Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[Trikflow77]

Hi All,

Just wanted to thank everyone for the commitment to helping other reefers on fighting dinos, this and other support threads are amazing.

Looking for an ID, these are scoped at 250x.

Transfered tank from a 29g to a 50g, tank is 2 months old, live rock from old tank with new sand that was rinsed until clear.

What I thought were new tank diatoms are for sure dinos, just cant tell if they are amphi small or large. When I do a water change and vac the sand bed they come back strong the next day.

I bottomed out PO4, old tank I always fought to keep PO4 down and ran some form of PO4 remover, and did this at startup from the tank transfer.

The last 2 weeks of testing

NO3- 3-10ppm
PO- .00-.04ppm

Currently the only thing I am doing is started dosing PO4 yesterday to get my levels up.

Thanks again!

 

[ScottB]

Hi All,

Just wanted to thank everyone for the commitment to helping other reefers on fighting dinos, this and other support threads are amazing.

Looking for an ID, these are scoped at 250x.

Transfered tank from a 29g to a 50g, tank is 2 months old, live rock from old tank with new sand that was rinsed until clear.

What I thought were new tank diatoms are for sure dinos, just cant tell if they are amphi small or large. When I do a water change and vac the sand bed they come back strong the next day.

I bottomed out PO4, old tank I always fought to keep PO4 down and ran some form of PO4 remover, and did this at startup from the tank transfer.

The last 2 weeks of testing

NO3- 3-10ppm
PO- .00-.04ppm

Currently the only thing I am doing is started dosing PO4 yesterday to get my levels up.

Thanks again!

Large Cell amphids. May have seen a small cell race by early in the video. They are much smaller and much faster.

Search up a few posts/pages to a link in one (or a dozen of) my posts. I know, it is long, but it is a fairly complete brain dump on dino treatment method(s) according to specie.

 

[Trikflow77]

Large Cell amphids. May have seen a small cell race by early in the video. They are much smaller and much faster.

Search up a few posts/pages to a link in one (or a dozen of) my posts. I know, it is long, but it is a fairly complete brain dump on dino treatment method(s) according to specie.

Thank you for the ID, I will start the recommended treatment strategy and report back!

 

[iLMaRiO]

i've got this:


can someone tell me the dosage for a 400 liters (net tank)?

can i dose the full needed amount at once or step by step? i have to dose Daily or one shot?

 

[GarrettT]

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

Will be very similar to the potassium phosphate calculation. I would do a low tester dose first, then the one shot. It will likely be consumed instantly for the first week or two. Eventually you will get to a point where it stabilizes and no longer drops. Be careful and test every day until you get to this point.

 

[GarrettT]

i've got this:


can someone tell me the dosage for a 400 liters (net tank)?

can i dose the full needed amount at once or step by step? i have to dose Daily or one shot?

Just saw this was in liquid form. Not sure if this would have the same calculation... Im sure someone will know. Same rules apply though (minus the dosage).

 

[iLMaRiO]

i have to order a silicate test, i don't think the Hanna silicate checker would work in marine water

 

[GarrettT]

i have to order a silicate test, i don't think the Hanna silicate checker would work in marine water

There will be a margin of error, but not enough to be of concern or to be deemed unreliable. If I recall, there was like a 20%+/- measuring difference. Could be wrong, but If true, then that really wouldn't make much of a difference. If Hanna, use the LR-low range model.

 

[iLMaRiO]

There will be a margin of error, but not enough to be of concern or to be deemed unreliable. If I recall, there was like a 20%+/- measuring difference. Could be wrong, but If true, then that really wouldn't make much of a difference. If Hanna, use the LR-low range model.

yes, i have the LR

 

[iLMaRiO]

started dosing silica (waterglass) at 37.5%, 25ml for a 400 liters net tank.

water is totally cloudy now, i can't see the rocks

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Well, they're back. Though I don't think it's LC this time, but their kissin' cousin Prorocentrum. Just wanted to get a confirmation, though I'm fairly confident.

They mostly seem to stick in dark brown, almost dust-like patches in the sand, dunno if they go in the water column or the sand but do go away at night. They have little to no movement.

If it's confirmed Prorocentrum, seems they need some convincing to get into the water column. Would silica dosing work as it did with LC? Or do you need a short blackout (24 HR) or is more needed? Hoping to avoid blackout as to not tick off everything in the tank as I have a healthy mix of Acros, zoa, acans, torches/hammers.

Still not sure where they came from as nutrients never came close to bottoming out (usually 0.05-0.1 PO4 and 5-10ppm NO3). But I did have some cyano that I hit with chemiclean... But these guys didn't appear until a week or two later so, who knows.

Anyway, in the meantime dosing Si and running carbon.

 

[ScottB]

Well, they're back. Though I don't think it's LC this time, but their kissin' cousin Prorocentrum. Just wanted to get a confirmation, though I'm fairly confident.

They mostly seem to stick in dark brown, almost dust-like patches in the sand, dunno if they go in the water column or the sand but do go away at night. They have little to no movement.

