Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[BenitaSolo]

@mcarroll @taricha
This was identified in the thread as Coolia and it appears very similar to the photos and videos I have posted.

Dino id?

The reading I am doing tells me that the Coolia will go into the water column at night and eradication can be a combination of increased available nutrients in conjunction with a UV.
What is puzzling to me is that these do not seem to go into the water column at night. It appears that they stay on sand and rock surface. I am figuring this can be a few different variable
1) It's just not dark enough in the room..
2) It's diatoms on the sand with the dinos so it looks like the dino are on the sand but what I am seeing is actually diatoms...
3) They aren't coolia. If not coolia then what?

 

[mcarroll]

I think Ostreopsis's defining feature is its sesame-seed shape and it's cartwheel "driving style" in videos.

And yes, considering all the clues so far, Amphidinium seems the most likely to me.

 

[Adz 82]

I'd Please

 

[Adz 82]

 

[reeferfoxx]

There is a video with movement and some photos. I have an idea of what needs to be done IF this is Dino and depending on what type it is.

These look like coolia to me.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I'd Please

Amphidinium.

 

[BenitaSolo]

These look like coolia to me.

Thanks for the input. I agree that they move and look like coolia

 

[MannyT]

It seems my Amphidinium Dino’s have been somewhat suppressed now that I have this cyano bloom going on. I’m still not 100% sure what the stuff growing on the rocks is. Can anyone help ID? Cyano? Dino’s? Some form of hair algae? Thanks.

 

[Kenneth's Tropical Fish]

My tank was originally set up with dry pukani rock and caribsea live sand, filtration was ATS, periodic use of carbon, purigen & UV. I never had any issues with cyano or dinos and my display tank was always algae free. To catch a fish in my display tank I had to remove most of the rockwork, this caused a big nutrient spike to around 70ppm no3 and then I started to get black/ dark purple cyano and dinos appeared on my sand bed. My ATS then struggled to grow green hair algae after so I took the ats down, purchased a skimmer, carbon dosed and used seachem denitrate in a reactor, I spent months combatting this and stopped dosing nopox and decided to try a brightwells nitrate brix which kept my nitrates stable and I could stop dosing nopox.

During the big nutrient spike I still never had any green algae grow in my DT, just cyano and dinos. No3 were always between 2ppm to 5ppm and po4 was around 0.03 to 0.05 after bringing the levels down.

I then downsized my tank and kept the rock and used caribsea dry sand with fresh water, I also changed my lights from dsuny to maxspect razor 15k incase the spectrum was off with the cheap dsuny leds.

Then diatoms came and went which was then followed by the black/dark purple cyano and dinos on the sand bed, what was interesting is if I allowed the cyano to take hold over the rocks the dinos would start receding. I got fed up with syphoning the tank etc so i used chemi clean which wiped out my cyano, this in turn allowed my dino to take over and I still never got any algae growing or even green algae on the glass.

If i siphoned my sandbed within a few hours golden brown patches would start developing on the sand and if I left it for to long they would slowly encroach on the rock work my nutrients remained stable around no3 at 5ppm and po4 around 0.03ppm.

I carried out the h2o2 test on a sample which confirmed it was not cyano, I also took a sample in a glass and tested with some filter paper and the dinos regrouped together and after a water change the population exploded which confirmed it was dinos.

They mostly stayed on my sand smothering it like a carpet with plenty of bubbles, it never got stringy but was not diatoms.

I then tried h2o2, vibrant and as a last resort dino X. All of which did not even make a dent in my dinos...so with a vacation coming up, I decided to bite the bullet and go for a 9 day total blackout with my filter socks filled with floss.

I came back and my tank look stunning! I was pleased hoping it would have been enough to beat back the dinos. However, I put my lights on a heavy blue bias very low intensive to not shock my corals and within the same day small brown patches started appearing which I tried to syphoning, but it was a loosing battle.

I finally thought I will attempt a more natural approach and see if I can raise my nutrients and see if anything else might be able to out compete my dinos...so I took out my GFO, stopped water changing and switched off my nitrate reactor. I stopped cleaning the sandbed and stopped cleaning the glass (dinos grew on the front glass, from the reefer outlet I think) I still kept changing my filter floss as soon as it was mostly brown.

