Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[OpenOcean33]

Rocks and sand bed.

Seems I’m having a bacteria bloom. White cloud.

Should I stop this recommended method? Or see it through?

I think if you have a bacterial bloom I would stop, start the skimmer back up and do a water change and maybe add a uv sterlizer. But this is my personal opinion and I'm not expert in that I will let someone else chime in for some help. Also retest the samples from the sand and from rock to re identify here you may have more than one type or maybe the stuff on the rocks is just cyano. I would reccomend get microscope pics of the dinos from sand and rock and a full tank shot post it here. This will help us get started. In helping you move in the right direction.

 

[Paullawr]

After a month of elevated nitrate, this past Saturday and no change...if not worse, I started the “Dr Tim’s” method.

Waste away, skimmer off, vodka..etc.
day 3. Killed 5 fish including my large yellow tang who’s barely alive. Now a decent white cloud in the tank.

Battling Dino and Cyno has been the devil for 4mo.

Suggestions on starting over. How?

That leaflet looks like a made up solution by someone who has never dealt with them.

I love the timings as well. Whats that about.

The best advice is bin the leaflet.

Starting a fresh? Dont bother if you are doing it to avoid dinos. I tried on four tanks before accepting if i want anything in it at all other than water ill get them.

The bacteria bloom is due to dr tims. The only truth that tims will have at beating dinos is by breaking down waste fueling them in the sand bed. And not all that efficiently.

My advice.

Go get ozone generator and bottle of fauna marin red x. NOT dino x but red x.

Pull out all the sand run and do a big water change. Yes you heard me right.

Run ozone for about three days Depending on tank size and output of ozone dont over do it. I run 50mg for twelve hours on 40litre tank without issue. Your millage may vary.

Do this for a few days. It will break down the DOCs most likely fueling their growth.

Now turn ozone off, remove all filtration media other than sock and skimmer and start treatment. Idl leave skimmer off a few hours after dosing to ensure circulated.

I had a lot of success with it. But does depend on infestation size.

 

[Wxguy23]

I have done several things. I greatly appreciate all the advice, I do. The original post has been great with tons of info. I have learned a lot on dosing with PO4 and NO3(stump removers), black outs, etc.
Had great success in getting the numbers up for a good month. Then I got impatient and went with Dr Tim's advice after cyno/dino went nuts again last week. .

Since I am down to 2 fish and shrimp left, I am looking more at starting over. Currently my tank is for sale but not a lot of interest. Mainly because I would like to at least recover some of my expense.

That being said, I really want to do this. Especially since my 6yo daughter loves it.
I have spent $$ on new lights, new UV, new skimmer, more powerheads, new water test kit, air stones, RODI water, chemicals...etc since December. I understand it's all part of the game. I do. Now a suggestion to buy an ozone generator and different chemicals.

My question is. If I drain the tank and turn in what's left of my livestock. What is my next step? Can I let my LR dry out/die off or bleach it? Do I just toss the sand and go without or buy more? I went 2 years without dino or cyno with very little problems. I was doing something right. Then one big water change and new lights to prepare for corals, I messed up.

I know I can, but HONESTLY, If I start over, bleach/dry out rocks, go sand free...etc. What are the chances of getting this mess again? Because my other thought is going back to freshwater.

Thanks again all. I appreciate all the advice. I promise, I am listening. Seems most of my post are negative, but the hobby has been difficult to enjoy lately.

 

[Paullawr]

Been there and got the t shirt.

So know how you feel. Spent tonnes on corals, fish equipment et el. Thousands in fact.

There is no one quick fire solution but ill say red x worked on my smaller outbreak.

Cysta can remain dormant on dry rock for years. Bleach is effective if you can get it into every nook and cranny. Having said this i bleached my second tank and started over. They were reintroduced by my original clam despite being in quarantine a month with h202 dosing and no visible signs when moved.

So yes totally get the negative vibe on this. Based on that. Dont go with my suggestion. If you have already spent a cr ap tonne there is no guarantee any method can get rid of them.