If it's confirmed Prorocentrum, seems they need some convincing to get into the water column. Would silica dosing work as it did with LC? Or do you need a short blackout (24 HR) or is more needed? Hoping to avoid blackout as to not tick off everything in the tank as I have a healthy mix of Acros, zoa, acans, torches/hammers.

Still not sure where they came from as nutrients never came close to bottoming out (usually 0.05-0.1 PO4 and 5-10ppm NO3). But I did have some cyano that I hit with chemiclean... But these guys didn't appear until a week or two later so, who knows.

Anyway, in the meantime dosing Si and running carbon.

Yup, that is Proro. As I wrote in the article, the surest way to get dinos in a tank WITH nutrients is Chemiclean.

Yes to silicate dosing. Now that cyano are gone you need somebody else to compete for that surface.

Yes, a 48 hour blackout should help get them moving. As you can see under the scope, they just lay around like an old cat. However, without a UV for them to swim into, a blackout is pointless. I have notes about a proper UV in the article too.

A Dinoflagellate Treatment Guide

As the title suggests, this is intended as a short guide on what to do when you suspect dinoflagellates are trying to overtake your system. It is an attempt to boil down the protocols discussed across 11,000 posts in this "Are you Tired" thread...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Yup, that is Proro. As I wrote in the article, the surest way to get dinos in a tank WITH nutrients is Chemiclean.

Yes to silicate dosing. Now that cyano are gone you need somebody else to compete for that surface.

Yes, a 48 hour blackout should help get them moving. As you can see under the scope, they just lay around like an old cat. However, without a UV for them to swim into, a blackout is pointless. I have notes about a proper UV in the article too.

A Dinoflagellate Treatment Guide

As the title suggests, this is intended as a short guide on what to do when you suspect dinoflagellates are trying to overtake your system. It is an attempt to boil down the protocols discussed across 11,000 posts in this "Are you Tired" thread...

www.reef2reef.com

I remember reading from when I had ostreopsis almost two years ago.

I have a 55w Lifegard plumbed into my sump, but for dinos doest do much as it doesn't really touch the DT. For that I made a HOB mount for my a 55w jebao. Basically two "J" shapes made of PVC, one intake (with a pump 350gph) one exhaust. DT-Jebao-DT, just hang on the side of the tank.

Just need to dig it out of the closet and hang it back up.

Thanks for confirming the ID and providing a wealth of info over the years haha. Seems I keep coming back to this thread every year, year and a half.

 

[iLMaRiO]

do you know why some dinos are MUCH bigger then other?

 

[Yazannreef]

Ok here is a quick update for those of you that want to beat Dinos ( I confirmed that I have ostreosis and anphidinium and proro via microscope:

I followed simple steps and the tank is looking so much better already. A week or so and I will be dino free:

Leave only blue light on your aquarium ( no reds/ greens/ whites.

Dosing bacteria and microbes: microbacter 7 and reef enhance per bottle directions

Dosing Silica ( used brightwell aquatics ) (per bottle directions)

Installed a UV sterilizer running 24/7 ( 18w for my 75 gallon installed in the display)

Keep nitrates above 10 and phosphates above 0.10 ( dosing brightwell phos and nitro daily)

Install 5 micron filter socks in your sump

Blew off dinos from rocks and sand daily so The UV and the filter socks capture it

You must run carbon for the toxins from dinos


Ps: turn off uv, skimmer and carbon for 4 hours while dosing Macrobacter 7.

 

[Yazannreef]

My tank then

 

[Yazannreef]

My tank now( 5 days into rebounding and it's looking way way better). I give it 3 more days and I should be a dino clean.

 

[Yodeling]

@Yazreef I recently beat Ostreo using almost exactly the same steps as you described (blues only, shorter photo period, 24/7 UV, heavy bacteria dosing, carbon, keeping nutrients up). What finally got me over the hump was turning up the flow through the UV. The UV at 1x turnover wasn’t doing much, but when I turned it up to 3x turnover, I saw results almost instantly. Although at that time the Ostreo was already having a tough time due to microbial competition.

 

[Yazannreef]

@Yazreef I recently beat Ostreo using almost exactly the same steps as you described (blues only, shorter photo period, 24/7 UV, heavy bacteria dosing, carbon, keeping nutrients up). What finally got me over the hump was turning up the flow through the UV. The UV at 1x turnover wasn’t doing much, but when I turned it up to 3x turnover, I saw results almost instantly. Although at that time the Ostreo was already having a tough time due to microbial competition.

Oh yes I'm using it 3x turnover as well. Glad you go it under control

 

[ScottB]

I remember reading from when I had ostreopsis almost two years ago.

I have a 55w Lifegard plumbed into my sump, but for dinos doest do much as it doesn't really touch the DT. For that I made a HOB mount for my a 55w jebao. Basically two "J" shapes made of PVC, one intake (with a pump 350gph) one exhaust. DT-Jebao-DT, just hang on the side of the tank.

Just need to dig it out of the closet and hang it back up.

Thanks for confirming the ID and providing a wealth of info over the years haha. Seems I keep coming back to this thread every year, year and a half.

I have had to pull mine off the shelf a few times as well. Same idea.