Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[dwest]

@dwest Would this work? https://www.amazon.com/Jebao-CW-55-Clarifier-Sterilizer-Aquarium/dp/B00UB5SYD4/ref=asc_df_B00K1HHG9U/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198063854780&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17414148078676466236&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9025754&hvtargid=aud-467077737785la-348866889286&th=1

Yes. You might even be able to get away with the 55w version. Sending pm

 

[Shallow Planet]

Can someone help me confirm this is amphidinium? I know my pics arent the greatest....thanks

 

[Shallow Planet]

pic

 

[Paullawr]

There are a lot of requests for IDing as of late. I know @dwest has provided the algaeid link which can help and suggest paging back a few pages to see this link.

As a rule of thumb you can break down dinoflagellates in to two categories. Free swimmers & surface dwellers.

Whilst both types are bethnic some do leave to migrate in water column.

Due to some microscopes providing bot the best picture you may need to have provide an educated guess yourselves. Dont forget there are multiple sub strains of amphidium, osteo etc we just roll them all in to the broad classification at the moment.

To aid with ID a small video clip is best as movement gives it a way. For that reason search youtube what you think it is and if a video matches your cell movement its likely that.

Amphidium glide over sand moving forwards. Osteo move as if tethered to a central point.

Do your dinos prefer sand. Brown stains on sand which appear darker during high lighting and before lights on appear fainter. Likely amphidium or procentrum. At night they migrate from surface where photosynthesis is aim to beneath sand to prevent algae grazers wiping them out.

If at night rocks look clearer but during day snot appears likely osteo.

Long treatment method (if you can call it that) on here is same.

If free swimming a good UV will help. 5 micron filter socks also good (if you can find them). Also use only at night and ideally clean and change daily at that micron. There is a paper towel trick which can be used instead of socks.

 

[Jonreefer]

so far so good. I look to be winning my battle with them. I am about at 98% free of them. I just very little left of the webbing on the sandbed that I have left I didnt suck out and that is getting less and less each day.
No more bubble anywhere and it seems my rocks are pretty much 100% free of them now as well.
So I anyone wants to follow my path of which I have no clue what could have been the table turner for me.

I did a 4day black out with dosing h202 2 times a day at 1ml per 10g
I was also dosing Microbactor7 daily during the blackout
sucked out 85% of my sandbed
After that I started hitting it daily with Dr Tim waste away for about 6days and a day i did Dr Tim Eco balance as well
Also I started to get my N&P up since they always tested zero and towards the end I was just dumping it in without testing and got my Nitrate to 10 and phos to .2
I now did 1 half dose of DinoX lastnight as well and doing another does every 2days.

As far as livestock I seem to have lost my pompom crab from it because when it was at its worse the stringy stuff got all mixed up on its leg hairs and was freaking the crab out and suspect it may have killed it from stress.
Looks like I might be losing my one cool green yuma I got but it was my fault I believe as I was sucking out sand I got to close and it nipped it and put a tear in it and seem to have degraded at that tear. Hoping it might recover.

 

[Paullawr]

Good news. I think most peoples battles are unique. Still dont get complacent and keep at it.

 

[Jonreefer]

I am gonna keep doing all these things for a while. I am in the process of a40B build I am going to be moving it to. Hope they don’t come back when I do the move. Doing ABS bare bottom on this one so maybe that will help.

 

[Jonreefer]

oh I forgot one more step. I have been running my lights at only about 3.5hrs a day mainly all blues only for about a week while I was dosing Dr Tims
This evening is when i put my light schedule back to normal for starting tomorrow

 

[Pacmann84]

I have finally rid my tank of Dino’s. (Or at least have them at bay) It only happened once I piped my UV directly into the DT along with elevated N03 and N04. I previously had it in my sump with no success. My question to everyone now is this... what’s a good way to pipe in the UV, right now I have an ugly pump in the middle of my DT.

 

[dwest]

I have finally rid my tank of Dino’s. (Or at least have them at bay) It only happened once I piped my UV directly into the DT along with elevated N03 and N04. I previously had it in my sump with no success. My question to everyone now is this... what’s a good way to pipe in the UV, right now I have an ugly pump in the middle of my DT.

I hung my UV off the back and have a small mj1200 powerhead in the corner of the tank feeding it. You may be able to move yours to the sump return line later when the dust settles.

 

[saltyhog]

My UV unit arrived today and I plan to set it up after the reef club meeting at my house. Show and tell will be allowing everyone to see what ostreopsis looks like under the microscope. Everything was going so well.....oh well I'm not giving up just yet!

 

[Chris Villalobos]

Had a moderate outbreak of dinos and I really appreciate the information in this thread. I'm doing "Waste Away" dosing while maintaining NO3 around 5ppm and PO4 around 0.06ppm. After a week of treatment my tank is noticeably better. My GSP colony that was completely covered with stringy brown Dino slime is now clean and coming back to life. I still have some dinos on the sand bed but it's almost not worth syphoning anymore. I did notice NO3 and PO4 dropping so I increased my dosing regimen. Anyway I'm happy to be on the mend.

Edit: I'm dosing NaNo3 and Na3PO4 to keep my nutrients up.

 

[saltyhog]

Got my UV beast going. Will use this temporary set up for now and if it's beneficial or needed long term I'll figure out a more permanent installation.

