Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Reefer1978]

That's correct, although most of the rock was new dry rock that I bleached along with the old stuff. It's hard to believe anything could live through that kind of treatment but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that dinos could.

Did you re-use anything else at all? JUst bleaching rock/sand might not be enough, any of the equipment (tank, nets, plumbing, reactors, etc) could have a few spores which are enough to infect the brand new tank. Even fish can transfer dinos, on surface, or ingested dinos that survive. All anecdotal, but in my 2+ years of reading i've seen it all.

They know I am battling dinos. I have shown them the microscope videos previously.
I guess the link between low nutrients and Dinos is not widely known or understood. I suppose Dinos is one of those subjects that you will never truely start to understand until you have battled with it.

I am not surprised, my LFS laughed at me 2 years ago also. I would not follow their recommendation. With overfeeding, it's hard to control Phosphate level. With dosing, you can get it to .03 exactly if that's your aim, see dialy consumption - develop a daily dose.

The research you've done here is already way ahead of what LFS employees know. I talk to many "best of the best" LFS stores in NJ, most don't read forums; lost of empoyees don't even have an account on R2R or RC. Knowledge you are getitng here, they may get to it in the next 5-10 years.

 

[sfin52]

my lfs didn't have a clue about what I was talking about. I brought up a mandarin feeder and they were clueless. One guy has been reefing for the last twenty plus years. Thinks he knows all.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I don't think there really is such a think as "dirty method"...really just a name applied to laziness in most posts.

Well hold on now. I did some reading on coolia and ostre. Seems if you add ammonia to a sample of this specie, they die. Could it be possible that feeding enough to spike ammonia? I'm being part cheeky and part serious lol I wouldnt want anyone to do that unless at their own risk.

 

[Lowefx]

Well hold on now. I did some reading on coolia and ostre. Seems if you add ammonia to a sample of this specie, they die. Could it be possible that feeding enough to spike ammonia? I'm being part cheeky and part serious lol I wouldnt want anyone to do that unless at their own risk.

I use zeovit and the zeolites remove ammonia before it turns into nitrate or phosphate. This could play a big role in my tank. I'd like to see more details on this theory. Does anyone dose ammonia? Is someone willing to give it a try?

 

[Reefer1978]

Well hold on now. I did some reading on coolia and ostre. Seems if you add ammonia to a sample of this specie, they die. Could it be possible that feeding enough to spike ammonia? I'm being part cheeky and part serious lol I wouldnt want anyone to do that unless at their own risk.

Again why not just dose pure ammonia and get the exact reading you want? Why risk lack of control with food? (Not that I would try this )

 

[sfin52]

I think you bring into play the gills of fish being seriously burned. Bleaching the the tank with fish in it isn't any better but people do it.

 

[Beardo]

Very helpful info! Curious, did you get a Dino bloom in your temp/qt system for corals? I ask because the dips may have rendered them inactive

I did not get a dino bloom in the treatment/qt tank.

 

[Cscultho]

I am in the process of doing that; did you remove it in one shot or do it gradually ? Also, did you siphons it out of the tank or scoop it ?[/QUOTE

I scooped it out.

I tried doing it a little at a time but the ostreopsis had such a foothold that it didnt help so i then removed 99% of the SB and blew off all the rocks and pulled out as much dino slime as possible. i also did a water change with a new brand of salt lower my salinity to 1.022. i also added my own little algae rock in the back of the DT and let it grow like a weed. Also stopped feeding all dry foods. only feed frozen. Give the tank a couple of months to settle without sand.

By any chance did you treat your tank for bryopsis?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Little update. Hair algae is covering about 80% from 60%. No3 is stable at 10ppm. Coolia is growing exponentially. More so than ever. My orange clownfish now has what looks like a white ich spot on his back. All fish have been in this tank at least a year and went through QT prior. My only thought is the live rock that was added from the LFS a month ago might have had some ich parasites. Things are looking good...

 

[ENARP]

I think I am slowly seeing improvements in my tank. The amount of dinos had decreased slowly as the amount of green algae has increased. I have been only doing one 5 gallon water change a month and reduced the light period and intensity. I still have a long way to go before I even think about investing in new corals. I believe most if not all of my copepods have died and 75% of my snails have perished. What types of copepods and snails would you recommend to replenish my stocks and aid in the dino battle?

 

[mcarroll]

[LFS]Thinks he knows all.

I think that describes all of us until we figure out what we don't know, isn't it?

We're all like: ;Bookworm;Jawdrop Right? I know I am....routinely.

Perhaps the method for reefing they practice at that store doesn't invite dino blooms.

A simple, honest lack of dino-experience on their part may be "to blame" for their lack of expertise. PROBABLY A GOOD SIGN AS FAR AS THEM BEING A GOOD STORE!

Folks at my LFS didn't know anything about it when I worked there either and neither did I....cuz they rarely, maybe never, saw it. No "dry live rock". No carbon dosing. They were big on GFO, but only on tanks that had established a need for it prior to application of it, so they still grew green algae and managed it with snails.

