Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Gareth elliott]

Ok weird plan

Since my algae barn macros did not arrive on time.(what was going in the qt)

Half emptied my 20g qt.

Refilled with 10g of collected nsw. Kessil light, powerhead, 2lbs of dirty dry rock(nutrient source), going to dose silica to 2.7ppm(highest nsw numbers for silica). After a bloom of non-dinoflagellate micro algae occurs. Will begin adding water from this tank to the dt.

If diatoms will slowly raise silica up to the same 2.7ppm(theres live stock and i dont want the ph and alkalinity effects of the sodium silicate to be a concerning factor)

 

[danoo]

Ok weird plan

Since my algae barn macros did not arrive on time.(what was going in the qt)

Half emptied my 20g qt.

Refilled with 10g of collected nsw. Kessil light, powerhead, 2lbs of dirty dry rock(nutrient source), going to dose silica to 2.7ppm(highest nsw numbers for silica). After a bloom of non-dinoflagellate micro algae occurs. Will begin adding water from this tank to the dt.

If diatoms will slowly raise silica up to the same 2.7ppm(theres live stock and i dont want the ph and alkalinity effects of the sodium silicate to be a concerning factor)

If I'm doing the math right, the dosage of 40% Sodium Silicate to raise 20 gallons to 3ppm would be 0.66 mL. I doubt that is going to have any impact on pH or alkalinity. I dose ~0.3ppm of silica per day to my tank via Sodium Silicate and see no effect on either pH or alkalinity.

The only thing to watch out for with Sodium Silicate is it creates some sort of precipitation right when you dose it that will slowly dissolve back into the water, so it would be better to dose in a sump or something rather than the DT.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Starting with solid sodium silicate(was cheaper to ship).

Took 100g water to 3g sodium silicate. Wore gloves and goggles had no interest in this touching me while i was dealing with 99.5% pure of something that basic.

 

[Acuario]

Maybe I'm jumping in at the wrong time in this forum, but I wanted to report that after many months of dinoflagellates (looked like Ostreopsis with my daughter's microscope), I decided to invest in a Pentair 18w UV on my 45 gallon cube. Within 24 hours of turning it on, all the dinoflagellates were gone! SPS extending. Zoas are happy and open! Two days now dino free! My tank has never looked this good. This is not a cheap solution, but it worked for me.

 

[MannyT]

Maybe I'm jumping in at the wrong time in this forum, but I wanted to report that after many months of dinoflagellates (looked like Ostreopsis with my daughter's microscope), I decided to invest in a Pentair 18w UV on my 45 gallon cube. Within 24 hours of turning it on, all the dinoflagellates were gone! SPS extending. Zoas are happy and open! Two days now dino free! My tank has never looked this good. This is not a cheap solution, but it worked for me.

Nice! Raising nutrients and adding a UV into my display got rid of all the Ostreopsis within a week. I’m just left battling Amphidinium which are a huge pain.

 

[Crimson]

How fast is the flow through the UV?

Are you dosing Silica?

186GPH. I took apart my aqua uv 15w and cleaned the quartz sleeve. It needed it.

 

[danoo]

186GPH. I took apart my aqua uv 15w and cleaned the quartz sleeve. It needed it.

Yeah very important to keep that sleeve clear. I run my AquaUV units at 8-10x their wattage in flow. Anecdotally they didn't seem to work at 20x, but work well at 8-10x. So if it were me I'd reduce the flow slightly to 150gph, though you are probably fine at 186. I haven't done any experiments so this is just based on what worked for me.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Not sure if this is accurate. So in trying definitively id my dinos with only a 1000x scope with minimal resolution.

Had read a study on the use of red #40 bonding to chitin. Since chitin is what makes up the armor.

Brought the ph of the diy stain down to 5 with acetic acid and ro water. Study stated only worked at ph range 2-7. 5 was in the middle

A smaller population of different shaped dinos gained a red tinge.

The larger more densely populated dinos did not.

Anyone want to try on their armored dinos, red #40 is the red food coloring in your kitchen cabinet.

 

[George Willings]

Looks to be ostreopsis to me.

 

[Crimson]

Looks to be ostreopsis to me.

It look like it as you can see them spin.

