Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Denisk]

My other question is that if we are looking for a source/algae to outcompete the Dino. Doesn’t that sound a bit counterintuitive if some of us place a uv sterilizer to kill the Dino?

Like in my situation I had the uv kill most of my Dino. My no3 is some where around 5/8ppm and my p04 around .3 which I consider very high. However I have no algae growth.

Could it be that the uv isn’t allowing other types of algae growth to happen in my tank?

It just seems like the uv is no longer helping and it’s growing back slower and slower. It appears to attach at the tips of sps and on the glass/sand. Little circular base attached with a very thin brown stringy algae.

Also during the come back of Dino, I started having coralline algae grow. (Random thing I thought I’d mention)

 

[promptcritical]

@promptcritical How old is this tank? Did the initial hair algae outbreak happen after adding your initial livestock? Have you done the dino test or looked at what you have under a microscope yet?

Tank has been running for 16 months. Hair algae got bad at maybe 10 months after the fish were all in and a few LPS corals. There was always a little bit from the time it cycled. None there now though! I have not done a dino test and no scope. It seems certain to me that it's dinos...stringy, fast growing when the lights come on, air bubbles after the lights have been on for a few hours. Smells weedy a little when I clean the filter socks.

 

[mcarroll]

Tank has been running for 16 months. Hair algae got bad at maybe 10 months after the fish were all in and a few LPS corals. There was always a little bit from the time it cycled. None there now though! I have not done a dino test and no scope. It seems certain to me that it's dinos...stringy, fast growing when the lights come on, air bubbles after the lights have been on for a few hours. Smells weedy a little when I clean the filter socks.

I agree it's likely, but if you're pursuing the dino angle, I'd at least run the no-equipment test.

You'd be about the 16th person to be surprised if your find that it's not dino's. And the $10 toy scope is so cool to have for other things too!!! ;P

I've bumped CUC

What did you have before in terms of number of particular snails? ...and what are the numbers and makeup now?
(I can't remember everyone's specific tank, so hit me with that info too!)

GHA is success in terms of getting things besides dino's growing. As long as it's not something worse than GHA like bryopsis, you should be able to raise grazing pressure to the point that it makes the difference. Growing or otherwise creating more coral cover is another strategy to pursue.

As for the amphidinium dino's have you already read through the results on that linked search? I'd read them all if it were me, but in particular post #1191 jumps out of that search to me. What are you doing currently aside from elevated nutrients and +CUC?

 

[mcarroll]

My other question is that if we are looking for a source/algae to outcompete the Dino. Doesn’t that sound a bit counterintuitive if some of us place a uv sterilizer to kill the Dino?

You're not wrong! And that's why we do the minimal treatment possible in terms of killing things, and we do it for a finite amount of time. We're mostly trying to "outgrow them" – we're not trying to eradicate them.

The idea is that dino's are capable of getting to a point where they dominate a tank. We want to prevent that. And we want to bring things to a point where they don't even want to dominate anymore. That's it.

The nutrients we add take away the want/impetus.

The UV (or other tool) is to reduce the quantity (and thus spread) of viable cells in the short term – so no takeover, no spread, the old dino cells die out, new dino cells are happy living as autotrophs now that adequate nutrients are around.

To your point about counter-intuitivity, I think a filter like UV is going to be selective vs whatever is blooming and creating the most cells to go through the filter – it's not going to work on anything in the tank, on the sand or on the rock. It's nicely limited like that, yet still highly effective vs certain types.

 

[wopadobop]

This stuff is driving me crazy. It is a “fatty” type of consistency . I know this is a crap photo but i cant seem to get the 1200x on microscope to focus properly. Probably should have spent an extra 50 bucks for a better scope. Anywayyy. It’s definitely single celled. I cant seem to get a shot of movement but i am using a slide cover. It blows off the rocks easy and pretty much disintegrates.

Dinos?

Have some p and stump remover. Just want to make sure I’m on the right track before i dose.

Thanks in advance.

 

[wopadobop]

1200x best i could do .

 

[promptcritical]

I agree it's likely, but if you're pursuing the dino angle, I'd at least run the no-equipment test.

You'd be about the 16th person to be surprised if your find that it's not dino's. And the $10 toy scope is so cool to have for other things too!!! ;P

Good plan. I'll try that dino test this weekend when I have some time. I read through it and think I get it. If I had a scope, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't help ME identify the problem, but I could do that anyhow and see what I see. Thanks for your advice. I'm going to continue feeding good (not crazy amounts) and not pouring chemicals into the tank or running GFO and see what happens with that. It seems like I took all the life out of my system (stupid of me I guess). Live and learn I suppose. I'm surprised that the fish don't seem out of sorts (fat and happy so it seems) and my derasa clam is growing like a weed so far. I'm putting in some phytoplankton and zooplankton (10ml of each, Seachem, twice a week in a 100 gallon or so system) along with feeding the fish. Is that a good idea? Thanks again.
-John

 

[matic]

I didnt receive my microscope yet but can someone advide me; my dino bloom got a lot smaller after adding a 55 watt uv and dosing nitrate and phosphate but now the algea is back but is a lot more red than first, on my rocks there's red fluffy algea and on the glass is a thicker layer of red algea; is this cyano taking over?