 

[Jberge]

I’ve had dinos in my dt for quite a few months now. I had cyano so I used chemiclean and then was left with hair algae that was underneath. Not long after the dinos exploded. They are everywhere including growing over whatever hair algae was there. There were some in my sump too but now it’s mostly just thick, bright HA. I’m starting to see cyano show up again in my dt growing over top of the dinos. I guess my question is, is the cyano a good sign and can it can out compete the dinos?

 

[OpenOcean33]

I’ve had dinos in my dt for quite a few months now. I had cyano so I used chemiclean and then was left with hair algae that was underneath. Not long after the dinos exploded. They are everywhere including growing over whatever hair algae was there. There were some in my sump too but now it’s mostly just thick, bright HA. I’m starting to see cyano show up again in my dt growing over top of the dinos. I guess my question is, is the cyano a good sign and can it can out compete the dinos?

I would say yes let the cyano outcompete the Dinos especially if they are growing over them. Then natural reduce the cyano maybe with out the chemo clean this time and see how this works out. This would be my theory and what I would personally try.

 

[Jberge]

I would say yes let the cyano outcompete the Dinos especially if they are growing over them. Then natural reduce the cyano maybe with out the chemo clean this time and see how this works out. This would be my theory and what I would personally try.

Thanks. I was thinking the same thing

 

[Ernie C]

I have done several things. I greatly appreciate all the advice, I do. The original post has been great with tons of info. I have learned a lot on dosing with PO4 and NO3(stump removers), black outs, etc.
Had great success in getting the numbers up for a good month. Then I got impatient and went with Dr Tim's advice after cyno/dino went nuts again last week. .

Since I am down to 2 fish and shrimp left, I am looking more at starting over. Currently my tank is for sale but not a lot of interest. Mainly because I would like to at least recover some of my expense.

That being said, I really want to do this. Especially since my 6yo daughter loves it.
I have spent $$ on new lights, new UV, new skimmer, more powerheads, new water test kit, air stones, RODI water, chemicals...etc since December. I understand it's all part of the game. I do. Now a suggestion to buy an ozone generator and different chemicals.

My question is. If I drain the tank and turn in what's left of my livestock. What is my next step? Can I let my LR dry out/die off or bleach it? Do I just toss the sand and go without or buy more? I went 2 years without dino or cyno with very little problems. I was doing something right. Then one big water change and new lights to prepare for corals, I messed up.

I know I can, but HONESTLY, If I start over, bleach/dry out rocks, go sand free...etc. What are the chances of getting this mess again? Because my other thought is going back to freshwater.

Thanks again all. I appreciate all the advice. I promise, I am listening. Seems most of my post are negative, but the hobby has been difficult to enjoy lately.

I know how you feel. here are My two cents for what they are worth, there is no quick fix and starting over doesn't mean that you wont introduce dinos back into the system. You have to have the proper balance in bio diversity to keep things in check, at least that is what i think i've been trying to accomplish and have been successful with. If you've already bought all the equipment and the tank is running, i think it would be less expensive to work through it. There was no way i could start over and lost a bunch of coral but luckily good portions of my live stock seemed unaffected or i just took the right steps quickly enough. I had/have ostreopsis dinos. Not sure which do you have, but it took me over a month to get it under control. I've posted my steps before but here were my steps in brief , I raised no3 and po4 and maintained it, Stopped dosing anything, reduced lighting (hours/intensity), turned off wavemakers, would siphon out dinos nightly through a filter sock, added some live rock rubble to my sump from lfs to add bacteria diversity, after like two weeks of this routine the dinos would only concentrate in certain spots (since wavemakers were off) which i could siphon a lot easier. When their numbers were greatly reduced, i dosed DinoX (only did 3 doses). It has mixed reviews but seemed to work for me as i followed the directions carefully. That got them almost gone, finally i put in a monster UV (55watts) in the display and have it running since. Knock on wood, but currently can't see them any longer and corals are bouncing back. I don't have sand though so it made the siphoning part way easier. Good luck which ever way you go though.

