Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[CloudReefer]

1 and 2 look too green. 4 might be some dino but it's hard for me to tell. They almost seem too elongated.

Oh also I edited my post right after you replied. I had meant to say

Looks mostly like diatoms to me.

I was thinking about dinos as I was writing. lol

 

[k log(omega)]

Yeah now that you mention it that is pretty green. Interesting because I got it from a brownish red clump off my sand that I thought was LCA. Most of the stuff is made up of the pill shaped things in 4 and 2, at least in the 2 samples I've looked at so far. Taricha mentioned in my other thread that he thinks he sees cyano in there, which might be the green?

Going to have to take some samples in the daytime when the mats come back in force. I suspect there will be more dinos in there then.

cyano usually has long strands. looks like diatoms to me. but those teardrop shaped dinos are ostreopsis

 

[ScottB]

Hi all,

Struggling with a bad breakout of brown slime and snail deaths. Trying to confirm that it’s a prorocentrum ? Any thoughts ?

Thanks!

Yes Proro. Seems to be going around these days.

 

[ScottB]

Need some more experienced eyes here. Is this Amphidinium or Ostreopsis? Or something else? (I do have a thread to ID diatoms started, but since I am pretty sure I found dinos as well felt it would be more appropriate to contribute here).

If it's Ostreopsis, how has it not killed anything in my tank? It's mixed with diatoms in my sand, and my snails, blenny etc. have eaten the crap out of it for like a month or more with no ill effects, and it's been in my tank for at least 3 or 4 months. At one point it coated everything in the tank and I had zero deaths. I do run 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup of activated carbon in a bag, but I wouldn't imagine that would help when animals are directly consuming the stuff. Also, will Ostreopsis even live in the sand? My rocks are now very clean... I had assumed I had LCA until I got my microscope.

Some pics of samples I took today. 400x with coverslip.

Yes, almond shape that swims as if the pointy end is tethered, def ostreos. Big UV run slow is your friend. Keep nutrients available. More in depth read here:

A Dinoflagellate Treatment Guide

As the title suggests, this is intended as a short guide on what to do when you suspect dinoflagellates are trying to overtake your system. It is an attempt to boil down the protocols discussed across 11,000 posts in this "Are you Tired" thread...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ScottB]

If I have coolia and procentrum, can I run uv and dose silicates concurrently? Or will the UV kill off the diatoms rendering silicate dosing useless?

Yes you can. Diatoms mostly stay in the sand.

I have found proro in particular need a short but full blackout to get them swimming.

 

[Orion9]

I'm seeking help with verification and identification of a possible dino outbreak. After a little googling I thought they looked similar to Durinskia cf. capensis. Hope I'm posting in the right thread, thanks!

 

[taricha]

They do look similar, however that genus doesn't appear to occur in locales that material for the hobby comes from. They also look just like Coolia which does show up in reefs that the hobby gets material from.

 

[thrillreefer]

I’m battling a bubble algae outbreak in my 2 yr old 50 gal mixed reef. (Medium fish load, medium to heavy feeding). To combat Valonia I have done a lot of siphoning into a sump sock but also stepped up water changes. After doing WC, I’m seeing an uptick in telltale brown strings hanging off some corals and algae that I believe is a relapse of Ostreopsis. No microscopy to confirm yet but likely.

I’ve added some Pitho and emerald crabs to help control bubbles, and I’m running a small UV (9 W green killing machine). PO4 is reading zero, but that may well be because the bubble algae (and some GHA and turf patches). Is it still a good idea to dose PO4 here? I feel like that will feed the bubble algae, but also help control dinos. Which poison do I pick?

 

[ScottB]

I’m battling a bubble algae outbreak in my 2 yr old 50 gal mixed reef. (Medium fish load, medium to heavy feeding). To combat Valonia I have done a lot of siphoning into a sump sock but also stepped up water changes. After doing WC, I’m seeing an uptick in telltale brown strings hanging off some corals and algae that I believe is a relapse of Ostreopsis. No microscopy to confirm yet but likely.

I’ve added some Pitho and emerald crabs to help control bubbles, and I’m running a small UV (9 W green killing machine). PO4 is reading zero, but that may well be because the bubble algae (and some GHA and turf patches). Is it still a good idea to dose PO4 here? I feel like that will feed the bubble algae, but also help control dinos. Which poison do I pick?

Dose some phosphate. Without your coral will die. Valonia don't need much to do just fine. Drop in a juvenile 1 spot foxface. Yes, they will outgrow but they can manage bubble. Careful when rehoming; those dorsal spines are nasty.

 

[ScottB]

They do look similar, however that genus doesn't appear to occur in locales that material for the hobby comes from. They also look just like Coolia which does show up in reefs that the hobby gets material from.

Glad you commented. Stuff looks like it is from Mars. New to me.

