Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[seastar]

Just updating... I started a refugium and added cheato to get some biodiversity going and whereas my old slides I share didn't have a single diatom, I now have mats of them (I think) - the little skinny things with the two dots in the body and long tails out of each side. I literally have forests of them growing on my glass, hopefully I'll start to see fewer and fewer of the dinos in this shot. I'd say it's a 50/50 split at this point.

 

[seastar]

Also, anyone know what these 3 leg star things are in the second shot? I have a couple dozen of them on my slide as well.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Also, anyone know what these 3 leg star things are in the second shot? I have a couple dozen of them on my slide as well.

I think a lot of those pics you're showing are diatoms. The green round things look to be something else. Can you post a picture of your tank or the growth in your tank?

 

[seastar]

I think a lot of those pics you're showing are diatoms. The green round things look to be something else. Can you post a picture of your tank or the growth in your tank?

Sure thing... Good thing I didn't finish cleaning my glass. In the glass photo you can see my kole tang has taken a liking to it - something that wasn't going on when it was a lot closer to a 100% dino/0% everything else ratio. I still have a few osteos in my slides, but only a handful compared to a heavy amount of them before.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Sure thing... Good thing I didn't finish cleaning my glass. In the glass photo you can see my kole tang has taken a liking to it - something that wasn't going on when it was a lot closer to a 100% dino/0% everything else ratio. I still have a few osteos in my slides, but only a handful compared to a heavy amount of them before.

Ok the growth on the glass looks similar to what I had on my glass. Tiny dinos moving fast though the images on the slide suggest a cyano or chrysophytes. Hard to tell. Are they motile? If it is in fact dinos on the glass, just daily cleaning and stable nutrients should clear it out in a couple or three weeks.

 

[Denisk]

I’m currently at a loss of words. I feel like I go one step forward and three backwards. I currently have my Dino’s very slowly coming back and I don’t understand why.

My Uv has been great to me in the beginning and truly did get rid of most of it in 3 days. I don’t know if the cheap uv is just not working however I know the light is on. (I’m also not sure how I know whether it’s doing it’s job)

My no3 is between 5 and 8 ppm and my po4 somehow is at .25. I would think I would have some sort of algae growing but nope I can’t get any gha or other sort of algae to grow.

Any tips? I just don’t understand will it always be a battle?

 

[reeferfoxx]

I’m currently at a loss of words. I feel like I go one step forward and three backwards. I currently have my Dino’s very slowly coming back and I don’t understand why.

My Uv has been great to me in the beginning and truly did get rid of most of it in 3 days. I don’t know if the cheap uv is just not working however I know the light is on. (I’m also not sure how I know whether it’s doing it’s job)

My no3 is between 5 and 8 ppm and my po4 somehow is at .25. I would think I would have some sort of algae growing but nope I can’t get any gha or other sort of algae to grow.

Any tips? I just don’t understand will it always be a battle?

This is where a microscope would be handy. Its not unusual to see cycles of different dinos. This is where IDing it can help with going forward.

 

[Denisk]

This is where a microscope would be handy. Its not unusual to see cycles of different dinos. This is where IDing it can help with going forward.

Unfortunately I don’t have a microscope on me currently that’s good enough to getting a very clear photo. I posted some a while back but that’s probably the best I’ll be able to. So I have to deal without one for now.

 

[rtparty]

I’m currently at a loss of words. I feel like I go one step forward and three backwards. I currently have my Dino’s very slowly coming back and I don’t understand why.

My Uv has been great to me in the beginning and truly did get rid of most of it in 3 days. I don’t know if the cheap uv is just not working however I know the light is on. (I’m also not sure how I know whether it’s doing it’s job)

My no3 is between 5 and 8 ppm and my po4 somehow is at .25. I would think I would have some sort of algae growing but nope I can’t get any gha or other sort of algae to grow.

Any tips? I just don’t understand will it always be a battle?

I'm on the same as far as dinos. I originally had Ostreopsis and UV handled them quickly. 2 to 3 days tops and tank looked incredible! Now I'm dealing with Amphidinium (sp?) and losing big time. Now GHA has set in and is going to over take my entire rock work in the next week or two. I pull out what I can by hand and have increased my CUC significantly. I need to test my PO4 tonight and see where I'm at currently. If GHA and film algae growth are any indication, my PO4 is definitely elevated at this point. My glass can be scraped multiple times a day if I want.

 

[rtparty]

Earlier in the thread I mentioned I would be adding some chaeto over the dinos and also some mature LR. Well I got both on Saturday and here's an update...

The dinos just spread on to the chaeto in patches. Too early to tell if the surrounding areas are being affected in any way. The rock I got is sitting on top of the chaeto since the chaeto won't sit on the bottom. The Vortech pulls it up too easily. That rock has feather dusters, sponge and other things growing. My scooter blenny took an immediate liking to it so there had to be some treats on it.

My LFS didn't have Fiji Mud or an urchin but is getting an urchin this week. Hopefully I can nip GHA before it truly takes over my tank.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Earlier in the thread I mentioned I would be adding some chaeto over the dinos and also some mature LR. Well I got both on Saturday and here's an update...

The dinos just spread on to the chaeto in patches. Too early to tell if the surrounding areas are being affected in any way. The rock I got is sitting on top of the chaeto since the chaeto won't sit on the bottom. The Vortech pulls it up too easily. That rock has feather dusters, sponge and other things growing. My scooter blenny took an immediate liking to it so there had to be some treats on it.

My LFS didn't have Fiji Mud or an urchin but is getting an urchin this week. Hopefully I can nip GHA before it truly takes over my tank.

