Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[blazerino]

I am battling Dino’s after GFO and vibrant crashed my nutrients to 0 during a GHA battle.

Current levels are .03 po4 and .5 no3.

Here is what I have done so far:

I stopped the GFO and vibrant about 3 weeks ago.

Skimmer is currently off and i have been feeding heavy to try to raise nutrients.

Added 15w UV about a week ago.

Started dosing neonitro last night to help with no3.

Dosing 1 ml/10 gal daily of microbacter 7.

I also got a microscope. Here are some photos/videos. Are these good enough for an ID?

 

[christwendt]

I am battling Dino’s after GFO and vibrant crashed my nutrients to 0 during a GHA battle.

Current levels are .03 po4 and .5 no3.

Here is what I have done so far:

I stopped the GFO and vibrant about 3 weeks ago.

Skimmer is currently off and i have been feeding heavy to try to raise nutrients.

Added 15w UV about a week ago.

Started dosing neonitro last night to help with no3.

Dosing 1 ml/10 gal daily of microbacter 7.

I also got a microscope. Here are some photos/videos. Are these good enough for an ID?

Looks exactly like what I had. Here is a pic. If you scroll a few pages 1-2 before your post you will see my post. I have had lights back on for 4 days and no signs of Dino’s anymore. I strongly suggest doing a 3 day black out (72 hours). It will allow the good bacteria to multiple while the Dino’s won’t be able to without the light. The kind you and I have detach at night and go into water column so UV sterilizer will help a lot. Otherwise maintain phosphates .1 and nitrates 5ppm and do a black out for 72 hours. They will just come after the black out if you don’t fix the cause. Here is what I had.

 

[christwendt]

I am battling Dino’s after GFO and vibrant crashed my nutrients to 0 during a GHA battle.

Current levels are .03 po4 and .5 no3.

Here is what I have done so far:

I stopped the GFO and vibrant about 3 weeks ago.

Skimmer is currently off and i have been feeding heavy to try to raise nutrients.

Added 15w UV about a week ago.

Started dosing neonitro last night to help with no3.

Dosing 1 ml/10 gal daily of microbacter 7.

I also got a microscope. Here are some photos/videos. Are these good enough for an ID?

If you have .5 nitrates not 5 nitrates you need to keep raising it. Otherwise seems like you are doing everything right. Give it some time.

 

[christwendt]

I am battling Dino’s after GFO and vibrant crashed my nutrients to 0 during a GHA battle.

Current levels are .03 po4 and .5 no3.

Here is what I have done so far:

I stopped the GFO and vibrant about 3 weeks ago.

Skimmer is currently off and i have been feeding heavy to try to raise nutrients.

Added 15w UV about a week ago.

Started dosing neonitro last night to help with no3.

Dosing 1 ml/10 gal daily of microbacter 7.

I also got a microscope. Here are some photos/videos. Are these good enough for an ID?

One other thing. Don’t clean your glass for 2 weeks after black out. Allow the good stuff to grow and out compete the Dino’s if that makes sense.

 

[blazerino]

If you have .5 nitrates not 5 nitrates you need to keep raising it. Otherwise seems like you are doing everything right. Give it some time.

Yes it’s low at .5 nitrates. I just started dosing brightwell neonitro to bring it up.

I have been running a UV but it doesn’t seem to be helping very much. I think it’s underpowered. It’s an aqua ultraviolet 15 and my tank volume is around 80 (70 display)

 

[ScottB]

Yes it’s low at .5 nitrates. I just started dosing brightwell neonitro to bring it up.

I have been running a UV but it doesn’t seem to be helping very much. I think it’s underpowered. It’s an aqua ultraviolet 15 and my tank volume is around 80 (70 display)

I couldn't get the movie to play, but the still is certainly ostreopsis. Good news is they are easy to treat. Bad news is they are toxic and will damage weakend corals.

You are under-powered on the UV. A 25 watt would do much better. If you have not done so already, I STRONGLY encourage you to run the UV to&from the display itself, not through the sump/return. Just until you get through this episode. See if you can knock them back with the 15w that way.

The "poor man's" UV can help too. Just clamp some blue/white filter to the glass in high flow/light areas. Ostreos love the stuff. Rinse each night.

Run carbon GAC to reduce toxins. To me, bacteria are at best optional for ostreopsis. The can run against your efforts to RAISE nutrient.

 

[blazerino]

I couldn't get the movie to play, but the still is certainly ostreopsis. Good news is they are easy to treat. Bad news is they are toxic and will damage weakend corals.

You are under-powered on the UV. A 25 watt would do much better. If you have not done so already, I STRONGLY encourage you to run the UV to&from the display itself, not through the sump/return. Just until you get through this episode. See if you can knock them back with the 15w that way.

The "poor man's" UV can help too. Just clamp some blue/white filter to the glass in high flow/light areas. Ostreos love the stuff. Rinse each night.

Run carbon GAC to reduce toxins. To me, bacteria are at best optional for ostreopsis. The can run against your efforts to RAISE nutrient.

Thanks for the tip about the filter floss, I’ll do that too. I am running ROX Carbon in a reactor. How often should I change it out?

My UV is running inline with my return pump, so 100% of the water is passing through it.

What bacteria is best? I’m dosing MB7 @ 1ml/10 gallons daily and shutting off the UV for 4 hours when I dose.

The slime is still all over the place in the morning and only seems slightly weaker. Is this normal for ostreopsis? I thought it totally disappeared at night?

