Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

[taricha]

I'm not sure if any of this has merit but it did work very well. At the very least it bought me enough time to build up a lot of biodeversity that I hadn't seen since the beginning of the outbreak. My cheato is growing again and I have snails breeding all over the place.

Thanks for this report. A lot of this is stuff that I would try, a few things are not. But the most important thing here is where you ended up. A system with dramatically higher benthic biodiversity, and fast growing healthy things.
Any interventions that don't get us there are going to end in relapse and at best half- and temporary- success.
Very well done.

 

[JerseyReefer]

I’ve been dosing SpongeExcel for a week now. 90 gallon system and I’m up to 30 drops per day. Still no registered silicate on my Salifert test. Also, I noticed some diatoms 2 days ago but now they seem to be gone. Only Amphi dinos. Anyone having success with growing diatoms?

 

[dwest]

I’ve been dosing SpongeExcel for a week now. 90 gallon system and I’m up to 30 drops per day. Still no registered silicate on my Salifert test. Also, I noticed some diatoms 2 days ago but now they seem to be gone. Only Amphi dinos. Anyone having success with growing diatoms?

I grew diatoms with much less sponge excel, but my tank was an anomaly. I believe if you go back and read this thread a little more you would find several aquarists with similar results as you. Also, I believe @taricha found that the Hanna checker was good but the salifert kit was not for the detection of silicates. (See post #1 under treatment methods)

 

[taricha]

I’ve been dosing SpongeExcel for a week now. 90 gallon system and I’m up to 30 drops per day. Still no registered silicate on my Salifert test. Also, I noticed some diatoms 2 days ago but now they seem to be gone. Only Amphi dinos. Anyone having success with growing diatoms?

You are about the 10th person I'd say to note that salifert silica kit does not detect any. I found the same thing. There is no problem with spongExcel, a Hanna silica meter detects it just fine. As for diatoms, if the tank is very very low in Trace elements already as a result of the dino bloom, then diatoms will make a small dusting appearance and then plateau. This happened with me as well. But this is not bad news. If you keep the silica level elevated up to in the range of the Nitrogen, then as Trace elements become available, diatoms will manage to compete for it and slowly the Dinos will fade.

 

[Idoc]

You are about the 10th person I'd say to note that salifert silica kit does not detect any. I found the same thing. There is no problem with spongExcel, a Hanna silica meter detects it just fine. As for diatoms, if the tank is very very low in Trace elements already as a result of the dino bloom, then diatoms will make a small dusting appearance and then plateau. This happened with me as well. But this is not bad news. If you keep the silica level elevated up to in the range of the Nitrogen, then as Trace elements become available, diatoms will manage to compete for it and slowly the Dinos will fade.

Do you recommend performing a water change to introduce more of the trace elements?

I'm fighting amphidinium dinos (and now some ostreopsis showing up in larger numbers on my microscope slides). I've made good advances with elevating NO3 to between 5-10ppm and Phosphate to around 0.07-0.10 ppm with dosing, also introduced many different pod species, and then started dosing SpongExcel (25 drops a day in a system with total of around 90-100g).

I had a great GHA outbreak on the back wall of my tank, but that has slowly diminished...snails are loving it, but it isn't growing back as fast either. I was kind of wondering if I needed to do a water change in order to introduce more trace elements since I've also seen a reduction in the GHA growth even though my N & P are present!

 

[dwest]

Do you recommend performing a water change to introduce more of the trace elements?

I'm fighting amphidinium dinos (and now some ostreopsis showing up in larger numbers on my microscope slides). I've made good advances with elevating NO3 to between 5-10ppm and Phosphate to around 0.07-0.10 ppm with dosing, also introduced many different pod species, and then started dosing SpongExcel (25 drops a day in a system with total of around 90-100g).

I had a great GHA outbreak on the back wall of my tank, but that has slowly diminished...snails are loving it, but it isn't growing back as fast either. I was kind of wondering if I needed to do a water change in order to introduce more trace elements since I've also seen a reduction in the GHA growth even though my N & P are present!

GHA growth is good. Snails alive and eating is even better. It didn’t matter to my amphidinium if I did water changes or not. I ended up doing them consistently for stability.

 

[JerseyReefer]

You are about the 10th person I'd say to note that salifert silica kit does not detect any. I found the same thing. There is no problem with spongExcel, a Hanna silica meter detects it just fine. As for diatoms, if the tank is very very low in Trace elements already as a result of the dino bloom, then diatoms will make a small dusting appearance and then plateau. This happened with me as well. But this is not bad news. If you keep the silica level elevated up to in the range of the Nitrogen, then as Trace elements become available, diatoms will manage to compete for it and slowly the Dinos will fade.

Thanks for the guidance (and pep talk). I’ll keep dosing SE consistently. I also shut my skimmer off to increase nutrients in the tank. I’ll continue monitoring and see how this progresses.

I’ll post a review on BRS for the Salifert kit. Waste of money.

 

[taricha]

Do you recommend performing a water change to introduce more of the trace elements?


