Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[shortysmalls]

Hi all
Not posted in a very long time as I took my old tank down
Anyway new tank went with all fake rock for the DT and a few bits of live rock in the sump

I now have Dino and a few very bad pics
If anyone could ID for me that would be great
Thanks

At that magnification, this looks the same as what I am dealing with, which I believe is Prorocentrum, although I am no expert. Added pic for comparison.

 

[Sdot]

If you have the ostreopsis variety....a properly tuned UV sterilizer will be your best friend.

 

[taricha]

I tend to agree with with prorocentrum but invite @taricha to counter or confirm.

Agreed on the great prorocentrum pics.
@Vincent100 is prorocentrum too, I think.

 

[shortysmalls]

Agreed on the great prorocentrum pics.
@Vincent100 is prorocentrum too, I think.

Thanks for the reply. With what I am currently doing, plus the UV Sterilizer I bought, do you see anything additional I can do to get this under control?

 

[ScottB]

Thanks for the reply. With what I am currently doing, plus the UV Sterilizer I bought, do you see anything additional I can do to get this under control?

You might consider running a bit of granular activated carbon for a couple hours a day to soak up potential dino toxins. If these guys are in your sand, then sure, consider dosing up some silicates to get your diatoms competitive in the sand.

 

[Willis19]

Are you guys still dosing any vitamins (or similar) or target feeding with reefroids (or similar) while battling the dinos? Or just feeding fish?

 

[ScottB]

Are you guys still dosing any vitamins (or similar) or target feeding with reefroids (or similar) while battling the dinos? Or just feeding fish?

Personally, I would avoid all coral foods until you get the dinos beaten back.

CERTAINLY AVOID amino acid supplements for quite some time.

 

[Willis19]

Personally, I would avoid all coral foods until you get the dinos beaten back.

CERTAINLY AVOID amino acid supplements for quite some time

Thank you.

 

[Willis19]

I just hate this phase but I also taking it as a learning curve. Turned the lights white for video purpose. They always in blue 90%, V and UV in 118%, R - G and W in 7%. The CUC crew do a good job cleaning the glass and rock but the sand bed is not touched at all.

 

[Rwade]

I been battling Large Cell for months and have beaten them back with silicate dosing but still get a few spots on some lower rocks. I cut back on the silicates and stopped completely last week (maybe too early). I would like to get an id on the smaller cells zooming around in my video. The video is taken at 400x and these little guys are about a tenth the size of Large Cell.

Dinoflagellates 14Apr20

youtube.com

 

[shortysmalls]

You might consider running a bit of granular activated carbon for a couple hours a day to soak up potential dino toxins. If these guys are in your sand, then sure, consider dosing up some silicates to get your diatoms competitive in the sand.

Thanks, I am running GAC as well, forgot to put that in my OP.

 

[lucky7]

Can I get an id on these please?

 

[Shuladog]

Very unlikely to kill fish. Some can knock out snails.

Invest 25-$50 on a microscope that does 400X to find out which species you have. Use your phone up to the eye piece to get video and share here and we will get you on the right path to recovery. Treatment depends on the species.

Thank you! Microscope on the way!

 

[saltyhog]

I been battling Large Cell for months and have beaten them back with silicate dosing but still get a few spots on some lower rocks. I cut back on the silicates and stopped completely last week (maybe too early). I would like to get an id on the smaller cells zooming around in my video. The video is taken at 400x and these little guys are about a tenth the size of Large Cell.

Dinoflagellates 14Apr20

youtube.com

The small ones you have are Small Cell Amphidinium.

 

[ScottB]

The small ones you have are Small Cell Amphidinium.

^+1
You can treat them more like the other (excluding LC Amphids) with elevated nutrients and UV. Might need a little blackout period to encourage them the swim toward the (UV) light.

 

[Rwade]

The small ones you have are Small Cell Amphidinium.

Dang, beat one just to get another. I’ll have to read up on SC Dino treatment. I’m hesitate to do a blackout, don’t want the anemones to start wandering around.

 

[Shuladog]

Personally, I would avoid all coral foods until you get the dinos beaten back.

CERTAINLY AVOID amino acid supplements for quite some time.

I have read that adding amino acids or products (like Reef Roids) containing them may help in the battle with Dinos but recently I have seen some posts that say to avoid using them. I am confused. Can you explain?

 

[jmichaelh7]

I have read that adding amino acids or products (like Reef Roids) containing them may help in the battle with Dinos but recently I have seen some posts that say to avoid using them. I am confused. Can you explain?

Seriously though

 

[ScottB]

I have read that adding amino acids or products (like Reef Roids) containing them may help in the battle with Dinos but recently I have seen some posts that say to avoid using them. I am confused. Can you explain?

From personal and repeated experience/experiment, I can assure you that OSTREOPSIS at least will bloom hard when dosing AcroPower. Within the next full light cycle and from across the room you can tell it was a mistake. It is the ultimate ostreopsis food source. It is an excellent food source with little/no work involved to capture and process allowing them to multiply exponentially. Other competitors prefer ammonia, nitrates and phosphates.

Not all dinos are created equal, but coolia, prorocentrum, and small cell amphids are too closely related to assume they won't prosper similarly. Large cell amphids, well, who the heck knows. Nothing but time and competition seems to help. But your corals are not going to outcompete dinos for this food source. Maybe other competitive organisms will, but I cannot name them.

There are a handful of folks on this thread with years of observation here, and a bizarre interest in this captive nuisance. Over the years, certain treatment themes and observations stick out. There is no shortage of hobbyist experiences from which to draw these unscientific yet anecdotally powerful conclusions.

But hey, you are welcome to give it a try and see what happens. Every tank is different. Let us know what happens.

 

[jmichaelh7]

From personal and repeated experience/experiment, I can assure you that OSTREOPSIS at least will bloom hard when dosing AcroPower. Within the next full light cycle and from across the room you can tell it was a mistake. It is the ultimate ostreopsis food source. It is an excellent food source with little/no work involved to capture and process allowing them to multiply exponentially. Other competitors prefer ammonia, nitrates and phosphates.

Not all dinos are created equal, but coolia, prorocentrum, and small cell amphids are too closely related to assume they won't prosper similarly. Large cell amphids, well, who the heck knows. Nothing but time and competition seems to help. But your corals are not going to outcompete dinos for this food source. Maybe other competitive organisms will, but I cannot name them.

There are a handful of folks on this thread with years of observation here, and a bizarre interest in this captive nuisance. Over the years, certain treatment themes and observations stick out. There is no shortage of hobbyist experiences from which to draw these unscientific yet anecdotally powerful conclusions.

But hey, you are welcome to give it a try and see what happens. Every tank is different. Let us know what happens.

What method worked for you