part of the tank (i got no sump). As far as what i read in here it should work, i got a eheim compact 600, so at maximum it should go 7,5 times the tank volume per hour thru it, obviously it's less than 7,5 times so that should be fine for contact time.

i also have active carbon inside now and no skimmer (never had). The corals are doing pretty fine so i dont want to do an additional blackout. The plan is also to blow the dinos off everyday so more of them are free flowing in the water and get more chance to hit the UV.

Also i will try to maintain constant measureable phosphate and nitrate
anyone of you had experience with this UV light? Link

greetings from Austria

 

[joshwaggs]

AHHHHH

I set out with the goal to not get dinos. I got them in the last tank and I didnt want them in this one.

I havent been able to keep phosphate above zero. I got Nitrate to go up to 5, but that was it and it still drops to 0 if I run the skimmer too long or dont feed enough.

I have dosed probiotics, fed like fat kid with cake, dosed aminos, zooplankton, phyto, and coral foods. Every day. Phosphates still just sat at zero. I started running the skimmer only during the day and off when lights were off, and I havent done a water change in months.

The dinos said "*** yo couch, A A RON" and moved in. I want to drop a toaster in the tank (not serious, (but kind of)).

 

[tropicskyguy]

I have been battling what I assume was Dinos due to nutrients being far too low. Stringy, brown, bubbles all over my rocks sand and everywhere. etc. multiple 3 day blackout plus adding bacteria has seem to eliminated must of it. What I find odd though was when I would scrape it off the glass my tang would love to eat it. I thought fish wouldn’t touch Dinos? Perhaps the growth on the glass wasn’t Dinos but something else?

 

[ScottB]

AHHHHH

I set out with the goal to not get dinos. I got them in the last tank and I didnt want them in this one.

I havent been able to keep phosphate above zero. I got Nitrate to go up to 5, but that was it and it still drops to 0 if I run the skimmer too long or dont feed enough.

I have dosed probiotics, fed like fat kid with cake, dosed aminos, zooplankton, phyto, and coral foods. Every day. Phosphates still just sat at zero. I started running the skimmer only during the day and off when lights were off, and I havent done a water change in months.

The dinos said "*** yo couch, A A RON" and moved in. I want to drop a toaster in the tank (not serious, (but kind of)).

The PO4 will bind to your rock and substrate until it is saturated. Then it will begin leaching out into the water. I went through 2 liters before I could keep a reading in the water.

If you are adding bacteria, they will reduce your nutrients -- primarily nitrates. Dosing aminos can be tricky; dinos are very capable consumers of that. Same with phyto and other planktons. Fatten up the fish.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I was hoping I would never have to join this thread but here we are!

Would some kind person help me ID these guys? Holding my phone to a toy microscope so the picture probably isn't the greatest. Help much appreciated!

 

[ScottB]

I was hoping I would never have to join this thread but here we are!

Would some kind person help me ID these guys? Holding my phone to a toy microscope so the picture probably isn't the greatest. Help much appreciated!

Ostreopsis. Welcome to the club.
Good news: these are arguably the easiest species to solve for
Bad news: they are also one of the more toxic species.

You will need to temporarily hang a UV on the side of the tank. Use minimal flow rate. 1 watt per 3 gallons
Stop any aminos or phyto feedings
Dose NO3 and PO4 to >10 and >.1 respectively
Run GAC for the toxins

Once you have done the above, it will take a week or 3 for competitors to gear up (your dinos killed and ate them). Cyano likely first. Don't stop until you see algae, then you can dial back nutrients and put the UV away.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Ostreopsis. Welcome to the club.
Good news: these are arguably the easiest species to solve for
Bad news: they are also one of the more toxic species.

