Dinoflagelates. A disruptive treatment

[jayteerq]

I've had prorocentrum since the start of both my tanks combined (1 year). I've tried UV, stopped water changes, vacuuming weekly, overdosing silicates for a month, phyto, pods and nothing seemed to get them off my sand. My nutrients were always at 30 no3 and 0.15 po4. Could this carbon dosing method be my next course of action to take? I've been wanting to carbon dose just for the sake of lowering my nutrients but the jason mack dino group on FB claimed carbon dosing was a bad idea for fighting dinos so i never did it

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've had prorocentrum since the start of both my tanks combined (1 year). I've tried UV, stopped water changes, vacuuming weekly, overdosing silicates for a month, phyto, pods and nothing seemed to get them off my sand. My nutrients were always at 30 no3 and 0.15 po4. Could this carbon dosing method be my next course of action to take? I've been wanting to carbon dose just for the sake of lowering my nutrients but the jason mack dino group on FB claimed carbon dosing was a bad idea for fighting dinos so i never did it

Might try silicate dosing to outcompete the dinos with diatoms.

 

[jayteerq]

Might try silicate dosing to outcompete the dinos with diatoms.

i wrote in my previous comment that i've been dosing silicates for 2 months now with no improvement. Triple the recommended amount for my tank size. I've read people have had to dose silicates for months and that just sounds crazy to me lol. But hey im still here dosing daily

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

i wrote in my previous comment that i've been dosing silicates for 2 months now with no improvement. Triple the recommended amount for my tank size. I've read people have had to dose silicates for months and that just sounds crazy to me lol. But hey im still here dosing daily

Does the glass grow diatoms (golden brown) as opposed to green algae?

 

[jayteerq]

Does the glass grow diatoms (golden brown) as opposed to green algae?

Yes. I've been seeing diatoms in my scope pics but not enough to take over

 

[thedon986]

I do think TM Bacto Balance helped knock mine but I also had Tampa bay saltwater rock and sand so lots of other diversity to outcompete them. Haven’t been back in more than a year.

 

[ingchr1]

Tropic Marin Plus-NP has worked for me on more than one occasion.

Tropic Marin Plus-NP got them under control for me in a matter of days. Still have some visual indications of them in the tank though, trying to get across the finish line.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tropic-marin-plus-np-to-combat-dinos.1032873/

 

[threebuoys]

Yes. I've been seeing diatoms in my scope pics but not enough to take over

I have a prorocentrum problem also, and I've tried the various techniques. Recently, I decided to aggressively dose silicates after earlier attempts failed. I tripled the recommended dose and dosed daily for 10 days. When I view through the microscope, I see tons of diatoms but no prorocentrum. I do have highly visible diatoms in places on the sand (some might suspect them to be dinos) but I don't detect problems with my coral. So it's a wait and see if the diatoms will clear up naturally for me.

 

[jayteerq]

Yes. I've been seeing diatoms in my scope pics but not enough to take over

I have a prorocentrum problem also, and I've tried the various techniques. Recently, I decided to aggressively dose silicates after earlier attempts failed. I tripled the recommended dose and dosed daily for 10 days. When I view through the microscope, I see tons of diatoms but no prorocentrum. I do have highly visible diatoms in places on the sand (some might suspect them to be dinos) but I don't detect problems with my coral. So it's a wait and see if the diatoms will clear up naturally for me.

Nice. Unfortunately I had to cap out at 3x overdose because it was spiking my alk too much but did it for 2 months and still always seen a lot of Dino’s on my slides.

 

[Moe K]

2- Bacteria directly inhibit the growth of dinoflagellate cells through allelopathy (chemical warfare). The survival strategy of bacteria, protists and phytoplankton, includes a line of defense, which consists of releasing chemical compounds toxic to other species. For example, as a result of copepod predation on diatoms, the algae produce polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUAS), which are noxious to copepods and some phytoplankton species, such as urchin larvae. These PUAS are also produced by other phytoplankton species, such as cyanobacteria, cryptophytes, primnesiophytes, and synurophytes. In addition, PUAS have a potent inhibitory effect on the growth of the dinoflagellate Ostreopsis ovata, altering its DNA structure and disrupting its development.

Have you done A/B tests with and without carbon media to test this further? If true it would probably be a must to not use carbon media or else it will pull out the chemical compounds?