Gorgonian: Expulsion of dinoflagellate

[Aqua Splendor]

Hello,

I'm looking for experienced reefers that have cases of Dinoflagellate getting expulsed out from the Gorgonian on a regular basis.

I have a Gorgonian Pterogorgia citrina (at least I think?) and on a regular basis it expulses a bunch on Dinoflagellate from its body, It's literally in front of me, I see it every day, and I can even see it naked eyes, although a microscope helped to identified the Ostreopsis genus.

I'm able to deal with Ostreopsis via different techniques, temperature is the easiest way But the thing is, I'm starting to get tired of dealing with this after so many months/years, the more it grows, the higher the frequency and amount of dino are increasing.

The problem is, I'm having trouble identifying what causes this reaction on regular basis, heavy water change? Flow not ideal anymore since it is growing? I use a heavy import-export maintenance to keep everything stable (Water changes every week or so).

I'm thinking to cut a big portion and see the reaction after but before I do this, I would like to know if anyone had similar experiences and had a feeling what is causing this.

I have tiny fragments elsewhere in the tank and they don't seem to reject dino has frequently like my "colony" is doing, which is why I'm thinking about wrong flow, but I could be wrong...

Thank you

 

[gonzo64]

i have basically the same problem as you with my grubes gorg..but mine does this like maybe once every couple of month's ..i think its like a way of sheding..then it goes away...i just turkey baste it everyday till it goes away.....

 

[Aqua Splendor]

Yeah, often the Dino appears when the shedding process is getting finished.
I Turkey blast and siphon when doing a water change

 

[JaaxReef]

I now run a UV-C bulb in the middle of the night on a timer from Amazon in the back of my all in one pico tank and this issue on my Gorg from Biota has finally stopped. It’s open and happy a lot more now.

The bulb was pretty cheap, but dangerous. It has no shield on it to protect your eyes or fish so it must go in a homemade sleeve or you need to make sure the light doesn’t bleed into the tank and that you cannot look directly at it.

 

[pecan2phat]

I now run a UV-C bulb in the middle of the night on a timer from Amazon in the back of my all in one pico tank and this issue on my Gorg from Biota has finally stopped. It’s open and happy a lot more now.

The bulb was pretty cheap, but dangerous. It has no shield on it to protect your eyes or fish so it must go in a homemade sleeve or you need to make sure the light doesn’t bleed into the tank and that you cannot look directly at it.

May I ask what your DIY sleeve looks like?

 

[JaaxReef]

May I ask what your DIY sleeve looks like?

I just dropped it in the first chamber of the back compartment in the all in one and covered every edge with black electrical tape and put filter floss on top. Can barely tell it is on except through the filter floss.

 

[Aqua Splendor]

I now run a UV-C bulb in the middle of the night on a timer from Amazon in the back of my all in one pico tank and this issue on my Gorg from Biota has finally stopped. It’s open and happy a lot more now.

The bulb was pretty cheap, but dangerous. It has no shield on it to protect your eyes or fish so it must go in a homemade sleeve or you need to make sure the light doesn’t bleed into the tank and that you cannot look directly at it.

Yeah I used UV (c) but it's not doing anything

 

[JaaxReef]

Yeah I used UV (c) but it's not doing anything

Well, shoot… Is the flow on the gorg pretty high already? Maybe consider increasing so it can’t build up as easily?