Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

taricha

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Agreed. Not a dino.
 

Ladder Man

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Okay, then what is covering my sandbed only when the lights come on? Looks like Cyano and move like they have flagela? What power should I be setting my scope on?
 

Ladder Man

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Agreed. Not a dino.

IMG_0382.jpg
 

Ric_andr

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Does dyno need a light to live?
Is it algae or bacterial?
Does it dissapear when the lights turn off?
 

taricha

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Does dyno need a light to live?
Is it algae or bacterial?
Does it dissapear when the lights turn off?
Short version.
It's a mixotroph. It seeks light and food (often bacteria). It is mobile and goes into the water at lights out (except one kind that goes further in the sand).
 

taricha

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What is everyone’s feeling about growing Chaeto while fighting dinos?

On one hand I feel like I should keep it going just because it’s been part of my system since day 1 and I don’t want to disrupt things.

On the other hand there are some potential negatives:
-It consumes nitrate and phosphate (working against my dosing)
-It collects and grows dinos (my proprocentrum seem to love propagating on the chaeto).

I’ve recently started rinsing off my chaeto daily in a RO freshwater dip as I’ve read (I think in this thread) that dinos die instantly in fresh water.

Thoughts?
Good question and well thought out.
Don't have a definitive answer, but I'll try to give some background and say what I would do.
The idea behind elevating nutrients is not to have N and P laying around to make dinos unhappy. That's clearly not the case. It's first to relieve the limitation/starvation in the system, so it shifts from an area where only dinos do well to one where other organisms also do well. (Don't expect the dinos to decline immediately just because other things are happy). In some cases it seems that other growing organisms are better at competing for new limiting nutrients like iron or other trace metals. It is also likely that the effects of bacteria / biofilms associated with dinos vs other things is important. As other organisms grow, their own associated microbes are less helpful, maybe outright harmful to the dinos or their associates.
[Read more about dinos and their associated vs non-associated bacteria here
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC184067/pdf/aem00094-0157.pdf ]
The complication here is that prorocentrum in particular live as epiphytes on algae as their preferred habitat. So clearly they have adapted to do well with the algae and the algae's associate microbes (moreso than any other dino we see).

I'd keep the chaeto, keep N and P up. Pull the chaeto and do short fresh water rinses.
In the display, I'd run UV and do a short blackout 48hr or less. And I'd add beneficial bacterial product in the display with UV off in the middle of the day.
 

Anemoneguy

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Hello, so I had an outbreak of Dino’s back in July. I researched hard and beat them. I invested in a uv sterilizer, did a 3 day black out and used different bacteria additives. Not sure what brought it on but did have 0 phosphate and nitrate. Well I eventually ended up with Cyano. So I really messed up when I decided to use chemiclean. It must of thrown things off again and now Dino’s are back. I’m really tired of fighting this. I have lost so much money in coral. I think I want to re start this tank. How long will I need to let it sit empty? I’m thinking of removing everything and running bleach through the system. Like a light concentration. I could re do all the plumbing as well. Point is, if I go this drastic, I want to be sure I get it gone. Then I have a concern of my anemone. I have a prized blue gigantic carpet that has made it through all this and I’ve had for five years. If I return it to the “new tank” I’m concerned about Dino’s being inside or on it and then re affect the tank over again. Any thoughts would be helpful.

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JamesUcla1

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Hello all, I’m new to R2R as a member but have been reading the forums for a while. Anyhow I have what I’m guessing is a type of dinoflagellate but I could use some help with ID. I heard through the grapevine that @taricha can help so any assistance is MUCH APPRECIATED. Thanks in advance all!
EC96C3F5-B751-4CDA-B0AD-D5FE4377590D.jpeg
891446E3-674C-429B-8F81-F1F7F8EEBEC9.jpeg
 

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taricha

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I’m really tired of fighting this. I have lost so much money in coral. I think I want to re start this tank. How long will I need to let it sit empty? I’m thinking of removing everything and running bleach through the system. Like a light concentration. I could re do all the plumbing as well. Point is, if I go this drastic, I want to be sure I get it gone. Then I have a concern of my anemone. I have a prized blue gigantic carpet that has made it through all this and I’ve had for five years. If I return it to the “new tank” I’m concerned about Dino’s being inside or on it and then re affect the tank over again.
I never recommend a restart. because getting all the dinos is hard, and if you purchase any rock/coral at any point reintroduction is possible, maybe likely. And that's leaving out the livestock you know you want to keep from the infected tank.

Anyhow I have what I’m guessing is a type of dinoflagellate but I could use some help with ID.
coolia dinos. treat like ostreopsis, though they hang out on sand a little more.
 

