Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

MadTownFess

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Do you know which type of Dino you are facing?

Amino acids and stuff like bio fuel and Biobase will fuel Dino blooms. SpongExcel or silicate will not.

If you have not identified your Dino’s type, stop panicking and get a cheap microscope and get a picture and video. Then post it here.

20190513_160351.jpg
 

Stephers

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Little update... this is my second battle with dinos. My first was with Ostreo almost a year ago,, which proved very fast and easy to get rid of with UV.

This time I got a mixture of Ostreo and Coolia, mostly Coolia and I also have a TON of hair algae it's growing on. I immediately popped on a UV. Lastt time my problem was solved in just a few days. It seemed to do nothing this time. I had it on for a month with no improvement. I was having a problem keeping my nutrients up for literally for a year now, but for some reason a week or two ago,, my nitrates shot up to 10 ppm and my phosphate at about 0.1, which I know is great for this battle but I am confused why that happened.

I was trying to manually get the dinos into the water column and relying on the UV. I even did a 3-day blackout, which only made my SPS pale. My corals were looking worse and worse so I decided to try dosing silica. I started two weeks ago. I don't have a test kit and heard good and bad about them, so I've been dosing it pretty willy-nilly. after a week, I wasn't seeing much change and couldn't find any diatoms under microscope. I thought maybe the UV was killing the diatoms and took it off. Now today, a week later, I have TONS of diatoms, confirmed with microscope. I could only find ONE single dino amongst a million diatoms. My corals are also starting to look much better, I noticed, from a couple days ago.

I'm going t o keep going with the high silica dosing for a while longer and then try and lower my nutrients a tad and possibly try reef flux for the hair algae while keeping low doses of silica. I'd rather stare at some light diatom growth than have dinos killing my corals and hair algae smothering everything.

So I'm here to say to give silica a try if you need another option!
 

Ross Petersen

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Just read lots of this wicked post. I'm starting a new 100-gallon tank and have dry rock, a BM skimmer, roller filter, two Kessil a360x lights, and have yet to purchase sand (but may get some live Caribsea). What are your thoughts on the best practical measures I can take to prevent undue blooms of dinos and other algae? Particularly with respect to:

-Should I buy some cured rock to supplement the dry rock I already have?
-Start with the skimmer on or off?
-Use the roller filter to begin with or not?
-Bare bottom or not?
-How much ceramic biomedia to start with, if any? Seeing mixed reports.
-Should I push to get a refugium up and running at the onset? Reading mixed reports on this w/ respect to dinos.
-Seed copepods or not to begin?

Cheers,
Ross
 

dwest

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Just read lots of this wicked post. I'm starting a new 100-gallon tank and have dry rock, a BM skimmer, roller filter, two Kessil a360x lights, and have yet to purchase sand (but may get some live Caribsea). What are your thoughts on the best practical measures I can take to prevent undue blooms of dinos and other algae? Particularly with respect to:

-Should I buy some cured rock to supplement the dry rock I already have?
-Start with the skimmer on or off?
-Use the roller filter to begin with or not?
-Bare bottom or not?
-How much ceramic biomedia to start with, if any? Seeing mixed reports.
-Should I push to get a refugium up and running at the onset? Reading mixed reports on this w/ respect to dinos.
-Seed copepods or not to begin?

Cheers,
Ross
I think the main thing is to not use anything that removes nitrates or phosphates unnaturally. At least for a long time after your tank has been up and running. These would include gfo, biopellets, carbon dosing, etc. I would not even run a lighted refugium for quite a while. I believe a skimmer is ok. Certainly adding real liverock and live sand is also a plus. I don’t know if you have watched the brs videos about the wwc brs method, but I think those are very useful. Here’s one:

 

Ross Petersen

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I think the main thing is to not use anything that removes nitrates or phosphates unnaturally. At least for a long time after your tank has been up and running. These would include gfo, biopellets, carbon dosing, etc. I would not even run a lighted refugium for quite a while. I believe a skimmer is ok. Certainly adding real liverock and live sand is also a plus. I don’t know if you have watched the brs videos about the wwc brs method, but I think those are very useful. Here’s one:



Thanks. I've watched that video and just watched it again - lots of food for thought in there.

Quick clarification: are Marine Pure Biofilter Balls (https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-1-1-2-spheres.html) the same as the biopellets you refer to, functionally speaking?

