Look up amscope on amazon and choose one i have the 40x-1000x
But you can definitely buy something so much cheaper and will get you the same results.
Last edited:
Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?
- Thread starter mcarroll
- Start date
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Look up amscope on amazon and choose one i have the 40x-1000x
But you can definitely buy something so much cheaper and will get you the same results.
Mrtakeoff53
Active Member
I’ll add my $0.02 just in case someone can benefit from my lessons.
To start, I have a 50 gal cube that’s been up for 1.5 years. Corals are exploding at the moment and I’ve never lost a fish (knock on wood). I started with dry rock and added coralline in a bottle to get some biodiversity in my tank. I’ve gone through the uglies, battled cyano and hair algae, lost corals due to bad salt, but never battled dinos, until now.
I just set up a frag tank plumbed into my main system. At about the same time I added my frag tank, I had just won the battle against a persistent hair algae that grew in clumps that required scrubbing every 2-3 days. It was ugly but didn’t harm anything. I beat it by cutting my pellet food feeding from twice to once per day, reducing my bio-enhance coral food feeding from daily to every 3 days, dosed vibrant and removed the dying macro algae in my fuge. This dropped my nutrients and the algae went away. However, it was replaced by green cyano in my main display (for the 3rd time in my tank).
Now comes the dinos (confirmed with my kids toy microscope, it was kinda cool to see). I added my frag tank, put in the frag rack, turned on the light, added corals and started noticing a brown film covering the glass and frag rack In the frag tank only, NOT the main system. I didn’t expect this as it’s plumbed to the main tank but I should have. Those clean surfaces have nothing growing on them. The first creature to take over those new spaces has unlimited reign until the competition starts. In my case, it was dinos. The clean, new surfaces combined with a low nutrient load was the perfect place for a dino outbreak. Interestingly enough, there is NOT an outbreak in my main system. ALL exposed rock is covered with coralline algae, corals or other microscopic organisms. Competition for space in the main tank is stable, but not in the frag system even though they are the same ‘system’.
This leads me to believe there is A LOT of correlation between low nutrients, lack of competition and ‘new’ surfaces that cause dinos to explode.
I’m going to see if increasing my feeding to where it was before will increase my nutrients, kick the cyano and dinos, and give other algae a chance to take over. I’ve already noticed green film algae growing on the bottom of my frag tank where brown dinos used to be. This went away when I reduced my feedings. It’s good to see it coming back. I prefer it to dinos! Hopefully it works.
Dinos on the frag racks
Green film algae on the glass of the frag tank
Main System
Clean sand, no dinos but has green cyano
To start, I have a 50 gal cube that’s been up for 1.5 years. Corals are exploding at the moment and I’ve never lost a fish (knock on wood). I started with dry rock and added coralline in a bottle to get some biodiversity in my tank. I’ve gone through the uglies, battled cyano and hair algae, lost corals due to bad salt, but never battled dinos, until now.
I just set up a frag tank plumbed into my main system. At about the same time I added my frag tank, I had just won the battle against a persistent hair algae that grew in clumps that required scrubbing every 2-3 days. It was ugly but didn’t harm anything. I beat it by cutting my pellet food feeding from twice to once per day, reducing my bio-enhance coral food feeding from daily to every 3 days, dosed vibrant and removed the dying macro algae in my fuge. This dropped my nutrients and the algae went away. However, it was replaced by green cyano in my main display (for the 3rd time in my tank).
Now comes the dinos (confirmed with my kids toy microscope, it was kinda cool to see). I added my frag tank, put in the frag rack, turned on the light, added corals and started noticing a brown film covering the glass and frag rack In the frag tank only, NOT the main system. I didn’t expect this as it’s plumbed to the main tank but I should have. Those clean surfaces have nothing growing on them. The first creature to take over those new spaces has unlimited reign until the competition starts. In my case, it was dinos. The clean, new surfaces combined with a low nutrient load was the perfect place for a dino outbreak. Interestingly enough, there is NOT an outbreak in my main system. ALL exposed rock is covered with coralline algae, corals or other microscopic organisms. Competition for space in the main tank is stable, but not in the frag system even though they are the same ‘system’.
