Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[ecas12]

@ecas12 Vacuuming out nuisance is good and necessary. Don't leave it for the sake of competition.
Not clear to me what type it is from those pics. Video might help.
Fuge may or may not make a difference. I'd go ahead with whatever the overall plan was.

Thanks for the advice. Going to start dosing silicates and phosphates to begin with, as well as move forward with the refugium. I will try to get some video later today.

I also purchased some additional CUC largely consisting of sand sifters to help.

 

[ecas12]

Thanks for the advice. Going to start dosing silicates and phosphates to begin with, as well as move forward with the refugium. I will try to get some video later today.

I also purchased some additional CUC largely consisting of sand sifters to help.

Won't let me edit my post anymore but here are some vids.

I sort of became mesmerized looking at the microfauna in my tank so I took way too many videos, but I tried to capture video of any organism I found in the sample I pulled out. These videos are taken from a sample of brown and purple mucus I pulled off of one my rocks. The larger organisms sort of look like pods but I haven't been able to confirm. It seems like I have a mix of ostreopsis and amphidium. Ostreopsis seems likely to me because many of the moving ones have the spinning motion similar to the video in the Dinoflagellate ID guide, but I haven't seen many in my actual water and these seem to be embedded in this purple string (Cyano?), which apparently is supposed to be amphidium instead.

 

[taricha]

Won't let me edit my post anymore but here are some vids.

1st vid, small cell amphidinium.
2nd vid, small cell amphidinium and some red cyano.
3rd vid, small cell amphidinium. A large copepod, a small - possibly dead copepod, and some sort of worm thing.

I love looking at microscope views of the critters on our tank surfaces. It's wild and endlessly fascinating.

 

[ecas12]

1st vid, small cell amphidinium.
2nd vid, small cell amphidinium and some red cyano.
3rd vid, small cell amphidinium. A large copepod, a small - possibly dead copepod, and some sort of worm thing.

I love looking at microscope views of the critters on our tank surfaces. It's wild and endlessly fascinating.

Thanks for the confirmation. Already ordered silicate and phosphate to raise my nutrients a bit and have adjusted my lighting schedule based on some recommendations in this thread. Will be getting a UV sterilizer soon too, and fuge is getting set up this weekend.

 

[BetterJake]

I now have an outbreak of a new kind of Dino after I thought I beat them. Are these Ostreopsis?

 

[taricha]

I now have an outbreak of a new kind of Dino after I thought I beat them. Are these Ostreopsis?

Yessir.

 

[Turkey head]

At the moment, it looks like I have beat my Dino problem. They were all over the sand and rocks and were attached to corals which they subsequently killed because they caused dead spots where they attached. The tank is 2+ years old and is fully cycled. Nitrates were high , 60-80 at their worst and after the coral died (nitrates weren’t so high when the corals were alive, I kind of gave up for a while after they died and I couldn’t beat the dinos). I decided to get the tank back in order so I went after the nitrates first. Started carbon dosing and the nitrates started going down. I looked at the dinos under a microscope to confirm them. Yep dinos. They look like ostreopsis. They would go into the water column at night and string up in the water during water changes. I bought a “15 Watt Advantage 2000+ UV Sterilizer with Hanger Spout - Aqua Ultraviolet” from BRS. After about two days, they were significantly reduced. As of now, a few weeks after the IV, they are nearly gone. Just a little on the sand. Not enough to string up and the nitrates are at 16. Of course, I did reduce feeding and did regular water changes, but those had no effect on the nitrates or dinos alone.

tldr: Ostreopsis dinos with high nitrates. UV fixed it.

 

[thomasweissbach]

I am new to this group and facing a huge issue with Ostreopsis and Coolia.
It's a new tank with 460L/125gal.
After a week I found small amounts of diatoms and Ostreopsis and Coolia under the microscope. With the retreat of the diatoms, Ostreopsis and Coolia increased massively. And the smell of the Dinos is bad.
After 2.5 weeks they spread very fast all over my tank. It started as a layer on the sand ground and then grew all over the rocks. Up to now my softies, lps and sps are still fine and uncovered. but I think I see an effect of the toxin (?) in the Alveopora, which does not show its polyps anymore.

My first attempt with DinoX and in a second stage RedX from fauna marin did not show any inhibiting effect (besides killing the starfish).
I have increased the salinity to 36.5ppm.

today I have tried using metronidazole in a one doese treatment at a dosage of 3.2mg/l or 125mg/gal, which is said to be reefsafe.

In an older thread I read that there is a possibility to add "positiv" Dinos to a tank to occupy the livespace and push back or even prey on other Dinos?
Roscoff offers lots of Dino strains in Europe, like Oxyrrhis and Parvilucifera (might prey on Ostreopsis).

UV is ordered as well as CO2 absorber to reduce CO2 in the air of the skimmer.

Any other ideas?
Thanks a lot, Thomas

On Jan 4th i mentioned having an issue with Dinos (Ostreopsis and Coolia) that appeared after a couple of days with diatoms. The diatoms disapeared and the dinos overtook the 460l tank. DinoX did not at all do its job, so i tried with H2O2, 3%, 10ml/100L while filtering over 500g of Carbon. 10days later all Dinos disapeared and made room for cyanobacteria (positive identification under the microscope). All Corals (SPS, LPS and Softies) as well as inverts and fish survived. Now I just need to get rid of the cyanos, which seem to be completely resistant to H2O2. Any proposals?

