Common threads among tanks that have had dinoflagellates.

[saltyhog]

Wanted to post a poll for those of us who have suffered with dinoflagellates to see what common threads there might be among us. Choose all the circumstances that pertain to your dino experience. This is strictly for curiosity. I don't believe there is a single "cause" for dinos but it would be interesting to see what common denominators there are. Post if you can think of other factors to add to the poll.

 

[blaxsun]

Can we have another option? "No dinos - must live vicariously through all of you".

 

[JoJosReef]

Had 3 dino outbreaks in my Evo that was started with Caribsea LifeRock and live sand. Zero outbreaks in my IM 10g that started and ended with TBS gulf rock and sand. Both tanks used strictly LEDs. When I added TBS rock/sand to the Evo, I got no more dinos again.

Current tank has some dinos but not an outbreak (yet). That tank was started with 2/3rd dried out old school Fiji and Marshall island reef rocks and 1/3rd the TBS rocks from my 10g. The sand was dry sand, but seeded with Fiji Mud. That tank struggles to keep nitrates above zero.

I think dinos are a problem in tanks with dry rock/sand or tanks that have sustained nutrient control issues. Put me in the biodiversity camp.

 

[JoJosReef]

Can we have another option? "No dinos - must live vicariously through all of you".

 

[bishoptf]

Wanted to post a poll for those of us who have suffered with dinoflagellates to see what common threads there might be among us. Choose all the circumstances that pertain to your dino experience. This is strictly for curiosity. I don't believe there is a single "cause" for dinos but it would be interesting to see what common denominators there are. Post if you can think of other factors to add to the poll.

Eh I think its way more complicated, I really would like to figure out the triggers and what tanks that do not or ever had it the differences. We know low nutrients plays a part but I think it's a lot more complicated that just nutrients. I do think its at the bacteria level but until we can figure out which strains help vs hurt I think we are just throwing stuff against the wall. I would have to search for the threads but I know everyone likes to say in the past it wasn't as common but pretty sure I have seen this conversation with @taricha and he found that it's been around then and now and its not really more prevalent than in the past. Everyone likes to think that it is due to dry rock etc but we also are better at identifying it now vs the past etc...Everyone likes to say its diversity which is somewhat correct but its the right diversity and that is the issue, no one really knows what that is....Really wish we could figure it out and make it easier to treat or not get them in the first place...

I started a new tank and let my dry rock go in a tupperware bin with inverts and all kinds of stuff for 7 months before moving it to tank, ensured that my nitrate and phosphate were always kept high (above 10ppm for nitrate and po4 above .1) and I have some showing up on my rockwork, probably cross contamination from my other tank that had them for ages but they still showed up with elevated nutrients. My other tank had high diversity based on edna testing yet still had lots of ostreo in the water column, still do but they do not bother most things any longer but when the lights get strong I can still see them collect on my Halmedia, never really extinguished but still doing there thing.

So for me we know low nutrients can help kick things of and sometimes Chemiclean treatments can do it also. For me and my new tank, it appeared to be when I cranked up the lights, I just don't think we really fully understand what are the real causes, if we did we would be better able to avoid them...

Hopefully one day in the near future someone can really figure out whats causing it and how we can avoid them altogether.

Oh one more comment, you should add Live Sand/Mud to the equation, at least for me I used live gulf sand/mud to seed my dry rock vs live rock, just as much if not more bacteria in live sand vs rock but at least in my case it didnt matter, lol.

 

[thedon986]

I am two months into a new setup with Tampa bay saltwater rock and sand. I really expected to not even have to think about dinos but I have had two small outbreaks that have receded. Amphidinium first, three small sand dollar size patches and then ostreopsis on my macroalgae, which was mostly caulerpa and growing like crazy then stripped what I am guessing were trace elements and they hit a wall. I have been testing nitrate and phosphate every two days and dosing to keep above 5 and .1 respectively. Once the macros ran out of gas they started to decay on their tips and ostreopsis appeared but only on the macros, nowhere else. Then caulerpa tried to nuke my tank so I removed all of it. There is still other macros and some hair algae so I dosed some trace elements and they are taking off again. Ostreopsis nowhere to be seen now. I think in my case there was an excess of die off that happened and that is when dino attempted to swoop in but couldn’t hold ground? My thoughts on it anyways. So many ways dinos can tear their ugly heads it seems.

 

[a.t.t.r]

Should add used vibrant or algae fix to the list