Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Rick Cavanaugh]

Hi I need help with the id of this Dino

 

[MrsBugmaster]

After 8 months with no visible evidence of dinos (ostreopsis) they are back! The only thing I changed was to clean all the GHA and detritus out of my refugium. The next day I started seeing them come back and yesterday confirmed it microscopically. Can something as seemingly insignificant as cleaning the refugium do this?!

NO3 was 2.5, PO4 was 0.08 when it happened. I've raised NO3 to 5 and PO4 to 1.2. I'm about ready to give up and go FOWLR!!!!

I have a FOWLR and am fighting dino's!

 

[saltyhog]

Yes. Winning! Cylindrotheca diatoms dominating.

Can you tell what species of dino that is? My original infestation appeared to be a monoculture of ostreopsis. UV turned that around very quickly. What else do I need to do for these guys (nutrients are NO3 5, PO4 0.08). This is obviously a sand dwelling species that isn't responsive there for to UV.

Have you been dosing anything to encourage diatoms?

That's the real head scratcher. There has been no additions of rock, sand or anything that would add silicates. I had just ordered some Sponge Excel but haven't received it yet. I can't for the life of me imagine how I got a diatom bloom in a tank of this age. Do some salt mixes contain silicates? I did change salt mixes a few weeks ago.

 

[saltyhog]

I have a FOWLR and am fighting dino's!

Oh absolutely. I was just noting that the species I had was very toxic to coral but had not seemed to cause any problems with my fish's health.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Can you tell what species of dino that is? My original infestation appeared to be a monoculture of ostreopsis. UV turned that around very quickly. What else do I need to do for these guys (nutrients are NO3 5, PO4 0.08). This is obviously a sand dwelling species that isn't responsive there for to UV.





That's the real head scratcher. There has been no additions of rock, sand or anything that would add silicates. I had just ordered some Sponge Excel but haven't received it yet. I can't for the life of me imagine how I got a diatom bloom in a tank of this age. Do some salt mixes contain silicates? I did change salt mixes a few weeks ago.

I wish that I could grow some diatoms. The prorocentrum in my sandbed are not shifting, even with a 55w UV running. I'm beginning to wonder if they actually do go into the water column at night. Or even if my UV is set up right and is actually doing anything.
They're not getting any worse, which is something to be positive about, but they're not really getting better either.
I'm thinking of a 3 day blackout next.

 

[saltyhog]

I wish that I could grow some diatoms. The prorocentrum in my sandbed are not shifting, even with a 55w UV running. I'm beginning to wonder if they actually do go into the water column at night. Or even if my UV is set up right and is actually doing anything.
They're not getting any worse, which is something to be positive about, but they're not really getting better either.
I'm thinking of a 3 day blackout next.

I wish I could tell you why I'm able to grow them as I don't have a clue. I guess I should not look a gift horse in the mouth. I may get a Hanna silicate tester just to see if my salt mix is the source.

 

[taricha]

Hi I need help with the id of this Dino

Rick, that's Small Cell Amphidinium. faster swimming more motile than common larger amphidinium, these do make it into the water column.

Can you tell what species of dino that is? My original infestation appeared to be a monoculture of ostreopsis. UV turned that around very quickly. What else do I need to do for these guys (nutrients are NO3 5, PO4 0.08). This is obviously a sand dwelling species that isn't responsive there for to UV.

Is this the vid you meant to post? because those are all ostreopsis, and are not the small fast swimming cells from your earlier vid of mostly diatoms.

 

[OpenOcean33]

Ok. So back from vacation and tank looks like a complete mess and it is now time to throw everything I can at this thing to rid this crap. It appears to be amphi that I have. I have been way over feeding and dosing nitrates. No water change since beginning week of december. Im willing to try anything I can to do this. Dino X requires a skimmer, correct?

Did you try dosing silicates ?

 

[OpenOcean33]

@taricha @reeferfox just a thought as I was listening to meleves reef this morning on sand bed care. He said something I was totally unaware of and should have known. He talked about how sand sifting stars destroy all living things in existence in the sand bed. There main purpose in life is beat eat eat and essentially it kills the sand. So I assume this means siphoning would destroy all the good living things in the sand bed ? Or move it too much and keep from out competing thr dinos on the sand. He said all the life lives on the first half inch of sand. I dont k ow if this is already well known by all but I have always been a siphoner. So I just wanted to share maybe no dand sifting stars and no siphoning or other creatures that devour the sand bed of food. He said snails are fine. I will see what happens if I get rid of the star and dont siphon.

 

[Idoc]

Small Cell Amphidinium. faster swimming more motile than common larger amphidinium, these do make it into the water colu

Have you heard whether UV works with small cell amphidinium dinos since they make it into the water column somewhat?

 

[SteveO83]

Did you try dosing silicates ?

No. Where can I find info on this?

 

[saltyhog]

Is this the vid you meant to post? because those are all ostreopsis, and are not the small fast swimming cells from your earlier vid of mostly diatoms.

