Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Gareth elliott]

I like your plan. However I would stop carbon dosing. I would also wait a while on the fuge until phosphates rise a bit ( about 0.2 ppm). May also need to beef up the cuc when phosphates rise. Good luck!

Ill put the algae in my empty qt. Maybe will work in my advantage and can cure the rock rubble thats in a bucket and not have to clean it [emoji23]

 

[taricha]

How often should i change out carbon during treatment. Ordinarily i do change it every 2 weeks.

And can i test the presence of Saxitoxin by taking a sample of tank water and adding a strong oxidizer, and viewing with uv light?

Never heard of that oxidizer + uv idea. Where did you thin across that?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Never heard of that oxidizer + uv idea. Where did you thin across that?

http://scrippsscholars.ucsd.edu/mve...ed-tide-dinoflagellate-lingulodinium-polyedra

 

[taricha]

http://scrippsscholars.ucsd.edu/mve...ed-tide-dinoflagellate-lingulodinium-polyedra

That's very cool. Unfortunately from the abstract, what they seem to have found was UV absorption, not any emission AKA fluorescence so we wouldn't be able to observe this without doing something fancy.

 

[mcarroll]

Don't forget that PO4 consumption is also chemical! It will get bound to the rock and substrate on the way up making it harder to raise PO4. It gets released into the water on the way down, making it harder to lower.

Just something to keep in mind. What you will likely see is that after a period of time the amount of PO4 you need to dose to maintain a certain level drops when an equilibrium with the rock is achieved. When lowering it with GFO it will take much less to maintain a lower level after the new lower level is at an equilibrium

Frequent testing is a must!

Worry about PO4-leaching live rock or sand is one factor that has driven more than one person to this thread in the first place, so the issue is not entirely unknown here.

 

[jgvergo]

A three day blackout worked for me

 

[14 foot reef]

Aqua Ultraviolet SL 200 UV Sterilizer (200 watt) run with EcoTech Vectra L1. 5 days everything gone. Dino's, Cyno, Hair Algae. The 850 Gallon Reef is almost as clean as Day 30 after set up. BAttledthis crap for 6 months, many chemicals, many dosing tricks, black out. Nothing but the UV cleaned up my reef..... This worked for me. I would seriouly consider a very large over kill UV. I'm at about 130 mircro watts per CM2 .......seems to have nuked this stuff with no ill effect on reef. Unlike all the other methods that all seemed to kill corals. Think serious about this method.

 

[Gareth elliott]

So did another phosphate test this time .02.

Took the BP reactor offline.

Algae has shown no abatement yet. Only coral still with pe is the garf bonsai because why wouldnt an acro be the , every other coral (softy, lps, and sps is closed up)

Pink pocillopora looks like it polyp ejected :/

changed my carbon again, did this on Thursday.

Will try to get some microscope pictures after a beer watching my healthy pond fish.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Aqua Ultraviolet SL 200 UV Sterilizer (200 watt) run with EcoTech Vectra L1. 5 days everything gone. Dino's, Cyno, Hair Algae. The 850 Gallon Reef is almost as clean as Day 30 after set up. BAttledthis crap for 6 months, many chemicals, many dosing tricks, black out. Nothing but the UV cleaned up my reef..... This worked for me. I would seriouly consider a very large over kill UV. I'm at about 130 mircro watts per CM2 .......seems to have nuked this stuff with no ill effect on reef. Unlike all the other methods that all seemed to kill corals. Think serious about this method.

Have a 65w uv on my pond. I could try to find a way to move to my reef. I think i have a spare mag 3 lying around somewhere.

 

[Gareth elliott]

microscope picture
Not sure if helpful for id its not very detailed.

Tiny btw this is at the max of my fabric microscope. When i move to larger individuals looks kinda like pictures of Gymnodinium

 

[Punchanello]

Hi everyone, I posted in this thread a couple of weeks ago. On my last update I was about to buy a microscope which hasn't yet arrived but I have some interesting anecdotal observations.