GHA took over my tank and thats where my treatment changed. Once that happened, I stopped dosing N and P. Letting the gha starve out provided whatever died would get recycled into the column. Negative effect was Cooloa that obtained its nutrients from the algae. So it seemed logical to allow the algae to starve itself thus eventually getting rid of coolia. Which did happen in my case.

 

[rtparty]

GHA took over my tank and thats where my treatment changed. Once that happened, I stopped dosing N and P. Letting the gha starve out provided whatever died would get recycled into the column. Negative effect was Cooloa that obtained its nutrients from the algae. So it seemed logical to allow the algae to starve itself thus eventually getting rid of coolia. Which did happen in my case.

Yeah GHA isn't terrible in the grand scheme of things but it's super annoying. Just tested and my PO4 is at .18ppm so I'm well above the target range. I'll back off my P dosing for a couple days and see what it drops to.

I may head your route of not caring and seeing what happens. It's that or buy new real live rock and I don't want to go that route during the holidays

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yeah GHA isn't terrible in the grand scheme of things but it's super annoying. Just tested and my PO4 is at .18ppm so I'm well above the target range. I'll back off my P dosing for a couple days and see what it drops to.

I may head your route of not caring and seeing what happens. It's that or buy new real live rock and I don't want to go that route during the holidays

Whatever you do, dont buy up all the 6lb bins of fiji mud from BRS! I'm purchasing mine tomorrow lol

 

[rtparty]

Whatever you do, dont buy up all the 6lb bins of fiji mud from BRS! I'm purchasing mine tomorrow lol

Lol I may or may not buy some of that. I don't really have anywhere for it to be put that isn't high flow. Even my sump is high flow with no filter sock

 

[reeferfoxx]

Lol I may or may not buy some of that. I don't really have anywhere for it to be put that isn't high flow. Even my sump is high flow with no filter sock

I dont have a spot for it either. Its packed with organisms and thats all I need. I plan on broadcasting a tablespoon into the water column with the return pump turned off. I'll probably do that once or twice a week for maybe 3 weeks. I really want to monitor progression so it may not be that long.

 

[promptcritical]

Double post...sorry.

 

[promptcritical]

I have dinos. They've been around for months (I think from adding vibrant to try to control a hair algae outbreak), not really too bad, but I stupidly was running GFO for month or so, and they have blossomed lately. Corals mostly died. I removed the GFO a couple days ago and haven't added any vibrant for a month or so. I run ROX carbon in a bag. No carbon dosing anymore. Stopped that about 6 months ago. All it did was make everything slimy and didn't really affect nitrates much. I would like to try something more not so chemically. My nitrates are always about 16ppm since I stopped dosing carbon. Phosphates tested 0.05ish (average of 3 tests, with Hanna ULR 0.07, 0.06, 0.03). I haven't done a water change in 2 weeks. Should I get phosphates up a little (balance with nitrates??)? I know the tank is starved...my corals mostly crapped out over time (not many in there at the time I starved them). Fish are fine, conchs good, a few snails that seem ok so far. Any advice on how to proceed? Thanks.
-John

 

[mcarroll]

@rtparty and @Denisk Do you guys at least have the cheapie $10 toy scope mentioned here? Also have you guys been adding to your CUC? Once your nutritents get in the right range or shortly thereafter it should be safe to add more snails without worrying about toxins. (I'd still make that first addition of snails a small group just in case.) Definitely recommended to keep on top of the greens and cyano's. If you have room for a tang, one of the Bristletooth group can be about ideal.

@Denisk I looked back and can't find pics of your dino's in this thread...more would be nice, but can you re-post your old ones at least? (Pics through a toy scope are usually fine! )

@promptcritical How old is this tank? Did the initial hair algae outbreak happen after adding your initial livestock? Have you done the dino test or looked at what you have under a microscope yet?

 

[Denisk]

@rtparty and @Denisk Do you guys at least have the cheapie $10 toy scope mentioned here? Also have you guys been adding to your CUC? Once your nutritents get in the right range or shortly thereafter it should be safe to add more snails without worrying about toxins. (I'd still make that first addition of snails a small group just in case.) Definitely recommended to keep on top of the greens and cyano's. If you have room for a tang, one of the Bristletooth group can be about ideal.

@Denisk I looked back and can't find pics of your dino's in this thread...more would be nice, but can you re-post your old ones at least? (Pics through a toy scope are usually fine! )

@promptcritical How old is this tank? Did the initial hair algae outbreak happen after adding your initial livestock? Have you done the dino test or looked at what you have under a microscope yet?

I do have a good sized clean up crew and I have two tangs and a foxface. My Mexican turbo snails, hermits, cerith, and astrea snails don’t really even move during the day. They only move around at night. I wish I had some sort of other algae growing but I don’t just some Dino’s that are stringy but no bubbles.

These were the photos I originally posted. However like I said they’re not very good at all. They move around extremely fast and bind togeather after some time.

 

[rtparty]

@rtparty and @Denisk Do you guys at least have the cheapie $10 toy scope mentioned here? Also have you guys been adding to your CUC? Once your nutritents get in the right range or shortly thereafter it should be safe to add more snails without worrying about toxins. (I'd still make that first addition of snails a small group just in case.) Definitely recommended to keep on top of the greens and cyano's. If you have room for a tang, one of the Bristletooth group can be about ideal.

@Denisk I looked back and can't find pics of your dino's in this thread...more would be nice, but can you re-post your old ones at least? (Pics through a toy scope are usually fine! )

@promptcritical How old is this tank? Did the initial hair algae outbreak happen after adding your initial livestock? Have you done the dino test or looked at what you have under a microscope yet?

I've posted about 15 photos and 5 videos here and on my own thread to document all of this.

I've bumped CUC and kept my nutrients where they're "supposed" to be. It's doing nothing to halt the dinos on my sand bed. They're spreading and GHA has taken off.