This leads me to believe there is A LOT of correlation between low nutrients, lack of competition and ‘new’ surfaces that cause dinos to explode.
I’m going to see if increasing my feeding to where it was before will increase my nutrients, kick the cyano and dinos, and give other algae a chance to take over. I’ve already noticed green film algae growing on the bottom of my frag tank where brown dinos used to be. This went away when I reduced my feedings. It’s good to see it coming back. I prefer it to dinos! Hopefully it works.
Dinos on the frag racks
Green film algae on the glass of the frag tank
Clean sand, no dinos but has green cyano
I’ll add my $0.02 just in case someone can benefit from my lessons.
To start, I have a 50 gal cube that’s been up for 1.5 years. Corals are exploding at the moment and I’ve never lost a fish (knock on wood). I started with dry rock and added coralline in a bottle to get some biodiversity in my tank. I’ve gone through the uglies, battled cyano and hair algae, lost corals due to bad salt, but never battled dinos, until now.
I just set up a frag tank plumbed into my main system. At about the same time I added my frag tank, I had just won the battle against a persistent hair algae that grew in clumps that required scrubbing every 2-3 days. It was ugly but didn’t harm anything. I beat it by cutting my pellet food feeding from twice to once per day, reducing my bio-enhance coral food feeding from daily to every 3 days, dosed vibrant and removed the dying macro algae in my fuge. This dropped my nutrients and the algae went away. However, it was replaced by green cyano in my main display (for the 3rd time in my tank).
Now comes the dinos (confirmed with my kids toy microscope, it was kinda cool to see). I added my frag tank, put in the frag rack, turned on the light, added corals and started noticing a brown film covering the glass and frag rack In the frag tank only, NOT the main system. I didn’t expect this as it’s plumbed to the main tank but I should have. Those clean surfaces have nothing growing on them. The first creature to take over those new spaces has unlimited reign until the competition starts. In my case, it was dinos. The clean, new surfaces combined with a low nutrient load was the perfect place for a dino outbreak. Interestingly enough, there is NOT an outbreak in my main system. ALL exposed rock is covered with coralline algae, corals or other microscopic organisms. Competition for space in the main tank is stable, but not in the frag system even though they are the same ‘system’.
This leads me to believe there is A LOT of correlation between low nutrients, lack of competition and ‘new’ surfaces that cause dinos to explode.
I’m going to see if increasing my feeding to where it was before will increase my nutrients, kick the cyano and dinos, and give other algae a chance to take over. I’ve already noticed green film algae growing on the bottom of my frag tank where brown dinos used to be. This went away when I reduced my feedings. It’s good to see it coming back. I prefer it to dinos! Hopefully it works.
Dinos on the frag racks
Green film algae on the glass of the frag tank
Main System
Clean sand, no dinos but has green cyano
I posted the same experience a few times in this thread.
Would you like to guess how many times I contracted dinos in this integrated system? Only in the new (sterile) tank, not the old one(s).
One other member saw my story just as he was about to link up a new tank. We concluded he should:
a) Run them separate for a while first. 2-3 weeks IIRC.
b) Dose the new tank up with NO3 and PO4 and bacteria. (bacterial film coating)
c) Run a long light cycle (film algae coating).
It worked like a charm. No dinos.
Mrtakeoff53
Active Member
How did you end up getting rid of them? Wait a bit and keep parameters stable? Manual removal until their competition took over?I posted the same experience a few times in this thread.
Would you like to guess how many times I contracted dinos in this integrated system? Only in the new (sterile) tank, not the old one(s).
One other member saw my story just as he was about to link up a new tank. We concluded he should:
a) Run them separate for a while first. 2-3 weeks IIRC.
b) Dose the new tank up with NO3 and PO4 and bacteria. (bacterial film coating)
c) Run a long light cycle (film algae coating).
It worked like a charm. No dinos.
