Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[ScottB]

What else am I looking at here other than the obvious LC Amphidinium?

The skinny cylindrical ones are diatoms. The tiny round ones... are they motile? If so, they might be small cell amphids. But they look a little small for that.

If not motile, more likely chrysophytes.

 

[Nroddot]

How did I get dinos? I'm just trying to understand what happened here.

I was dealing with cyano for awhile and periodically dosing Dr. Tim's Waste Away and Refresh to combat it. After weeks of this not working, I've had enough and wiped the cyano out with Chemi-Clean in a day.
After the Chemi-clean treatment, I added more beneficial bacteria to boost the population that might have been diminished during the Chemi-clean treatment.

A few days later, dinos start showing up in the sand and on the glass and they're getting worse by the day. My nitrates are quite high right now at somewhere between15-20 ppm and my phosphates are at 0.03ppm.
Is the nutrient imbalance between nitrates and phosphates the reason for the dinos outbreak? I'm surprised I've gotten dinos because I've always struggled with high nutrient levels in my tank.

 

[ScottB]

How did I get dinos? I'm just trying to understand what happened here.

I was dealing with cyano for awhile and periodically dosing Dr. Tim's Waste Away and Refresh to combat it. After weeks of this not working, I've had enough and wiped the cyano out with Chemi-Clean in a day.
After the Chemi-clean treatment, I added more beneficial bacteria to boost the population that might have been diminished during the Chemi-clean treatment.

A few days later, dinos start showing up in the sand and on the glass and they're getting worse by the day. My nitrates are quite high right now at somewhere between15-20 ppm and my phosphates are at 0.03ppm.
Is the nutrient imbalance between nitrates and phosphates the reason for the dinos outbreak? I'm surprised I've gotten dinos because I've always struggled with high nutrient levels in my tank.

Not super common, but dinos can make a run in a high nutrient system. The Chemiclean killed off some competitive bacteria/microfauna/film algae combination. This is EXTREMELY common. If you were to CTRL-F this thread for Chemiclean it must be mentioned 500 times.

The imbalance between NO3 and PO4 is more likely the cause of the cyano. If/when the cyano returns, you might consider dosing PO4 and carbon together to slowly narrow the gap.

 

[Drumstin]

In my case I already had zero nitrates, then dinos started multiplying and to make matters worse I didn’t have the knowledge I needed so I thought it wAs cyano and used chemiclean. So I made a bad situation horribly worse and the absolutely exploded! Good news though, I’ve maintained >= 5ppm NO3 for 2 weeks now and Added microbactr7 nightly, dosed carbon to give my corals releif from toxins, turned my skimmer off for 4 hrs a night and I’ve noticed they are starting to subside slowly. Still a ton of them but it’s noticeably heading in the right direction now. My corals are even starting to improve. Slow and steady here.

 

[Jman76]

Nanos are tough. Just not enough volume to dilute the smallest of errors. Any mortality from an error can so quickly cascade through the biome web. Chemiclean: Some folks dispute this, but if you make it through a few hundred pages of this thread, you come to the anecdotal conclusion that Chemiclean is a major catalyst for kicking off a dino bloom. It kills some kind(s) of competitor that had been constraining their population.

IMO, you are safe to sling anything from the nano into the 75 without worry. There is no way that dinos are not already in that system. In fact the next time you scrape the glass, put some gunk under the 'scope. I'd bet your paycheck you will find one or two little buggers in there. I can find them in both my systems 18 months after I "beat" ostreopsis. They are lurking, waiting for their chance.

Just keep the competition healthy. (And stay away from Chemiclean, IMO.)

Ill never use Chemiclean again. That being said, I did go BB a week ago and things are looking good!. Low light, UV, and blowing off rock. Been keeping nutrients at 15/.15. Stopped the silica, as lots of sponges are starting to grow, and glass is covered. Lots of diatoms in the scope. There are corals finally opening that havent for weeks. I think Ill let this ride another week or 2 before moving everything over for good. Appreciate the help, I thought this tank was toast

 

[ScottB]

Ill never use Chemiclean again. That being said, I did go BB a week ago and things are looking good!. Low light, UV, and blowing off rock. Been keeping nutrients at 15/.15. Stopped the silica, as lots of sponges are starting to grow, and glass is covered. Lots of diatoms in the scope. There are corals finally opening that havent for weeks. I think Ill let this ride another week or 2 before moving everything over for good. Appreciate the help, I thought this tank was toast

Yeah, hardly a day goes by on this thread without someone posting dinos after Chemiclean. It certainly does a number on cyanobacteria, but perhaps that cyano was the last available competitor.

