Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Deezill]

So far my parameters are holding steady

Salinity 1.025
Alk 8.5
KO3 10ppm (Used to be 0 three weeks ago)
PO4 0.50 (Used to be 0 three weeks ago)

Can anyone recommend a UV sterilizer for my 150g? I am not going with the BRS 40 watt that thing is 389.00 bucks
I only need to use this short term I am hoping any recommendation would be great. Thanks.

 

[mcarroll]

seems I am 3 watts shy of the 3 watts per gallon for my 180G display tank.

Make sure you're running flow that is appropriate for the UV filter to target parasites and it'll help. Set for maximum effectiveness it should be running the minimum rated flow for the unit.

Marineland polishing filter added and cleaned / filter rotated weekly.

Just curious if you could notice any drop in flow through the filter in that week's time? How dirty does the filter appear to be at cleaning time?

I could use some guidance I would like to make sure I am not missing anything I should be doing.

Patience. You seem to be on the right track to me.....it just gets ugly before it gets pretty. Keep up with the siphon hose as best you can. Remember to add CUC when it looks like your pods have begun to recover – you don't wanna do ALL the work!

(If doing a regular water change would make siphoning easier, just make sure to dose your water change water up to the same NO3 and PO4 levels as the tank water and you should be fine.)

 

[Huntor0]

My 180G tank has been up and running for 2 years but with very minimal fish (6) and corals. I ran ROX .8 and GFO, 2 x 8” blocks or Marinepure ceramic blocks. Tank was setup with bleached rock and bacteria in a bottle. Things went smoothly until recently I had a large cyano outbreak and decided to use chemiclean to get rid of the cyano (never again). You guessed it a couple of weeks later in the newly sterilized tank boom Dino’s.

My dino’s were identified as Ostreopsis last week upon receiving my microscope, I have had them for 2-3 months.

Measures Taken over the last month:

• GFO taken offline.
• Marinepure blocks removed.
• Nitrates: 5-10 ppm for the last 3 weeks.
• Phosphates: 1.0-1.5 ppm for the last 3 weeks.
• Aqua UV 57W has been in the sump for 2 months but last week I plumbed it to the display tank, seems I am 3 watts shy of the 3 watts per gallon for my 180G display tank.
• 10 Micron filter socks changed daily and washed in Oxyclean.
• Marineland polishing filter added and cleaned / filter rotated weekly.
• 6 lbs. of fiji mud added this week.

Weekly I scrape all the Ostreopsis dino’s that are attached to the back glass and barebottom of the tank and filter them out with several 10 Micron socks changed frequently. And within a day or so they seem to grow right back. I am noticing after 3 weeks of dirty water conditions I am starting to see some red cyano appearing on the rocks and some green algae on the barebottom just before dino’s cover it up again.

I could use some guidance I would like to make sure I am not missing anything I should be doing.

Thank you for your time.

Video of my tank attached:

 

[Deezill]

@Huntor0 Which UV are you using for your 180? That should be enough for my 150.

 

[Huntor0]

@Huntor0 Which UV are you using for your 180? That should be enough for my 150.

Aqua UV 57 Watt. it is in the $400 range depending on models.
https://www.amazon.com/Aqua-UV-Watt-inch-Sterilizer/dp/B001F03N6C

You could look into the Jebao 55 Watt options.

 

[Deezill]

yeah if I were to get the one you got I could go with the BRS one for 400 bucks. Do you see a difference after running it?

 

[Tom Blevins]

Ok, my input on the Dino's, I had them now for about a month tried Mr. Tim's, Chem Clean with no luck
I read on hear that a UV would work over time on it, I have a 750 xxl so I purchased a 114w Aqua UV it has been running
for a week and with 2 vacuum runs of the sand and water changes of 100 gallons total now I am seeing the light on this BAD stuff.

Made me sick when I lost my Homewrecker & Matt V Rainbow Envy with this stuff why didn't it go for the Reef Raft Aussie gold or
my Cherry Blossom? I don't wish this stuff on anybody, first time having in my 15 years of reefing.

 

[MannyT]

Hey guys, I’ve been battling what seems to be dino’s. The tank is a Biocube 29 which has been up for a few months now. I have rust color spots on my sand, it’s not snotty, i can pretty much blow it off with a turkey baster. It also only seems to come out when the lights are on, once they’re off the sand is white and clean. I also have greenish/brown strings things coming out of my rocks. No bubbles. At first I thought it could be GHA? I just got a microscope today. The first couple pics are from the stringy stuff coming from the rocks. The 2nd batch of pics are from the brown/rust stuff from the sand. I also attached pics of what the sand and stringy stuff in the tank looks like. Everything in my tank seems fine. Inverts, fish, corals, anemone. No deaths at all. If anyone could help ID these so I know how to go about battling them, I’d greatly appreciate it.

