Are dinos toxic to coral?

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Could it be cyano? I took some reddish slime off the glass.
 

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How do you thin them out? I took tweezers a while back and crushed a bunch, but the die off after caused a nitrate spike and algae outbreak.

Are you sure that was what caused it though? Could it had been something else? I would not think killing some vermetid snails could cause that. It would take a massive amount.
 

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Po4 has been 0 for about a month. I took out the gfo and have been feeding more and dosing neonitro and neophos slowly. Today I put in new carbon. I think you’re right about the low nutrients. I hope it’s not dinos because those are hard to treat. I’ll just keep an eye on it, remove what I see and not do anything drastic.
For po4 yo could dose KH2PO4 That cost you about £3-4 on e-bay. Doing that you allow your corals be happy and all competitive organism able to compete with your dinos. Check the Dino treads for exact dosage. Without a microscope you can’t be sure what are you dealing with so I suggest get one cheap one with 40-100x magnification
 
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Are you sure that was what caused it though? Could it had been something else? I would not think killing some vermetid snails could cause that. It would take a massive amount.
Oh that happened a while ago. I know it’s not the cause of the problem now. My guess is that low nutrients is my problem and that raising them will slowly but surely solve the problem.
 
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Well, my nitrates are up to 5ppm after dosing and feeding more. The corals seem a little better. Po4 is still 0.00ppm. I am going to dose Neonitro and Neophos to slowly get things back to normal. I have a brown film on the aquarium glass that I remove daily. On the bottle of Neophos, it says that if numbers don’t improve, this could be because the tank is “carbon-limited”. What does this mean?
 

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I’m a fan of Vibrant for Dino’s and vermetid. It will make short work of both of them. Caveat is to go half the dosage so you don’t shock coral from nutrient reduction. For Dino’s, I used .5 (1/2) ML per 10 gallons for 6 days. I stopped adding aminos and feeding corals and I watched my nutrient levels daily to make sure they didn’t bottom out. I fed the fish small pellet food only.

I starved out the Dino’s and as a side benefit.... vermetid. Vibrant makes your water crystal clean. I dropped down to 1ml of Vibrant every two weeks after Dino’s for maintenance and my Vermetids withered away. Vermetid need a constant supply of nutrients to survive.
 
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Well, I finally got to 0.04 for PO4. NO3 is about 8ppm. Even though the nutrients are better, my zoas are still closed, and other corals aren’t growing even though they look ok and are feeding. Looks like I have a small outbreak of cyano, which I’m removing as I see it. Should I just leave things alone and wait for the corals to recover? I have had zero luck with zoas overall, and they’re supposed to be the easiest coral to grow. They do well for a while then they die off. So frustrating. I know things change slowly I’m a reef tank, so do you all think just waiting is the way to go?
 

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I would try to get a sample of the brown stuff under a microscope and post a video/picture at 400X if possible. Not all dinos are toxic. Amphidinium in particular is non toxic. Ostreopsis on the other hand is very toxic. Wiped out every SPS I had in my tank.

Any other changes other than the nutrient swings? Have the zoas been moved? Any change in flow? Temp swings? New introductions (inverts or fish)? Look very close for nudibranchs or zoa spiders. Both are sometimes difficult to see. Did anything come off of them when you dipped them?
 
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I would try to get a sample of the brown stuff under a microscope and post a video/picture at 400X if possible. Not all dinos are toxic. Amphidinium in particular is non toxic. Ostreopsis on the other hand is very toxic. Wiped out every SPS I had in my tank.

Any other changes other than the nutrient swings? Have the zoas been moved? Any change in flow? Temp swings? New introductions (inverts or fish)? Look very close for nudibranchs or zoa spiders. Both are sometimes difficult to see. Did anything come off of them when you dipped them?
I had a small salinity drop because my AWC bucket ran dry and the ato dropped rodi water instead. But the problem was before that. I haven’t moved them, no major temp swings, no new livestock. When I dipped the biggest colony, the only thing that came off was a few of those tiny starfish, the ones with red and white striped legs. I’m pretty sure they’re good cuc’s.
 

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On your original question though. Dinoflagellates do not so much cause what I am seeing in those pictures. Sure if a big hunk of slime gets on a coral it will close up but they in themselves do not cause what I am seeing in those pictures, something else is wrong.
Mine looks like this and it’s Dino. There are a few different types. Going to my LFS Saturday to see what kind it is and what I can do to fix it
 
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