Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Sebae]

After months of no dinos in my frag tank they seem to have come back. These are different, however, and do not disappear at night when the lights go out. UV hasn't made a difference and I assume that is related to them not going into the water column at night.

I had moved all of the fish from my frag tank to the display and within two days I had dinos again. Phos was 0.03 and NO3 was 0. I have since added more fish and raised my nitrates but to no avail.

If anyone has any thoughts as to what they might try, I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

 

[dwest]

After months of no dinos in my frag tank they seem to have come back. These are different, however, and do not disappear at night when the lights go out. UV hasn't made a difference and I assume that is related to them not going into the water column at night.

I had moved all of the fish from my frag tank to the display and within two days I had dinos again. Phos was 0.03 and NO3 was 0. I have since added more fish and raised my nitrates but to no avail.

If anyone has any thoughts as to what they might try, I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

That stinks....Your nitrates and phosphates are low for sure. The premise in this thread is try to keep phosphates around 0.1 ppm and nitrates around 10 ppm. I’m dosing to keep somewhat close to those levels. Are you trying to keep a ULN system? If the dinos are not going into water column, they may be amphidinium. If you have sand, I would vacuum it and increase nutrients. I had to remove most of my sand...

 

[Sebae]

That stinks....Your nitrates and phosphates are low for sure. The premise in this thread is try to keep phosphates around 0.1 ppm and nitrates around 10 ppm. I’m dosing to keep somewhat close to those levels. Are you trying to keep a ULN system? If the dinos are not going into water column, they may be amphidinium. If you have sand, I would vacuum it and increase nutrients. I had to remove most of my sand...

That was my thought as well. The thing is I have no sand at all so I'm not sure what my next step should be. The tank is currently just frag tiles and frag racks. Definitely not trying to keep an ULN. The nutrients in this tank have always run low and I assume its due to the frag load. I think I'll probably add more fish and just keep dosing nutrients at the very least.

 

[aquarecifalhome]

Hello. I have dark spots on the sand and very localized. Can someone help me identify if it's Dino and what type it is? thank you very much

 

[dwest]

Hello. I have dark spots on the sand and very localized. Can someone help me identify if it's Dino and what type it is? thank you very much

Looks like dinos to me. Others will have to tell you type.
@taricha

 

[dwest]

That was my thought as well. The thing is I have no sand at all so I'm not sure what my next step should be. The tank is currently just frag tiles and frag racks. Definitely not trying to keep an ULN. The nutrients in this tank have always run low and I assume its due to the frag load. I think I'll probably add more fish and just keep dosing nutrients at the very least.

I would also try to ID them. I thought the $15 microscope investment was well worth it.

 

[Octane13]

Has anyone attempted a water polisher or "sediment" filter? I'm talking like 5-10 microns. Earlier in this thread someone mentioned testing your type of Dino with a coffee filter. This broke them up to correctly identify but did not remove them as they are smaller than the 20 micron filter. Just thinking that a reactor with one of these filters and a pump may work to remove entirely. A Side effect would also be removing any micro fauna and good bacteria.

 

[Dj City]

Has anyone attempted a water polisher or "sediment" filter? I'm talking like 5-10 microns. Earlier in this thread someone mentioned testing your type of Dino with a coffee filter. This broke them up to correctly identify but did not remove them as they are smaller than the 20 micron filter. Just thinking that a reactor with one of these filters and a pump may work to remove entirely. A Side effect would also be removing any micro fauna and good bacteria.

Removing the good along with the bad would be... bad.
You don't want to remove competitors.
The other problem would be running a sediment filter.
How would you get enough flow through it to be effective?

 

[FunkEngine]

https://imgur.com/gallery/o5Cwsot

ID on these? I'm thinking Ostreopsis or Amphidinium? The flagella is on the side with the notch. On a macro scale, these guys form brown jelly like mats over basically everything.

Any input?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Any input?

Looks like prorocentrum.

 

[mcarroll]

@BurgerFish and @Jhillreef have you already been over the information and links in the first post? Lots of questions should be answered there. (Which will make more questions... )

@Jhillreef when you say "established" please explain what you mean? Also, what happened while the rock was not in the old tank nor in the new tank?

 

[mcarroll]

Has anyone attempted a water polisher or "sediment" filter? I'm talking like 5-10 microns. Earlier in this thread someone mentioned testing your type of Dino with a coffee filter. This broke them up to correctly identify but did not remove them as they are smaller than the 20 micron filter. Just thinking that a reactor with one of these filters and a pump may work to remove entirely. A Side effect would also be removing any micro fauna and good bacteria.

Diatom filters like Marineland's Polishing filter and the classic Vortex XL's are perfect for this. The Marineland is really nice, but small if you have a very large tank. The Vortex is a little more cumbersome to use, but is probably worth it for a large system.

The effect is similar to running a UV filter except instead of merely scrambling them, you remove them – dead or alive.

Run a thread search for the term "diatom" or "micron" and you'll find the folks who've tried it. UV is more popular, but I'm not sure it's any more effective.

 

[aquarecifalhome]

[QUOTE = "dwest, post: 4950051, membre: 96741"] Sur dirait des dinos pour moi. D'autres vous êtes dingue.
[USER = 69455] [USER = 69455] @taricha [/ USER] [/ USER] [/ QUOTE]

thank you for the answer. does anyone have an idea of the type of Dino?

 

[Jhillreef]

It went from one tank to another in a bucket of water... never exposed

QUOTE="mcarroll, post: 4951224, member: 19871"]@BurgerFish and @Jhillreef have you already been over the information and links in the first post? Lots of questions should be answered there. (Which will make more questions... )

@Jhillreef when you say "established" please explain what you mean? Also, what happened while the rock was not in the old tank nor in the new tank?[/QUOTE]

 

[dwest]

Has anyone attempted a water polisher or "sediment" filter? I'm talking like 5-10 microns. Earlier in this thread someone mentioned testing your type of Dino with a coffee filter. This broke them up to correctly identify but did not remove them as they are smaller than the 20 micron filter. Just thinking that a reactor with one of these filters and a pump may work to remove entirely. A Side effect would also be removing any micro fauna and good bacteria.

I used the Marineland polishing filter a few weeks on my 180. I think it helped, but was also running uv, removing by hand, etc. so I didn’t know the effectiveness. It was a pain to keep clean. I had to clean every day. But I think it’s worth a try personally. If you buy it, get at least one more cartridge.

 

[taricha]

Hello. I have dark spots on the sand and very localized. Can someone help me identify if it's Dino and what type it is? thank you very much

Coolia dinos

 

[FunkEngine]

Looks like prorocentrum.

Sounds like UV is at least somewhat effective then. Are the jebao UV worth anything or am I looking at a pentair or similar?

General raise nutrients and mechanical removal is the way to go, right?

 

[dwest]

Sounds like UV is at least somewhat effective then. Are the jebao UV worth anything or am I looking at a pentair or similar?

General raise nutrients and mechanical removal is the way to go, right?

How big is your tank?

 

[dwest]

I

How big is your tank?

IME Jebao are fine. Just make sure it’s big enough and plumbed from DT to DT short term.

 

[Dj City]

I just remembered that I have a marineland magnum canister filter!
I also have the diatoms earth powder along with the polishing cartridge.

What I will do next is continue with the UV vacuuming of the sand but i will follow it up with the magnum filter.