Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

dwest

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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?
You can certainly try the manifold. I know the plumbing is easier. But Ive had better luck (and read many many discussions that it works best ) running from DT back to DT.

Yes, your plumbing sounds good and I’m sure you might have to tinker with it. Mine is basically hanging off the back with some pvc elbows. Hopefully your is temporary. I think mine is permanent now:confused:
 

taricha

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Can anybody ID these guys? Not the best pictures....
Maybe not the best for typical purposes, but holy wow, you clearly imaged dual flagella on those dinos
DualFlagella.jpg

dualFlagella2.jpg


If you use more conventional lighting from under the sample, it'll look more like what we're used to seeing.
 

Grigs

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sed
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?

Yes, his dino program found here:


I modified it slightly by not wrapping the tank (left room lights out most of the time) and only blackout for 48 hrs instead of 72 based upon recommendations found here. Seemed to work like a charm. I just dosed the final treatment of Waste Away. Tomorrow is water change, then we shall see. I still have a slight issue with a few spots of turf algae and some GHA (primarily on the back of rocks, in refugium and on my Powerheads). Considering dosing fluc, but I'm going to see how this goes for a few more days first.
 

taricha

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Yes, his dino program found here:


I modified it slightly by not wrapping the tank (left room lights out most of the time) and only blackout for 48 hrs instead of 72 based upon recommendations found here. Seemed to work like a charm. I just dosed the final treatment of Waste Away. Tomorrow is water change, then we shall see.
Excellent. Make careful observations. I'll be very interested in how it all settles out.
 

ReefingHavoc

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This thread has been amazing.

I've been battling dinos for about 2 months. The first problem I realized after I built my new 140 gallon system was that I over filtered the system through auto water changes and a large refugium. With my previous 29 gallon system I always chasing 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates as that's what I thought I should target. Somehow the system did relatively well for 5 years. I put a lot of effort with this build to hitting zero N and zero P without understanding the consequences. Everything started great until my zoas started closing up and then downhill from there.

Thought I'd share where I am, what has helped, and get some feedback on next steps.

This was the average look of the tank for about a month

1568251117678.png


I finally broke down and bought a microscope and sure enough, Ostreopsis. After a considerable amount of reading in this forum I decided to try several approaches to bring back the biodiversity and choke them out.

1. Stopped water changes (actually about 30-40 days ago)
2. Purchased pods and phyto from Algae Barn (increase biodiversity)
3. Started dosing NO3 and PO4
4. Implemented the Elegant Corals method of adding bacteria for consumption of dino

Over the past 10 days I've been extremely diligent in testing NO3 and PO4 daily along with dosing, siphoning out any large clumps of dino, and blowing off the rocks/sand

I've started to notice that more algae is growing on the rocks as well as back wall of my tank and coralline algae has been rapidly growing. Unfortunately, all my SPS have not fared well, but LPS is holding on. I'm having to blow off less and less dino off the sand and there is only a light coating of dino on the rocks (whereas before large chunks would fly off).

I feel much better about the appearance of the tank and that I've knocked dinos back quite a bit from where there were. My question is now, what's next? Anything else besides dosing NO3 and PO4 that I should focus on? Is it just a waiting game from here for them to eventually disappear?

Parameters:
Alk = 9.4
Cal = 400
Mag = 1340
Nitrate = 10
Phosphate = .028
Salinity = 1.025
 

Grigs

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Excellent. Make careful observations. I'll be very interested in how it all settles out.
Will do. I can already say that coral coloration has improved significantly. I am having nutrients dive off again, so reducing hrs that ref light is on and dosing potassium nitrate
 

dwest

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This thread has been amazing.

I've been battling dinos for about 2 months. The first problem I realized after I built my new 140 gallon system was that I over filtered the system through auto water changes and a large refugium. With my previous 29 gallon system I always chasing 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates as that's what I thought I should target. Somehow the system did relatively well for 5 years. I put a lot of effort with this build to hitting zero N and zero P without understanding the consequences. Everything started great until my zoas started closing up and then downhill from there.

Thought I'd share where I am, what has helped, and get some feedback on next steps.

This was the average look of the tank for about a month

1568251117678.png


I finally broke down and bought a microscope and sure enough, Ostreopsis. After a considerable amount of reading in this forum I decided to try several approaches to bring back the biodiversity and choke them out.

1. Stopped water changes (actually about 30-40 days ago)
2. Purchased pods and phyto from Algae Barn (increase biodiversity)
3. Started dosing NO3 and PO4
4. Implemented the Elegant Corals method of adding bacteria for consumption of dino

Over the past 10 days I've been extremely diligent in testing NO3 and PO4 daily along with dosing, siphoning out any large clumps of dino, and blowing off the rocks/sand

I've started to notice that more algae is growing on the rocks as well as back wall of my tank and coralline algae has been rapidly growing. Unfortunately, all my SPS have not fared well, but LPS is holding on. I'm having to blow off less and less dino off the sand and there is only a light coating of dino on the rocks (whereas before large chunks would fly off).

