Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[arcangelreef]

Good pics and it is Dino
Prepare by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependent corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

Theres lots of testing being done with h202 in the use of treating fish disease over at humblefish forums. In testing a dose required to reach a concentration of 2ppm in the tank, it can be gone out of the system in a matter of 15 minutes. Seems this is dependent on the bioload of the tank. The more organics in the system for the h202 to react too the quicker it will break down out of the system.

Knowing this, would it not make sense to do multiple doses to maintain a certain concentration atleast for a somewhat sustained duration? What are we shooting for as far as concentration at peak? 1ppm? 2ppm? Just saying "dose this" leaves alot of information to be desired.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Theres lots of testing being done with h202 in the use of treating fish disease over at humblefish forums. In testing a dose required to reach a concentration of 2ppm in the tank, it can be gone out of the system in a matter of 15 minutes. Seems this is dependent on the bioload of the tank. The more organics in the system for the h202 to react too the quicker it will break down out of the system.

Knowing this, would it not make sense to do multiple doses to maintain a certain concentration atleast for a somewhat sustained duration? What are we shooting for as far as concentration at peak? 1ppm? 2ppm? Just saying "dose this" leaves alot of information to be desired.

Its being used as an oxidizer for flagellates - Not a treatment. You are referring to dosage for disease treatment which is not effective opposed to copper treaments or even TTM

 

[arcangelreef]

I wasn't looking for your opinion on the effectiveness of h202 in the treatment of disease. Thats whole other debate.
I was refering to the testing done of the half life of h202 in the tank as a basis to try and understand how this is effective in the fight against dinos. (treatment of dinos?) If its out of the system in a matter of minutes what is it actually doing?

Im asking you for an explanation of how you came to that dose and what the mechanics of your treatment for dino's are.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I wasn't looking for your opinion on the effectiveness of h202 in the treatment of disease. Thats whole other debate.
I was refering to the testing done of the half life of h202 in the tank as a basis to try and understand how this is effective in the fight against dinos. (treatment of dinos?) If its out of the system in a matter of minutes what is it actually doing?

Im asking you for an explanation of how you came to that dose and what the mechanics of your treatment for dino's are.

Recommended dose of oxidation and one I learned from attending many shows and dealer conventions. Its again an oxidizer and not a treatment for dino. Taking away light as they are photosynthetic and carbon dioxide as a food source, they start to diminish until gone. This has worked for so many
And you are the one that brought up disease.

 

[DarkReefer]

Yes, yiou can change water and slow on the white light increase. If its green algae you see, not a problem as cleaner crew can tend to that

Thanks, not sure what type of algae it is currently. Kinda looks reddish brown. I've made futher adjustments to my whites as they were probably up a little high perhaps. Acclimation mode on for another 16 days too so will slowly get there.

Will water change tomorrow possibly so will probably dose 1 more night of the h202.

Should I crank up the UV again or leave that off for a while longer?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks, not sure what type of algae it is currently. Kinda looks reddish brown. I've made futher adjustments to my whites as they were probably up a little high perhaps. Acclimation mode on for another 16 days too so will slowly get there.

Will water change tomorrow possibly so will probably dose 1 more night of the h202.

Should I crank up the UV again or leave that off for a while longer?

UV good to go

 

[mikerosi]

UV good to go

Thanks for the great info vette guy
My microbacter7 Won’t come in until four days can I use seachem stability as a substitute for those four days only?
And I don’t know if I missed it or not but what is the ideal temperature during this treatment. Thanks

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for the great info vette guy
My microbacter7 Won’t come in until four days can I use seachem stability as a substitute for those four days only?
And I don’t know if I missed it or not but what is the ideal temperature during this treatment. Thanks

Temp - 78-79

 

[DarkReefer]

Whilst it's looking a HEAP better than it used to it looks like I'm not out of the woods yet. (sorry for the crappy pics).

Appears to mostly be on the sandbed still. Waiting on delivery for a new Hanna checker for HR Nitrate as well today so I can test that and get a hopefully more accurate reading than the colour code on the Salifert I've been using. Will post some current test results later today.

Checked under the microscope also, appears to be MUCH less than what there was originally (unless the sample is just worse here ) but can still clearly see they're still about.

@vetteguy53081 What do you think should be my next plan of action here?
Another round of the h202 method ? Or keep up daily dosing of MB7 only for the time being?

For reference, here's a couple of the 'before' pics, as dirty as the sand may look now it's nearly pristine compared to what it was only a couple months back. Unfortunately I have lost a lot of corals along the way due to this outbreak.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Whilst it's looking a HEAP better than it used to it looks like I'm not out of the woods yet. (sorry for the crappy pics).

Appears to mostly be on the sandbed still. Waiting on delivery for a new Hanna checker for HR Nitrate as well today so I can test that and get a hopefully more accurate reading than the colour code on the Salifert I've been using. Will post some current test results later today.

Checked under the microscope also, appears to be MUCH less than what there was originally (unless the sample is just worse here ) but can still clearly see they're still about.

@vetteguy53081 What do you think should be my next plan of action here?
Another round of the h202 method ? Or keep up daily dosing of MB7 only for the time being?

For reference, here's a couple of the 'before' pics, as dirty as the sand may look now it's nearly pristine compared to what it was only a couple months back. Unfortunately I have lost a lot of corals along the way due to this outbreak.

wow- Improvement no doubt
What light are you using?