My po4 rose to around 0.05 maybe slightly more and no3 around 20\25ppm I started to get green hair algae grow on the outlet of the return on the reefer, the front panel was mostly green, with some clumps of hair algae and some clumps started to grow from a few rocks....I also noticed the green algae start growing over the dinos on the sand bed and only where the dinos were...eventually the green algae moved across the sand bed to a thick green short hair algae mat.

Yesterday I cleaned the glass, replaced my carbon and siphoned up the sandbed, I left some bits growing on the rocks and will just monitor it, but so far there's no sign of dinos growing on the sand bed, keep in kind that previously would start reappearing a few hours after syphoning the sandbed.

I don't know if the blackout allowed the dinos to take a hit and allow the green algae to take hold im not sure, but so far it's very promising to see that raising my nutrient levels allowed my dinos to stay away, maybe because either my tank never had equilibrium or allowing other algaes to increase in population is now out competing the dinos.

My anecdotal experience seems to point to dinos taking hold in unbalanced systems where there is no equilibrium amongst all the other algae/bacteria species in the tank and by knocking back the dinos then raising nutrients might allow them to be kept in check so to speak.

You sir are my hero! You explained it better then the offical dino post for me....I had a similar start, I did a dry start after watchimg brs do a video on what can come on live rock so I decided to try and prevent that by doing a dry start on my tank...like you said I think my tank never acheived balance because it never had any algae in my tank I went straight to using the red sea care recipe for my mixed tank and first it was cyano then dino and now it seems like a mix. My tank is uber clean 0 nitrates and 0.01 phoshates the water even smells clear....my skimmer doesnt even pull anything out because I feed my fish exact mysis pieces not a single mysis shrimp touches the sandbed. Im gonna try and bring up my nutrients now!

 

[Adz 82]

Amphidinium.

So here's my parameters nitrate 12
Posphate 0.10 tank has been running for about 9 months, always had brown dust on rocks which have now iD as Amphidinium, could never get chaeto to grow only gha in refugium, so thought start up ATS which has been running for about 4 weeks. In display I have corlaine algae growing also some cyanobacteria. What would be my best coarse of action. Oh and I have just noticed what I believe to be bryopsis two tiny 1cm pieces. Any help much appreciated

 

[TexasTodd]

So, strange question, but has anyone seen outbreaks after feeding Reef Roids? I'm not 100% sure as there are always so many possible factors, but I swear I've seen some micro algae / cyano mini outbreaks that start a day after using. 150g sps system. I don't test P and N often but last test P at .03 and N about 10. I only put about a 1/4tsp of the roids in. But, have not used them consistently.....mainly because of this possible correlation. Roids just into water, not a paste for LPS.

 

[maksim serebro]

What are you guys dosing to increase nitrates and phosphates? Thanks

 

[Scottybgood]

What are you guys dosing to increase nitrates and phosphates? Thanks

I used Brightwell NeoPhos for Phosphate, then just used Spectracide Stump Remover to NO3 (there are several posts on the R2R on how to measure and mix up a solution to dose)

 

[maksim serebro]

Thanks!

 

[wesman42]

So apparently bubble algae was the first thing to take hold and compete with the Dinos after raising my nutrients. At what point is the new algae addressed...obviously keep nutrients elevated..but Should I get an emerald crab?

 

[fish.geeks.3]

Easier than you think.... Put down the bottle boys and girls..think about the problem on a bigger scale ... The globe ... We're in the world is this problem found in the ocean we're is it not . Not going to find it in cold water under 50 deg not going to find it In warm water 88 deg + . Where is the problem worst .. 71 to 76 degrees near fresh water inlets........I took a natural route to solve the problem. When through the same long processes everyone else did.... ........SET SALT LEVEL TO 1.028 TO 1.031..TURNED TEMPS UP TO 88 TO 90 DEGREES. UP YOUR CLEAN UP CREW AFTER YOU START SEEING PROGRESS.. + A GOOD UV LIGHT..... Simple safe and natural does it work .. I take care of 7000+ gallons of saltwater split between 26 tanks largest system 1600 gallons smallest 6 gallons ..solved the problem every where .. worked on this problem for two years and I tried everything chemical manual extraction all with disastrous results dead fish corals and inverts .... Using this method for 6 months waited to post my results until I had a solid results.. .. worth mentioning if the tank is extremely bad might want to do a hard core manual extraction first use common sense when your done uv lite fresh carbon .


