Algae Identification, killing my sps

[Mrcote1]

I think im dealing with dinos but im not 100% sure. My tank is a 75 gallon sps reef that has been up and running for about a year now. I had absolute zero nutrient system up until about 2 months ago when I started dosing nitrates. Here are all my parameters now
Nitrate 15
Phosphate 0.0092
Potassium 420
Magnesium 1275
Calcium 425
DKH 8.8
SG 1.025
Temp 79 degrees

I blow it off all corals about ten times a day with a turkey baster but this stuff will be grown back on the coral again completely in less than an hour. It killed my Aussie Echinata frag, a decent sized colony of red robin, my orange passion acro, and its working on killing my colony of montipora setosa now. If you think it is Dinos should I get DinoX or Hydrogen peroxide? I need to act fast as I dont want to lose everything. Ive tried researching methods people have used but it seems to be scattered facts and findings all over the place.

 

[Mrcote1]

 

[Crabtastic]

Definitely looks like dinos to me. If you haven't seen the dino thread I would have a look. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/ Usually need to determine what you're dealing with first by looking at it under a microscope. Some people have reported success with dinoX, but I believe it only works on certain strains. I had them last year and finally got rid of them after several months of trying everything listed in the thread. I never lost any corals though so you may be dealing with a different type than what I encountered.

 

[BestMomEver]

Also reefcleaners.org has a great info section.

 

[marlinmon]

That's not algae killing your SPS. Your SPS has died off and that is bacteria eating what's left. I've seen this a million times.

 

[Mhart032]

Looks like Dinos to me, but i think marlinmon is rite i dont believe they kill sps. I had a 3 month battle with them. tried everything what finally worked for me was upping my P02 and nitrates i did this by every 3 days id dump the skimmer cup back into the tank sucks as much out as i could and increased pod population. I tried everything, blackouts where i taped the tank up so no light could get in, dinoX, hydrogen peroxide dosing. nothing worked.

 

[Mhart032]

Looks like Dinos to me, but i think marlinmon is rite i dont believe they kill sps. I had a 3 month battle with them. tried everything what finally worked for me was upping my P02 and nitrates i did this by every 3 days id dump the skimmer cup back into the tank sucks as much out as i could and increased pod population. I tried everything, blackouts where i taped the tank up so no light could get in, dinoX, hydrogen peroxide dosing. nothing worked.

Id venture to say your corals are prob starving, the zooxanthellae in the corals needs phosphates and nitrates to feed and convert to energy to build. if they dont get what they need they will bleach, sometimes they recover sometimes they dont, most the time they dont. Nitrate and phosphate deficiencies lead to dinos as well.

 

[f8thless]

+1 for Dino.

I had issues with Dino before and was able to recover by dosing hydrogen peroxide but didn't have SPS.

Look into dosing hydrogen peroxide and SPS.

 

[Mrcote1]

Hmm, so should I raise my phosphates a lot then? My nitrates are at 15ppm. It's weird because I had zero nitrates a couple months ago and phosphates were roughly the same (about 0.015) and I had no dinos. I have neophos on hand

 

[Mrcote1]

Definitely looks like dinos to me. If you haven't seen the dino thread I would have a look. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/ Usually need to determine what you're dealing with first by looking at it under a microscope. Some people have reported success with dinoX, but I believe it only works on certain strains. I had them last year and finally got rid of them after several months of trying everything listed in the thread. I never lost any corals though so you may be dealing with a different type than what I encountered.

Wow great thread! Lots of information, I've been reading for an hour and there is still 100's of pages left Haha. So definitely gonna try to bring phosphates up first. Also how long would it take for dinos to actually kill the coral? Since you guys say the coral is already dying and the dinos is feeding off it, how long would a coral coated in dinos have to live if I didnt Turkey baster it non stop

 

[dwest]

Wow great thread! Lots of information, I've been reading for an hour and there is still 100's of pages left Haha. So definitely gonna try to bring phosphates up first. Also how long would it take for dinos to actually kill the coral? Since you guys say the coral is already dying and the dinos is feeding off it, how long would a coral coated in dinos have to live if I didnt Turkey baster it non stop

I agree. Looks like dinos.