 

[thrillreefer]

Dose some phosphate. Without your coral will die. Valonia don't need much to do just fine.

Alright, heard. I’ll start daily dosing of ~50 ppb and see if/when it stays detectable. Hopefully the benefit for the corals and dinos outweighs these bubbles.

I haven’t had luck finding a fox in the 2-3 inch range but may keep looking. But these Pithos are beasts! Might be enough to keep it in check after aggressive siphoning.

 

[gmiller12345]

Hi, I am newer here and finally got a microscope so I could look at what I think are Dino’s. I scoured the pictures here and am still having a hard time determining if it is Dino’s and if so which type. My phos and nitrate zeroed out about 2 months into starting up my tank. I tried to feed more and couldn’t get reading on Red Sea test kits so I bought a Hanna for both and got 0 on those as well. I have started dosing NeoPhos (currently sitting at 0.05) and then dosed NeoNitrate (currently sitting around 1ppm). My tank has a few different algae’s, mostly green hair and Cyano, that I try to clean weekly (don’t have too much time to dedicated to cleaning the tank each week). Some of it was brown and slimy with bubbles so I took a sample and tried to take a picture (apologies if the pics aren’t great). Any help identifying would be much appreciated!

 

[ScottB]

Hi, I am newer here and finally got a microscope so I could look at what I think are Dino’s. I scoured the pictures here and am still having a hard time determining if it is Dino’s and if so which type. My phos and nitrate zeroed out about 2 months into starting up my tank. I tried to feed more and couldn’t get reading on Red Sea test kits so I bought a Hanna for both and got 0 on those as well. I have started dosing NeoPhos (currently sitting at 0.05) and then dosed NeoNitrate (currently sitting around 1ppm). My tank has a few different algae’s, mostly green hair and Cyano, that I try to clean weekly (don’t have too much time to dedicated to cleaning the tank each week). Some of it was brown and slimy with bubbles so I took a sample and tried to take a picture (apologies if the pics aren’t great). Any help identifying would be much appreciated!

I believe those might be Chrysophytes or Golden algae. When removed from the water, do they retain a gelatinous texture (globs)? If that is 400X magnification or greater, it likely is Chrysos.

 

[buruskeee]

My corals for the last 2 days have been more closed up. I've had LCA dinos for almost 3 weeks now and have been running carbon for just over a week. The corals just now are showing irritation. None of my water parameters looks out of wack - it's been consistent. I haven't done a water change in almost 2 months, because prior to LCA I had Ostreopsis.

Should I water change, or stand pat? Last thing I want to do is help the dinos. Right now I have GHA running rampant which are hopefully outcompeting the LCA. The LCA are dominating my sand, although about 20% of it is not GHA.

 

[gmiller12345]

I believe those might be Chrysophytes or Golden algae. When removed from the water, do they retain a gelatinous texture (globs)? If that is 400X magnification or greater, it likely is Chrysos.

Thanks, I will do some reading on chrysophytes! They do seem to glob out of water. That was at 400x. Here is a different sample at 1000x.

 

[ScottB]

Thanks, I will do some reading on chrysophytes! They do seem to glob out of water. That was at 400x. Here is a different sample at 1000x.

An algaecide like API Algaefix will work. I used Vibrant that contains the same active ingredient (Busan 77) for twice the price, lol. A one spot foxface will also eat any algae short of bryopsis. If you have a fuge with chaeto, etc just move it to a bucket for a while. Maybe throw in a bubbler.

I tried bacterias, H2O2, UV, Indian Moon Dance and none of it worked.

 

[buruskeee]

An algaecide like API Algaefix will work. I used Vibrant that contains the same active ingredient (Busan 77) for twice the price, lol.

I think Brightwell Razor is safer. I’ve used it and it worked like a charm. Says it’s polymer based and not an algaecide but who knows.

 

[buruskeee]

With LCA.. what’s the notion .. do not disturb the sandbed or siphon the Dinos??

 

[ScottB]

My corals for the last 2 days have been more closed up. I've had LCA dinos for almost 3 weeks now and have been running carbon for just over a week. The corals just now are showing irritation. None of my water parameters looks out of wack - it's been consistent. I haven't done a water change in almost 2 months, because prior to LCA I had Ostreopsis.

Should I water change, or stand pat? Last thing I want to do is help the dinos. Right now I have GHA running rampant which are hopefully outcompeting the LCA. The LCA are dominating my sand, although about 20% of it is not GHA.

If you are still running UV, you are okay to do a WC.

 

[buruskeee]

If you are still running UV, you are okay to do a WC.

Thank you. It’s even worse today. My wrasse is struggling and looking like it’s dying. My guess is that the toxins are starting to build up even though LCA is supposed to be lore in toxin/no toxin. I’ve lost almost double digit snails since that post now along with having 2 stressed out fish.