Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods
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When I pulled the sand, I was already running UV from and back to the tank. (200-300 gph water through a 57 watt aqua UV on a 180 gallon display). Also, I had previously dosed to get my nitrates and phosphates measurable (about 10 ppm nitrates and 0.10 phosphates). I had previously dosed silicates but had stopped long before the sand was pulled. I would say within a few days, things started turning for the better. Good luck. It’s a no brainer to try IMO. You can always add some back later. But I haven’t yet.
Jman76
Keeper of Greens
Cool thanks. I havent started silica yet or UV, but daily dose P. N seems pretty stable now at 10, but the P drops daily still. The UV seems like a tough one, its just a 20 gal with HOB. The sands a mess, I cant see keeping it
For that size tank I would take a hard look at one of the green machine UV’s. Good luck.
AbjectMaelstroM
Valuable Member
Well, after about a month of dosing Si, hovering around 1.5ppm didn't see a lot of diatoms. Over last week I've been dosing to 2.0ppm and now I have a ton of diatoms on the glass and some frag plugs.
Unfortunately, sandbed is still Dino territory with little to no diatoms under the scope.
Will see how things progress now that I'm dosing MB7.
Next on the list is adding tisbe pods...or is that not a good idea with LC?
Unfortunately, sandbed is still Dino territory with little to no diatoms under the scope.
Will see how things progress now that I'm dosing MB7.
Next on the list is adding tisbe pods...or is that not a good idea with LC?
I don't think it would hurt. You could also look at adding some amphipods as well for some larger pod diversity.Well, after about a month of dosing Si, hovering around 1.5ppm didn't see a lot of diatoms. Over last week I've been dosing to 2.0ppm and now I have a ton of diatoms on the glass and some frag plugs.
Unfortunately, sandbed is still Dino territory with little to no diatoms under the scope.
Will see how things progress now that I'm dosing MB7.
Next on the list is adding tisbe pods...or is that not a good idea with LC?
When I was dosing Si, I not only created a diatom bloom but a chrysophytes bloom. Nothing eats it unfortunately and needed to combat via blackout and fluconazole. Didn’t work for me.
Would a diamond goby help clear up the sand bed?
Would a diamond goby help clear up the sand bed?
Me again. We're a little over a week after this treatment. I'm continuing to dose some PO4 but it is requiring less now to stay at a steady 0.02 - 0.04 range (I'm not being super precise with this so it fluctuates). I have a bit of silicate solution I'm dosing but very minimally and not bothering to test concentrations so not really worth taking into the equation imo. Feedings and water changes are the same as during the dino/cyano blooms experienced prior to chemiclean/blackout/PO4 dosing treatment.
I checked the sandbed again under the microscope and found very, very little. Almost no cyano now, a couple of dino cells but I could count them on one hand for the entire slide. I am seeing a few more diatoms, three pronged ones (Mercedes symbol) in there that either I didn't see before or maybe they were just obscured by other gunk. Either way not a ton of these either.
All in all I'm very satisfied with the direction everything is going right now. Will continue to monitor sandbed samples via the microscope and report back on findings.
I thought this was worth sharing. I got a fighting conch about a month ago with hopes he would chow down on diatoms and incidentally dinos and I captured just that today. I had not seen him so clearly working on the sand bed, maybe because I hadn’t been cleaning the glass and he preferred that. His mouth appendage was moving side to side like a weed wacker clearing the bed. Hopefully he doesn’t have any side effects of eating so much of the dinos. Time will tell I guess.
AbjectMaelstroM
Valuable Member
Has anyone dosed MB7 and amphidinium actually get worse? Because over the last week when I stated dosing it, sand looks worse and I'm straying to get brown dusting on rocks which have been clear the entire time I've been fighting these buggers....
I haven't noticed that. I have been dosing probably 20-30ml a day in my 80 gallons of water and dino is steady/receeding right now. I think I finally made it over the hump where I haven't dosed nitrate or phosphate in over a week and actually did a water change and nutrients are still high. The dinos just aren't utilizing the nutrients as fast anymore. Fingers crossed I am over the hump, but I would say the dinos increasing is because of other things.