For the days/weeks leading up to the dino outbreak right up until my last post here my nitrates and phosphates were bottomed out at zero. Since then two things have changed. I've added two fish and introduced a sand-bed (I was bare-bottom before that).

Last night I did some tests and my Nitrates are at .2ppm and Phosphates .1ppm. And guess what? No dinos in sight. Coincidence?

Without the microscope there's no way to tell I guess, but there you go.

 

[Gareth elliott]

First test without biopellets is ~.1 ppm its between .08 and .12 on the red sea test.

Edit nitrate reading 8.0ppm

Actually Rooting for the bubble algae. At least i can take rocks out and use h202 and be done in a day.

Pondered awhile on the pond uv I honestly have no idea how to use on an aquarium, its an open system as opposed to a plastic tube system. And not sure i trust the heat dispersion if i diy’d something with pvc.

Will have to hope the smaller unit arriving today helps.

 

[Trevor40]

What is the most cost effective way to add Phosphates? I have a 240 gallon tank which the NeoPhos only lasted 2 days and the PO4 are back to 0.00.

 

[Brew12]

What is the most cost effective way to add Phosphates? I have a 240 gallon tank which the NeoPhos only lasted 2 days and the PO4 are back to 0.00.

Using filter socks without changing them.

 

[Gareth elliott]

What is the most cost effective way to add Phosphates? I have a 240 gallon tank which the NeoPhos only lasted 2 days and the PO4 are back to 0.00.

I am using kh2po4 http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/mono-potassium-phosphate.html

I am still on my original 1lb from several years ago.(i use on my planted every other day)

Even on a moderate water change schedule the potassium portion added is negligible. As its 1:1 if adding .1ppm phosphate your adding .1ppm K which is nothing considering the nsw levels of K.

 

[Trevor40]

I am using kh2po4 http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/mono-potassium-phosphate.html

I am still on my original 1lb from several years ago.(i use on my planted every other day)

Even on a moderate water change schedule the potassium portion added is negligible. As its 1:1 if adding .1ppm phosphate your adding .1ppm K which is nothing considering the nsw levels of K.

Thanks! I just ordered some. Hopefully it will do the trick.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Thanks! I just ordered some. Hopefully it will do the trick.

A scale or very tiny measuring spoons will help get your dose accurate.

Or

Drop - .07g

Smidge - .132g

Pinch - .263g

Dash - .525g

Tad - 1.05g

 

[Trevor40]

I am getting a lot of cyano bacteria now mixed with Dinos. My PO4 has been 0.00(hanna high range) and Nitrates 10-25 constantly for the last few weeks. I don't have to add Nitrates anymore. I just ordered some PO4. Do I get the Phosphates up still even with the Cyano everywhere? Do I manually removed the cyano or just leave it? I am trying to not turkey baste too much as to not stress out my acros.

There are a lot of bubble mixed with the cyano daily and in the morning they are gone. I am starting to get some green algae on the glass the last few weeks as well.

 

[dwest]

I am getting a lot of cyano bacteria now mixed with Dinos. My PO4 has been 0.00(hanna high range) and Nitrates 10-25 constantly for the last few weeks. I don't have to add Nitrates anymore. I just ordered some PO4. Do I get the Phosphates up still even with the Cyano everywhere? Do I manually removed the cyano or just leave it? I am trying to not turkey baste too much as to not stress out my acros.

There are a lot of bubble mixed with the cyano daily and in the morning they are gone. I am starting to get some green algae on the glass the last few weeks as well.

I believe you have to increase phosphates. Otherwise nothing will outcompete your dinos. I would manually remove dinos, but I personally wouldn’t worry about cyano for a while. They will get worse, then you should see an increase in gha. At that point, beef up your cuc. Good luck. Also, if you haven’t done so already, I would make sure to replace GAC weekly for a while...

 

[Trevor40]

Getting some cyano in the sand now, haha. Looks better than the Dinos imo.