I'm starting a quarantine tank and think I should use a few of the ceramic bio-balls for nitrifying bacterial growth. Of course, they wouldn't move to the main tank. I wouldn't use a lot either with concern about them sucking up lots of free copper ions.
 

saltyhog

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Thanks. I've watched that video and just watched it again - lots of food for thought in there.

Quick clarification: are Marine Pure Biofilter Balls (https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-1-1-2-spheres.html) the same as the biopellets you refer to, functionally speaking?

I'm starting a quarantine tank and think I should use a few of the ceramic bio-balls for nitrifying bacterial growth. Of course, they wouldn't move to the main tank. I wouldn't use a lot either with concern about them sucking up lots of free copper ions.


Biopellets are a method of carbon dosing where you use a reactor instead of manually dosing or dosing liquids via pump. The Marine Pure is a ceramic media that provides surface area for nitrifying bacteria. It can reduce NO3 in some tanks but if you're only using it in the QT that won't be an issue.

For what it's worth I use Biomax ceramic filter media in the QT tank (HOB filter) I use for copper treatment with no problem maintaining stable copper levels.
 

Grigs

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Can I get an ID here please? Tried in another thread and only got a single vote for Algae. I had a green filter in the background for contrast, which I fear may have pushed it that direction. Would appreciate any input that you can offer. It builds significantly through the day after lights on, whether I toothbrush it off or vacuum the sand the day before or not. Thanks!
 

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taricha

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These are amphidinium
Can I get an ID here please? Tried in another thread and only got a single vote for Algae. I had a green filter in the background for contrast, which I fear may have pushed it that direction. Would appreciate any input that you can offer. It builds significantly through the day after lights on, whether I toothbrush it off or vacuum the sand the day before or not. Thanks!
Ostreopsis
 

Grigs

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These are amphidinium

Ostreopsis

Thank you! Seem to have eliminated them through 48 hr blackout and Dr Tims Refresh/Waste Away combo. Have some GHA and a bit of turf algae to deal with, but the ostreopsis looks like it's largely gone for the moment. Appreciate the reply very much
 

spsick

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Looking like I have Coolia, lots of fast moving little buggers. Going to get a Pentair 25w for my 65. I can’t seem to find anywhere if the higher algae/bacteria flow rate is best for Dinos. Strangely the “MAX” operational gph for this is listed at 133gph which would coincide with the Protozoa flow rate. Sorry for the shaky video the plastic microscope was pretty wobbly.

D399E23A-97A3-4194-BB1B-103AEAF1E7F5.jpeg
 

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taricha

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Looking like I have Coolia, lots of fast moving little buggers. Going to get a Pentair 25w for my 65. I can’t seem to find anywhere if the higher algae/bacteria flow rate is best for Dinos. Strangely the “MAX” operational gph for this is listed at 133gph which would coincide with the Protozoa flow rate. Sorry for the shaky video the plastic microscope was pretty wobbly.

D399E23A-97A3-4194-BB1B-103AEAF1E7F5.jpeg
agreed on the ID. And I also agree to aim for the low side of the recommended flow rate, dinos have to get more uv than "greenwater" algae or bacteria in order to kill them.
 

taricha

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Thank you! Seem to have eliminated them through 48 hr blackout and Dr Tims Refresh/Waste Away combo. Have some GHA and a bit of turf algae to deal with, but the ostreopsis looks like it's largely gone for the moment. Appreciate the reply very much
Thanks. I'm increasingly coming around to the idea that a "good bacteria" intervention should be part of all treatment protocols. Did you follow one of the Dr Tims recipes?
 

spsick

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agreed on the ID. And I also agree to aim for the low side of the recommended flow rate, dinos have to get more uv than "greenwater" algae or bacteria in order to kill them.

So more in the ~100gph range? That would certainly save me having to get a monster 800gph after head loss pump!

Thank you for your input!
 

dwest

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So more in the ~100gph range? That would certainly save me having to get a monster 800gph after head loss pump!

Thank you for your input!
For you 65 gallon tank, around 100 gph of actual flow would be good. You’ll want to to plumb from DT back to DT for best results. Good luck!
 

spsick

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For you 65 gallon tank, around 100 gph of actual flow would be good. You’ll want to to plumb from DT back to DT for best results. Good luck!

Safe to assume that works better than coming off my return manifold?

Trying to envision the plumbing. Pump (w/intake screen) right in the tank hard plumbed with PVC elbows over the rim and soft tubing down to the UV and back maybe?
 

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