Dino ID

[ReefSapper]

I recently got dino's and am beginning to game plan for my fight. I bought myself a microscope and have attached a short video of what i am seeing. To be honest i have read so many different things and am just looking for an ID and maybe some basic tips in fighting this specific type. I appreciate any help, thank in advance guys and gals.

 

[Idoc]

I recently got dino's and am beginning to game plan for my fight. I bought myself a microscope and have attached a short video of what i am seeing. To be honest i have read so many different things and am just looking for an ID and maybe some basic tips in fighting this specific type. I appreciate any help, thank in advance guys and gals.

I think they are small cell amphidinium dinos, but there's a lot going on in that video.

Can you get some pics and video right on the outside of a "clump" of debri with less dinos in the view... this allows easier viewing and their unhindered movements.

 

[taricha]

Large Cell amphidinium, mostly

 

[ReefSapper]

I appreciate the responses, I can certainly try to take some less chaotic images when i get home tonight. In the interim i will start looking up treatment for those mentioned above.

 

[Idoc]

I appreciate the responses, I can certainly try to take some less chaotic images when i get home tonight. In the interim i will start looking up treatment for those mentioned above.

It's definitely a long, tedious journey with amphidinium dinos. I battled the small cell amphidinium dinos for over a year...but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I rarely see any signs of them in my tank now.

Many will tell you blackouts work...not so much with this type of dino. It seems to take over 9-10 days blackout to really have an impact...which seems to really cause problems with corals in your system. I have used blackouts on smaller quarantine tanks that had dinos, but just to get them under control. I tend to believe stabilizing nutrients at a higher level (No3 around 10-20ppm, Po4 around 0.1-0.2ppm) seemed to help the most...but be ready for cyano to show up! I actually did a treatment called the Elegant Corals Dino/Cyano treatment that actually worked the best to get them to a manageable level. This treatment is very detailed and must be followed very closely for 7 straight days...but it worked on my system. Then after this, I maintained high nutrients in my system for many months and only recently starting bringing them slowly down after a year...mainly LPS corals and they love the dirty parameters!

I've seen some really good news and progress of others who are now regularly dosing phytoplankton! You might want to look into this.

 

[ReefSapper]

Thanks @Idoc, i am prepared for the fight and appreciate the advice. I tried a 3 day blackout while i was waiting for the microscope to arrive and it did nothing. My biggest challenge now will be nutrients, not only did the dino's show up but last week i had an ich breakout so all fish are out of the system for the next 60ish days. I quarantined all fish but it still found its way in, i am sure on a piece of coral as i dont qt my coral. Skimmer is shut off and i am going to feed reef roids more often in an attempt to raise the nutrients. Strange thing is my nutrients were not zeroed out, i was running steady at 10ppm nitrate and .03 phos when this happened.

 

[saltyhog]

Thanks @Idoc, i am prepared for the fight and appreciate the advice. I tried a 3 day blackout while i was waiting for the microscope to arrive and it did nothing. My biggest challenge now will be nutrients, not only did the dino's show up but last week i had an ich breakout so all fish are out of the system for the next 60ish days. I quarantined all fish but it still found its way in, i am sure on a piece of coral as i dont qt my coral. Skimmer is shut off and i am going to feed reef roids more often in an attempt to raise the nutrients. Strange thing is my nutrients were not zeroed out, i was running steady at 10ppm nitrate and .03 phos when this happened.

With the accuracy range of our hobby tests for PO4 that 0.03 could have been dangerously close to zero and the lack of balance between PO4 and NO3 could have had a role in the dinos surging. I try keep my PO4 around 0.06 minimum when I'm free of dinos for that reason. Sometimes they bloom without low nutrients. IMO low nutrients are not the "cause" of dinos they just reduce competition for dinos which helps them dominate the tank.

Sorry to hear about the ich. That's a bummer!