AbjectMaelstroM
Valuable Member
How long have you been dosing at that rate? I've got a 120 with a 40b sump, roughly 118 gallons actual total volume and have been dosing at the 5ml/25g rate (25ml daily) for a week now.
Interested in what's causing the apparent increase as nothing else has changed in the last almost 2 months. Wondering if some of the nerite snails are dying....hard to tell with them face down on the sand.
For quite a while. I took a break while dosing Waste Away for a little over a week. I have gone through three 500ml bottles so about 50 days or so. Starting my fourth now and I plan to keep up the dosing. I did add some aquacultured rock from Gulf Live Rock about 25 days ago. I wonder if that is what is helping me in the fight. I will say the dinos have been slower to come back after I did also try the Dr Tim’s Dino method with a blackout. I think I might do that again soon and see if I can beat them for good.
I have finally started to see real progress and I kind of can’t believe it. The photo above was one week ago. Three days after an 8 gal water change (about 10%). Below is today, both photos from the same time of day, only white LEDs. I have not touched the sand bed at all since the water change. I have not looked under the microscope to see what is in the brown spots that remain but nonetheless I think I am heading in the right direction!I thought this was worth sharing. I got a fighting conch about a month ago with hopes he would chow down on diatoms and incidentally dinos and I captured just that today. I had not seen him so clearly working on the sand bed, maybe because I hadn’t been cleaning the glass and he preferred that. His mouth appendage was moving side to side like a weed wacker clearing the bed. Hopefully he doesn’t have any side effects of eating so much of the dinos. Time will tell I guess.
Things I have done:
- dosed a lot of MicroBacter7, about 20-30mls a day
- added pods and dosed phytoplankton
- raised nitrate to about 8ppm
- raised phosphate to over .2, overshot here letting it come back to .15
- added 17lbs of aquacultured rock from Gulf Live Rock
- Dr Tim’s Dino method, with Re-Fresh, 3 day blackout and Waste away for a week
big recession seemed to start to happen after:
-stopped silica dosing and 3 day blackout, dr Tim’s method (1/10-1/15)
-8gal water change on 1/15 brought a strong resurgence (see pic from 1/18) and then the fighting conch began actually aggressively cleaning the sand and overall recession started
I think the bacteria dosing and raising nutrients got me into a position where the dr Tim’s method knocked dinos back and competition is stepping up. I am cautiously optimistic!
Me again. Closing in on three weeks post-treatment and so far so good. My phos is holding decent enough in the 0.04-0.06 range with a little help from sodium phosphate dosing and some live phyto dosing as well. I'm continuing to dose silicates but again I'm doing this blindly so I don't really have a measurement of the values.
I'm starting to see some brown patches in the sand again, nothing too extreme. I checked under the microscope and both diatom and amphinidium concentrations have increased (both still rather low) however I am seeing a much larger increase in the diatom population while only a small increase in the amphinidium concentration.
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
STXReefer
New Member
Hello fellow reefers tagging along on this amphidinium journey. I started mine mid December with what I thought was just diatoms but wouldn’t seem to go away. I bought a scope in January and have confirmed that I have SC. I’ve been trying to fight them for a month by keeping nutrients elevated but they just seem to stay the same/bounce back when I vacuum the sand through a 5 micron sock. Really don’t want to remove my sand bed but I’m thinking that might be the best option I have a bunch of ceriths and a wheeler’s goby that would be upset about it. I have a healthy pod population and corraline algae on the glass. I’ve been dosing MB7 and photo for 6 weeks run a green killing machine but it doesn’t seem to make a dent and been dosing hydrogen peroxide for a week.
The three pronged Mercedes guys are actually sponge spicules, also good and due to silicate dosing.
Reeferdeluxe
Community Member
11 days in no dinos! Dosed Sunday 300 ml of H2o2 153 gallons of water in tank. and then Monday morning and night the same stirred the sandbed Tuesday morning and dosed both morning and night. Wednesday morning did the same and dosed again Wednesday night. All the while no lights and blowing everything off every evening. Also H2o2 knocked out the bulk of my gha. All the dosing has had consequences though killed a bunch of snails and all my cleaner and 1 fire shrimp. Slowly ramping up lights coral seems to be unaffected. Contemplating a water change. Just don't want it to come back.
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