You will need to temporarily hang a UV on the side of the tank. Use minimal flow rate. 1 watt per 3 gallons
Stop any aminos or phyto feedings
Dose NO3 and PO4 to >10 and >.1 respectively
Run GAC for the toxins

Once you have done the above, it will take a week or 3 for competitors to gear up (your dinos killed and ate them). Cyano likely first. Don't stop until you see algae, then you can dial back nutrients and put the UV away.

Thank you for the help! I pulled the sample from one of the filaments that keep forming on my gorgonian. I have UV but sounds like it's undersized (could also probably use a new bulb). Carbon is in and I'll get on elevating the NO3 and PO4 (last check we were at 2 and 0.018). Hopefully I've caught it early enough to be able to get things back under control without too much harm being done.

 

[ScottB]

Thank you for the help! I pulled the sample from one of the filaments that keep forming on my gorgonian. I have UV but sounds like it's undersized (could also probably use a new bulb). Carbon is in and I'll get on elevating the NO3 and PO4 (last check we were at 2 and 0.018). Hopefully I've caught it early enough to be able to get things back under control without too much harm being done.

If you are running the UV through your return line, it is too fast to kill ostreopsis. Thus the recommendation to hang it on the side with a small pump inside the display.

Depending on the brand of the UV and the operating hours the bulb has seen, a year is about all you should expect. If it is close enough in size you can try just replacing the bulb.

 

[joshwaggs]

I cant figure out the dino brand. It looks like coolia or amphidinium.

 

[chinw76]

I have been battling dino for 2 years. Went from having them appear on the sand to my rock and gyres. I have even taken my fish out of my reefer 250 and dosed 5ml of Clorox every 12 hours for 3 days. That killed them for awhile. I ran carbon and put my fish back in. I seeded my tank with bacteria. Bleach didn't affect my corals or invertebrates. It would have killed my fish, they were in qt. So I raised nutrients, decreased my lighting to 6 hours a day. Dosing silica made it worse. I took a 1/2 gallon mason jar with a plastic lid, drilled 1/8" hole in the center, used hard tubing inside with air line coming out. I used a wand from a scraper and zip tie the tubing to it so it was 1/4" longer that the wand. I put 2ml of clorox in the mason jar with ro water. I put the mason jar above my tank and used gravity to pull the water threw the hose. I would move the hose in the sand back and forth and the bleach with ro water would kill them. I kept doing this on the sand and some rock every day. I ran carbon this whole time. All fish, inverters, shrimp were ok. I then got a 15 watt uv from brs and ran it in my display. It was working. I bought a 25 watt also from brs and plumbed so the pump went to the uv, then to my ats. My ats needs 350 gallons per hour and to kill dino on the 25 watt uv needed around 400 gallons. This would sterilize the dino and they would not grow on my algae. I then did a 3 day black out with Dr. Tims Refresh and then with the lights on dosed waste away for a few days. I would turn uv and skimmer off for 6 hours when dosing bacteria. During the time when dosing Refresh, I stired the sand bed so the dino would go into the water column and get the bacteria into the sand. I continue running lights for 6 hours a day, and now both uv sterilizers are running 24/7. I run Kalkwasser in my ato, keeps my ph between 8.2 and 8.5. I also started using today a 5 micron sediment filter at 300 gallons an hour to filter any out of the water. So far so good. It has to be attacked from many different angles. That is my story, and after 2 years, it looks good right now.

 

[chinw76]

This is what my tank looks like now. I never let dino get the upper hand.

 

[taricha]

I cant figure out the dino brand. It looks like coolia or amphidinium.

I don't see any problem dinos in these pics. The larger cells look like diatoms, are the small cells motionless?

 

[joshwaggs]

I don't see any problem dinos in these pics. The larger cells look like diatoms, are the small cells motionless?

Yeah. Whatever it is, it's covering everything (not the corals yet).

 

[ScottB]

I don't see any problem dinos in these pics. The larger cells look like diatoms, are the small cells motionless?

Glad you chimed in. I got nothin' on those.

 

[taricha]

Yeah. Whatever it is, it's covering everything (not the corals yet).