 

[DarkReefer]

wow- Improvement no doubt
What light are you using?

Its an Aqua Illumination Hydra 32HD.

Here's a pic of the schedule

It's still on acclimation mode which started at 15% with about 21 days. Currently has 13 left.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its an Aqua Illumination Hydra 32HD.

Place white at 15- 18% for now
Blue 75
purple 70
UV 75
red 5
green 4
I believe you have amber- 10

 

[DarkReefer]

Place white at 15- 18% for now
Blue 75
purple 70
UV 75
red 5
green 4
I believe you have amber- 10

Thanks I'll make the adjustments!

And done...

 

[BurgerFish]

For my tank, bag of carbon (Fluval) in the sump triggers dinos.

 

[thomasweissbach]

I am new to this group and facing a huge issue with Ostreopsis and Coolia.
It's a new tank with 460L/125gal.
After a week I found small amounts of diatoms and Ostreopsis and Coolia under the microscope. With the retreat of the diatoms, Ostreopsis and Coolia increased massively. And the smell of the Dinos is bad.
After 2.5 weeks they spread very fast all over my tank. It started as a layer on the sand ground and then grew all over the rocks. Up to now my softies, lps and sps are still fine and uncovered. but I think I see an effect of the toxin (?) in the Alveopora, which does not show its polyps anymore.

My first attempt with DinoX and in a second stage RedX from fauna marin did not show any inhibiting effect (besides killing the starfish).
I have increased the salinity to 36.5ppm.

today I have tried using metronidazole in a one doese treatment at a dosage of 3.2mg/l or 125mg/gal, which is said to be reefsafe.

In an older thread I read that there is a possibility to add "positiv" Dinos to a tank to occupy the livespace and push back or even prey on other Dinos?
Roscoff offers lots of Dino strains in Europe, like Oxyrrhis and Parvilucifera (might prey on Ostreopsis).

UV is ordered as well as CO2 absorber to reduce CO2 in the air of the skimmer.

Any other ideas?
Thanks a lot, Thomas

 

[DarkReefer]

For my tank, bag of carbon (Fluval) in the sump triggers dinos.

Hmmm interesting, is it dropping your nitrates etc too low as a result? Or just adding something it shouldn't?

@vetteguy53081 test results as below so all looking okay and stable it seems.

 

[Mikuchar]

You want to siphon up front to get these cells out of the bedding and off the surfaces. The light at 40% is your issue. These are photosynthetic and feed off light. Take away the light and you take away their food source.
White best off and low level % blue is to your advantage.

I've followed step by step your procedure and I've seen some improvement but all but a few lps corals and purple stylo are all dead and O still see dinoflagellates on the glass and equipment. It's been 3 weeks now. I'm at a loss for real!

 

[ecas12]

Seems like I get to join in on this club too. I have attached a few pictures with what I think look like ostreopsis. I believe I have had these for awhile now and haven't experienced any serious losses. I have attached some pictures. Not sure what other information is needed, but here are my parameters (based on Hanna tests) as of today:

Nitrate: 14.9 ppm
Phosphate: 0.03 ppm
Ammonia: Undetectable

Other information that may be important to add on:

1) My water is on the slightly cloudy side, but the pictures I took were not from waterborne bacteria, I siphoned off some brown mucus on my rocks, and those are what are in the pictures.

2) I was away for a week and a half and came back to my tank completely covered in purple mucus. Haphazardly, I vacuumed all of it out because it was ugly but I may have removed cyano, which I believe would help compete with the dinos correct? Now I don't see the purple mucus anymore and my sand is completely covered with the brown mucus, which I have had before.

3) I have not experienced any loss of fish yet (tank only has fish and inverts), not sure if that is something that would build over time or would happen relatively quickly. As I mentioned above, I believe I have had them for awhile and just assumed they were diatoms from my ugly stage since my tank is fairly new (finished cycling in August).

Here are a few questions I have, as the process seems a little overwhelming based on the Dino guide I read through on this forum:

1) I was planning on establishing a refugium soon. Would that help with the dinoflagellates if I also plan on adding copepods, plankton, and additional nitrifying bacteria? I know that the refugium would end up pulling nutrients out of the water which would stifle the growth of competition, but would the addition of copepods, phytoplankton, and additional nitrifying bacteria help reduce the dino population?

2) What is the actual first step? Should I provide additional video/better quality images? I tried getting as much detail as I could but my microscope isn't the best, but if there is something else I can capture on it (video or other images), then I am happy to do so. It seems like the first thing to do is raise my phosphates and then look into a UV sterilizer, but is a UV sterilizer going to help if my dinos are mostly on the sandbed and rock? I can try to get more images of just my water but when I initially checked I didn't see any movement.

 

[taricha]

@ecas12 Vacuuming out nuisance is good and necessary. Don't leave it for the sake of competition.
Not clear to me what type it is from those pics. Video might help.
Fuge may or may not make a difference. I'd go ahead with whatever the overall plan was.

 

[Mikuchar]

Update.... finally beaten the dino outbreak. Had them twice before since being in the hobby. This time they were stubborn. I believe because I've recently moved and my eco system wasn't built up again yet to fight them off right away. But kuchars reef 3 dinos 0!