Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?
- Thread starter mcarroll
- Start date
- Tagged users None
paparoof
Active Member
My guess is Prorocentrum. But I'm FAR from an expert. I'm basing my guess on the attached PDF here. It's not mine, I found it elsewhere in this forum and now not sure where so I can't properly credit it.
Hello All,
Add my name to the list Dino sufferers. I started my 50 gallon sps tank about a year ago. Things we’re good at first but after about 6 months I started noticing Dino’s growing on my glass and zoas and birdsnest. I attempted a week long black out, H202, and eventually bought a 9 watt UV sterilizer. The only thing that really seemed to make a difference were the blackouts but the Dino’s always came back. I should note that Nitrates we’re undetectable and PO4 we’re at roughly .08. I attempted to increase nutrients, specifically Nitrate, but found it almost impossible to bring them up with feeding more fish food. I bought some Potassium Nitrate and started adding that and within about a week had nuked my whole tank, all sps dead. I lost interest in the tank for the next 4 months and the Dino’s appeared to go away as the film, bubble algae, and coraline started to take over. The Caulerpa and Chaeto in the sump also took off and filled the compartment to the brim, also sharing it with some red cyano.
i decided to resurrect the tank a month ago. I started by scrubbing the glass totally, removing all the bubble algae, which had become numerous, and cleaning all my powerheads thus greatly increasing the flow rate. In addition to the main tank, I cleaned all of the detritus out of the sump and increased flow. I cleaned the skimmer and got it operating again. While cleaning the sump I disturbed and ended up removing a majority of the Macroalgae.
things looked perfect in the tank for about a month, corals we’re looking phenomenal, until about a week ago. I started noticing some strands of Dino’s forming on the edges of my zoanthids and palys. It is now growing on my frogspawn and on the glass now. This is identical to what I dealt with a year ago and I’m pretty upset about it.
I don’t have a microscope but I will attach some pictures if you all can help roughly ID?
I started over-feeding today. I’m thinking about buying a very large UV sterilizer, as maybe my 9 watt model wasn’t large enough for my tank. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Add my name to the list Dino sufferers. I started my 50 gallon sps tank about a year ago. Things we’re good at first but after about 6 months I started noticing Dino’s growing on my glass and zoas and birdsnest. I attempted a week long black out, H202, and eventually bought a 9 watt UV sterilizer. The only thing that really seemed to make a difference were the blackouts but the Dino’s always came back. I should note that Nitrates we’re undetectable and PO4 we’re at roughly .08. I attempted to increase nutrients, specifically Nitrate, but found it almost impossible to bring them up with feeding more fish food. I bought some Potassium Nitrate and started adding that and within about a week had nuked my whole tank, all sps dead. I lost interest in the tank for the next 4 months and the Dino’s appeared to go away as the film, bubble algae, and coraline started to take over. The Caulerpa and Chaeto in the sump also took off and filled the compartment to the brim, also sharing it with some red cyano.
i decided to resurrect the tank a month ago. I started by scrubbing the glass totally, removing all the bubble algae, which had become numerous, and cleaning all my powerheads thus greatly increasing the flow rate. In addition to the main tank, I cleaned all of the detritus out of the sump and increased flow. I cleaned the skimmer and got it operating again. While cleaning the sump I disturbed and ended up removing a majority of the Macroalgae.
things looked perfect in the tank for about a month, corals we’re looking phenomenal, until about a week ago. I started noticing some strands of Dino’s forming on the edges of my zoanthids and palys. It is now growing on my frogspawn and on the glass now. This is identical to what I dealt with a year ago and I’m pretty upset about it.
I don’t have a microscope but I will attach some pictures if you all can help roughly ID?
I started over-feeding today. I’m thinking about buying a very large UV sterilizer, as maybe my 9 watt model wasn’t large enough for my tank. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Sampled the biofilm from the glass on my nano tank this morning and it's a mono culture of these guys. Nothing on the rocks/sand/corals just the glass. They are very small and very fast. @taricha
First video is 250x
Second video at 400x
First video is 250x
Second video at 400x
Last edited:
This article has been most helpful thank you. I continued reading other articles attached to articles and so on. I found it interesting that Dino’s will forgoe nitrates when amino’s are introduced. So that brings more value to the amino debate. Not that amino’s fed the coral but that the coral does not have to contend for its intended nitrate.
