Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Steve2020]

I have LCA and I am dosing silicates, bacteria and phyto. I have read just about every thread/post on LCA and am confused about tank cleaning. If dosing silicates to attempt to create a diatom bloom is it recommended to clean/remove or not to clean/remove the top layer of sand? Also since dosing silicates I am getting a brown film on the glass. Should I clean or not clean the glass? Prior to starting the treatment I did remove the top layer of sand, and sand looked good for a few days until the LCA returned in the exact same locations. Also I have shut down my UV since I began treatment since LCA is not waterborne.
Recommendations would be appreciated on the cleaning aspect.
Thank you!!

So, I did remove the top layer of sand plus a little more about 10 days ago and continued with my dosing regiment along with cleaning the glass every few days. This equated to about 1/4 of my shallow sand bed. Sand looked clean for a few days and then started turning that reddish brown color. I left it alone and today I took sand samples from 5 locations where than sand was reddish brown and low and behold I could not find one Dino under the scope but found a butt load of Diatoms which is what I was trying to bloom. I put the sand I removed in a large bin and added vinegar and bleach and covered the bin for 5 days then rinsed the sand numerous times until there was no more detectable chlorine. I laid the sand out to let it dry completely. Sand is nice and white.
Questions are, what is my next step? Should I stop adding silicates and vacuum the sand or leave the sand alone and let the diatoms disappear on their own?
Also, when and how should I add the clean sand back into the tank? Should I seed the sand or just lightly mix it up with the sand in the tank once the Diatoms are gone?
One bad thing that has happened when I got Dino's and stopped dosing carbon and started the treatment is that my nutrients have gone up significantly. NO3 went from 10.5 to 18.4ppm and PO4 went from .05 to .18ppm as of today when I got Dino's and stopped carbon dosing.
Recommendations on where to go from here would be appreciated.

 

[taricha]

Sand looked clean for a few days and then started turning that reddish brown color. I left it alone and today I took sand samples from 5 locations where than sand was reddish brown and low and behold I could not find one Dino under the scope but found a butt load of Diatoms which is what I was trying to bloom. I put the sand I removed in a large bin and added vinegar and bleach and covered the bin for 5 days then rinsed the sand numerous times until there was no more detectable chlorine. I laid the sand out to let it dry completely. Sand is nice and white.

Questions are, what is my next step? Should I stop adding silicates and vacuum the sand or leave the sand alone and let the diatoms disappear on their own?
Also, when and how should I add the clean sand back into the tank? Should I seed the sand or just lightly mix it up with the sand in the tank once the Diatoms are gone?

Recommendations on where to go from here would be appreciated.

I'll just answer what I would probably do in this scenario.
I'd measure my Si, and keep dosing if it is still depleting to under a couple of tenths ppm. Every diatom that grows is one dino that didn't (not exactly, but it's an OK idea).
I'd vacuum out brown patches - manual removal is precise nutrient export - of what the dinos need and from the locations they find it.

I'm not adding sand back until I'm seeing no dino growth. I might add the sand to an un-lit section first to get colonized by non-photosymnthetic organisms, before dropping it into the bed of the brightly lit display.

I'm also not trying to push PO4 low until I am not seeing dinos growing anywhere.

 

[Steve2020]

I'll just answer what I would probably do in this scenario.
I'd measure my Si, and keep dosing if it is still depleting to under a couple of tenths ppm. Every diatom that grows is one dino that didn't (not exactly, but it's an OK idea).
I'd vacuum out brown patches - manual removal is precise nutrient export - of what the dinos need and from the locations they find it.

I'm not adding sand back until I'm seeing no dino growth. I might add the sand to an un-lit section first to get colonized by non-photosymnthetic organisms, before dropping it into the bed of the brightly lit display.

I'm also not trying to push PO4 low until I am not seeing dinos growing anywhere.

Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it.

 

[jeswaldo]

ID?
Should I try hydrogen peroxide or Dino X?
It's a new tank that I had very little nutrients in. I'm now over feeding and adding phyto. Manual removal. Adding Microbacter 7 and clean.

