Dinoflagellates - do you want them?

[Reef and Dive]

I was thinking about something a little different here, we surelly do not have a simple solution that works for all dinos, unfortunatelly, but for a long time we started to understand what are great conditions that predict dino problems in the future.

So this list is kind of a joke (many items like dry rocks are actually my preference for many reasons, but sadly they are part of the list). So if you would love to have some dinos, here is the recipe:

- start a tank with dry rock and everything pretty sterile;

- have strong lights with high intensity with a long photoperid from the start;

- start ASAP with very intensive filtering and ultra clear water: over skimming, GFO;

- aim for ultra-zero nutrients: zero nitrates and zero phosphate all times, and use a good test to verify;

- have high iron and ultra zero silica;

- if you have any signs of algae just medicate ASAP: fluconazole and chemiclean as soon as bit of green algae or cyano appears;

- as a plus you can just drop some water from a tank with dino problems, but any livestock from any other source might work if that’s not available;

Hope you enjoyed, and most important: do not try this at home!

 

[lapin]

Pretty much sums it up

 

[taricha]

So if you would love to have some dinos, here is the recipe:

- start a tank with dry rock and everything pretty sterile;

- have strong lights with high intensity with a long photoperid from the start;

- start ASAP with very intensive filtering and ultra clear water: over skimming, GFO;

- aim for ultra-zero nutrients: zero nitrates and zero phosphate all times, and use a good test to verify;

- have high iron and ultra zero silica;

- if you have any signs of algae just medicate ASAP: fluconazole and chemiclean as soon as bit of green algae or cyano appears;

- as a plus you can just drop some water from a tank with dino problems, but any livestock from any other source might work if that’s not available;

Great post. The correlations between dinos and all these are pretty strong, but I'll add two more that show up a lot.

-Dose amino acid coral food occasionally

-Have very little coral, just a few frags in a mostly empty tank works best.

 

[Reef and Dive]

Great post. The correlations between dinos and all these are pretty strong, but I'll add two more that show up a lot.

-Dose amino acid coral food occasionally

-Have very little coral, just a few frags in a mostly empty tank works best.

Thanks a lot @taricha I forgot those 2!

 

[wareagle]

I was thinking about something a little different here, we surelly do not have a simple solution that works for all dinos, unfortunatelly, but for a long time we started to understand what are great conditions that predict dino problems in the future.

So this list is kind of a joke (many items like dry rocks are actually my preference for many reasons, but sadly they are part of the list). So if you would love to have some dinos, here is the recipe:

- start a tank with dry rock and everything pretty sterile;

- have strong lights with high intensity with a long photoperid from the start;

- start ASAP with very intensive filtering and ultra clear water: over skimming, GFO;

- aim for ultra-zero nutrients: zero nitrates and zero phosphate all times, and use a good test to verify;

- have high iron and ultra zero silica;

- if you have any signs of algae just medicate ASAP: fluconazole and chemiclean as soon as bit of green algae or cyano appears;

- as a plus you can just drop some water from a tank with dino problems, but any livestock from any other source might work if that’s not available;

Hope you enjoyed, and most important: do not try this at home!

I just finished reading a study on Dinos that had a sentence similar to this one when it comes to culturing them.
" F/2 media without silicate was used"
In nature it's usually low iron that helps the other phytoplankton lose the battle.
They still haven't found anything that will outcompete it when it comes to getting phosphorus. It's so sad to see so many people wasting money on bacteria and phyto without physical removal of the dinos, or adding anything that will limit their reproduction. Diatoms have a chemical that will limit ostreopsis, but it isn't strong enough if the scales have already been tipped and the diatoms are Phosphate limited while the dinos can just go and get organic phosphorus.

 

[Reef and Dive]

I just finished reading a study on Dinos that had a sentence similar to this one when it comes to culturing them.
" F/2 media without silicate was used"
In nature it's usually low iron that helps the other phytoplankton lose the battle.
They still haven't found anything that will outcompete it when it comes to getting phosphorus. It's so sad to see so many people wasting money on bacteria and phyto without physical removal of the dinos, or adding anything that will limit their reproduction. Diatoms have a chemical that will limit ostreopsis, but it isn't strong enough if the scales have already been tipped and the diatoms are Phosphate limited while the dinos can just go and get organic phosphorus.

I don’t know if this is the article you mean, but it arrived to the same conclusion.

 

[wareagle]

I don’t know if this is the article you mean, but it arrived to the same conclusion.

It wasn't that one, the study was done in the Baltics. It looks like dinos are becoming a huge problem all over the globe.

 

[BanjoBandito]

I wasn't keeping salt tanks for probably a decade or more....been since college....so 15-20 years now....and then it wasn't even an issue or discussed, except maybe in the backroom of the fish store. Flash to 2021 and I'm getting back into reefing and DINOFLAGELLATES are taking over!!!! What is happening?