Mine were ostreopsis thankfully, so treatment was pretty straightforward (at least after my first go at them).
a) Dust off the UV and slap it to the side of the tank.
b) Manual removal -- just fastened a bunch of filter floss in high flow & light areas. Rinse each night.
c) (Re)fill dosing containers with sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphate solutions. PO4 first, NO3 after I could keep some PO4 measurable. SPS hate zero PO4, and nitrate dosing will lower PO4. Careful here.
d) Run GAC heavy (ostreos are quite toxic)
e) Chucked my jug of amino acids over my neighbor's fence.
Do you know what dino species you have? (Don't answer large cell amphidinium.)
Mrtakeoff53
Active Member
From the information in this Sheet and looking at it under the microscope, it’s ostreopsis. I’ll give your method a try. I just set it up so I could also just empty the tank, move my frags back to the main tank (Or get rid of them), nuke every surface in the frag tank and start it over running no lights by itself for a few weeks to get the bacterial coating going before the dinos can take over. Thoughts?
Thought I'd share my success in dealing with Ostreopsis thanks to this great info on this thread:
Set up a 70G with mostly dry rock and sand with a bit of seed rock from my last tank. At about the 4 month mark I successfully dealt with a Bryopsis outbreak with Reef Flux, directly following that my NO3 and PO3 went to zero and I got an outbreak of Ostreopsis on every surface in the tank.
I added a 24W Green Killing Machine which killed the visible Dino mats within 24 hours. Under the scope Dinos were still visible but diminished in number and "sluggish". Within a week they were gone. I dosed NeoPhos and NeoNitro to get nutrients off zero, and have since seen the appearance of red cyano mats (confirmed through microscope ID). Still Dino free for about a week and a half now, and coral are looking better with nutrients off zero.
Set up a 70G with mostly dry rock and sand with a bit of seed rock from my last tank. At about the 4 month mark I successfully dealt with a Bryopsis outbreak with Reef Flux, directly following that my NO3 and PO3 went to zero and I got an outbreak of Ostreopsis on every surface in the tank.
I added a 24W Green Killing Machine which killed the visible Dino mats within 24 hours. Under the scope Dinos were still visible but diminished in number and "sluggish". Within a week they were gone. I dosed NeoPhos and NeoNitro to get nutrients off zero, and have since seen the appearance of red cyano mats (confirmed through microscope ID). Still Dino free for about a week and a half now, and coral are looking better with nutrients off zero.
If you have the UV, and the other stuff I mentioned, you can put a world of hurt on ostreopsis in a week, arguably with less work than rebooting. Run the UV in/out of the affected display at a slow clip <300gph or even slower.
I would go ahead and move the frags out. I did lose a few monti, monti digi and acans. The PO4 starvation started the trouble with them and the dinos finished them off pretty much.
It was really surprising how the dinos actively chose NOT to travel to (or stay in) the old tank(s) in my system.
Mrtakeoff53
Active Member
I don’t have any of that equipment. I wish I did. I’ll probably end it just getting it. I love my tank and don’t want this thing spreading and destroy my display. Better to have the equipment in case it ever comes back. Thanks for the help.
I know how you feel.
1 watt per 3 gallons. If money is an issue the Jebao or Green Killing machines will suffice for the battle but will not last for much future use. Neonitro and Neophos are decent premixes. Seachem Flourish also good for PO4.
To solve fast, you kinda gotta do the full set I laid out. I did not create this myself but can confirm it was effective for me 3 times in a row.
@ScottB what do you think about doing a 10% WC ? I’m hesistant right now, but I’m trying to lower my nitrates, it’s at 50ppm right now.
I haven’t seen any specks of Dino’s on the sand bed for at least 2 weeks if not longer.
I haven’t seen any specks of Dino’s on the sand bed for at least 2 weeks if not longer.
