Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?
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K. Steven
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You said you added 20 lb of live sand after removing 75%. I'm assuming you meant new sand.
Lowefx
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Yes but that was just last week. That picture is from last month.
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Here us a picture from a few weeks ago.
That pic is very typical of large cell amphidinium outbreak. I often wonder how many times people see diatoms when it's really dinos.
I like your PO4 number, but a NO3 of 2 in my system would easily bottom out to zero in less than a day.
Be patient with elevating nutrients, it takes time. In my opinion, fresh sand would take longer to colonize with the biodiversity that can suppress the dinos.
Seen a couple of people say dino-x is particularly unhelpful on amphidinium. Like it feeds it somehow.
Lowefx
Well-Known Member
I'm sure they're dinos still existing from before the move. Here is my video of them under microscope.
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Right. That scope vid was what the amphidinium ID was based on. I was replying to others suggestion it might have been diatoms.
Was making the point that amphidinium is less mucus-y and not stringy, so can get confused for diatoms dusty look.
All good.
pdiehm
Valuable Member
Mine was an ongoing cycle. Vicious cycle.
Stopped Carbon dosing, and dino's appeared (twice). Then came cyano, and Hair. Get that under control, and dino's reappeared. It kept going and going.
Finally had enough, shut everything down, removed my sandbed, and the color of the water made most mudpuddles appear clean. Starting over, new cycle, clean acid bathed rock, everything...starting over. I'm fairly certain my sand was the main cause of the issues and a lot of the messy areas were where I couldn't get to when I would vacuum the sand.
Stopped Carbon dosing, and dino's appeared (twice). Then came cyano, and Hair. Get that under control, and dino's reappeared. It kept going and going.
Finally had enough, shut everything down, removed my sandbed, and the color of the water made most mudpuddles appear clean. Starting over, new cycle, clean acid bathed rock, everything...starting over. I'm fairly certain my sand was the main cause of the issues and a lot of the messy areas were where I couldn't get to when I would vacuum the sand.
Not sure what is going on but ever since I have gone on vacation, I have dino problems which are getting very annoying and now are going ontop some of the tips of my SPS like pictured above.
Just tested my water:
Nitrate are between 4-8
Phosphates are 0.03
Alk is 7
Calc is 430
I would not be worried if it was just on the sand, glass and rock but now it is growing on some of the tips of the corals. Do you guys just suggest I do nothing but blow it off as much as possible and hope my filter socks get it all? That is what I am doing now.
Still only using a skimmer and cheato, with the nutrient levels low. I do not want to add GFO, etc
As soon as I blow it off the tips of the coral, it legit is back on it within 5 minutes every single time.
Just tested my water:
Nitrate are between 4-8
Phosphates are 0.03
Alk is 7
Calc is 430
I would not be worried if it was just on the sand, glass and rock but now it is growing on some of the tips of the corals. Do you guys just suggest I do nothing but blow it off as much as possible and hope my filter socks get it all? That is what I am doing now.
Still only using a skimmer and cheato, with the nutrient levels low. I do not want to add GFO, etc
As soon as I blow it off the tips of the coral, it legit is back on it within 5 minutes every single time.
Not sure what is going on but ever since I have gone on vacation, I have dino problems which are getting very annoying and now are going ontop some of the tips of my SPS like pictured above.
Just tested my water:
Nitrate are between 4-8
Phosphates are 0.03
Alk is 7
Calc is 430
I would not be worried if it was just on the sand, glass and rock but now it is growing on some of the tips of the corals. Do you guys just suggest I do nothing but blow it off as much as possible and hope my filter socks get it all? That is what I am doing now.
Still only using a skimmer and cheato, with the nutrient levels low. I do not want to add GFO, etc
As soon as I blow it off the tips of the coral, it legit is back on it within 5 minutes every single time.
Your issue sounds eerily similar to mine. dinos covering tips, etc... So, .03 phosphates is well within the range of possibly being zero. What are you testing them with? I was constantly seeing at LEAST .03 with my Red Sea kit but upon further investigation using a Hanna ULR phosphorus meter I found that my PO4 levels were actually 0.00. Dosing phosphates up has significantly helped my issues.
I am using the Hanna ULR, got a reading of 9.
Just checked my chart 9 has a range of .011-.044. Do you think you might be phosphate limited? I've been dosing up to .1 almost daily and I'm seeing a drastic reduction in the dinos.
Ok my question is how do you get rid of them, as it looks like the same issue I am having.
What chart is that? I thought you just multipled the number by like 3.6 and divide by 1000?
Thanks for that. I am going to try to get some better pictures tonight to make sure it is dinos, then I will start worrying more on how to get rid of it.
Don't sit on it for too long, once they come in they start to overtake pretty quickly. Do you carbon dose?
Well the tank was pretty covered it when I got back from vacation so at this point, I think I am pretty far along if it is dinos. No I dont carbon dose, only skimmer and cheato
Are you harvesting lots of chaeto? How's the growth on it?
K. Steven
Well-Known Member
I saw a large reduction in my dinos (Ostreopsis) when I started dosing phosphate. They're no longer visible in the DT and only small mucus strings in the sump, but they are white and not the dark, golden brown like they were before.
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