 

[Reef and Dive]

I wasn't keeping salt tanks for probably a decade or more....been since college....so 15-20 years now....and then it wasn't even an issue or discussed, except maybe in the backroom of the fish store. Flash to 2021 and I'm getting back into reefing and DINOFLAGELLATES are taking over!!!! What is happening?

Microscopes got into too… and live rock got out… and heavy filtration got in…

 

[Bccarty151]

I wasn't keeping salt tanks for probably a decade or more....been since college....so 15-20 years now....and then it wasn't even an issue or discussed, except maybe in the backroom of the fish store. Flash to 2021 and I'm getting back into reefing and DINOFLAGELLATES are taking over!!!! What is happening?

I'm in the same boat....I bought a used tank that's 2 years old with all the bells and whistles....Neptune, uv, auto water change, fancy skimmer. Cannot see a single copapod in the tank and barely any coraline algea....no feather dusters....no sponges....no bristle worms....It was started with dry rock which I think is the main reason for the dinos as I never had issue with them before in my past reef tank with my current care routine.

 

[Reef and Dive]

I'm in the same boat....I bought a used tank that's 2 years old with all the bells and whistles....Neptune, uv, auto water change, fancy skimmer. Cannot see a single copapod in the tank and barely any coraline algea....no feather dusters....no sponges....no bristle worms....It was started with dry rock which I think is the main reason for the dinos as I never had issue with them before in my past reef tank with my current care routine.

Nowadays the extremely clean route really seems to frequent, unfortunately…

 

[Little c big D]

I did like 95% of that stuff... and I have dinos they are going away on their own. As I added fish and coral and have fed more. As well as phyto regularly. I initially freaked out. It was a much bigger deal just a few years ago.

 

[Reef and Dive]

I did like 95% of that stuff... and I have dinos they are going away on their own. As I added fish and coral and have fed more. As well as phyto regularly. I initially freaked out. It was a much bigger deal just a few years ago.

Yeah I have to admit I also do not fear dinos so much today…

 

[BanjoBandito]

I did like 95% of that stuff... and I have dinos they are going away on their own. As I added fish and coral and have fed more. As well as phyto regularly. I initially freaked out. It was a much bigger deal just a few years ago.

LOL, IS THIS PARODY. ‍

 

[Bccarty151]

Calm down bagwan....n dose phyto

 

[Acros]

- if you have any signs of algae just medicate ASAP: fluconazole and chemiclean as soon as bit of green algae or cyano appears;

This worked for me. lol.

Fighting dinos since August. Killed all my acros.

 

[ggNoRe]

I basically followed everything on the checklist and it worked perfectly. Dinos everywhere.

 

[Little c big D]

I would like to add. That by not fighting the dinos which started a month ago due to starting with dry rock and heavy light and filtration that I'm winning a fight I'm not even participating in.

Coraline is beginning to grow. Tank is 2 1/2 months old right now. The dinos got stringy and snotty and my only action was to blast some off, clean the sock, and add phyto/pods. I don't know it it's luck or if the non action led to positive result. I'm going to document the step by step trip because it's funny how all the things mentioned by @Reef and Dive are common things we do these days. So dinos are apart of the natural process

 

[Reef and Dive]

I would like to add. That by not fighting the dinos which started a month ago due to starting with dry rock and heavy light and filtration that I'm winning a fight I'm not even participating in.

Coraline is beginning to grow. Tank is 2 1/2 months old right now. The dinos got stringy and snotty and my only action was to blast some off, clean the sock, and add phyto/pods. I don't know it it's luck or if the non action led to positive result. I'm going to document the step by step trip because it's funny how all the things mentioned by @Reef and Dive are common things we do these days. So dinos are apart of the natural process

Or our current process is showing to be not so perfect…

 

[ScottB]

I was thinking about something a little different here, we surelly do not have a simple solution that works for all dinos, unfortunatelly, but for a long time we started to understand what are great conditions that predict dino problems in the future.

So this list is kind of a joke (many items like dry rocks are actually my preference for many reasons, but sadly they are part of the list). So if you would love to have some dinos, here is the recipe:

- start a tank with dry rock and everything pretty sterile;

- have strong lights with high intensity with a long photoperid from the start;

- start ASAP with very intensive filtering and ultra clear water: over skimming, GFO;

- aim for ultra-zero nutrients: zero nitrates and zero phosphate all times, and use a good test to verify;

- have high iron and ultra zero silica;

- if you have any signs of algae just medicate ASAP: fluconazole and chemiclean as soon as bit of green algae or cyano appears;

- as a plus you can just drop some water from a tank with dino problems, but any livestock from any other source might work if that’s not available;

Hope you enjoyed, and most important: do not try this at home!

How did I miss this?

Priceless.