 

[sfin52]

They are great at caring for the fish and corals. They are raising baby sea horses right now. And the expertise on care of corals and fish is fantastic. quarantining fish before being but out for sale is one of many little things they do. Just some areas I don't think they dealt with it yet. When I asked for phosphate and told him I was putting it in my reef he raised an eyebrow. Told me it's your tank. That was that. Good store would recommend to anybody and do

 

[tenurepro]

Nope - no Bryopsis. My system went off balance about a year ago; started dosing vibrant because I thought it would be beneficial... didn’t really gave a algae issue, but everyone seemed impressed by it so gave it a try... GHA went away but got a bad cyano out break, did carbon dosing to control cyano but it didn’t work and got a bacterial bloom. Had to treat it with chemiclean. Things improved a bit over the next few month. But was dissatisfied with sps color so went overboard with coral feeding and color dosing and that is when I noticed the Dino’s... I thought it was cyano at first so did two rounds of chemiclean before realizing I was dealing with dinos.

I can say that almost all of my problems with this tank where caused by me trying a quick fix of something or other....

 

[reeferfoxx]

Marketing and big corporations found a nich for nutrient reduction and quick fixes. Anymore it hurts to see this big U-turn from natural reef keeping to modern day component systems designed to create more issues for more product production and money making. Really we feed into all the hype for magazine worthy show pieces. Seems the joke is on us.

 

[Cscultho]

Nope - no Bryopsis. My system went off balance about a year ago; started dosing vibrant because I thought it would be beneficial... didn’t really gave a algae issue, but everyone seemed impressed by it so gave it a try... GHA went away but got a bad cyano out break, did carbon dosing to control cyano but it didn’t work and got a bacterial bloom. Had to treat it with chemiclean. Things improved a bit over the next few month. But was dissatisfied with sps color so went overboard with coral feeding and color dosing and that is when I noticed the Dino’s... I thought it was cyano at first so did two rounds of chemiclean before realizing I was dealing with dinos.

I can say that almost all of my problems with this tank where caused by me trying a quick fix of something or other....

Chemicals might work for one issue but cause 10 other issues and it turns into a viscous cycle. dang you chemicals:mad:

 

[tenurepro]

Some progress on my prorocentrum battle
Here are pics from last Friday evening (I had siphoned sand Thursday night) so what you are is about 24 h Dino growth. I had just installed a jebo 36 w uv unit and dosing phosphorus; nitrates at 1 ppm, phosphates undetectable

- been doing daily sand vacuuming, and 15 liter water changes. I removed 1/2 of my siporax (1 liter) and
dosing nitrates and phosphate; no3 is now 5 ppm; po4 still low sometimes it’s 0.02 sometimes 0.06... gradually increasing the dose. Definitely seeing more GHA on the rocks and the glass. I also started removing some of my sand bed over the last 2 days. Last night I actually measured the flow through the uv and it was very fast; also, uv was installed incorrectly with input/output facing down. I slowed down the flow (3.9 liters per min) and changed the orientation (see pic).
I also reduced photoperiod by 2 hours

Here are the pictures from today. Sand was siphoned last night. I think I am seeing an improvement.

I am going away for he next four days. Autofeeder on and adding phosphorus via auto doser, uv on all day; we’ll see how the tank looks when I return

 

[sfin52]

You definitely on the right course.

 

[m0jjen]

Here we go again.


What are those triangular cells?

6 Ovata ostreopsis cells are spotted, no idea what the tiny brown cells are. Any ideas?

Another picture of the bronze small cells.

Ideas fellas?

 

[Beardo]

Here we go again.


What are those triangular cells?

6 Ovata ostreopsis cells are spotted, no idea what the tiny brown cells are. Any ideas?

Another picture of the bronze small cells.

Ideas fellas?

The triangular cells in the first picture are diatoms

 

[Beardo]

Some progress on my prorocentrum battle
Here are pics from last Friday evening (I had siphoned sand Thursday night) so what you are is about 24 h Dino growth. I had just installed a jebo 36 w uv unit and dosing phosphorus; nitrates at 1 ppm, phosphates undetectable

- been doing daily sand vacuuming, and 15 liter water changes. I removed 1/2 of my siporax (1 liter) and
dosing nitrates and phosphate; no3 is now 5 ppm; po4 still low sometimes it’s 0.02 sometimes 0.06... gradually increasing the dose. Definitely seeing more GHA on the rocks and the glass. I also started removing some of my sand bed over the last 2 days. Last night I actually measured the flow through the uv and it was very fast; also, uv was installed incorrectly with input/output facing down. I slowed down the flow (3.9 liters per min) and changed the orientation (see pic).
I also reduced photoperiod by 2 hours

Here are the pictures from today. Sand was siphoned last night. I think I am seeing an improvement.

I am going away for he next four days. Autofeeder on and adding phosphorus via auto doser, uv on all day; we’ll see how the tank looks when I return

Looking Good