Chrille26
Active Member
Hi! Does 20 micron stop dinocells when filtering the water? I am thinking of doing a big siphon tonight but I only have 20 micron filters on hand, is it a waste of time or will I be able to remove atleast the majority pulled through?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Mrtakeoff53
Active Member
I just ordered everything I needed to take the fight to these dinos. It’s only a 20 gal frag system but got a UV for a 75 gal system ( my main tank is 50 gal). Hopefully once it’s set up these things perish quickly. I have a friend here who has battled them too and recommend an attack plan that lines up with your suggestion. My fingers are crossed!
It is a small risk but you should be able to get away with it. While it is common husbandry practice to scrub things down for a WC, I would stay light touch for the first couple. Disruptive cleansing seems to be their queue to return.
Not that WCs change PO4 that much but you do have PO4 measurable, correct?
Yep! Still dosing phosphates atm. Will be predosing my new batch of water with some phosphate as well
Update to my battle. The high temp didn’t work so I gave that up. I also stopped dosing MB7 and started dosing Neo Nitro as I believe my Nitrates were bottomed out. Dosed whole bottle and didn’t raise them, ordered food grade sodium nitrate and will dose that. Also started dosing silicate to build diatoms to out compete my large cell dinos. I’m on day 4 of the silicates dosing and week two of adding algae barns phytoplankton. Hope to have this under control soon. As the Dinos seem much darker now that before
CDavmd
AstroReefer
check under the scope....if its looking dark brown you are likely seeing the diatom bloom which is your friend
Good! I’ll give it another week or so make sure they eat the Dino’s out.
I’ll add my $0.02 just in case someone can benefit from my lessons.
To start, I have a 50 gal cube that’s been up for 1.5 years. Corals are exploding at the moment and I’ve never lost a fish (knock on wood). I started with dry rock and added coralline in a bottle to get some biodiversity in my tank. I’ve gone through the uglies, battled cyano and hair algae, lost corals due to bad salt, but never battled dinos, until now.
I just set up a frag tank plumbed into my main system. At about the same time I added my frag tank, I had just won the battle against a persistent hair algae that grew in clumps that required scrubbing every 2-3 days. It was ugly but didn’t harm anything. I beat it by cutting my pellet food feeding from twice to once per day, reducing my bio-enhance coral food feeding from daily to every 3 days, dosed vibrant and removed the dying macro algae in my fuge. This dropped my nutrients and the algae went away. However, it was replaced by green cyano in my main display (for the 3rd time in my tank).
Now comes the dinos (confirmed with my kids toy microscope, it was kinda cool to see). I added my frag tank, put in the frag rack, turned on the light, added corals and started noticing a brown film covering the glass and frag rack In the frag tank only, NOT the main system. I didn’t expect this as it’s plumbed to the main tank but I should have. Those clean surfaces have nothing growing on them. The first creature to take over those new spaces has unlimited reign until the competition starts. In my case, it was dinos. The clean, new surfaces combined with a low nutrient load was the perfect place for a dino outbreak. Interestingly enough, there is NOT an outbreak in my main system. ALL exposed rock is covered with coralline algae, corals or other microscopic organisms. Competition for space in the main tank is stable, but not in the frag system even though they are the same ‘system’.
This leads me to believe there is A LOT of correlation between low nutrients, lack of competition and ‘new’ surfaces that cause dinos to explode.
I’m going to see if increasing my feeding to where it was before will increase my nutrients, kick the cyano and dinos, and give other algae a chance to take over. I’ve already noticed green film algae growing on the bottom of my frag tank where brown dinos used to be. This went away when I reduced my feedings. It’s good to see it coming back. I prefer it to dinos! Hopefully it works.
Dinos on the frag racks
Green film algae on the glass of the frag tank
Main System
Clean sand, no dinos but has green cyano
This is exactly what happened with me. My nutrients dropped to zero and I added a frag rack in my system. The next morning it was covered with stringy snot that started spreading. It’s a new tank (3 months. Started with cycled dry rock) but initially I thought it was odd that it blew up on a new piece I added to the tank. Your theory makes total sense. Currently dosing nitrates and phosphates, now at 2ppm and 0.04.
Correct.
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