Need Help With ID- Dinos?

Looks and sounds like dinos... This thread might be helpful ----> https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-dinos-a-possible-cure-follow-along-and-see.253917/

Goodluck!

And this one -------> https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

Thanks- actually have been following those. Just wasn't sure what was dealing with (or was trying to convince myself otherwise [emoji846]).

@mcarroll- thanks again for your response in the other thread. After searching for information on Chrysophytes and taking a look at the pics in the threads, I think that may be I'm dealing with. Some of those pics look identical to my tank. What had me really scratching my head was the fact that a superman monti that I'm growing has the stuff all around it, really right up against it, and is gradually killing off the algae and continuing to grow, albeit very slowly. Didn't think that would be happening with with something as toxic as dinos. Also haven't had any snails or other livestock losses.

I also tried the 'paper towel test' yesterday. When I drew some off the rocks with a baster yesterday, shook the sample well, the brown material never fully dispersed. Then, when I poured the sample through a paper towel, none of the material made its way into the cup below and nothing ever regrouped into chains in the post-towel water, even after nearly an hour.

The tank was started with 100% dry rock and caribsea sand, and the few corals I've gotten have come from really well-regarded aquaculture shops. So I was scratching my head at how dinos could have made their way in- I know that anything's possible but just didn't really add up. Chrysophytes make a little more sense, particularly if my dry rocks (reef saver) have any kind of elevated silicates (sending off for a Triton test this week so hopefully will have a better picture late in the week). If they are what I'm dealing with and not dinos, I know they aren't ideal but looks from what I'm seeing like a world better than dinos.

TechnicalFisher said:

I've been battling a snotty brown substance that appears on the light-exposed portions of my rocks, with the exception of the highest-light areas. It's almost leafy looking in places, traps bubbles, has threads in some areas but not others and blows away with a hard squirt from a baster. Parameters are: Salinity- 1.026; Nitrate- 2; Phosphate- 03; PH- 8.17-8.29; Alk- 9; Temp- 79. I'm running small amounts of BRS GFO (in a reactor) and BRS ROX Carbon, maybe 1/2 recommended dose of each. I've also got a bloom of cyano in a small portion of tank.

Anyway, here's the stuff- you can see it best on edge of the rock in the foreground, kind of hanging off. Any help with ID much appreciated:

Click to expand...

I think I'm battling the same thing. After you scrub this mess off your rocks do the rocks look like they have translucent/whitish peach fuzz on them? Are there times, especially after scrub the rocks, that your sump and dirty filter socks smell like a saltwater marsh at low tide?

Yes to the first question- for sure. And that peach fuzz looking stuff is what it looked like when it first got started. I guess the filter socks smell sort of funky after I blow a lot of it off the rocks as well.

Have been reading lots of stuff on Chrysophytes and that the only thing I've seen that really looks similar.

Shot some video to provide a better look at what it looks like:



@taricha @reeferfox @mcarroll - do you think it's Chrysophytes?? Thanks!

I had dinoflagellates and yours looks nothing like mine. I pulled some out of my tank, put it in a mason jar and shook it up real hard for two minutes. The strands disappeared while shaking then when I let it sit on the table it for a few minutes it reclumped back up.

What kind of test kit do you use?

Have you checked your TDS in your RODI water?

Do you have a skimmer?

Refugium?

Ugh just watching the video and thinking this is where 8 months of effort has gotten me. Looks heinous...[emoji50]

DesertReefBoy said:

I had dinoflagellates and yours looks nothing like mine. I pulled some out of my tank, put it in a mason jar and shook it up real hard for two minutes. The strands disappeared while shaking then when I let it sit on the table it for a few minutes it reclumped back up.

What kind of test kit do you use?

Have you checked your TDS in your RODI water?

Do you have a skimmer?

Refugium?

Click to expand...

Thanks, yeah sounding more and more like perhaps not dinos?? I use Red Sea for Nitrate, Alk and Ca, and Hanna for PO4.

TDS is zero and just replaced all stages with new, just in case. Yes, running an SCA-301 skimmer and just started a fuge last week.

@TechnicalFisher is your cleanup crew working on it at all? Do you have any pods in the tank? (Copepods in particular?)

Good question whether it'd pass the shaker test that @taricha and @DesertReefBoy mentioned. (Are chrysophytes motile in one phase though?)

TechnicalFisher said:

Shot some video to provide a better look at what it looks like:



@taricha @reeferfox @mcarroll - do you think it's Chrysophytes?? Thanks!

Click to expand...

My rocks look exactly like that. My silicates went from 0 on 5/23/17 Triton test to 486 on my 7/12/17 Triton test. I am going to replace my last DI stage in my 6 stage RODI with SpectraPure SilicaBuster from Amazon based on a thread here on R2R and run Triton AL 99 PO4 remover in DT. This is Triton's recommendation to remove silicates. I have stopped carbon dosing 4 days ago and have been dosing Brightwell Aquatics NeoPhos and NeoNitro. This stuff seems to be worse when my PO4 drops to zero on my Hanna ULR and my NO3 is below 2.5 ppm. I run a Zeovit tank and it is easy to get both PO4 and NO3 to zero and that is when problems always start. I must dose both to keep levels up. Not only did this problem coinside with a rise in silicates but for some reason I lost stability with my PO4 and NO3 and they dropped to zero. They were holding steady at PO4 - 0.03 and NO3 - 2.5 to 5.

Did you start with dry rock or live rock?

mcarroll said:

@TechnicalFisher is your cleanup crew working on it at all? Do you have any pods in the tank? (Copepods in particular?)

Good question whether it'd pass the shaker test that @taricha and @DesertReefBoy mentioned. (Are chrysophytes motile in one phase though?)

Click to expand...

Snails have hit it somewhat in the back glass. I've got tons of amphioods, just added cooepods from
Algae Barn last week.

TechnicalFisher said:

Did you start with dry rock or live rock?

Click to expand...

Mix of both rocks. My tank will be two years old this Tuesday. My trochus snails will not touch this stuff. I have a Kole Tang (third try) finishing his 30 copper treatment this Wednesday. Will be in DT two weeks after that I hope. Had a Magnificent Foxface with him but he did not make it. Will try Foxface again next time. Hoping the grazers will help. I'm hoping the reduction in silicates will solve this problem. For now I need to figure out why I lost PO4 and NO3 stability.

So after reading everything I can find on it, I'm fully convinced that it's Chrysophytes I'm dealing with. I've been continuing to watch and wait for the last few days before deciding whether to proceed with KNO3 treatment. My situation appears to be a little bit different that many of the threads I've read inasmuch as I'm seeing detectable nitrates- consistently at 2ppm. I'm still running GFO in my reactor and the chaeto in my less than 1 week old fuge has more than doubled in size.

@mcarroll and @reeferfoxx do you think that with nitrates at a 2ppm level I still need to dose KNO3? Did a physical removal yesterday and ran a filter sock overnight to clear out the debris and will be watching today to see whether it rapidly regrows.

What do you have for clean up crew? If you are going through steps of manual removal, snails would really benefit. Not only do some snails eat it but prefer the chrysophyte mulm to be at minimal height. Astrea or Trochus snails are best for eradication.

@reeferfoxx - Ive got 15 or so Astreas, and a mix of several nerite, strombus and trochus, as well as microhermits. I added a number of Astreas the week before last hoping for just what you mention. Will watch today to see if now that it's down to a short turf they will go after it.

@TechnicalFisher What are your current N and P test results? Do you have any GFO on hand?