 

[ScottB]

Thanks for the tip about the filter floss, I’ll do that too. I am running ROX Carbon in a reactor. How often should I change it out?

My UV is running inline with my return pump, so 100% of the water is passing through it.

What bacteria is best? I’m dosing MB7 @ 1ml/10 gallons daily and shutting off the UV for 4 hours when I dose.

The slime is still all over the place in the morning and only seems slightly weaker. Is this normal for ostreopsis? I thought it totally disappeared at night?

1) Carbon change out time? Honestly I am not sure, but more frequently than you normally would. Maybe twice as often.
2) Dinos are free swimming protists. They don't just float around. They are actively and intentionally going where they want to go. They multiply where they are most happy. That is where I place the inlet pump. It is just more effective.
3) MB7 is a great bacterial product for general use, but I am not aware of it's effectiveness against an ostreopsis bloom.
4) I would not say the mucus nets disappear, they just lessen without the lights and worsen as the light period goes.

About your dinos... I may have jumped the gun on ID. I KNOW you have ostreopsis, but looking at your pic, I see one organism that looks different than the others. The round one could be coolia. Ostreopsis don't usually hug the sand; coolia do. The remedy is the same for both: raise nutrient, proper sized and SLOW flow UV, manual removal, GAC. Might need to do a blackout for the coolia so that they go looking around for a better place.

If it turns out you have amphidinium (large cell) in the mix, it gets much more difficult.

I can't get your videos to run. Can you upload them to youtube and give us a link so we can determine further critters?

 

[blazerino]

@ScottB

Here are a few videos that should work

 

[ScottB]

@blazerino the videos show ostreopsis for sure. Possibly some small cell amphidinium but @taricha has a better eye for the tricky ones than I do.

 

[blazerino]

@blazerino the videos show ostreopsis for sure. Possibly some small cell amphidinium but @taricha has a better eye for the tricky ones than I do.

Thanks, I’m going to try to sell my 15 watt UV so I can get a 25 instead. In the meantime I turned the flow way down on my return. I have a varios 4 that was set on 3, so I dropped it down to 1.

 

[Mrtakeoff53]

Thanks, I’m going to try to sell my 15 watt UV so I can get a 25 instead. In the meantime I turned the flow way down on my return. I have a varios 4 that was set on 3, so I dropped it down to 1.

I used the aqua UV 15 watt on a total system of about 80. Worked great. You just have to make sure the flow rates are low enough to kill everything. I ran mine less than 250 GPH through it with a pump to/from the display like @ScottB recommends. Took a good week to see them disappear but they did. At that Slow flow rate, it maximizes UV killing power. Either slow your flow rate through the OR increase wattage. Either way, at 250 GPH, you’ll get all your water volume through the UV every 20 minutes. It’ll kill it. Just use it like the manufacturer recommends and with ScottB’s technique.

 

[blazerino]

I used the aqua UV 15 watt on a total system of about 80. Worked great. You just have to make sure the flow rates are low enough to kill everything. I ran mine less than 250 GPH through it with a pump to/from the display like @ScottB recommends. Took a good week to see them disappear but they did. At that Slow flow rate, it maximizes UV killing power. Either slow your flow rate through the OR increase wattage. Either way, at 250 GPH, you’ll get all your water volume through the UV every 20 minutes. It’ll kill it. Just use it like the manufacturer recommends and with ScottB’s technique.

That’s good to hear. Hopefully the varios at its lowest setting will be slow enough.

I have the UV plumbed in-line with the return. Is that correct?

 

[ScottB]

No, that is not the efficient way to kill dinos with UV. I've done it both ways; one way helps but the other gets it done. Once the dinos are gone, then yes, an in-line implementation is perfect.

Let's use a hunting or fishing analogy. Where do you drop the bait or set up the firing line? You set it up where the prey want to be. Where they feed, congregate and feel comfortable.

 

[blazerino]

No, that is not the efficient way to kill dinos with UV. I've done it both ways; one way helps but the other gets it done. Once the dinos are gone, then yes, an in-line implementation is perfect.

Let's use a hunting or fishing analogy. Where do you drop the bait or set up the firing line? You set it up where the prey want to be. Where they feed, congregate and feel comfortable.

So are you suggesting a closed loop with the intake near the rocks/sand?

 

[ScottB]

So are you suggesting a closed loop with the intake near the rocks/sand?

Sadly, yes. I know it is ugly and a general pain in the backside to set up and run this way, but for me and many others it makes a big difference in knocking them back.

 

[blazerino]

Sadly, yes. I know it is ugly and a general pain in the backside to set up and run this way, but for me and many others it makes a big difference in knocking them back.

I'll have to see if I can rig something up like that. The dinos did seem a bit better today after dropping the flow on the UV.

 

[Mrtakeoff53]

I'll have to see if I can rig something up like that. The dinos did seem a bit better today after dropping the flow on the UV.

I got the 15 watt aqua UV HOB version from BRS for this very reason. It makes setting up the to/from plumbing a lot easier. You really just have to worry about the ‘to’ portion as the UV returns the water directly to the tank for you. It’s nice and a little cleaner. I moved it from my frag tank (where the outbreak started) to my main tank as the dinos went away. Now I’m focused on getting as much tank water through it so I make sure everything in the display is dead too. Doesn’t bother me Hanging on the back of the tank as much as a tank full of dinos did! It’ll come off soon and hopefully stay off.

 

[Xavier434]

Hello everyone. I need an ID. Video below.

 

[Jason mack]

looks like diatoms to me