Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[jarviz]

I have a newish 10g tank, about 2 months old. I started with dry rock and live sand. All live stock is happy so far, inverts are always out and about. I do get some brown "algae" that comes when the lights are on and disappears when the lights are off. I try to stir up the sand once a day or two so it hasn't really developed to something major yet. I was worried it might be dino but i also have like 10-15 nitrates, and about 0.2 phosphates (hanna checker). Can dinos exist in these conditions? or is it more lightly to be diatoms or cyano?

 

[chema]

I have a newish 10g tank, about 2 months old. I started with dry rock and live sand. All live stock is happy so far, inverts are always out and about. I do get some brown "algae" that comes when the lights are on and disappears when the lights are off. I try to stir up the sand once a day or two so it hasn't really developed to something major yet. I was worried it might be dino but i also have like 10-15 nitrates, and about 0.2 phosphates (hanna checker). Can dinos exist in these conditions? or is it more lightly to be diatoms or cyano?

I have had and have Amphidinium with 5-10 ppm nitrate and 0,05-0,15 phosphate. I think that an abrupt fall in nitrate or phosphate (mostly nitrate) may trigger dinos or ciano to outcompete other organisms. However, once you have the unbalance the levels of both nutrients are not that important.

 

[ScottB]

I have a newish 10g tank, about 2 months old. I started with dry rock and live sand. All live stock is happy so far, inverts are always out and about. I do get some brown "algae" that comes when the lights are on and disappears when the lights are off. I try to stir up the sand once a day or two so it hasn't really developed to something major yet. I was worried it might be dino but i also have like 10-15 nitrates, and about 0.2 phosphates (hanna checker). Can dinos exist in these conditions? or is it more lightly to be diatoms or cyano?

There is a small chance it could be dinos, but much more likely to be diatoms. A cheap student microscope at 400X would confirm. You could do that for fun, but at 2 months, I wouldn't do anything to intervene based on your findings.

 

[jarviz]

There is a small chance it could be dinos, but much more likely to be diatoms. A cheap student microscope at 400X would confirm. You could do that for fun, but at 2 months, I wouldn't do anything to intervene based on your findings.

I'm not planning on doing anything besides turn down white lighting a little bit and clean/siphon the sandbed every once in a while. I currently have CPE in the tank, and was thinking of adding phosguard (or similar), but i think i'll wait on that now. Any snails/crabs are practically walking thru it and living in it... so i'm really hoping it's not Dinos.

I did order the microscope in case this gets out of hand.

 

[ScottB]

I'm not planning on doing anything besides turn down white lighting a little bit and clean/siphon the sandbed every once in a while. I currently have CPE in the tank, and was thinking of adding phosguard (or similar), but i think i'll wait on that now. Any snails/crabs are practically walking thru it and living in it... so i'm really hoping it's not Dinos.

I did order the microscope in case this gets out of hand.

What are your phosphates and how are you measuring them?

 

[taricha]

I have been dosing Synechococcus to my tank for the last months in order to keep phosphate at bay. That has not prevented Amphidinium LC to thrive. It doesn't surprise me as they inhabit different ecological niches. Synechococcus is a planktonic ciano while Amphidinium is benthic. I think that, as it has been demonstrated by some treatments, diatoms are better competitors of benthic Amphidinium.

Thanks for quality specific info.

 

[jarviz]

What are your phosphates and how are you measuring them?

it was like at 0.15 yesterday... now it's at 0.02. with a hanna checker. I did replace my CPE yesterday too (after about 1.5months), but this was before i suspected the brown stuff to be dinos and maybe just diatoms or cyano... so i can't tell if the CPE brought my phosphates way down or if the "dinos" are eating them..Either way, i'm taking out the CPE for now to get my phosphates back up. Nitrates are around 0 too according to API test.

I also have some red gracilaria, about 2x3" worth (2 pieces) in a 10 gal. i got it mainly for looks. would such small pieces have an impact on my nutrients. I guess i can throw them out if necessary.

 

[ScottB]

it was like at 0.15 yesterday... now it's at 0.02. with a hanna checker. I did replace my CPE yesterday too (after about 1.5months), but this was before i suspected the brown stuff to be dinos and maybe just diatoms or cyano... so i can't tell if the CPE brought my phosphates way down or if the "dinos" are eating them..Either way, i'm taking out the CPE for now to get my phosphates back up. Nitrates are around 0 too according to API test.

I also have some red gracilaria, about 2x3" worth (2 pieces) in a 10 gal. i got it mainly for looks. would such small pieces have an impact on my nutrients. I guess i can throw them out if necessary.

Chemipure elite does have GFO in it so yes, I would pull that for now. In a 10G system it could pull out PO4 pretty quick. The gracilaria can probably stay.

 

[zoaprince]

Would a 600x microscope be enough to identify dinos?

 

[ScottB]

Would a 600x microscope be enough to identify dinos?

Yes. Even 400X is sufficient. If you can shoot video of the dinos to show movement, that is very helpful. You can also use the zoom feature on your phone camera to get an even better image.

The hard part is holding the phone steady enough. I bought a cradle, but it wasn't a great one. Better than handheld, but not by much.

 

[jarviz]

alright my budget microscope came in today... hopefully i can get a good pic or video the bacteria. do i just use a tweezer to grab some of the stringy bits and place it on the glass slide?

 

[jarviz]

Alrigh... maybe getting the most budget camera wasn't the best idea... but maybe someone can help me ientify what these are? I cna't even remember which is at what magnification because i took so many and the microscope was such a chore to work with.

This is from a piece of "hair" that was floating from the sand.

 

[chadfish]

This thread also inspired me to do some amateur microbiology. This is a Kid’s microscope at 1200x taken with my iPhone 11. I’m pretty sure these are Dinos, right?

 

[jarviz]

anybody? =(

 

[dragon99]

Alrigh... maybe getting the most budget camera wasn't the best idea... but maybe someone can help me ientify what these are? I cna't even remember which is at what magnification because i took so many and the microscope was such a chore to work with.

This is from a piece of "hair" that was floating from the sand.

I'm not an expert, but that looks like diatoms to me

 

[ScottB]

Alrigh... maybe getting the most budget camera wasn't the best idea... but maybe someone can help me ientify what these are? I cna't even remember which is at what magnification because i took so many and the microscope was such a chore to work with.

This is from a piece of "hair" that was floating from the sand.

I am not certain what I am looking at, but I do not see dinos. Maybe some diatoms.

 

[ScottB]

This thread also inspired me to do some amateur microbiology. This is a Kid’s microscope at 1200x taken with my iPhone 11. I’m pretty sure these are Dinos, right?

Left pic is likely ostreopsis

 

[chadfish]

Left pic is likely ostreopsis

Yay! Toxic bloom...

 

[jarviz]

Yay! Toxic bloom...

are your nitrates and phosphates also undetecable?

 

[chadfish]

are your nitrates and phosphates also undetecable?

I have high phosphates and low nitrates
API tells me
NO3=0
PO4= .5ppm

Im tumbling PO4x4 and dosing Nitrogen, and I turned off my fuge light for the time being.

The fuge had been completely taken over... the chaeto no longer sinks, it floats due to dinos.
I also put my UV back on a high flow setting - I had turned it down to try to fight ich.

the tank is not in a good place right now