Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods
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Snoopdog
Valuable Member
Sad times we are living in what diatoms are looking good.
Not to jinx it, but I think I'm finally making some headway with my dinos. Other than obviously making sure my nutrients never got 0, I did a few other things.
First, I got a few pieces of live rock covered in gha from an 8 year old reef that had been neglected and was being broken down. I then used elegant corals method 3 weeks in a row. I pretty much followed it to a T, except that I vacuumed my entire accessible sand bed (which is about 30% anyway since I have so much rock). Half way through the second week, the rocks were basically clean and the dinos were contained to just sand. As per the elegant coral method, I vacuumed the sand daily, but they were back by the end of the next day, although much less. I then went immediately into Dr. Tims method. This helped significantly. They still show up in the sand bed, but I maybe have to vacuum once every 2 weeks. I'm still not doing water changes or feeding reef rounds because I'm afraid they'll come right back. I'll post before and after pictures later today.
First, I got a few pieces of live rock covered in gha from an 8 year old reef that had been neglected and was being broken down. I then used elegant corals method 3 weeks in a row. I pretty much followed it to a T, except that I vacuumed my entire accessible sand bed (which is about 30% anyway since I have so much rock). Half way through the second week, the rocks were basically clean and the dinos were contained to just sand. As per the elegant coral method, I vacuumed the sand daily, but they were back by the end of the next day, although much less. I then went immediately into Dr. Tims method. This helped significantly. They still show up in the sand bed, but I maybe have to vacuum once every 2 weeks. I'm still not doing water changes or feeding reef rounds because I'm afraid they'll come right back. I'll post before and after pictures later today.
Man, what a bummer... Been battling small cell amphidinium since I set my tank up about 14 months ago. My last attempt was to remove about 90% of the sand and dose silicates. This seemed to be working GREAT. It killed a few of my corals which was a bummer, but after about 2.5 months it took a lot of hunting to find a stray dinoflagellate under the scope. Things had been stable, everything was looking happy, I figured I could re-add my washed, dried, and stored sand and everything would be okay.
It took 3 days for dinos to return.
I don't even know what to do at this point. Really, REALLY disappointing.
It took 3 days for dinos to return.
I don't even know what to do at this point. Really, REALLY disappointing.
Kyle T.
Community Member
I’ve just identified and confirmed a large cell amphindinium Dino outbreak in my tank after dropping nutrients to combat Ulva which is still holding on. I have 1ppm nitrate and 0ppm phosphates and want to raise them for the Dino, but have been struggling to raise it with the Ulva having become so good at uptaking the nutrients. What would a solid course of action be in this kind of situation? I do have the film algae growing on the glass, albeit slowly. Originally had a refugium with Chaeto, but given the Ulva in the display was choking out the chaeto, I moved the bits of Ulva I could to the fuge. Should I take down the refugium completely and focus on Dinos? Dose vibrant or something similar for the Ulva and then focus on Dino’s?
Kyle T.
Community Member
That’s the best match I have to go off of, they are definitely Dinos. There is some red filaments in there as well, but the Dinos were moving like a roomba. Outside of the large filaments, and Dino, there were copepods and only a few diatom cells. No signs of cyano.
Kyle T.
Community Member
With the light being bad on this microscope I couldn’t get a good photo at a higher magnification, but this is the initial look I had before magnifying more and seeing the individual “roombas” moving about.
Wanted to update on my battle with large cell amphidinium dinos. Battled it for 2 months. After I had killed ostreopsis, they took over the tank and nothing worked. Siphoning the sand and using 10 micron filter was ineffective as was raising nutrients. I tried dosing silicates but wasn't consistent and never saw a diatom bloom.
Honestly, I kind of stopped caring about it after the futility of battling it, but I did keep track of the changes I made.
Pretty amazing. I'd totally consider it if you guys are having similar issues.
Honestly, I kind of stopped caring about it after the futility of battling it, but I did keep track of the changes I made.
- Removed most of the sand
- Blew any dinos off rocks so if they are suspended even for a little bit, the UV would take care of it
- Raised tank temperature to ~80F
- Added live sand and wonder mud from IPSF.
Pretty amazing. I'd totally consider it if you guys are having similar issues.
attiland
2500 Club Member
My narcissus snails didn’t survive the dinos. I have a mix of small and large cell Amphidinium
I've had dinos for about 8 months and want to try and get rid of them once and for all.