I feel much better about the appearance of the tank and that I've knocked dinos back quite a bit from where there were. My question is now, what's next? Anything else besides dosing NO3 and PO4 that I should focus on? Is it just a waiting game from here for them to eventually disappear?

Parameters:
Alk = 9.4
Cal = 400
Mag = 1340
Nitrate = 10
Phosphate = .028
Salinity = 1.025
A properly sized UV should be very effective against ostreopsis. You should get a 50 watt UV or larger, plumbed from DT back to DT with100-300 gph running through it.
 

scottrotton

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Can someone ID this for of Dino, i also have Cyano. Pic and Video attached
Youtube



Dino 1.jpg
 

taricha

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Can someone ID this for of Dino, i also have Cyano. Pic and Video attached
Youtube
great vid. I'm unsure but leaning toward a less common type of amphidinium.
can we get a pic of the affected area in the tank?
 

Grigs

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Excellent. Make careful observations. I'll be very interested in how it all settles out.

I noticed dino's making a comeback yesterday. Measured parameters and PO4 was at 0 again.... Dosed last night to a target of .05. Will see how we do. I've also started the Fluc due to gha/turf so Refugium light and skimmer are off for 72 hrs. Could have driven some residual dino's from the refug back into the tank. If dinos don't die back off quickly with normal nutrients I'll try the Dr Tim's one more time before going UV.

ETA: just tested... so much for .05... I think I need a new scale. Wound up at 0.24.... ack! lol... I think next time I'll mix up a solution so that I can control this a bit more tightly
 
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scottrotton

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great vid. I'm unsure but leaning toward a less common type of amphidinium.
can we get a pic of the affected area in the tank?
great vid. I'm unsure but leaning toward a less common type of amphidinium.
can we get a pic of the affected area in the tank?

Will this do or I need to zoom in more?

5E0BFEE4-C762-4B78-B6EC-8D6217E223E2.jpeg
 

Jedi Knghit

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Yes. These are a kind of amphidinium.


Those seem pretty tough to beat, Considering I only have a 20 gallon tank with some CUC in it. it seems like it might be easier to do a reset on the tank.

I can easily move the CUC to the QT with my two clown fish once the fallow period ends on 9/20. Drain and bleach the tank. Put in fresh rock and sand and start over with bottled bacteria.

Any thoughts on resetting vs trying to fix the issue in such a small tank?
 

dwest

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Those seem pretty tough to beat, Considering I only have a 20 gallon tank with some CUC in it. it seems like it might be easier to do a reset on the tank.

I can easily move the CUC to the QT with my two clown fish once the fallow period ends on 9/20. Drain and bleach the tank. Put in fresh rock and sand and start over with bottled bacteria.

Any thoughts on resetting vs trying to fix the issue in such a small tank?
I don’t see any harm in starting over, but anything you put back in will likely reinfect the tank. At a miniumum, I would understand your current tank parameters (are you running low phosphates for example?), so dinos are not the predominant species next time. Let us know what you do. Good luck.
 

Jedi Knghit

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I don’t see any harm in starting over, but anything you put back in will likely reinfect the tank. At a miniumum, I would understand your current tank parameters (are you running low phosphates for example?), so dinos are not the predominant species next time. Let us know what you do. Good luck.


I feel like I have a pretty solid understanding of what went wrong. I switched from stock 20 gallon tank lid/light to a higher end LED and ran the lights too high/long. That took my nitrates, which had been hovering at 5 per Salifert test kits to .2 or less. I further complicated things by adding another fish and a shrimp without quarantining and got Ich in the tank. So I pulled the fish and put them through a QT preocess while the tank went fallow. I have not been able to get the nitrates to move since.
 

JayinToronto

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@mcarroll and everyone else who have contributed, thank you so much for this thread. It's been an invaluable resource for me! I've just started my battle. Posting a link to my thread below.

My Dinoflagellate Experience - Prorocentrum

If anyone wants to check out my thread and offer any advice for me it would be greatly appreciated!! Wish me luck!

-Jay
 

nick9one1

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I've nearly got rid of Dino's but not quite.
So far I've done two 3 day blackouts with a couple of weeks in-between.
The front of the tank is completely free, but in a low flow area at the back they seem to be coming back (I've rearranged the powerheads and sump return to increase flow to the area).

The microscope I have isn't great so I struggled to make an identification. But the Dino's seem to be non toxic, had them for months and nothing has died. And they seem to stay on the sand bed. Not on the rocks.

I have a 25w vecton600 UV filter running slowly at 300lph. The tank is 150litres.

You can see the area they have returned to at the end of this video.



 
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