 

[George Willings]

I have nitrate, phosphate, lower water temp, and a marineland magnum filter.
This thread goes in so many different directions, lol. What have people had success fighting osteoporosis with? Do not want to look at these pricks while I start a 55 gallon build.

 

[MannyT]

I have nitrate, phosphate, lower water temp, and a marineland magnum filter.
This thread goes in so many different directions, lol. What have people had success fighting osteoporosis with? Do not want to look at these pricks while I start a 55 gallon build.

I have a 29g system. I installed a UV in the display rated for 55g+. This type of dino’s go into the water column at night. I noticed a big difference within just 24 hours of the UV running. I would say it took about 5-6 days for it to be completely wiped out. I’ve kept nitrates and phosphates elevated ever since. It’s now been about a month and I have yet to notice them return, just the amphidinium Dino’s in my sand.

 

[George Willings]

Magnesium - 1440 (salifert)
Nirate - 0 ppm (API)
Phosphae - 0 ppm (API)
Temperature - 78.8F (INKBIRD)

Looks like I get to go buy a UV sterilizer, I have to go to petco and pick up a 5 gallon tank to be used as a ATO reservoir for my 55 gallon build. Also looks like I get to run a bit of GFO to bring that phosphate down some.

 

[George Willings]

Not running GFO at all. As my phosphates tested at 0 ppm. I will be dosing Seachem Phosphorus and stump remover for nitrates tonight. Went to petco, bought a small UV Sterilizer, as I am using it in a biocube right now. I have the UV sterilizer, the magnum and the return pump running. I blew off the rocks and that has cleared up as it went in through the magnum and the return. I do not have my wave pump running at all right now and there is so much flow already that the dino's were being lifted into the water column. I am going to run this tank the way it is right now for a few days.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Is dino-x fish safe?

Bad picture, but pretty much all of my corals are probably lost. Any coral tissue the dinos attach to is just skeleton within 48 hours. Tissue that they havent adhered to is left intact.

Corals so far effected acropora, poccilopora, serriatopora.

Corals that are just retracted without tissue loss, montipora, euphylia, Briareum asbestinum, palythoa.

includes recent frags and corals added last year. I have similar effects from brevetoxin species, increased the amount of carbon to fill my entire rector.

The only other filtration i am running is my skimmer and the recently added uv. I am actually contemplating dipping all my corals and sanitizing the tank.

Thoughts or ideas welcome.

Alk, ca, and mag have been steady. Po4 and no3 have been raised since treatment but still within a mixed reef range. Testing them daily to maintain them there.

 

[George Willings]

My teal GSP seems unaffected from the dino's, my cloves, hammer, and blasto have pulled 100% into their skeletons, my orange spekeled BTA is seriously ticked off or dying. It still has a good foot hold but is shriveled up totally. Its mouth is open and it wont eat. As for Dino-X, I am unsure as I have not used it. I have heard it is hit or miss with that, so it sounds like it only works with certain strains.

 

[janos]

Used the Dino X but did not helped anything but the corals was suffering from that.

 

[PanchoG]

Maybe I'm jumping in at the wrong time in this forum, but I wanted to report that after many months of dinoflagellates (looked like Ostreopsis with my daughter's microscope), I decided to invest in a Pentair 18w UV on my 45 gallon cube. Within 24 hours of turning it on, all the dinoflagellates were gone! SPS extending. Zoas are happy and open! Two days now dino free! My tank has never looked this good. This is not a cheap solution, but it worked for me.

In my opinion UV sterilizer is the best solution against dinos.

 

[George Willings]

My blasto is totally sunken into itself, nothing but the white skeleton showing. Hope it makes it. Anemone is the same no change, as is my hammer.

Magnum still running along with UV sterilizer, just dosed more nitrate and phosphate into the tank.
Will test water in a bit, have to flush a dang radiator.

 

[PanchoG]

My blasto is totally sunken into itself, nothing but the white skeleton showing. Hope it makes it. Anemone is the same no change, as is my hammer.

Magnum still running along with UV sterilizer, just dosed more nitrate and phosphate into the tank.
Will test water in a bit, have to flush a dang radiator.

You may try to vacuum the dinos or blow them to force them to into the UV.