Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Northern reefer]

Dinofree for 4 months (ostreopsis ovata)

Decided to share my experience
Here's my take:

I believe raising ph and nutrients is a good overall plan. Things to consider are fresh air for the skimmer, dosing kalkwasser, baking soda etc, increase water movement, use coral food and feed more.

Now here is the trick to get the upper hand fast:

Turn off absolutely all the flow for about 10 min, you will then see the dinos release into the water, now this is where you make your move: dump 5% bleach in the overflow and turn back on your flow, once the bleach circles back to the tank it will bomb and kill all the dinos in the water collumn instantly.

Now, I don't take either credit or risk, try this at your own caution. My dose was 10 ml once a day (when they are most noticeable) continue til you cannot find them with the microscope, in my case about a week. No injury to either fish or corals.

My tank is about 650 l including sump with livestock holding mainly acros, hammerhead, montis, clowns and surgeons.

Best of luck all

 

[tonymacc]

You will be pleased to know I'm back in the club. Yes procentrum have taken up residence and making my sand look rusty with a touch of snot.

How I love these little creatures, not least for the oxygen we breath but also because I get to annoy the hell out of you lot.

Round.... 5! Ding ding.

I've not long started round 3

 

[kecked]

educated. Myself so deleted post.

 

[Paullawr]

Don’t dont don’t dont dont don’t dump bleach in your tank!!!!!!!! Extremely bad idea. As in total collapse.

Bizarrely enough it's not actually as bad as you might think. One of the few tried and tested mechanisms for removing dinoflagellates.
Its not something I'd do without proper research but it has been done in the past (in that other dino thread).

 

[kecked]

I miss read his post as adding 10ml of 5% bleach to a 170g tank. I’m reading the bleach post now but yea that’s my first impression. Then again I was the same for h2o2. It’s the dose that counts. Still really drastic. It’s also counter to this thread which is to achieve natural balance. I like that idea better than wiping it all out. After all the goal is a model of nature. I’m looking to add more microfauna.

 

[kecked]

Ok so thinking about this what if you bleach first short term, then readd in a good nitro soma culture and follow that up with Fiji mud or such and strict uv while maintaining high N and P. Sort of like nuking bone marrow and starting over with new to cure leukemia. Now you achieve balance and have the cultures in place to keep dinos back down to normal levels. I’m not trying this but someone might want to.

 

[kecked]

I think I asked this before but forget. Anyone try a diatom filter?

 

[janos]

Sorry that is not thru because help me a lot to dose javex and hydrogen peroxide.99% of my dino is gone,try 6 mo long and look like that two was the real help

Don’t dont don’t dont dont don’t dump bleach in your tank!!!!!!!! Extremely bad idea. As in total collapse.

Rised my NO3 to 20 and my PO4 to 0.4

 

[Paullawr]

Ok so thinking about this what if you bleach first short term, then readd in a good nitro soma culture and follow that up with Fiji mud or such and strict uv while maintaining high N and P. Sort of like nuking bone marrow and starting over with new to cure leukemia. Now you achieve balance and have the cultures in place to keep dinos back down to normal levels. I’m not trying this but someone might want to.

Yes it's been done before. Proved successful.

 

[Paullawr]

I think I asked this before but forget. Anyone try a diatom filter?

Yes been done before.

 

[kecked]

I found my Dino source....pets plus. Never buy there again. Their tanks are loaded. Not saying all of the stores but at least mine. I bought two snails and that did me in.

Diatom filter on order. Can’t hurt.

My P is now 0.4. So stopped dosing. N is 10. Should I add a little LaCl to drop the P back a touch or let it go. There is no hair algae issue or other issue so inclined to leave it and watch.

Uv with weekly clean is working prettty good. Just a little on the rocks and coral looks happy. Think it’s working!

 

[Paullawr]

I found my Dino source....pets plus. Never buy there again. Their tanks are loaded. Not saying all of the stores but at least mine. I bought two snails and that did me in.

Diatom filter on order. Can’t hurt.

My P is now 0.4. So stopped dosing. N is 10. Should I add a little LaCl to drop the P back a touch or let it go. There is no hair algae issue or other issue so inclined to leave it and watch.

Uv with weekly clean is working prettty good. Just a little on the rocks and coral looks happy. Think it’s working!

Leave the P, don't be tempted to drop it. Dinoflagellates will consume the phosphate FAST.

Diatoms filter is fine, can be tricky to setup I understand but @Paul B swears by them. As he would put it, the heart of his system.

I know @Jolanta used one but with limited effect. Still this is all about keeping natural pests in control.

As for pet stores. I'm from the UK and I cannot buy anything from anywhere that doesn't have them. The lottery is which strain. I usually end up with ostreopsis ovata and the mini ninja I don't know what the fook they are called dino with go faster stripes.

My flavour this month is procentrum. Not had this delight before so new one to notch on the belt once I've given it a good shafting.

 

[Paullawr]

As for things that have been tried. Here's a list that I know of.

Bleach (98% successful)
H202 (some indicate success but not likely dinos, or if they were with no or thin theca).
Metroplex (good to get your crap) under control. Past 21 days in affective.
Dino x (great at killing corals stinking out tank and growing radioactive green hair algae).
Diatom filter
UV
Nutrient balancing
All the pods and not a pod less.
Kalk slurry to hit a pH of 10 (my personal favourite but don't do it).
Various molluscs
Black out (pointless)
Big water changes, no water changes, some water changes, hell ill pee in my tank water changes - it cannot hurt right?!?
We nearly tested malaria tablets but never got that far.

Pretty sure I've missed some as well.

 

[Northern reefer]

As for things that have been tried. Here's a list that I know of.

