Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Reef and Dive]

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!

Not a great optic resolution but looks like Amphidinium and green algae.

 

[Latte]

Not a great optic resolution but looks like Amphidinium and green algae.

Sorry the videos aren't great, tried for 2 hours to get a better image but couldn't get the microscope to focus at any higher magnification.

In case you missed it, you can turn up the quality of the videos by hitting the gear icon and selecting 1080p, for me it defaulted to 720p which blurs things even further.

Any idea if it's LC or SC?

 

[Reef and Dive]

Sorry the videos aren't great, tried for 2 hours to get a better image but couldn't get the microscope to focus at any higher magnification.

In case you missed it, you can turn up the quality of the videos by hitting the gear icon and selecting 1080p, for me it defaulted to 720p which blurs things even further.

Any idea if it's LC or SC?

LC? SC? I did not understand

 

[Latte]

LC? SC? I did not understand

Sorry I meant large cell or small cell

 

[Reef and Dive]

Sorry I meant large cell or small cell

Possibly small cell, but not too sure from the images, and same route of management.

 

[Salo001]

Anyone would be able to help ID if these are dinos? There seems to be a lot of other stuff around them too not just dinos. Any idea what it could be? I believe these are LCA as they are mostly on the sand bed and only staying on the sand bed.

 

[Latte]

Possibly small cell, but not too sure from the images, and same route of management.

From what I can tell the routes of treatment are quite different between the two? It seems LCA is almost impossible to kill with UV, peroxide and other treatments as they sit in the sand at night/when injured.

 

[taricha]

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

This kind of double barrel internal structure makes me think prorocentrum

 

[Reef and Dive]

From what I can tell the routes of treatment are quite different between the two? It seems LCA is almost impossible to kill with UV, peroxide and other treatments as they sit in the sand at night/when injured.

UV is great for Ostreopsidaceae only

 

[BuddyBonButt]

the answer is "yes"

It doesn't much matter, I saw the onset of diatom growth in my system at 0.1-0.2ppm SiO2 and didn't see any difference in the growth when I ramped it up to 2ppm SiO2.
So in my experience a few tenths is enough to have growth, and as long as there is some available, the Si dosing is doing its job. Exact amount doesn't matter that much.

I did a blackout and got the dinos kicked back hard and started dosing spongeexcel, or silica and got a diatom bloom. I kept phos and nitrate at desirable levels Verified with hanna testers and now I'm having both diatoms and dinos appearing in my tank, both thriving. Dinos came hard after the diatom bloom. (Verified with microscope) I also saw some rocks turning green. What am I doing wrong? Any ideas?

During the 4 day blackout I dosed
Microbacter⁷
Nëonitro
Nëophos
Spongexcel
Copapods
Seachem phyto

I didn't lower the photo period unfortunately... 9:00 to 21:00 could this single-handedly be the issue?

I feel I did a good job on dosing but not sure what to do now. I'm starting another 4 day blackout.

 

[ryshark]

I did a blackout and got the dinos kicked back hard and started dosing spongeexcel, or silica and got a diatom bloom. I kept phos and nitrate at desirable levels Verified with hanna testers and now I'm having both diatoms and dinos appearing in my tank, both thriving. Dinos came hard after the diatom bloom. (Verified with microscope) I also saw some rocks turning green. What am I doing wrong? Any ideas?

During the 4 day blackout I dosed
Microbacter⁷
Nëonitro
Nëophos
Spongexcel
Copapods
Seachem phyto

I didn't lower the photo period unfortunately... 9:00 to 21:00 could this single-handedly be the issue?

I feel I did a good job on dosing but not sure what to do now. I'm starting another 4 day blackout.

The blackouts do just as much harm to the stuff you want in there to out compete the dinos. What type of dinos do you have?
This is what worked for me: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/prorocentrum-dinos-beat-in-less-than-2-weeks.927799/

 

[BuddyBonButt]

The blackouts do just as much harm to the stuff you want in there to out compete the dinos. What type of dinos do you have?
This is what worked for me: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/prorocentrum-dinos-beat-in-less-than-2-weeks.927799/

Amphidinium I think

 

[BuddyBonButt]

The blackouts do just as much harm to the stuff you want in there to out compete the dinos. What type of dinos do you have?
This is what worked for me: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/prorocentrum-dinos-beat-in-less-than-2-weeks.927799/

Besides the blackout and photo time I did the exact same thing as you. So why do my dinos keep returning?

 

[Latte]

I did a blackout and got the dinos kicked back hard and started dosing spongeexcel, or silica and got a diatom bloom. I kept phos and nitrate at desirable levels Verified with hanna testers and now I'm having both diatoms and dinos appearing in my tank, both thriving. Dinos came hard after the diatom bloom. (Verified with microscope) I also saw some rocks turning green. What am I doing wrong? Any ideas?

During the 4 day blackout I dosed
Microbacter⁷
Nëonitro
Nëophos
Spongexcel
Copapods
Seachem phyto

I didn't lower the photo period unfortunately... 9:00 to 21:00 could this single-handedly be the issue?

I feel I did a good job on dosing but not sure what to do now. I'm starting another 4 day blackout.

I've heard the Hanna checked phosphate doesn't work when you're dosing silicates but not 100% sure

 

[BuddyBonButt]

I've heard the Hanna checked phosphate doesn't work when you're dosing silicates but not 100% sure

Yeah I looked into it, from what I'm reading it begins to interfere at around 2.0 ppm which is always significantly higher than what you want your SI at

 

[ryshark]

Besides the blackout and photo time I did the exact same thing as you. So why do my dinos keep returning?

Did you dose all those things daily? Also, the SpongExcel is very watered down.

 

[BuddyBonButt]

Did you dose all those things daily? Also, the SpongExcel is very watered down.

Yeah, I followed the directions of 1 drop per 20 gallons a day so for my 90 plus sump, I did 5 drops daily. I also dosed phos and nitrate when numbers read too low (undesirable) and I kept phos at around .06 to .1 and dosed microbacter⁷ daily, 20ml daily (but I was stupid and guesstimated some days. Putting well above too much some days) until I ran out. 1000ml bottle

 

[ryshark]

Yeah, I followed the directions of 1 drop per 20 gallons a day so for my 90 plus sump, I did 5 drops daily. I also dosed phos and nitrate when numbers read too low (undesirable) and I kept phos at around .06 to .1 and dosed microbacter⁷ daily, 20ml daily (but I was stupid and guesstimated some days. Putting well above too much some days) until I ran out. 1000ml bottle

I was dosing WAY more ppm with the actual waterglass. The directions on the SpongExcel bottle are for sponges, etc, not to grow diatoms.
i daily dosed NO3 and PO4 because the daily dose of MB7 brings those down a bit.

 

[BuddyBonButt]

I was dosing WAY more ppm with the actual waterglass. The directions on the SpongExcel bottle are for sponges, etc, not to grow diatoms.
i daily dosed NO3 and PO4 because the daily dose of MB7 brings those down a bit.

Ok, that makes sense, I can't afford to buy anything. My cars headgasket just blew.. so I guess I need to get a silica tester. What silica concentration do I want? .5 to 1.0?

 

[BuddyBonButt]

I was dosing WAY more ppm with the actual waterglass. The directions on the SpongExcel bottle are for sponges, etc, not to grow diatoms.
i daily dosed NO3 and PO4 because the daily dose of MB7 brings those down a bit.

What do you think about me putting marine block from an established (clean) tank and putting it mine?