Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Beardo]

Can someone help confirm if this is ostreopsis? Microscope is a cheap usb one but hopefully the pictures are good enough. The cells I circled move around as I was looking at the algae through the microscope. I also think it’s dino since when the tank was set up about 2 weeks ago my pod population was fantastic as this stuff started to grow, my pod population kind of just vanished. Thanks in advance.

As has already been mentioned, lots of diatoms.
The dinos look to be Prorocentrum.

 

[taricha]

Can someone help me I'd this, the microscope that I have it's not that good this is the best I got.

Those could be diatoms. Some link up like that into filaments. Could also be something weirder like chrysophytes.

Got a pic of what that stuff looks like to the eye and where it's growing?

 

[Jonreefer]

So does it mean when the brown strands of Dinos turns all white and ashy looking they have died?
I have been hitting them again and doing a blackout now and dosing DinoX during blackout. and all the brown strands that started forming have all turned white and ash looking.

 

[NMdesertReefer]

Those could be diatoms. Some link up like that into filaments. Could also be something weirder like chrysophytes.

Got a pic of what that stuff looks like to the eye and where it's growing?

It's just growing on the rocks this is some pics also they don't move under the microscope.

 

[Jonreefer]

kinda looks like bacteria slime to me

 

[NMdesertReefer]

I don’t think these are dinos. Do the round things move? They should look like one of these:

http://www.algaeid.com/identification/

They don't move and according to my microscope those are pictures at 900x so they are way smaller. Then what those look like.

 

[Denisk]

As has already been mentioned, lots of diatoms.
The dinos look to be Prorocentrum.

Thank you! Yeah I just checked and my po4 is .006 which is definitely low and nitrates luckily are between 8 and 12 ppm.

 

[taricha]

It's just growing on the rocks this is some pics also they don't move under the microscope.

Chrysophytes!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chrysophytes-help-me-cure-it.263759/

 

[NMdesertReefer]

Chrysophytes!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chrysophytes-help-me-cure-it.263759/

Thank you, I really appreciate everyone's help.

 

[._Z_.]

Just an update and some advice. I finally got a UV on my 40 gal after ostreopsis became the main strain in my tank.

I tried the 24 watt AA green killing machine internal sterilizer from amazon. This seemed like a great tool because it came with its own pump and I could throw it in the display for a few weeks then take out. This thing didn’t do anything but heat up my tank for a few weeks

I was on the verge of giving up when I decided to try the jebao 36W this weekend and like others have reported it only took a couple days to make a huge difference.

I still have a sandbed dino problem but that was expected. Will likely try silicate dosing in another week or so as the other strains die down some more.

TL;DR: the Submersible AA aquarium green killing machine is a waste, go with a good external uv sterilizer.

 

[dwest]

Just an update and some advice. I finally got a UV on my 40 gal after ostreopsis became the main strain in my tank.

I tried the 24 watt AA green killing machine internal sterilizer from amazon. This seemed like a great tool because it came with its own pump and I could throw it in the display for a few weeks then take out. This thing didn’t do anything but heat up my tank for a few weeks

I was on the verge of giving up when I decided to try the jebao 36W this weekend and like others have reported it only took a couple days to make a huge difference.

I still have a sandbed dino problem but that was expected. Will likely try silicate dosing in another week or so as the other strains die down some more.

TL;DR: the Submersible AA aquarium green killing machine is a waste, go with a good external uv sterilizer.

It’s great that your ostreopsis is clearing!

I believe the green killing machine has worked for others. Certainly 24 watts is big enough for a 40 gallon. Do you have any idea of the flowrate through the unit?

 

[._Z_.]

It’s great that your ostreopsis is clearing!

I believe the green killing machine has worked for others. Certainly 24 watts is big enough for a 40 gallon. Do you have any idea of the flowrate through the unit?

I’m not sure what the flow rate was. It came with its own pump so I would guess the flow rate was optimized for that size UV which seemed like a plus. The pump didn’t have much for labels to tell me what it’s pumping though.

 

[Denisk]

So I just want to say thanks for those who helped me with id’ing whether I had dino. Which it seems like I may have had some however it also showed that I had a lot of diatoms. Looking at the diatoms and what you see in the pictures below, would you consider this chrysophytes (golden brown algae/diatom)? I currently have No3 between 8 and 12 ppm but po4 is .006 ppm. My question is should I do anything different in regards to treatment. I wonder if this happened bc I rinsed my sand with tap water. You all said not to let my nutrients bottom out so that way the diatoms will hopefully outcompete the little bit of Dinos but Im also wondering if the diatoms I have are actually chyrsophytes. I beat dino before but don’t think I’ve had chrysophytes and potentially having both at the same time doesn’t let me sleep easy lol

 

[Will W]

I was just doing some research and came across this article has anyone attempted this yet ? It includes the Dr. Tims refresh and waste away. I have never heard of it before https://s3.amazonaws.com/brsinstructions/brsDrTims/DrTims_Dinoflagellate_Recipe_BRS.pdf

I just heard of this approach from my local fish store (Coral Corral)as this is what worked for them . They told me they had Dino' s in their Acro display when Dr. Tim came into there store (selling his products) and he told them he could get rid of it in a few days using this approach and it worked perfectly. From now on this is there main approach with customers. I am trying it now.

 

[Anthrax91]

There’s nothing in this or any other Dino thread to suggest that dinos can be permanently prevented from entering a system.
You said yourself you did A fresh reset, and it was only a few months before they returned.
For dips to kill dinos on individual pieces, two kinds of dips are useful: a low salinity/FW dip to rupture cells, and a dip in some oxidizer to attack photosynthetic cells. But I have no idea what level of those two kinds of dips would be safe for corals.


Post a pic?

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Here's a pic of the dinos I'm battling. I dont have access to a microscope at the moment which sucks

 

[Anthrax91]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Here's a pic of the dinos I'm battling. I dont have access to a microscope at the moment which sucks

Here's another pic

 

[OpenOcean33]

I just heard of this approach from my local fish store (Coral Corral)as this is what worked for them . They told me they had Dino' s in their Acro display when Dr. Tim came into there store (selling his products) and he told them he could get rid of it in a few days using this approach and it worked perfectly. From now on this is there main approach with customers. I am trying it now.

Let me know how it works. I haven't tried yet but am doing silicate dosing right now

 

[taricha]

Here's another pic

That kind of stringy-ness still suggests cells that go into the water and can be attacked from the water column.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

My battle with prorocentrum had stalled, not getting any worse but my sand bed was still showing them and they weren't going away.
3 days ago I decided to reduce the duration of my lighting from 12 hours down to 7 and immediately there has been an improvement. Tellingly, my phosphates have really shot up. They had dropped down to roughly 0.05 but today they have spiked at 0.2. Hopefully that means good things are happening.

 

[Manose]

I finally got a chance to get my algae under a microscope:

I need help with an id please