 

[Paullawr]

Got my UV beast going. Will use this temporary set up for now and if it's beneficial or needed long term I'll figure out a more permanent installation.

Tank looks nice from what i can see

Awesome UV

 

[Paullawr]

Had a moderate outbreak of dinos and I really appreciate the information in this thread. I'm doing "Waste Away" dosing while maintaining NO3 around 5ppm and PO4 around 0.06ppm. After a week of treatment my tank is noticeably better. My GSP colony that was completely covered with stringy brown Dino slime is now clean and coming back to life. I still have some dinos on the sand bed but it's almost not worth syphoning anymore. I did notice NO3 and PO4 dropping so I increased my dosing regimen. Anyway I'm happy to be on the mend.

Edit: I'm dosing NaNo3 and Na3PO4 to keep my nutrients up.

Funnily enough since i started dosing sand bacterial cleaner my outbreak slowed down. Not actually sure what cleared it up. Think it was a combination of kalk nuking (my go to) and not running a skimmer for ages. Mind am about to hook up a mame skimmer next week.

 

[Paullawr]

oh I forgot one more step. I have been running my lights at only about 3.5hrs a day mainly all blues only for about a week while I was dosing Dr Tims
This evening is when i put my light schedule back to normal for starting tomorrow

Keep us posted. Always nice to hear about success stories.

 

[SeaDweller]

I don’t think this is Dino’s, but could someone help? I have a 60 cube set up 3 weeks ago or so as an emergency to pull some frags out of my tank. The cube houses a bunch of Acro frags, LR from my DT, and two tiny fish. I get this brown, stringy, stuff that seems to form only on the egg rate, white or black. Had white then switched to black and I still have the brown stringy stuff. Could it be Dino’s or cyano or just regular algae? My circ pumps suck in air so the brown strings get bubbles on them, so I am not sure the bubbles form on their own.

When I pull off the strings and rub my fingers into a paper towel, it’s almost like a fine dust and sometimes there’s what appears to be a strand of clear hair in it. And it has an algae odor to it.

This was from this morning. I tried to get as much as I could off with a toothbrush, added it to some tank water and shook it up as much as I could, ran it thru a paper towel:

This picture was within minutes of “filtration”

This picture is after a few more minutes:

This stuff is just sitting on the bottom.
What does it look like? No microscope available.
NO3 at 5 and PO4 appears to be 0.25 on Salifert

 

[dwest]

I don’t think this is Dino’s, but could someone help? I have a 60 cube set up 3 weeks ago or so as an emergency to pull some frags out of my tank. The cube houses a bunch of Acro frags, LR from my DT, and two tiny fish. I get this brown, stringy, stuff that seems to form only on the egg rate, white or black. Had white then switched to black and I still have the brown stringy stuff. Could it be Dino’s or cyano or just regular algae? My circ pumps suck in air so the brown strings get bubbles on them, so I am not sure the bubbles form on their own.

When I pull off the strings and rub my fingers into a paper towel, it’s almost like a fine dust and sometimes there’s what appears to be a strand of clear hair in it. And it has an algae odor to it.

This was from this morning. I tried to get as much as I could off with a toothbrush, added it to some tank water and shook it up as much as I could, ran it thru a paper towel:

This picture was within minutes of “filtration”

This picture is after a few more minutes:

This stuff is just sitting on the bottom.
What does it look like? No microscope available.
NO3 at 5 and PO4 appears to be 0.25 on Salifert

There is a thread about your method. I thought that if the mass congealed back together, it was dinos. But you’d have to check the thread. I would get this.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071JQFXC4/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Pacmann84]

Now that I have my Dinos at bay and I’m going back to somewhat of a normal schedule with regards to normal maintenance and water changes. I don’t seem to have an issue keeping my nitrates up to detectable levels, I struggle to keep my phosphates at detectable levels. I only have a small piece of chateo. I keep the refuge light off right now. I have to dose brightwell phosphate heavily in order to keep any sort of detectable levels. I only run my skimmer, UV light, and refuge. Any help or thoughts? Last thing I want is for Dinos to take over again. I feed very heavy, 3 times a day. Thoughts?

 

[Paullawr]

I don’t think this is Dino’s, but could someone help? I have a 60 cube set up 3 weeks ago or so as an emergency to pull some frags out of my tank. The cube houses a bunch of Acro frags, LR from my DT, and two tiny fish. I get this brown, stringy, stuff that seems to form only on the egg rate, white or black. Had white then switched to black and I still have the brown stringy stuff. Could it be Dino’s or cyano or just regular algae? My circ pumps suck in air so the brown strings get bubbles on them, so I am not sure the bubbles form on their own.

When I pull off the strings and rub my fingers into a paper towel, it’s almost like a fine dust and sometimes there’s what appears to be a strand of clear hair in it. And it has an algae odor to it.

This was from this morning. I tried to get as much as I could off with a toothbrush, added it to some tank water and shook it up as much as I could, ran it thru a paper towel:

This picture was within minutes of “filtration”

This picture is after a few more minutes:

This stuff is just sitting on the bottom.
What does it look like? No microscope available.
NO3 at 5 and PO4 appears to be 0.25 on Salifert

Correcting earlier post. 98% sure its them. Mscope only way to confirm.