Thanks

 

[taricha]

ostreopsis. I'd run UV and skip all those other things you said you were doing/considering except manual removal. Manual removal always in the direction of good.

 

[scardall]

ID?
Should I try hydrogen peroxide or Dino X?
It's a new tank that I had very little nutrients in. I'm now over feeding and adding phyto. Manual removal. Adding Microbacter 7 and clean.

Thanks

raise your nitrates to 15ppm. I prefer my sodium nitrate solution.

Sodium Nitrate Solution

​

Dissolve 10g of sodium Nitrate in 1 liter of RODI water (33.814 oz. )

Dosage 1ml/2gallons to raise nitrates by .8ppm in 2 gallons or 1.6ppm per gallon

Example: 37.5ml /60 gallons to raise it 1ppm or 2.5g/8oz to raise .8ppm (raw solution only) 30ml /oz.

Using Reagent grade sodium nitrate from Amazon.



Amazon product

 

[AaronFReef]

Can I please get help with an ID on my next tanks battle with Dino’s. Aren’t they fun? This is at 250x

 

[jeswaldo]

ostreopsis. I'd run UV and skip all those other things you said you were doing/considering except manual removal. Manual removal always in the direction of good.

Thanks. I left it dark for half of yesterday and half of today and bought a UV sterilizer and added that. I let it run for a few hours and it was such an improvement over 24 hours ago. I manually cleaned a little and turned the lights back on and it looks pretty good. Only a few spots left. Seems very positive.

 

[taricha]

Can I please get help with an ID on my next tanks battle with Dino’s. Aren’t they fun? This is at 250x

I'm not convinced it's actually a dino.

 

[AaronFReef]

I'm not convinced it's actually a dino.

Oh interesting. I would love that. It is a reddish brown slime covering my rocks that appeared rapidly in the second month of ny cycle of my new tank. It dissipates somewhat at night and becomes a bubbly mat during lights on. They are ciliated for sure and move rapidly but they are smaller than the large cell amphidinium I had previously in another system. They also appeared as my phosphates slipped from 0.3 to 0.01 (4 ppb) so I was sure they were but would be so happy if they aren’t! I’ll try a better video. I was having a hard time getting a good stable shot.

What else is ciliated/has flagella like that? Are chrysophytes or diatoms?

 

[Gildo]

today I came back from vacation, unfortunately during my vacation, the tank was without electricity ...... NOTHING is alive! an incredible smell ...

the tank for 2 years had ostreopsis that I have never been able to eradicate completely.

now I have done a check with the microscope and I have not found even one, on the other hand some animated miniscule with sompatiche legs that ran .....

advice: bleach, then I empty and wash everything, and portray the former live rocks as if they were dry rocks

or do I try to restart the tank without touching everything with a gas skimmer and new batteries?

 

[luizflb]

help, ostreopsis or amphidinium?

 

[luizflb]

help, ostreopsis or amphidinium?

@taricha

 

[taricha]

help, ostreopsis or amphidinium?

Ostreopsis.

 

[luizflb]

Ostreopsis.

thanks

 

[tjs1200]

Since you are the the guru of dinos can you help me ID these nasty guys.

 

[Reef and Dive]

Since you are the the guru of dinos can you help me ID these nasty guys.

The ones I could open look like Chrysophytes.

 

[tjs1200]

Thank you I will try to post better pictures tomorrow

 

[Latte]

Hey guys, wondering if I could please get some help IDing? I've been battling for months now. Tried UV, countless bottles of bacterial, phyto, pods, peroxide, high nutrients etc. And nothing is seeming to work.

 

[Latte]

Hmm for some reason I can't seem to upload videos and have them be actually playable in the thread. I've uploaded some of my videos here https://photos.app.goo.gl/AgfTSqf3UnQpTEWm6

The last ones are the clearest. Please let me know what you think!

Hey guys, wondering if I could please get some help IDing? I've been battling for months now. Tried UV, countless bottles of bacterial, phyto, pods, peroxide, high nutrients etc. And nothing is seeming to work.