Ross Petersen
Well-Known Member
I’ve been cycling dry rock in a brute for 2 months (with a cocktail of bacteria and fish pellets). About to add the rock to the display tank.
What are people’s thoughts on live sand and Dinos? More likely to get dinos with sand? Easier to get rid of without sand? Or?!
Thanks!
What are people’s thoughts on live sand and Dinos? More likely to get dinos with sand? Easier to get rid of without sand? Or?!
Thanks!
drawman
2500 Club Member
I will say I've been able to knock down my dinos considerably over the last week. It wasn't any strong motivated effort like I've had before which is kind of interesting but there have been a few things that I think can be attributed to it.
1. Running UV sterilizer while I'm at work (I was previously doing it at night)
2. Dosing some nitrate (I bottomed out again but it only took a dose to get numbers up)
3. Scraping off back glass and brushing other areas of dino accumulation on the weekend, then running UV right after
I'm not really sure why it has changed all of a sudden. I have done all of these things in the past with more effort. Almost don't want to post this as I'm nervous to declare any kind of upper hand.
1. Running UV sterilizer while I'm at work (I was previously doing it at night)
2. Dosing some nitrate (I bottomed out again but it only took a dose to get numbers up)
3. Scraping off back glass and brushing other areas of dino accumulation on the weekend, then running UV right after
I'm not really sure why it has changed all of a sudden. I have done all of these things in the past with more effort. Almost don't want to post this as I'm nervous to declare any kind of upper hand.
Drawman, what size UV are you running and what size tank? When I battled these a year ago I had a 9 watt on a 50 gallon tank and didnt see any difference in Dino numbers. This time around I’m thinking I need to go bigger.
drawman
2500 Club Member
I have a RSR250 which I believe is about 54 gallons in the display. I'm running a 25w AquaUV in and out of the display for ostreopsis. My ostreopsis aren't the best at going in the water column at night so they definitely need a push.
- Joined
- May 22, 2016
- Messages
- 6,532
- Reaction score
- 10,073
I'm not 100% convinced that is dino. But may be small cell amphidinium.
What's a picture of the glass (under white lights) look like?
It looks green. I'll get a picture but it will take a few days to build back up.
+1 with @paparoof on procentrum. The circular pyrenoid in the middle is the tell.
Treat them as you would ostreopsis generally, but you may also want to include a blackout period as they don't take to the water column with as much zeal unless you confuse them a little.
Look back a few pages for treatment action items (nutrient, UV, etc). Keep pinging this thread if you have more questions.
Cbones1979
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2018
- Messages
- 1,457
- Reaction score
- 406
Don’t have scope to get a good look but here are some pics of mine
Gone at night, arise during the day. Happened about a week after I added a bunch of coral, added a fuge w chaeto, added purigen bag in my 2nd filter. Haven’t had algae on glass in a week or 2 as I’m guessing I nuked nutrients and then these guys showed up.
Gone at night, arise during the day. Happened about a week after I added a bunch of coral, added a fuge w chaeto, added purigen bag in my 2nd filter. Haven’t had algae on glass in a week or 2 as I’m guessing I nuked nutrients and then these guys showed up.
I am thoroughly confused now. I started a tank and let the cycle for 2 months before turning on the lights. Added some Chemipure to reduce the risk of algae and dosing microbarcter7. Now I have a dino outbreak due to my tank being too clean. So I will be removing the Chemi-pure and upping my coral feeding since it is a coral only take to help raise the n and p. However, if I do this, won't green hair algae grow instead. If I treat that by removing n and p won't dino return and cause a vicious cycle between the two?
Similar threads
New Posts
-
-
-
California Dry Rock Drygoods Aquascaped rock structures
- Latest: WrasseyReefer