Bleach (98% successful)
H202 (some indicate success but not likely dinos, or if they were with no or thin theca).
Metroplex (good to get your ****) under control. Past 21 days in affective.
Dino x (great at killing corals stinking out tank and growing radioactive green hair algae).
Diatom filter
UV
Nutrient balancing
All the pods and not a pod less.
Kalk slurry to hit a pH of 10 (my personal favourite but don't do it).
Various molluscs
Black out (pointless)
Big water changes, no water changes, some water changes, hell ill pee in my tank water changes - it cannot hurt right?!?
We nearly tested malaria tablets but never got that far.

Pretty sure I've missed some as well.

Totally agree, tried them all. Trust me bleach was not my first option, but everything else failed. Bleach worked like charm. I do believe that the main issue is as mentioned above lack of microfauna.

 

[mcarroll]

I’m reading the bleach post now

Check the old dino thread linked in the first post here.....LOTS AND LOTS of folks trying bleach vs dino's. No bueno.

I think I asked this before but forget. Anyone try a diatom filter?

Several have...(there at least used to be a link in the first post to search for diatom posts in this thread)

I think the rub is that they aren't as "hands-off" to use as UV filters are. Some models are a downright pain. (In fairness, I think those were intended for very occasional use.) Marineland's new one (their "polishing filter") seems like it should have a better user experience than most.

My P is now 0.4. So stopped dosing. N is 10. Should I add a little LaCl to drop the P back a touch or let it go. There is no hair algae issue or other issue so inclined to leave it and watch.

You have to go to Jail without passing Go! ;Sorry Bring PO4 up to 0.10 ppm and hold it there. Forget you know anything about lantham or similar.

From now on, to you, lantham only brings to mind Latham & Watkins LLP and GFO means Government Finance Office.

Uv with weekly clean is working prettty good. Just a little on the rocks and coral looks happy. Think it’s working!

Excellent news!!! Don't roll anything back....press on....in testing @taricha did, 0.01 ppm PO4 seems to be an important milestone. Make sure NO3 stays in the ≥5-10 ppm range at that new level too.

 

[SDboatguy]

So my P and N were undetectable. My glass has film and coraline going crazy, chaeto in the sump doubles every 2-3 weeks. Cyano on the sand...check. And dinos on every thing. Killed a grapefruit sized Valida colony ,several frags and starting on two other colonies I've been growing for 15 months....The corals that are not being affected are growing well,as were the affected ones until they weren't . The Dinos are kinda teardrop shaped in the scope and seem to be more visible as the day (lights) goes on and not as prevalent first thing in the morning. Getting depressed just looking at the tank, I guessing I need to dose P and N ,but with all the coraline and other algae do I need to ?

 

[Javamahn]

Deleting

 

[Paullawr]

Check the old dino thread linked in the first post here.....LOTS AND LOTS of folks trying bleach vs dino's. No bueno.



Several have...(there at least used to be a link in the first post to search for diatom posts in this thread)

I think the rub is that they aren't as "hands-off" to use as UV filters are. Some models are a downright pain. (In fairness, I think those were intended for very occasional use.) Marineland's new one (their "polishing filter") seems like it should have a better user experience than most.



You have to go to Jail without passing Go! ;Sorry Bring PO4 up to 0.10 ppm and hold it there. Forget you know anything about lantham or similar.

From now on, to you, lantham only brings to mind Latham & Watkins LLP and GFO means Government Finance Office.



Excellent news!!! Don't roll anything back....press on....in testing @taricha did, 0.01 ppm PO4 seems to be an important milestone. Make sure NO3 stays in the ≥5-10 ppm range at that new level too.

Sorry. Matt disagree. Bleach was tested and proved successful. Was even used as a dip.

What we never EVER consider is once an infestation has passed by X method is that the person introduces the same or other strain and suddenly their original treatment is unsuccessful. No it was, then, just we have introduced more after it.

 

[Javamahn]

Sorry. Matt disagree. Bleach was tested and proved successful. Was even used as a dip.

What we never EVER consider is once an infestation has passed by X method is that the person introduces the same or other strain and suddenly their original treatment is unsuccessful. No it was, then, just we have introduced more after it.

This has been my question in the last 2 posts. I do not want to leave behind all of the livestock when I move to the tank build I am working on. I will have some time as the new tank cycles but if I can dose or dip bleach based on previous posts with success and I can bring corals and fish to new home and start dino free then I have to try it. I am NO way condoning this as a method and everyone has to make their own choice. If there is a shred of evidence with success I will research further to minimize the risk to the fish and coral and maximize the effectiveness in a 6 month amphinidium fight. Currently GHA is all over the live rock and NO3 & PO4 have held steady at 25 and .8 for over a month.

 

[mcarroll]

So my P and N were undetectable. My glass has film and coraline going crazy, chaeto in the sump doubles every 2-3 weeks. Cyano on the sand...check. And dinos on every thing. Killed a grapefruit sized Valida colony ,several frags and starting on two other colonies I've been growing for 15 months....The corals that are not being affected are growing well,as were the affected ones until they weren't . The Dinos are kinda teardrop shaped in the scope and seem to be more visible as the day (lights) goes on and not as prevalent first thing in the morning. Getting depressed just looking at the tank, I guessing I need to dose P and N ,but with all the coraline and other algae do I need to ?

Seems like you have a lock on the general idea.

Ditch all the other drains on your nutrients....chaeto, GFO, carbon dosing, filter socks, et al. Live rock + protein skimmer is where you want to be.

Zero P is not sustainable in a new(ish) tank. Corals have minimum requirements that are well above zero....dino's are just the straw that broke this camel's back, so to speak. Zero N is not generally a help either.

Oooh....and of course, don't forget to digest everything on the first post....as much as possible, anyway. (It's a lot, but not insurmountable.)