Dino identification help?

GalaxyBenny · Apr 28, 2022

Hey all-

Curious to get your expert opinion on the identification of what's in my tank (is it dinos or?). I've got a relatively new coral QT tank (~2-3 months old) started with dry rock (as I'm overall new to the hobby). I did use some bottled bacteria during the cycle to try to kickstart the beneficial bacteria, realizing it's no where near as good as aged rock. Anyway, a few weeks ago I was getting some GHA and then I started seeing bubbles on the ends of some of the strands. This has been most noticeable on my plastic frag rack itself, NOT on the rock or sand in the tank, for whatever that's worth. I didn't think much of it because the tank had ran low on top off water one day and the pump threw a bunch of bubbles into the tank (ATO, I know, I know). I sucked up what algae I could and then blew off the bubbles. Well, it came back. And it's been hanging around. So today I grabbed a sample and looked at it under the microscope at work as I've heard that's the only real way to know what it is you're fighting. From my searching online and reading the various posts here on R2R, I "think" there is a chance they're the Ostreopsis (which is also maybe the most typical?). But I took some pictures so I thought I'd see if you agree. I also don't know what a diatom looks like...so again, that's why I'm asking.

As I side note, I'll just say it's sort of gross to look at your tank water/algae under a microscope. There is a lot of life going on in there. Nematodes etc. Blech.

Anyway, let me know what you think. I've got the UV going in the evenings and have prepared myself for a 3 day blackout and some beneficial bacteria, but right now my nitrate/phosphate is still super low (probably the reason they came in the first place), so I'm feeding the tank heavily to try to get those back on the charts before I dose any bacteria and/or do the blackout.

Cheers!

SlugSnorter · Apr 28, 2022

Varig said:
Hey all-

Curious to get your expert opinion on the identification of what's in my tank (is it dinos or?). I've got a relatively new coral QT tank (~2-3 months old) started with dry rock (as I'm overall new to the hobby). I did use some bottled bacteria during the cycle to try to kickstart the beneficial bacteria, realizing it's no where near as good as aged rock. Anyway, a few weeks ago I was getting some GHA and then I started seeing bubbles on the ends of some of the strands. This has been most noticeable on my plastic frag rack itself, NOT on the rock or sand in the tank, for whatever that's worth. I didn't think much of it because the tank had ran low on top off water one day and the pump threw a bunch of bubbles into the tank (ATO, I know, I know). I sucked up what algae I could and then blew off the bubbles. Well, it came back. And it's been hanging around. So today I grabbed a sample and looked at it under the microscope at work as I've heard that's the only real way to know what it is you're fighting. From my searching online and reading the various posts here on R2R, I "think" there is a chance they're the Ostreopsis (which is also maybe the most typical?). But I took some pictures so I thought I'd see if you agree. I also don't know what a diatom looks like...so again, that's why I'm asking.

As I side note, I'll just say it's sort of gross to look at your tank water/algae under a microscope. There is a lot of life going on in there. Nematodes etc. Blech.

Anyway, let me know what you think. I've got the UV going in the evenings and have prepared myself for a 3 day blackout and some beneficial bacteria, but right now my nitrate/phosphate is still super low (probably the reason they came in the first place), so I'm feeding the tank heavily to try to get those back on the charts before I dose any bacteria and/or do the blackout.

Cheers!

maybe large cell Amphidinium?

checkout the Dino ID guide too

DeniableArc · Apr 28, 2022

That has to be the best microscope pics I have seen here! Sorry I’m not any help.

GalaxyBenny · Apr 28, 2022

Thanks, I didn't "think" I saw the clear beaks that the guide mentioned (that actually was what I was using as I was looking at them live). BUT I also don't know what I'm talking about

.

And thanks re: images. I guess that's the advantage of having access to super nice microscopes at work. Definitely NOT something I could afford to have sitting around at home (sadly).

taricha · Apr 30, 2022

great shots of ostreopsis.

GalaxyBenny · Apr 30, 2022

Thanks for the confirmation. The pdf from your old thread was super helpful. As mentioned above, the current plan is as follows:

1) 9W Green Killing Machine directly in the display portion (it’s a 16 gallon biocube). I’ve got that running on a 12 hr cycle from 10pm to 10am.

2) Fresh filter floss every morning. Manually sucking up and removing what I can several times a day with a turkey baster. And blowing off everything else to make sure it’s in the water column as the 10pm UV period begins.

3) Get nitrate and phosphate up to ~5ppm and ~0.1 ppm respectively (basically just well detectable)

From there I’d say I’m waffling. Many have suggested a 3 day blackout with Dr. Tim’s renew once the above is done. Followed by waste away after the blackout. I don’t have a skimmer on this system, so I’m a little worried about going that route as it sounds like you need to pull out all that dead organic material. I’ve also read about dosing H2O2. Clearly there doesn’t seem to be a magic recipe (sadly). But if anyone has comments on the above given the positive identification of ostreopsis, please let me know.

Thanks again for everyone’s help!

GalaxyBenny · May 6, 2022

So as a quick update, the dinos are definitely looking "reduced". I've been running the UV now 24 hours (instead of the 12 hour night cycle) and that helped a lot. It seemed like when I shut it off during the day and the lights came on, it gave them a chance to build up their numbers again. So it's been on 24 hours and I see almost none of the bubble garbage from the dinos that was their most tell tale sign in my tank. I've also been dosing the NeoNitro and NeoPhos. For nitrates I only needed a couple of doses to get them up into the 5-10 range, so I'm keeping that stable. The Phosphate I've been going slow, dosing 1mL per day into the 15 gallon tank (the bottle says that should add ~0.02ppm if I'm doing the math right). I've been testing daily and some days I do get 0.01 on my test, but I still get some 0.00. I've heard that the rock can absorb some phosphate, so I'm guessing that's where some of it is going. I don't want to go crazy and just dump in 5mL or something and end up overshooting. So I guess 2 questions:

1) Has anyone had similar experiences with NeoPhos? Recommend continuing to go slowly or should I make a little bigger change early on here (it's been ~1 week)

2) Again, by no means am I claiming total victory over the dinos yet, but what do people consider victory? Is it when I can turn the UV off and they don't come back? Is it just several weeks without seeing any sign of them?

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

Miami Reef · May 6, 2022

Varig said:
1) Has anyone had similar experiences with NeoPhos? Recommend continuing to go slowly or should I make a little bigger change early on here (it's been ~1 week)

I went through the same thing: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i-keep-dosing-phosphates-but-they-keep-disappearing.909888/