 

[rtparty]

I didnt receive my microscope yet but can someone advide me; my dino bloom got a lot smaller after adding a 55 watt uv and dosing nitrate and phosphate but now the algea is back but is a lot more red than first, on my rocks there's red fluffy algea and on the glass is a thicker layer of red algea; is this cyano taking over?

Sounds like it and it is pretty normal to progress like that. Mine went cyano and then dinos and now there is some cyano mixed with dinos and hair algae.

 

[mcarroll]

@wopadobop can you turn the light down to a lower physical position/dim it/use a smaller apeture? Looks like too much light.

 

[mcarroll]

I didnt receive my microscope yet but can someone advide me; my dino bloom got a lot smaller after adding a 55 watt uv and dosing nitrate and phosphate but now the algea is back but is a lot more red than first, on my rocks there's red fluffy algea and on the glass is a thicker layer of red algea; is this cyano taking over?

Indeed. The first step (for the tank) in the right direction.

I wouldn't freak out or break a leg over it, but I would continue with manually keeping the tank clean by scrubbing and siphoning as much cyano out as you can. Also start beefing up your CUC a little at a time to help out.

With luck your cyano will give way to some green algae and your CUC will eventually be able to manage on their own.

DO NOT let NO3 or PO4 fall back to zero until this is a forgotten memory.

 

[wopadobop]

@wopadobop can you turn the light down to a lower physical position/dim it/use a smaller apeture? Looks like too much light.

ill give it a shot. Ill try to post some pictures of the over all look of it as well. It’s very strange , looks like chicken fat. It’s the best way to describe it and comes off sorta easy and blows everywhere

 

[wopadobop]

Really should spend more on a microscope. Taking pics with phone a little plastic toy is really frustrating. Anyway. It has to an algae from what i can see there is nucleus and they are non moving. Just wish i could figure out how to get rid of it. Seems nothing eats it and it grows on everything. Other than that I’m super happy with how my tank is looking at the moment.

 

[mcarroll]

Hm....I think I'm gonna need a tank shot. At least from those shots, it doesn't look like dino's. Looks like it's green – is that true in person too?

 

[wopadobop]

Looks like chicken fat . Very brown, almost yellow. I don’t think it’s Dino’s either . At this point i almost wish it was so i knew how to beat it lol. I will never ever use reefsaver rock again. I knew better. I always cook my rock for at least 3 months before i scape the tank but i was u against the gun as a tank was coming down and i had live stock that needed to be saved. My town , county, entire area has one fish store and there tanks are awful. I wouldn’t stick a catfish in them.

Mostly it popped up when i first started the tank on zeovit. Very rapidly became phosphate limited and nitrates went through the roof. Had to do a near 100% water change after the cycle to get everthing back down to normal levels. I yanked that reactor asap and chalked it up to an expensive experiment. No one on the zeovit forums could explain why nitrates were so high. I told them I’m going to add phosphates back into the system and they about hamstrung me for even mentioning it.

 

[mcarroll]

I told them I’m going to add phosphates back into the system and they about hamstrung me for even mentioning it.

Sounds like it was a narrow escape!

I'm kinda leaning toward chrysophytes or something different. Chrysophytes do get that lumpy look.

 

[wopadobop]

That is at least a starting point. Ill do some research. Thanks Mark.

 

[wopadobop]

Yup! This is exactly what i am seeing under the scope. Golden algae. Chrysophytes . Now... how to wage genocide on them ....

 

[wopadobop]

Looks like there was already a thread on it!
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/c...fy-treat-and-remove-it-from-your-tank.299585/

So dosing KNO3 , check , been doing that for color anyway.
Manual removal , check been doing that .
Lights out period? Hmmm. Seems counterintuitive as we want other algae’s to compete with it . Your thoughts?

 

[mcarroll]

That thread was GREAT for the photos – I actually had chrysophytes (never have had dino's) and identifying the bloom as such was a PITA. So very important.

But I'm not sure there's a ton of useful advice. I'd go through some of the posts/threads that have been hashtagged #chrysophytes.

In my case I had been ignoring the tank – two-part dosers got the salinity up to 1.030 when I checked in on things. And this algae had taken over.

I did two 50% water changes. I kept up scrubbing my corals with a baby toothbrush to keep the encroachment down. (Didn't have time or reach to do the whole tank.) I also dosed some nitrates that were lacking and added a CUC....something that had been lacking for a few years, but which never appeared to be necessary until now.

Long story short, the CUC mostly took over my scrubbing efforts and the corrected salinity and added nutrients seemed to prevent further blooming and promoted regrowth of corals and other "normal" algae.