Tank shot (under white light) of the affected area? microscope video?

Side note, probably not relevant here: it is possible to change the look of dinos by using a slide cover incorrectly. If you put your drops of sample and then place the slide cover on, it should be fine. But if you press the slide cover down, it can misshape the cells and also prevent any movement. I've messed that up a few times myself.

 

[rickster]

What is Fauna Marine Dino-X made of : No mention on the site or on their bottle? I tried twice using the product without any success or any that I could see. MY only success with battling Amphidinium and Ostreopsis Dino's have been to increase nitrates and Phosphates while dosing the recommended dose of Hydrogen Peroxide at night and beneficial bacteria during the day and manual removal over a few weeks. slowly winning the war! on this second time around. could these infestations arise from us ultimately filtering to efficiently these days. Using an Algae turf scrubber and using GFO seems to be a recipe for stripping the needed elements too much. (In my opinion).

 

[bishoptf]

The PO4 will bind to your rock and substrate until it is saturated. Then it will begin leaching out into the water. I went through 2 liters before I could keep a reading in the water.

If you are adding bacteria, they will reduce your nutrients -- primarily nitrates. Dosing aminos can be tricky; dinos are very capable consumers of that. Same with phyto and other planktons. Fatten up the fish.

OMG 2 liters, if that is the case I have a long way to go. I think that is an interesting point, I have BB tank so no sand but all dry rock which was ARC stacker rock, I really like the rock. The rock is calcium carbonate and I think it really buffers the phosphate, I'm going on 2 weeks of dosing and in 12 hours my phosphate goes to .02, I am dosing twice a day or about 2ppm daily, once in morning and once in the evening. I am mixing up my dosing in 250ml containers and going through one in a week. Right now my mix is 1ml/10g = .05 but based on your comments I am thinking I might need to increase it in order to hit the saturation point.

What do we think the max per day dosing of phosphate would be tolerable, i've already lost a birdsnest and moved my other 2 SPS to my QT tank, right now I only have leather, mushroom, zoa's and some euphilla's. I do have cyano growing also in large sections but not sure if thats progress or not. I do have a small UV going but nothing much has seemed to help much, I have small cell Amphidinium.

So far shrimp and fish have done ok, I am swapping out carbon every few days and have filter floss hanging in the tank, but trying to get phosphate up to .1 and its been an uphill battle.

 

[ScottB]

OMG 2 liters, if that is the case I have a long way to go. I think that is an interesting point, I have BB tank so no sand but all dry rock which was ARC stacker rock, I really like the rock. The rock is calcium carbonate and I think it really buffers the phosphate, I'm going on 2 weeks of dosing and in 12 hours my phosphate goes to .02, I am dosing twice a day or about 2ppm daily, once in morning and once in the evening. I am mixing up my dosing in 250ml containers and going through one in a week. Right now my mix is 1ml/10g = .05 but based on your comments I am thinking I might need to increase it in order to hit the saturation point.

What do we think the max per day dosing of phosphate would be tolerable, i've already lost a birdsnest and moved my other 2 SPS to my QT tank, right now I only have leather, mushroom, zoa's and some euphilla's. I do have cyano growing also in large sections but not sure if thats progress or not. I do have a small UV going but nothing much has seemed to help much, I have small cell Amphidinium.

So far shrimp and fish have done ok, I am swapping out carbon every few days and have filter floss hanging in the tank, but trying to get phosphate up to .1 and its been an uphill battle.

After a while I kinda lost my patience and started ramping hard with an auto doser on trisodium phosphate. In my wisdom, I also failed to realize I was running out of Hanna reagent. Once it came in I had clearly overshot to about .25. Once the rock is saturated, it accumulates pretty quick. But no real harm done, just a cyano outbreak which is an expected phase on the road to recovery. I think overdosing nitrates would be a bit more stressful on corals.

How old is your system? Looks pretty new still.