My nitrate is at 10 and po4 at 0.03. This seems to have kept them under control but I cant quite shift them.
The sand is dusty brown in the shaded areas, and I get patches of brown on the glass which I presume is also dinos.
At night they seem to disappear.
I believe they are large cell amphidinium. Is this correct?
My nitrate is at 10 and po4 at 0.03. This seems to have kept them under control but I cant quite shift them.
The sand is dusty brown in the shaded areas, and I get patches of brown on the glass which I presume is also dinos.
At night they seem to disappear.
I believe they are large cell amphidinium. Is this correct?
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attiland
2500 Club Member
I've had dinos for about 8 months and want to try and get rid of them once and for all.
My nitrate is at 10 and po4 at 0.03. This seems to have kept them under control but I cant quite shift them.
The sand is dusty brown in the shaded areas, and I get patches of brown on the glass which I presume is also dinos.
At night they seem to disappear.
I believe they are large cell amphidinium. Is this correct?
I have the same and IDd as large cell amphidinium but I am not an ID person. On the glass you may have different kind I have both large and small cell in the mix. Large cell ones rarely show on the samples in my tank on the glass especially since the uv is on 24/7.
Abhishek
2500 Club Member
Can you order just live sand and IPSF wonder mud alone and not combine with any other things ? Always could find only combo packs with 9 other things.
Like did you just order this pack ? https://ipsf.com/livesand.html
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I ordered the pack that you linked below. I would guess the wonder mud probably made the most difference since it spreads quite easily in flow.
ReefPig
Active Member
Hello Dino gods,
I have large cell amphidinium, which came about after I cleared a different (not ID’d) strain I’d dinos, but it was the more common snotty type which cleared with UV within a week.
NO3 8-12
PO4 0.05 - 0.075
I initially visually ID’d it as cyano, due to its hugging behaviour, so I treated with Chemiclean, which did make 99% of them disappear, at least until a couple of days after treatment.
A cheap microscope then confirmed amphidinium, which as they appeared large and seemingly are non-toxic, I am assuming are large cell.
My battle is now nearing the six month mark, so I decided to go with the sledgehammer approach, in the form of the following schedule.
I have 10 acros, a few montis and two acans, where only the acans are unhappy with the treatment, but they mostly bounce back each morning.
I run bare bottom, the dinos are on the rock only.
I now only have three small visible patches of them left, my plan for today is to remove the rock, corals and all, and manually scrub the patches with H2O2, before washing off and returning.
Unless the corals are at deaths door, I will push to the maximum of 10 doses of DinoX.
Any input would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
Dave
I have large cell amphidinium, which came about after I cleared a different (not ID’d) strain I’d dinos, but it was the more common snotty type which cleared with UV within a week.
NO3 8-12
PO4 0.05 - 0.075
I initially visually ID’d it as cyano, due to its hugging behaviour, so I treated with Chemiclean, which did make 99% of them disappear, at least until a couple of days after treatment.
A cheap microscope then confirmed amphidinium, which as they appeared large and seemingly are non-toxic, I am assuming are large cell.
My battle is now nearing the six month mark, so I decided to go with the sledgehammer approach, in the form of the following schedule.
- Stop trace element dosing of Triton (liquid 1, which also contains Mg)
- No water changes for a while (I use NSW)
- Remove carbon, no GFO and no carbon dosing
- UV on, at effective flow rate for algae, it’s a European brand called Troptronic which is very powerful
- Blue Lights only
- Deep clean, scrub away all visible dinos and keep them in the water column as much as possible during the day
- Daily micro bubbling for an hour after any cleaning
- Heavy dose of Microbacter 7 each morning with UV off for subsequent couple of hours, then back on
- Bi-daily half dose of vibrant
- Dose nutrients and keep them at a moderate range
- Afternoon, 1ml of H2O2 per 10 gallons
- Light going down, 1ml of H2O2 per 10 gallons
- One hour after lights out, DinoX, every other day
I have 10 acros, a few montis and two acans, where only the acans are unhappy with the treatment, but they mostly bounce back each morning.
I run bare bottom, the dinos are on the rock only.
I now only have three small visible patches of them left, my plan for today is to remove the rock, corals and all, and manually scrub the patches with H2O2, before washing off and returning.
Unless the corals are at deaths door, I will push to the maximum of 10 doses of DinoX.
Any input would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
Dave
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