 

[taricha]

I have done several things. I greatly appreciate all the advice, I do. The original post has been great with tons of info. I have learned a lot on dosing with PO4 and NO3(stump removers), black outs, etc.
Had great success in getting the numbers up for a good month. Then I got impatient and went with Dr Tim's advice after cyno/dino went nuts again last week. .

If you have a good scope, good test kits, uv, and decide you want to push through, drop me a PM if you'd like.

 

[JARRED Hill]

I’m hoping to get some help from the experts. I have a fairly new tank that was started about 5 months ago. I’ve recently experienced a brown slime growing primarily on the sand bed that I think may be Dinoflagellates. After looking through a microscope I still can seem to find an exact match. I see what looks like a diatom in the center but I’m not sure what the majority of this is. Can anyone confirm my fears.

Thanks!

 

[dwest]

I’m hoping to get some help from the experts. I have a fairly new tank that was started about 5 months ago. I’ve recently experienced a brown slime growing primarily on the sand bed that I think may be Dinoflagellates. After looking through a microscope I still can seem to find an exact match. I see what looks like a diatom in the center but I’m not sure what the majority of this is. Can anyone confirm my fears.

Thanks!

Welcome to club!

Hmmm. They don’t look like dinos to me, although may be a few in there. Are they moving? Let’s see if we can get some help. @taricha are you around?

 

[JARRED Hill]

No movement that I could identify where they were bunched together but there was slight movement along the edges. Fingers crossed it’s just algae or diatoms.

 

[taricha]

No movement that I could identify where they were bunched together but there was slight movement along the edges. Fingers crossed it’s just algae or diatoms.

Those are not dinos. Or at least not our normal problem dinos. They almost look like individual cells embedded in tissue or a colonial organism.
Can you take a pic of the problem area in the tank?

 

[JARRED Hill]

Those are not dinos. Or at least not our normal problem dinos. They almost look like individual cells embedded in tissue or a colonial organism.
Can you take a pic of the problem area in the tank?

Ok, I think I must have been focusing in on a piece of algae or something. I took another look today and it definitely looks like Dinos. Can someone please confirm. Thanks!

 

[taricha]

Ok, I think I must have been focusing in on a piece of algae or something. I took another look today and it definitely looks like Dinos. Can someone please confirm. Thanks!

Ostreopsis dinos.

 

[Paullawr]

Ok, I think I must have been focusing in on a piece of algae or something. I took another look today and it definitely looks like Dinos. Can someone please confirm. Thanks!

Quite lucky. Normally much denser in numbers than that. Stick a uv on it and forget about it.

 

[JARRED Hill]

Quite lucky. Normally much denser in numbers than that. Stick a uv on it and forget about it.

Yes, luckily I recognized it early before it could gain a foothold. At this point it is mainly stringy patches on the sand bed that I have been siphoning off.

 

[Paullawr]

Yes, luckily I recognized it early before it could gain a foothold. At this point it is mainly stringy patches on the sand bed that I have been siphoning off.

Yeah keep on top of it.

 

[OpenOcean33]

So guys an update on my status, From coolia, to amphidium, to otreopsis recently taken out with UV, and current 2 weeks of clean sand bed (longest it has ever been) a dusting is coming back to what appears to be amphidium. It feels all treatment have become bandaids and looking for some last ditch efforts. One year of treatment and still loosing the battle here.

 

[dwest]

So guys an update on my status, From coolia, to amphidium, to otreopsis recently taken out with UV, and current 2 weeks of clean sand bed (longest it has ever been) a dusting is coming back to what appears to be amphidium. It feels all treatment have become bandaids and looking for some last ditch efforts. One year of treatment and still loosing the battle here.

Sorry. Do you still have measurable phosphates and nitrates? Have you tried dosing silicates for amphidinium? Still running UV?