Sorry. You got whacked pretty hard. Looks like my tank about 18 months ago.

I would first add GAC to your system if you don’t have it already to help reduce the effects of toxins. Then, I would make sure you have measurable nitrates and phosphates if they are not already. Get a cheap microscope to ID them. If they are not amphidinium, you can use UV to eradicate them assuming you get one that is at least 1 watt UV per every 3 gallons of tank volume and run it from DT back to DT with about 1-3 tank volumes per hour going through it.

You will need to keep nutrients a little elevated for several months to get algae and other dino competitors to become dominant.

Good luck.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071JQFXC4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Mrcote1]

Wow that microscope is cheap. Just bought it. Should be here on Sunday. I always run GAC as well. I buy the ROX from BRS and I've always ran it. What would you recommend I bring my nitrates and phosphates too?

I also dosed a little biospira in my tank

 

[dwest]

Wow that microscope is cheap. Just bought it. Should be here on Sunday. I always run GAC as well. I buy the ROX from BRS and I've always ran it. What would you recommend I bring my nitrates and phosphates too?

I also dosed a little biospira in my tank

Yes. With the scope, it’s not great, as you can imagine, but most of us can ID our dinos with it.

Dino ID help
http://www.algaeid.com/identification/

I use(d):
Nitrates
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0190TOJUS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Phosphates
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002APIJQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[ScottR]

Wow great thread! Lots of information, I've been reading for an hour and there is still 100's of pages left Haha. So definitely gonna try to bring phosphates up first. Also how long would it take for dinos to actually kill the coral? Since you guys say the coral is already dying and the dinos is feeding off it, how long would a coral coated in dinos have to live if I didnt Turkey baster it non stop

Once a coral starts bleaching, there’s almost no coming back. When the zooxanthellae die off (coral turns white), the polyps starve and die. Polyps won’t come back. From the looks in your pic, they look completely bleached and no polyps sticking out. I’ve had SPS bleach before so I’ve seen this. After they bleached, I had some sort of brown algae cover them. After I removed the dead branches, the algae went away.

 

[dwest]

Wow that microscope is cheap. Just bought it. Should be here on Sunday. I always run GAC as well. I buy the ROX from BRS and I've always ran it. What would you recommend I bring my nitrates and phosphates too?

I also dosed a little biospira in my tank

I think I misunderstood your question. I would make both nitrates and phosphates measurable as a minimum. Most times you will read recommendations of about 10 ppm nitrates and 0.1 ppm phosphates. I would use a Hannah ULR for phosphates, but you don’t have to.

 

[dwest]

Once a coral starts bleaching, there’s almost no coming back. When the zooxanthellae die off (coral turns white), the polyps starve and die. Polyps won’t come back. From the looks in your pic, they look completely bleached and no polyps sticking out. I’ve had SPS bleach before so I’ve seen this. After they bleached, I had some sort of brown algae cover them. After I removed the dead branches, the algae went away.

Agree. We are trying to make the tank ready for the next batch.

 

[ScottR]

Agree. We are trying to make the tank ready for the next batch.

How old is your tank? SPS seem to prefer well-establishes tanks for some reason. My newest tank is only 6 months old and I’m holding off on SPS

 

[ScottR]

How old is your tank? SPS seem to prefer well-establishes tanks for some reason. My newest tank is only 6 months old and I’m holding off on SPS

Sorry. You’re not the OP;Hilarious

 

[Mrcote1]

Yea I use a salifert test kit for Nitrate and a Hanna ULR for my phosphates, and I have 15ppm Nitrates and 0.009 for phosphates which isnt to far from 0.01 so is that perhaps not my issue?

 

[Mrcote1]

Also my tank is like a year and a half old and my sps were poor on color as it was but they all had great PE. My aussie echinata had good blue color and then once that dinos got on it, it STN or RTN (whatever the one that bleaches it overnight) in a matter of a couple days