Anemoneguy

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So I just got home and found my clam dead. This stuff has killed all my sps and all but one lps and now my freaking clam that was doing so well. Anyone know how this stuff affects clams?
 

taricha

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So I just got home and found my clam dead.... Anyone know how this stuff affects clams?
The cells and their associated mucus can be toxic. Toxicity level depends on the strain and the specifics of the outbreak. Bivalves likely ingest large numbers of free swimming dinos.
This is one way people get sick from dino toxins - they accumulate in the tissues of the bivalves etc. It's called paralytic shellfish poisoning.
So sorry to hear that about the clam.
 

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.





I'm trying anoter blackout with the addition of Dino-X.

I'm on day 3 at the moment.

Does this look like a reasonable plan?

Day 1 - Blackout + Dino X
Day 2 - Blackout
Day 3 - Blackout + Dino X
Day 4 - Blackout
Day 5 - Normal Light Schedule + Dino X
Day 6 - Normal Light Schedule
Day 7 - Normal Light Schedule+ Dino X
 

taricha

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Does this look like a reasonable plan?
To be honest, I wouldn't recommend any of that in your case...
based on video in your post here...
The microscope I have isn't great so I struggled to make an identification.
you have large cell amphidinium dinos that will stay in the sand and aren't much affected by darkness.
I know you've seen some success so far. Maybe you'll find dino-x works. Personally I've seen more reports that it harmed corals than that it got rid of dinos. So it's not recommended anywhere in this thread. But let us know how it does vs your strain.
 

ReefingHavoc

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I used a 55 watt jebao for a while. It was relatively cheap and effective. It’s also big and clunky. I decided to run UV full time so I bought an aqua uv 57 watt. It’s more compact and I believe more durable. I’ve been using my aqua UV for about 18 months.

I picked up the 55 watt Jabao and have been running it for 2 days in my display. Anyone have experience on how long to start seeing something. I have noticed that my skimmate more wet and on the lighter side. Not sure if this is dead dino or not.

Just looking for my next steps in battling ostreopsis
 

nick9one1

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To be honest, I wouldn't recommend any of that in your case...
based on video in your post here...

you have large cell amphidinium dinos that will stay in the sand and aren't much affected by darkness.
I know you've seen some success so far. Maybe you'll find dino-x works. Personally I've seen more reports that it harmed corals than that it got rid of dinos. So it's not recommended anywhere in this thread. But let us know how it does vs your strain.

Thanks for the advice. large cell amphidinium makes sense as I've not lost any inverts in the number of months the Dino's have been present.

It seems like maintaining p:n levels and silica dosing are recommended for beating this type of Dino's.
 

spsick

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Hey team, good news and bad news on my tank. Since adding the UV and Carbon my Dinos are gone everywhere except the sand in less than a week. Bad news is a handful of my acros are browning out, losing all the zooxanthellae on their flesh and looking “dry”.
Any ideas? I’m thinking depleted trace elements from lack of WC as anything I can measure is good.
 
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saltyhog

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Hey team, good news and bad news on my tank. Since adding the UV and Carbon my Dinos are gone everywhere except the sand in less than a week. Bad news is a handful of my acros are browning out, losing all the zooxanthellae on their flesh and looking “dry”.
Any ideas? I’m thinking depleted trace elements from lack of WC as anything I can measure is good.


How long since you changed your carbon? When the dinos are dying off rapidly there can be a lot of toxicity. Carbon can get expended pretty quickly. When this happened to me I changed my carbon every 3-4 days for a while. I managed to save my WD and a couple of other corals by doing that.
 

JayinToronto

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Anyone know what’s in this stuff?
I have no intention of using it now that things seem to be going in the right direction for me with the N-P-UV method. I saw it on a YouTube vid when I was first starting my internet search on dinos (before I came across this thread) and ordered it from Germany.

806414A3-4586-451D-8F9A-32E971D10F0E.jpeg 6FF43FEF-CD9C-4E6B-A1AD-764C30097296.jpeg
 

saltyhog

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Anyone know what’s in this stuff?
I have no intention of using it now that things seem to be going in the right direction for me with the N-P-UV method. I saw it on a YouTube vid when I was first starting my internet search on dinos (before I came across this thread) and ordered it from Germany.

806414A3-4586-451D-8F9A-32E971D10F0E.jpeg 6FF43FEF-CD9C-4E6B-A1AD-764C30097296.jpeg


It's pretty good at killing coral sometimes but dinos....not so much. Won't ever be going in my tank. Very mixed results...with no one on this thread that recommends it that I've read.
 
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