Great news you have corals opening now; always a fine indicator.

 

[FabienB]

After 3 days of UV 24/24 aquamedic hélix , my dino decreases totaly. But dont know how many day i can use uv...because since i started uv cure my skimmer not product anything ...

 

[saltyhog]

After 3 days of UV 24/24 aquamedic hélix , my dino decreases totaly. But dont know how many day i can use uv...because since i started uv cure my skimmer not product anything ...

You don't need to be concerned about your skimmer not producing and skimmate. I would continue UV for at least a couple more weeks. Make sure your NO3 and PO4 are not dropping.

 

[Danno23]

Does this look like dinos, had the brown string algae for about 2 weeks.. been dosing peroxide for a few days..it doesnt seems to get worse or better yet.

 

[paul01609]

Yes osteoporosis Dino I think

 

[Danno23]

Does this look like dinos, had the brown string algae for about 2 weeks.. been dosing peroxide for a few days..it doesnt seems to get worse or better yet.

 

[Danno23]

Yes osteoporosis Dino I think

Thanks Paul, do you know if its treatable with peroxide.

 

[saltyhog]

Definitely ostreopsis. Best treatment for it is UV. With UV I've seen them go almost away over night. Strongly recommend running GAC (carbon) and changing it frequently. Ostreopsis is very toxic and especially so when you're killing it.

UV should be 1 watt/3 gallons of DT volume and flow through the UV needs to be 1-3 x display volume. Keep NO3 and PO4 up (I like to aim for 5-10 and 0.06-0.12 respectively).

 

[king aiptasia]

The skinny cylindrical ones are diatoms. The tiny round ones... are they motile? If so, they might be small cell amphids. But they look a little small for that.

If not motile, more likely chrysophytes.

what are amphids?

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I was hoping I would never have to join this thread but here we are!

Would some kind person help me ID these guys? Holding my phone to a toy microscope so the picture probably isn't the greatest. Help much appreciated!

Aaaand...they're back. Or more likely, here still but they've started reproducing again so I can see them.

Noticed a thread on my gorgonian tonight and took this unfortunate sample.

So, the secondary UV is back in the tank with fresh carbon in the reactor, and I'll go in for manual removal tomorrow after the lights come back on.

I'm wondering where I've gone wrong here. I thought I had it beat over a month ago. My nitrates are a solid 10 and phosphates are at 0.08, which is the lowest they've been since initially dosing them up. Guessing I need to get them bumped back up to 0.1?

I've got lots of green in the tank, both film algae and hair algae.

Just when I was feeling like things were finally back to normal and I was looking at buying some corals again.

 

[ScottB]

what are amphids?

Amphidinium dinoflagellates. There are two common varieties in the hobby: Large Call and Small Cell.

 

[Zoajohn]

Wanted to throw in a tip that has helped me with Amphidinium dinoflagellates. I've had these dinos for 2 months in my Reefer 350. All over the sand and rocks. What I did was position my vortechs lower on the glass so that flow would pass right over the top of the sand bed to slightly displace some but not create a sandstorm. I did a 3 day blackout with H2O2, UV, and nutrient dosing - and while they are still clinging for life on some of the rock, the sand bed is 99% dino free.

Blackouts previously just caused them to recede then grow back eventually, but the flow over the sand really seems to help.

 

[peterire]

Could someone with the knowledge ID these please?

 

[Zoajohn]

Another update. Still 99% dino free after slowly raising light levels and bringing skimmer online. I also added a tiger conch which vacuums the sand very effectively.

 

[toadstool_paradise]

ID on dinos sorry for bad pics the microscope doesn’t zoom farther in. Looks more like dust on the rocks and sand and terrible on the glass...sometimes snot looking but never any air bubbles. On microscope it’s rounded with a divot where the “mouth” area is. Moves fast and spins in a spiral super fast rather than anchored at one spot. Not sure if the videos work or how I should upload them on my phone! Thanks!
note: am doing a 3 day blackout with peroxide dosing and UV sterilizer. Started yesterday as I had been treating this CONVINCED it was diatoms..haha