Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[blackizzz]

This was my experience and what I did:

Thank you! Definitely some steps to consider there

The UV is what moved me from the cycle of them disappearing and reappearing. As for the size of you UV, I have a 300g with a 55w UV, based on the posts here I need 2x the wattage. Get what you can, I got a cheap jabeo so I didn't **** away $500 or more on a quality UV. I will be getting a nice one later this year, probably around MACNA.

Water changes in this process are very bad. I did a water change about a week ago, so far so good. I have found a few strands here and there but they are not spreading.

Feeding did seem to help, you need something to out compete the dino's.

Skimmer on/off I really didn't notice any difference if it was on/off.

Anything from an established tank is great.

Good luck.

Thanks! UV sounds like a good idea then. Maybe keeping the skimmer on is better for aeration.
Did you dose any N/P?

 

[Victoria M]

Help!

 

[Victoria M]

@mcarroll please help me figure out how to move forward.

 

[dwest]

Looks tear shaped which would make me think it’s ostreopsis

Agree.

 

[dwest]

Some background:
I have a 40 gallon tank, that has been using the Zeovit method since the start a little more than a year ago. It was started with "real" live rock, but "regular dead" aragonite sand. At about the 9-10 month mark I started getting some stringy "algae" and it came and went, mostly in sync with increased or decreased feeding.
Right about this time the tank also experienced a "destabilizing period" when about half way through a months vacation a 2 day power outage caused a return pump to die and both temperature and oxygenation took a hit. Most things survived, but ever since then I've periodically had this "annoyance".

Fast forward to now, as the problem got worse a few weeks ago I decided to get a microscope, and it finally arrived today.



I've positively identified my nuisance "algae" as the dinoflagellate Ostreopsis Ovata. "Luckily", no matter where I check, I can find any other type of dinoflagellates.

(Sorry for the pretty lousy picture, but one can't expect much from a $11 microscope and a phone camera )

What's my course of action? Well, I'm not entirely sure, feeding more seems to "spur them on" and the following day they appear in greater spread.

I think I will do the following:

1. Remove the zeovit media and reactor, turn off dosage of carbon source and bacteria. (at least temporarily) This should let N/P rise "naturally".
2. Stop doing water changes (been doing once or twice a week). Will have to decide on a solution to vacuuming the sandbed without waterchanges.
3. Turn off skimmer (?)
4. Buy and install a 20w (or larger) UVC.

After N/P has increased:
5. Introduce "new" LR, to "seed" the tank with more biodiversity.

If anyone has any input, I'll gladly accept it

Should/could I manually dose Nitrates / Phosphates to battle Ostreopsis? I've read conflicting answers to this.

Thankful for all available help in this war

I would do 1,4,5. I would test for nitrates and phosphates. If not measurable, I would dose.

 

[dwest]

Help!

I think these are amphidinium, but let’s ask someone who knows @taricha

 

[blackizzz]

I would do 1,4,5. I would test for nitrates and phosphates. If not measurable, I would dose.

Thank you! Your suggestion sounds like a solid plan!

 

[yogi03]

Can someone help and tell me what i'm looking at here? Im not entire sure this is even dino but it does appear that way.

 

[yogi03]

Got a cleaner shot.

 

[dwest]

Got a cleaner shot.

First shots looked liked lots of stuff but not dinos. The clearer shot looks like ostreopsis dinos to me.

 

[taricha]

Help!

I kinda lean prorocentrum over amphidinium, but it's hard to say with a short video and very few cells in focus.

First shots looked liked lots of stuff but not dinos. The clearer shot looks like ostreopsis dinos to me.

Yep, and the first shots are what ostreopsis looks like when you smash it too flat with slide cover

 

[Victoria M]

I kinda lean prorocentrum over amphidinium, but it's hard to say with a short video and very few cells in focus.

@taricha Sorry about the poor quality photos. A high school teacher was helping me and I felt time was short. In the microscope I could get them in great focus but then the computer view was blurry. I have read through the beginning of this thread and I still feel confused about how to proceed. Could you please offer some advise. It seems I should vacuum and filter the dinos out but recycle the water, dose Si, keep the feeding tank and keep the light on normal schedule.

 

[taricha]

@taricha Sorry about the poor quality photos. A high school teacher was helping me and I felt time was short. In the microscope I could get them in great focus but then the computer view was blurry. I have read through the beginning of this thread and I still feel confused about how to proceed. Could you please offer some advise. It seems I should vacuum and filter the dinos out but recycle the water, dose Si, keep the feeding tank and keep the light on normal schedule.

For future reference, If you get good scope views, you can usually put a smart phone camera up to lens.
I'm going to presume prorocentrum because that's the more harmful. Any signs of toxins?
For now stop/reduce water changes when possible, carbon dosing, trace element additions, any "coral food" aminos etc.
Feed normally, but elevate P first, then N with simple inorganic forms.
Grow and export algae, suction the worst bits off the top of the sand.
Run GAC to try to handle toxins. Run large UV. Silica additions, as well as something like dr. Tims waste away can be helpful for disrupting the dinos sandbed community.

 

[Jameseywayney]

I believe I'm dealing with small cell amphidinium, hoping someone can confirm. Video is at 300x, photo is at 100x the dinos are basically only on the sand, i'm already running UV, i've been dosing microbactor7, they mostly dissapear at night. I did a 2.5 day blackout running UV and dosing hydrogen peroxide which knocked them back for a a few days but came back full force. I've just started dosing silicates hoping to outcompete them. My no3 is 5ppm and po4 is 0.16 ppm and they've never bottomed out. But i did purchase this tank about 2 months ago and it was currently running, so i moved the sand over and i'm thinking because it was all stirred up it didn't have full bacteria diversity.

 

[taricha]

So I'm celebrating being dino free for 2 months.
My current battle is with hair algae, the result of my raised nutrients during the dino battle.
Just out if interest I decided to have a look at the hair algae under my scope, and bam, like a knife to the heart, dinos.
Not just prorocentrum that I had been battling, but Ostreopsis and a small celled variety as well.
There's no sign of them in the display, but they are still there.
My UV sterilizer has been reinstalled so hopefully I can stop a major outbreak.

Post a pic of the algae and dinos? Curious if it's derbesia GHA.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Post a pic of the algae and dinos? Curious if it's derbesia GHA.

This is the neglected corner of the tank. I've been manually removing it apart from this last section.
It looks brownish under my lighting but when removed in daylight it is green. Very easy to remove and a soft, cotton candy texture.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

A photo would help.

 

[taricha]

This is the neglected corner of the tank. I've been manually removing it apart from this last section.
It looks brownish under my lighting but when removed in daylight it is green. Very easy to remove and a soft, cotton candy texture.

If you put any more under a microscope, I'd be interested to see the pics.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Best I could do I'm afraid. No dinos though so that's something.

 

[User1]

Help!

For a minute there I thought maybe my daughter used my account to post on my behalf because I thought I was looking at my tank... Here I am just a bit over a year with the tank running and now of all times do I get the combination of GHA, dinoflagellates, or some other form of nuisance algae. Sad part is one can't rely on the test results because the problem algae is masking it by consuming it.

Sorry to see you are having a similar issue. I'm thinking my issue may be still related to my use of dry Pukani rock or high silica although not sure I believe my last ATI test result.