 

[Eclyps19]

I spent a couple years battling dinos in my main DT. I tried everything in this thread and I think I over-did something (I think I dosed way too much silica) and after that nothing would thrive. I ended up doing a complete teardown. Everything was cleaned multiple times with vinegar, bleach, and citric acid. It was left to dry in the sun for about 2 weeks. And then it sat empty for nearly a year before I decided to set it all back up again.

2 months in, the only "uglies" that I had were small cell amphidinium. And they are *everywhere*. Disappointed is an understatement, but I'm going to not take any drastic measures for at least 6 months. All that I plan on doing is keeping my NO3 and PO4 at reasonable levels and do minimal water changes.

Feeling defeated

 

[taricha]

2 months in, the only "uglies" that I had were small cell amphidinium. And they are *everywhere*.

That pic looks like maybe ostreopsis. Got a video?

 

[Rob0019]

Looking for an ID on these please.

 

[taricha]

amphidinium. maybe large-cell amphidinium.

 

[Rob0019]

amphidinium. maybe large-cell amphidinium.

Thank you so much.

 

[Eclyps19]

That pic looks like maybe ostreopsis. Got a video?

Now that you mention it... zooming in it definitely looks like ostreopsis. Phew, that's good at least... Maybe I'll consider hooking my UV back up in that case...

 

[ggNoRe]

I spent a couple years battling dinos in my main DT. I tried everything in this thread and I think I over-did something (I think I dosed way too much silica) and after that nothing would thrive. I ended up doing a complete teardown. Everything was cleaned multiple times with vinegar, bleach, and citric acid. It was left to dry in the sun for about 2 weeks. And then it sat empty for nearly a year before I decided to set it all back up again.

2 months in, the only "uglies" that I had were small cell amphidinium. And they are *everywhere*. Disappointed is an understatement, but I'm going to not take any drastic measures for at least 6 months. All that I plan on doing is keeping my NO3 and PO4 at reasonable levels and do minimal water changes.

Feeling defeated

Have you tried the Elegant Corals Dinoflagellates Regimen? This method usually works when nothing else does.

 

[DarkReefer]

Looks like my Dino fight isn't over. Starting to see some thicker build up of dinos happening on the sand bed again *sigh*.

I'm hesitant to dose h202 only because I recently put in a firework clove polyp frag that was originally fairly large with 7-10 polyps. Guy at the fish store told me to dip using h202 so I gave it a go and it nearly melted them all. Thankfully starting to see one come out the past couple of days but don't want to upset it because these things are expensive... If it gets much worse I'm going to have to though I think.

Might drop the whites/reds/greens off completely. Still dosing MB7 in the mornings and also dosed some pods a week or so back too. Likely do a water change and try and siphon it out on the weekend whilst I'm at it.
Wish they'd just go away...

 

[ecas12]

Thanks for the confirmation. Already ordered silicate and phosphate to raise my nutrients a bit and have adjusted my lighting schedule based on some recommendations in this thread. Will be getting a UV sterilizer soon too, and fuge is getting set up this weekend.

Quick question about UV sterilizer size. The guide on the forum says to get a sterilizer rated for 1 watt per 3 gallons. In my case, my entire system is 90 gallons so 90/3 = 30. Sterilizers of this size such as this one, https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/turbo-twist-12x-ultraviolet-sterilizer-36w-500-gal-coralife/, which is actually 36 watts, is rated for a 500g tank. Will getting a sterilizer that's too big cause any problems, or would the one in the link I mentioned work appropriately? This is for small cell amphidinium.

 

[DarkReefer]

Quick question about UV sterilizer size. The guide on the forum says to get a sterilizer rated for 1 watt per 3 gallons. In my case, my entire system is 90 gallons so 90/3 = 30. Sterilizers of this size such as this one, https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/turbo-twist-12x-ultraviolet-sterilizer-36w-500-gal-coralife/, which is actually 36 watts, is rated for a 500g tank. Will getting a sterilizer that's too big cause any problems, or would the one in the link I mentioned work appropriately? This is for small cell amphidinium.

Different manufacturers have different size guidelines I believe.
The 1 watt per 3 gallons is a general rule from what I understand but it's probably better to look into what the manufacturer suggests for your specific model.

 

[OlafsReef]

Need to vent.

7 reef tanks in and both tanks I tried LEDs on got dinos. Heck if I can say what the cause is, I have nutrients, and used real Florida live rock, up for over a year. Used to keep SPS with ease, now... things seem harder.

Lots of theories out there, but no one seems to really know why we are seeing so much dinos these days, .

This might be the death a hobby I loved since 2005.

 

[DarkReefer]

Need to vent.

7 reef tanks in and both tanks I tried LEDs on got dinos. Heck if I can say what the cause is, I have nutrients, and used real Florida live rock, up for over a year. Used to keep SPS with ease, now... things seem harder.

Lots of theories out there, but no one seems to really know why we are seeing so much dinos these days, .

This might be the death a hobby I loved since 2005.

I feel your pain although I'm only new into the hobby (started in 2021).
When I first set up my tank, I don't remember getting dinos like this. I ran it for a year, had some nutrient issues (swings) due to me learning the ropes but never had dinos.

This second time around (After moving house early last year and having to recycle and with new rock etc) I've had dinos pretty bad after the first 4 months of it being great. The last 4-6 months has just been dino issues. Lights were running the same schedule both times around too.

Just last night I dropped off my whites/reds & green completely so just running blue/purple/UV currently and put acclimation mode back on for another 21 days starting at about 30%.
Such a pain in the butt.