Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

Victoria M · May 29, 2019

Thanks @dwest I just ordered that kids microscope. I will try that one out before I ordered another more expensive one. I think I am getting red cyano everywhere, but without a microscope who knows!

dwest · May 29, 2019

Good luck. I think you know that a $10 isn’t going to be the best. But most of us can ID their dino with it.

David_Cool · May 29, 2019

Marlon C said:
I have dinos and it sucks. I'm gonna try and raise my phosphate from 0 and put a bigger uv sterilizer. Possibly get some live rock from another tank or Lfs to introduce some biodiversity. The issue started when I dosed vibrant for bubble algea. Bubble is gone but have dino after vibrant. I would swap dino for bubble anyday tbh. Seriously makes me sad to see my tank this way. Any advice you guys might have I appreciate it . What's this about dosing silicate.

Diatoms are a strong competitor for the sand that the amphidinium dinos are found on. Silicate is one of the limiting factors in diatom production and some of the diatoms, notably the navicula (looks like a ship), are said to have an anti-dino effect. Somewhere around here is a link to the scientific journal about it.

This all depends on what type you have though. Judging from your picture I don't think it is amph. since it's not on the sand, but I may be wrong.

Marlon C · May 29, 2019

David_Cool said:
Diatoms are a strong competitor for the sand that the amphidinium dinos are found on. Silicate is one of the limiting factors in diatom production and some of the diatoms, notably the navicula (looks like a ship), are said to have an anti-dino effect. Somewhere around here is a link to the scientific journal about it.

This all depends on what type you have though. Judging from your picture I don't think it is amph. since it's not on the sand, but I may be wrong.

It actually is on the sand and the rocks. It makes me so mad. I dont think peroxide will do much unless you guys think otherwise. I will get a microscope to find out what I have. I dosed vibrant in my nano and that killed bubble after 2 doses and no dino. That tank only has a finnex cheato fuge some bio porous balls and about 8 pounds of rock and 1 fish. For some reason fish dont live long there but the softies and black widow nem are so happy there. But my 80 gallon is something else . I cut my kessils back to 5-6 hours started feeding more because I've recently added more fish which I hope they dont have ich. I dont want to tear the tank down. Oh yeah I forgot I have some red cyano and what looks like black cyano also. And I introduced some gha from my nano. Who does that who willingly introduced gha???

Idoc · May 29, 2019

taricha said:
Same. My early observations were that Amphidinium and Cyano showed up hand in hand (dinos after cyano) in my tank (and others) so often that I felt like there was a happy coexistence or even a partnership.
Now I'm not so sure. An equally good interpretation is that they were both feeding off the same goodies in the detritus piles, because that's where they showed up.

My situation was the opposite. After the dinos started to recede, the cyano took over like crazy! Im not even getting any other algae growth with 25ppm No3 and 0.21 Po4! But, the dinos are still slightly present but controlled now. Im trying to slowly bring down my n/p so there isn't a big shock to the system to allow the dinos to come back in full force. So, dealing with cyano until i can control it naturally.

Victoria M · May 29, 2019

What kinds of dinos float to the top of the water when all the pumps are off? I am getting a little bit of that.

Neoalchemist · May 29, 2019

Victoria M said:
What kinds of dinos float to the top of the water when all the pumps are off? I am getting a little bit of that.

I know ostreopsis does this.

Marlon C · May 31, 2019

Got these pics with the 10 dollar microscope. What kind of dino is it[emoji30][emoji30][emoji30]

JerseyReefer · May 31, 2019

Looks like Ostreopsis to me.

Neoalchemist · Jun 1, 2019

Marlon C said:
Got these pics with the 10 dollar microscope. What kind of dino is it[emoji30][emoji30][emoji30]

Is there video to go with this pic?

Jameseywayney · Jun 1, 2019

I think i've finally nearly beat my amphidinium dinos, about 95% gone and reducing by the day. Its been a battle for the last few months but starting to feel excited about reefing again. What i did:
-Stopped all water changes
-Dosed spongexcel (120 drops per day in a 130g water volume). Oddly enough i never did have a diatom bloom.
-Put chaeto over the worst spots. It was only over those areas for around a week before my tang, angels and foxface ate all of it. (now my tank is covered in stringy chaeto poop)
-Turned off skimmer and fuge about a week ago, after doing this i saw the biggest reduction (could just be a coincidence)

Honestly, over the last 2-3 weeks i just gave up, the only thing i did to the tank was dose spongexcel. Nice to finally see some clean sand! (you can still see some small brown patches at the back). Going to give it another 3 weeks of no water changes and keep doing what i'm doing to ensure it doesn't come back. Then i can finally clean off all the cyano, GHA and make the tank pretty again.

Neoalchemist · Jun 2, 2019

Jameseywayney said:
I think i've finally nearly beat my amphidinium dinos, about 95% gone and reducing by the day. Its been a battle for the last few months but starting to feel excited about reefing again. What i did:
-Stopped all water changes
-Dosed spongexcel (120 drops per day in a 130g water volume). Oddly enough i never did have a diatom bloom.
-Put chaeto over the worst spots. It was only over those areas for around a week before my tang, angels and foxface ate all of it. (now my tank is covered in stringy chaeto poop)
-Turned off skimmer and fuge about a week ago, after doing this i saw the biggest reduction (could just be a coincidence)

Honestly, over the last 2-3 weeks i just gave up, the only thing i did to the tank was dose spongexcel. Nice to finally see some clean sand! (you can still see some small brown patches at the back). Going to give it another 3 weeks of no water changes and keep doing what i'm doing to ensure it doesn't come back. Then i can finally clean off all the cyano, GHA and make the tank pretty again.