 

[MannyT]

Hey guys, I’ve been battling what seems to be dino’s. The tank is a Biocube 29 which has been up for a few months now. I have rust color spots on my sand, it’s not snotty, i can pretty much blow it off with a turkey baster. It also only seems to come out when the lights are on, once they’re off the sand is white and clean. I also have greenish/brown strings things coming out of my rocks. No bubbles. At first I thought it could be GHA? I just got a microscope today. The first couple pics are from the stringy stuff coming from the rocks. The 2nd batch of pics are from the brown/rust stuff from the sand. I also attached pics of what the sand and stringy stuff in the tank looks like. Everything in my tank seems fine. Inverts, fish, corals, anemone. No deaths at all. If anyone could help ID these so I know how to go about battling them, I’d greatly appreciate it.

 

[FaithKlim]

I've battled Ostes for about 2.5 weeks. Raised NO3 to 12, PO4 .10. Been running uv 24/7 in display 5 days. Also manual removal via siphon into sock until about 4 days ago when no longer necessary. Visible dinos sporadic if at all...
Today came home to brown dusting on sandbed & patches of brown on glass.... not stringy/ snotty. Diatoms? Also, is it time to add pods / phyto? Frankly dont know how.. I have a 60 gal all in one, no fuge. Just add to display?
Nothing moving under scope at all...
Thanks in advance!

 

[taricha]

I've battled Ostes for about 2.5 weeks. Raised NO3 to 12, PO4 .10. Been running uv 24/7 in display 5 days. Also manual removal via siphon into sock until about 4 days ago when no longer necessary. Visible dinos sporadic if at all...
Today came home to brown dusting on sandbed & patches of brown on glass.... not stringy/ snotty. Diatoms?

No visible cells I can see. No movement makes me lean strongly against it being dinos.

video

Amphidinium dinos.

 

[FaithKlim]

No visible cells I can see. No movement makes me lean strongly against it being dinos.


Amphidinium dinos.

Right...my hope was I've moved on to diatoms now. I'm at the part of what to do next? Hence my questions re: pods or phyto? What's the best course to bring stability & diversity now that I'm near active osteo-free?

 

[taricha]

Right...my hope was I've moved on to diatoms now. I'm at the part of what to do next? Hence my questions re: pods or phyto? What's the best course to bring stability & diversity now that I'm near active osteo-free?

diatoms will feed pods and other sand critters and increase their population unless they've been totally wiped out from the system. Give them a couple of weeks before you buy microfauna.

 

[FaithKlim]

diatoms will feed pods and other sand critters and increase their population unless they've been totally wiped out from the system. Give them a couple of weeks before you buy microfauna.

Thank you

 

[Deezill]

Can someone link the jebao 55 watt UV for me on amazon or where u buy it from. Thanks.

 

[Huntor0]

Make sure you're running flow that is appropriate for the UV filter to target parasites and it'll help. Set for maximum effectiveness it should be running the minimum rated flow for the unit.

I am running a Sicce 1.5 rated at 358 gph the Aqua UV site references the slowest rating at 1066gph 90,000 µw/cm2 (EOL)

Just curious if you could notice any drop in flow through the filter in that week's time? How dirty does the filter appear to be at cleaning time?

I changed the filter tonight and feel the flow was approx 1/3 the clean filter flowrate.

 

[mcarroll]

Nice....that's what I should have asked for...a pic!

Definitely working then!

 

[reefwiser]

I am running a Sicce 1.5 rated at 358 gph the Aqua UV site references the slowest rating at 1066gph 90,000 µw/cm2 (EOL)




I changed the filter tonight and feel the flow was approx 1/3 the clean filter flowrate.

So you are using the Marineland polishing filter without DE in your tank? With DE the filter last's maybe two days. Before it is producing bubbles which indicates the filter is clogged. Is it helping?

 

[reefwiser]

Can someone link the jebao 55 watt UV for me on amazon or where u buy it from. Thanks.

Jebao 55 watt UV

 

[danoo]

Made me sick when I lost my Homewrecker & Matt V Rainbow Envy with this stuff why didn't it go for the Reef Raft Aussie gold or
my Cherry Blossom? I don't wish this stuff on anybody, first time having in my 15 years of reefing.

I've sort of abandoned my tank with dinos as I'm focusing all my energy on my new tank that will hopefully be dino-free (or at least with behaving dinos), but one thing I've noticed in my dino tank is that certain acros get decimated by the dinos, and other ones are basically completely impervious to them. And we are talking about months and months of dinos and the SPS are still alive. Certainly not thriving but the tank as a whole is a mess so that is to be expected.

The death spiral is very predicable, where dinos will start growing on a coral, kill some of the tissue, then the dinos *really* start to grow on the dead areas and eventually engulf the whole thing. But certain SPS corals just do not die when the dinos start growing on them and don't enter the death spiral.

One thing I've noticed is tabling things, such as tabling acros or caps are less susceptible because the dinos have fewer places to congregate initially to start the death spiral, but I've even got some very tightly branched acros where you'd assume the dinos would have engulfed them and the acros are just fine after months.