I had a great GHA outbreak on the back wall of my tank, but that has slowly diminished...snails are loving it, but it isn't growing back as fast either. I was kind of wondering if I needed to do a water change in order to introduce more trace elements since I've also seen a reduction in the GHA growth even though my N & P are present!

If green algae and diatoms growth has been stalled for a couple weeks, then yes I would lean toward doing a water change or two, and let green algae and diatoms grow. Then later when you have more of both of those, then you can cut off the trace elements and apply pressure then. It ought to more quickly shift the balance away from the Dinos. Throughout the whole process, keep N, P, Si elevated.

 

[Idoc]

If green algae and diatoms growth has been stalled for a couple weeks, then yes I would lean toward doing a water change or two, and let green algae and diatoms grow. Then later when you have more of both of those, then you can cut off the trace elements and apply pressure then. It ought to more quickly shift the balance away from the Dinos. Throughout the whole process, keep N, P, Si elevated.

I don't currently have a silica test kit. I've just been dosing 25 drops of spongexcel per evening. So, I don't know my levels of it right now. Is there any problems with too much silica dosing?

 

[JerseyReefer]

Thanks for the guidance (and pep talk). I’ll keep dosing SE consistently. I also shut my skimmer off to increase nutrients in the tank. I’ll continue monitoring and see how this progresses.

I’ll post a review on BRS for the Salifert kit. Waste of money.

I noticed the sand was worse today and the glass was prematurely dirty, so I took a new sample from the sand. Here’s a pic. Looks like the diatoms are starting to bloom.

 

[taricha]

I don't currently have a silica test kit. I've just been dosing 25 drops of spongexcel per evening. So, I don't know my levels of it right now. Is there any problems with too much silica dosing?

Nope. I put a few tenths of a ppm up to 0.5pm daily for months. No negative side effects. Hit total SiO2 of 2ppm for extended time. No downsides I noticed.

 

[taricha]

I noticed the sand was worse today and the glass was prematurely dirty, so I took a new sample from the sand. Here’s a pic. Looks like the diatoms are starting to bloom.

That's a great microcosm of a shifting benthic community.
Stands of cyano at the bottom covered in epiphytic diatoms, surrounded by dinos.
As silica increases, my guess is cyano will disappear first. It seems to be strongly excluded by silica additions.

 

[linkedsilas]

Any advice???? Still having major problems after months. I upped my nitrates, maybe they are too high but usually hang around 40-60, my phosphate was a bit over 1. I have a UV running, I havent done a water change in over a month and a half and im trying to up the silicates. Anything more I can do ??? My coral are dying and its only specific ones such as montipora and candy canes. Acans have never been happier

 

[taricha]

Never seen any good reason to take nutrients that high.
Tank shots of problem areas, and microscope pics?

 

[dwest]

Any advice???? Still having major problems after months. I upped my nitrates, maybe they are too high but usually hang around 40-60, my phosphate was a bit over 1. I have a UV running, I havent done a water change in over a month and a half and im trying to up the silicates. Anything more I can do ??? My coral are dying and its only specific ones such as montipora and candy canes. Acans have never been happier

Be sure to run GAC to help remove toxins and replace weekly for now. Have you ID’d the type? Sorry if you told us already...If you have amphidinium, UV likely won’t help. But if not, UV should if it’s large enough (1 watt per every 3 gallons), plumbed from DT back to DT, with about 1-3 tank volumes per hour going through it.

 

[JerseyReefer]

That's a great microcosm of a shifting benthic community.
Stands of cyano at the bottom covered in epiphytic diatoms, surrounded by dinos.
As silica increases, my guess is cyano will disappear first. It seems to be strongly excluded by silica additions.

Still monitoring. Dinos are multiplying but seeing clumps of diatoms and others. Dinos still are the biggest population by far.

What are these things??? They look like little crabs. A couple were dancing like crazy for a bit.

 

[Manose]

No need to go dirty and trade one pest for another. H2O2 and UVC Will break most dino in 72h. Had Amphidinum and this method worked out fine. 14 ml 3% h2o2 /100 l x3 a day with 4 h between doses and UVC 24/7.

14ml per 26gal every 4 hours 3x a day seems like a lot ofH202.

 

[taricha]

Still monitoring. Dinos are multiplying but seeing clumps of diatoms and others. Dinos still are the biggest population by far.

What are these things??? They look like little crabs. A couple were dancing like crazy for a bit.

Check out halacaridae. See if that's what they look like.

 

[JerseyReefer]

Check out halacaridae. See if that's what they look like.

Looks like it. Creepy.

 

[linkedsilas]

Be sure to run GAC to help remove toxins and replace weekly for now. Have you ID’d the type? Sorry if you told us already...If you have amphidinium, UV likely won’t help. But if not, UV should if it’s large enough (1 watt per every 3 gallons), plumbed from DT back to DT, with about 1-3 tank volumes per hour going through it.

yes its amph, figure UV cant hurt