Tank is looking really good.

David_Cool · Jun 3, 2019

Jameseywayney said:
I think i've finally nearly beat my amphidinium dinos, about 95% gone and reducing by the day. Its been a battle for the last few months but starting to feel excited about reefing again. What i did:
-Stopped all water changes
-Dosed spongexcel (120 drops per day in a 130g water volume). Oddly enough i never did have a diatom bloom.
-Put chaeto over the worst spots. It was only over those areas for around a week before my tang, angels and foxface ate all of it. (now my tank is covered in stringy chaeto poop)
-Turned off skimmer and fuge about a week ago, after doing this i saw the biggest reduction (could just be a coincidence)

Honestly, over the last 2-3 weeks i just gave up, the only thing i did to the tank was dose spongexcel. Nice to finally see some clean sand! (you can still see some small brown patches at the back). Going to give it another 3 weeks of no water changes and keep doing what i'm doing to ensure it doesn't come back. Then i can finally clean off all the cyano, GHA and make the tank pretty again.

JEALOUS!!!

Jameseywayney · Jun 3, 2019

Neoalchemist said:
Tank is looking really good.

Thanks! I'm starting to feel excited as i can soon start buying coral again and hopefully get things looking less ugly.

Overall, I'm a little puzzled at what caused the regression. I checked under microscope repeatedly and never saw any diatoms despite dosing silicates. Here's my thoughts:

-I am a firm believer that putting chaeto blobs on top works wonders, my tang and angels ate the chaeto winthin the week, but the dinos never came back underneath. I think chaeto either gives a shelter for pods (which i have first hand seen pods eat mass amounts of dinos) or there is some type of chemical warefare going on between chaeto and dinos. I know its a long shot, but is it possible that the chaeto poops fight the dinos?

- I am wondering if silicates harm dinos, versus diatoms competing against dinos.

-My last hypothesis is that the trace elements in my tank could have been depleted cause dinos to recede? But i am still dosing Two Little Fishies 2 part which does contain some trace elements.

Idoc · Jun 3, 2019

Jameseywayney said:
Thanks! I'm starting to feel excited as i can soon start buying coral again and hopefully get things looking less ugly.

Overall, I'm a little puzzled at what caused the regression. I checked under microscope repeatedly and never saw any diatoms despite dosing silicates. Here's my thoughts:

-I am a firm believer that putting chaeto blobs on top works wonders, my tang and angels ate the chaeto winthin the week, but the dinos never came back underneath. I think chaeto either gives a shelter for pods (which i have first hand seen pods eat mass amounts of dinos) or there is some type of chemical warefare going on between chaeto and dinos. I know its a long shot, but is it possible that the chaeto poops fight the dinos?

- I am wondering if silicates harm dinos, versus diatoms competing against dinos.

-My last hypothesis is that the trace elements in my tank could have been depleted cause dinos to recede? But i am still dosing Two Little Fishies 2 part which does contain some trace elements.

Do you have a pic of how you planned the chaeto on top of the dino patches? I might like to try this on the couple of smaller patches that are resilient in my tank.

I have also been dosing silicates regularly without seeing a diatom bloom. I agree something else has to be at work with the silicates besides causing diatoms.

Jameseywayney · Jun 3, 2019

Idoc said:
Do you have a pic of how you planned the chaeto on top of the dino patches? I might like to try this on the couple of smaller patches that are resilient in my tank.

I have also been dosing silicates regularly without seeing a diatom bloom. I agree something else has to be at work with the silicates besides causing diatoms.

I just grabbed a big ball of chaeto and put a small rock on top of it to prevent it from moving. It has worked on every spot that i've put it on and has not returned in any of them (3 different spots). I currently have have it on three additional spots that i'll be taking the chaeto off in the next few days.

Idoc · Jun 3, 2019

Jameseywayney said:
I just grabbed a big ball of chaeto and put a small rock on top of it to prevent it from moving. It has worked on every spot that i've put it on and has not returned in any of them (3 different spots). I currently have have it on three additional spots that i'll be taking the chaeto off in the next few days.

How many days do you have to leave the chaeto on the dinos?

Now if I could only grow chaeto, lol.

Jameseywayney · Jun 4, 2019

Idoc said:
How many days do you have to leave the chaeto on the dinos?

Now if I could only grow chaeto, lol.

I can't really give you an exact timeframe, but mine were eaten or got pulled off the spots within a week. Personally i think the longer the better up to 2 weeks. Additionally, my chaeto was straight from my fuge which is absolutely full of pods, if you're just getting someone's trimmings it may not have the same affect, but i can't tell you either way with absolute certainty.

Victoria M · Jun 4, 2019

I am going to send the $10 microscope back and get a nicer one. It is worth it because it is fun! But the cheap one just kept ticking me and the kids off. I will post a couple pictures soon.