Yes, I was just posting to show what I did have before and that there were no other species I could see then. The ostreopsis were eliminated very quickly with UV. I was referring to the video/still shot in post #6417. Can you tell what species that is? Anything additional to be done for it?

 

[Idoc]

No. Where can I find info on this?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/amphidinium-dinoflagellate-treatment-methods.365850/

Buried in this thread by @taricha is a very detailed explanation of dosing silicates... how much, etc.... I'm using SpongeXcel to dose silicates and it seems to be working. BRS sells it.

 

[Zhark17]

Hi guys!
Dinos are gone 99%! UV really kills prorocentrum!!!!

Thank u all!!!!!!!!

 

[dwest]

Have you heard whether UV works with small cell amphidinium dinos since they make it into the water column somewhat?

uv did not help with my small cell amphidinium. I still run my UV as many of us have more than one type of dino.

I had to remove my sand (in addition to elevating nutrients) to make a sizable dent with small cell amphidinium. After I removed sand, I also tried silicate dosing, which certainly favored the growth of diatoms. If I were to do it all over again, I would certainly try silicate dosing before removing sand.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Hi guys!
Dinos are gone 99%! UV really kills prorocentrum!!!!

Thank u all!!!!!!!!

Good news.
How have you got your UV set up? (position, flow etc) My prorocentrum, pretty much isolated to the sand now, is proving difficult to kill off completely. I don't know if I just have a stubborn strain or my sterilizer is not optimally set up.

 

[taricha]

Have you heard whether UV works with small cell amphidinium dinos since they make it into the water column somewhat?

Good news.
How have you got your UV set up? (position, flow etc) My prorocentrum, pretty much isolated to the sand now, is proving difficult to kill off completely. I don't know if I just have a stubborn strain or my sterilizer is not optimally set up.

both Small Cell Amphidinium and Prorocentrum are tougher cases with regards to UV. UV is helpful, but the cells often need encouragement to enter water in bigger numbers. Gradually increasing number of hours of darkness, blasting with flow, etc. can change some cues that they use to decide to swim at night.

Yes, I was just posting to show what I did have before and that there were no other species I could see then. The ostreopsis were eliminated very quickly with UV. I was referring to the video/still shot in post #6417. Can you tell what species that is? Anything additional to be done for it?

I can't even say for sure it's a dino. I have some sand critters that swim similarly in my system, and they are rhodomonas or cryptomonas - good microalgae. I can say for sure its not a problem - you wouldn't even know they were there if you didn't scope the brown diatom patch.

 

[Dj City]

Bump

Is there anything I can do to minimize the dinos?
Anyway to try to clean the corals to minimize dino transfer?

 

[rickster]

After reading countless pages in this forum, I'm totally confused on how to combat these Dino's which started 3 weeks ago. Bought a microscope to identify them , so if some one could tell me what they think they are, maybe I can do something . Quick background , 80gal mixed reef, just restarted back in November because I moved to a new house. kept old rock and replaced sand & water. I don't want to do more than one type of treatment at a time to see if it works & not cause havoc, so far I shortened light schedule and intensity, did 4 treatments of Dino X to give that a try since I read that it help about 60% of the cases. I run both a algae turf scrubber and GFO in a reactor, which might have brought down the NO3, below .05 so I took the reactor off line.
I did notice after viewing them under the microscope I added some Hydrogen peroxide to my specimen cup with the strands of dino and they turned black and clumped up, no movement under the scope either.
My levels are: alk 9.4, cal. 440, Mg 1281, PO4 .05, NO3 5, Sal. 1.025, Ph 8.3 temp 78.8; running a Coralife turbo twist 3x which is a 9 watt UV. I put together a vacuum with a MJ1200 pump attached to a 10 micron filter sock and vacuumed my complete sand bed carefully to remove all dinos and scrubbed with a toothbrush the rocks and had a marineland water polisher in the tank with an additional micron filter 4 hours of cleaning and it looked great when I was done, ALL of it came back by noon the next day long snoty strands with air bubbles attached on rock,glass, sand everywhere. I bought Seachem Phosphorus and Nitrogen, but I'm not sure If I want to start dosing them, thinking it might cause other algae problems and I'm trying to let those levels rise naturally, by feeding regularly, and shortening up the lighting schedule on the ATS.
Am I doing the right thing? I don't know what to do next??
Help!!
Rick

 

[saltyhog]

both Small Cell Amphidinium and Prorocentrum are tougher cases with regards to UV. UV is helpful, but the cells often need encouragement to enter water in bigger numbers. Gradually increasing number of hours of darkness, blasting with flow, etc. can change some cues that they use to decide to swim at night.


I can't even say for sure it's a dino. I have some sand critters that swim similarly in my system, and they are rhodomonas or cryptomonas - good microalgae. I can say for sure its not a problem - you wouldn't even know they were there if you didn't scope the brown diatom patch.

Made my day! They move a lot faster than any dino I've seen. I'm pretty sure I saw the same critters in the biofilm off of my glass.

Why I have diatoms in a tank that's been up and running for almost 7 years/2 years after a move is beyond me...but I won't complain. Beats the heck out of dinos!