I really hope this helps people out keeping them in the hobby with beautiful successful tanks .. 100s of hours of videos microscopic images spread over all my tanks over 2 years want to get it all put together and get 2 or 3 Youtube videos posted if I ever find the time .

 

[fish.geeks.3]

Easier than you think.... Put down the bottle boys and girls..think about the problem on a bigger scale ... The globe ... We're in the world is this problem found in the ocean we're is it not . Not going to find it in cold water under 50 deg not going to find it In warm water 88 deg + . Where is the problem worst .. 71 to 76 degrees near fresh water inlets........I took a natural route to solve the problem. When through the same long processes everyone else did.... ........SET SALT LEVEL TO 1.028 TO 1.031..TURNED TEMPS UP TO 88 TO 90 DEGREES. UP YOUR CLEAN UP CREW AFTER YOU START SEEING PROGRESS.. + A GOOD UV LIGHT..... Simple safe and natural does it work .. I take care of 7000+ gallons of saltwater split between 26 tanks largest system 1600 gallons smallest 6 gallons ..solved the problem every where .. worked on this problem for two years and I tried everything chemical manual extraction all with disastrous results dead fish corals and inverts .... Using this method for 6 months waited to post my results until I had a solid results.. .. worth mentioning if the tank is extremely bad might want to do a hard core manual extraction first use common sense when your done uv lite fresh carbon .


I really hope this helps people out keeping them in the hobby with beautiful successful tanks .. 100s of hours of videos microscopic images spread over all my tanks over 2 years want to get it all put together and get 2 or 3 Youtube videos posted if I ever find the time .

If you would like to contact me .phishgeeks@ Gmail.com

 

[n4s]

Please help identify type of Dino. Growing on glass mostly. It’s also killing my snails. sorry for quality. It’s best I can get with toy microscope and iPhone.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Please help identify type of Dino. Growing on glass mostly. It’s also killing my snails. sorry for quality. It’s best I can get with toy microscope and iPhone.

This looks like small cell amphidinium, to me.

 

[Great white shark]

Hi all

I am looking for some help and advice on combating a Dino outbreak in my tank .

Unfortunately at the moment I don’t have a microscope to check which one it is .

History , I originally had a 600 gallon tank but I decided to go smaller as it was costing me to much to run, my current new tank is approx 800 litres , so I decided to transfer some of my live rock to start my new tank , in my old tank I never suffered with any sort of algae problems it was probably down to me having high phosphate and nitrates .

When I set up the new tank I decided to get my phosphate and nitrate levels down so I started dosing phos rx to lower my levels which worked I also have a cheato rector and a nitrate reactor running on the tank to help bring down those levels to .

My current parameters are

Phos 0.06
Nitrate 25ppm

So I think the imbalance between the two has possibly brought on the Dinos.

So my questions are .

Do I bring my phosphate levels back up ? Which phosphate product do you recommend to do this ?

Do I remove the cheato reactor even though the cheato seems to be growing well ?

Do I turn of the nitrate reactor as I currently feed vodka in to ?

Do I need to turn my lights off for a while or keep them on a normal schedule?

Do you keep doing water changes as I have read that adding new water feeds the dinos as it full of trace elements?

I currently have turned my uv back on in the last week but I am unsure it is helping or not also I run a bare bottom tank so the only Dinos are on the rocks , it is not to bad at the moment but I am trying not to let it get any worse if possible.there seems to be a mixture of cyano and dinos also a little bit of hair algae on the rocks .

I don’t really won’t to dose any products such as Dino x as I have read mixes reviews.

Any advice would be very welcome

Cheers Paul