Dinoflagellates - dinos a possible cure!? Follow along and see!

[taricha]

I do not have any pics of dinos under the scope. I can provide tank shots but not sure how much that would do.

Better than nothing. If the rock is slimy enough it could be distinguishing

 

[RMS18]

In their defense, you can almost square their advice with their description of the bacterial action. they describe the bacteria blend in a way that makes it sound like they do work on the surfaces of algae, rocks and debris. If so, you can use UV without too much interference.

But still, like you say kill the skimmer/UV for a few hours to let bacteria colonize.
Also this implies blasting away debris should be done before vibrant.
Vibrant people seem pretty straightforward so hopefully their careful comments aren't pointing us in wrong direction.

Do we know anything at all about dino-x, other than it smells bad? Contents, mechanism, targets? Most reviews I've heard are bad, but a few good ones is still worth looking into.
Link appreciated.

I only used dinox once. I can't remember why I stopped I think it was affecting my corals and I didn't see any overnight changes with the dinos. In this new system like I've said many times the few corals I have in do not care about. Maybe I will give dinox another try.

 

[RMS18]

Lights not on yet there is some brown hair algea also in there.

 

[mandrieu]

In their defense, you can almost square their advice with their description of the bacterial action. they describe the bacteria blend in a way that makes it sound like they do work on the surfaces of algae, rocks and debris. If so, you can use UV without too much interference.

Good point

Vibrant people seem pretty straightforward so hopefully their careful comments aren't pointing us in wrong direction.

Agree, they are great and extremely service oriented. Didn't mean to say they are not helpful. Apologies if my comment came out wrong.

Do we know anything at all about dino-x, other than it smells bad? Contents, mechanism, targets? Most reviews I've heard are bad, but a few good ones is still worth looking into.

I tried Dino-X twice. It did work at removing/killing algae. Which, might have been a bad thing, now that I think about it. The first time I dosed based on their directions. Algae was greatly reduced, dinos mostly unaffected. I did full treatment. Second time, I went with stronger doses, about same results, but some of my corals took a beating. Abandoned the treatment half way.
With Vibrant, on the other hand, it was much more benign with corals, killed algae like crazy (again good news/bad news?), no effect on my dinos. It did lower nitrates significantly, no much effect on Phosphates.

 

[mcarroll]

If those colors are accurate on my end, that almost looks like pictures of #chrysophytes that I have seen.

Not completely dissimilar from what I had going on in my tank either.

 

[mcarroll]

If those colors are accurate on my end, that almost looks like pictures of #chrysophytes that I have seen.

Not completely dissimilar from what I had going on in my tank either.

 

[RMS18]

If those colors are accurate on my end, that almost looks like pictures of #chrysophytes that I have seen.

Not completely dissimilar from what I had going on in my tank either.

Colors are accurate to real life.

 

[Thor2j]

I just stopped Dino-x after 5 doses. SPS were taking a beating, water got cloudy, and ORP dropped like a rock. All known side effects but I thought it was time to quit. No change on prorocentrum after the dosing.

 

[Jolanta]

Thanks for your awesome detailed reports.
Some trace element or Alk had been depleted, and they react to its addition.
If you top off salt mix again, check alk before, and see if it's super low. If not, it's probably some undetectable trace element.


Yeah, use your judgment on peroxide amount. You are carefully observing your tank, so you have a better feel for its effect than me giving you a target number.
Can't really start metro until you are done with oxidizers and UV. They disable the metro.
I'm conflicted on vibrant and uv. They say it's fine to be used with UV, but they also say it's 95% living bacteria. I think disabling uv for a few hr to give vibrant bacteria time to colonize rock surface makes sense.




I found your brown worms in my tank too. Was shocked when I figured it out.

It's spirulina!

My alk was around 7 when salinity dropped and now is 7.5 and Im using ESV two part to keep it stable but I think now that my nitrates and phosphate are higher I will start to rise it slowly to 8 or 9. So you think alk is making them multiply again?
Great you could identify my strange brown worms Great video from your microscope! It looks so detailed. I think I need new microscope

 

[mdavis735]

Yep, that seems a constant. Everyone leaves the sand surface at night. Just not 100% sure who goes up, and who goes down (other than ostis and amphidinium).
People who had ostreopsis and ran carefully applied UV either said it got rid of their dinos or made their dinos "act different." upon inspection those with different looking dinos had amphidinium after UV. Reports on prorocentrum are needed.
I'll find your other posts see if you've posted pics anywhere of the dinos, especially rock "slime"

Mine did not leave the sand at night. My sand looked exactly the same 24 hours a day. That's one thing that made me question if it's dino. Also no air bubbles or strings. I treated twice for cyano. Neither time had much if any impact. I'm thinking 3 days of lights out is what made the little change I saw. Last night I pulled the sand out. Today no brown junk on the bottom.

 

[taricha]

Mine did not leave the sand at night. My sand looked exactly the same 24 hours a day. That's one thing that made me question if it's dino. Also no air bubbles or strings. I treated twice for cyano. Neither time had much if any impact. I'm thinking 3 days of lights out is what made the little change I saw. Last night I pulled the sand out. Today no brown junk on the bottom.

That really really doesn't sound like dino.
....or cyano to be honest.

 

[mdavis735]

It's hard for me too say. I posted a pic from a microscope earlier. It looks like what I've seen from some Dino pics. It's really hard too say as it really doesn't act like Dino's.

 

[RMS18]

Ok so a good update! Lights have been on 100% now for 2 hours and the sand is not nearly as bad compared to Friday! Also a have a huge patch on the rocks that cleared up. I am out of these tabs. In a week I might revisit the tabs with a chlorine test kit so I can measure how much is in the water. I'm going to hit them with Metro and h202 and go from there. BTW corals are all fine from the chlorine.

 

[mandrieu]

Ok so a good update! Lights have been on 100% now for 2 hours and the sand is not nearly as bad compared to Friday! Also a have a huge patch on the rocks that cleared up. I am out of these tabs. In a week I might revisit the tabs with a chlorine test kit so I can measure how much is in the water. I'm going to hit them with Metro and h202 and go from there. BTW corals are all fine from the chlorine.

Exciting!!!

 

[mandrieu]

Hey guys, I know it is somewhere but can't find it. Where can I buy cheaper Metro? (last time I used Seachem Metroplex - it's really expensive) - thanks!

 

[dave9905]

Hey guys, I know it is somewhere but can't find it. Where can I buy cheaper Metro? (last time I used Seachem Metroplex - it's really expensive) - thanks!

It's around $9 on amazon

 

[terri_ann]

I have several and I can ship.

 

[taricha]

Hopefully everyone in this thread who doesn't have a microscope has already done the paper towel test to see if you actually have dinos?

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?posts/2486286

Cyano is filtered by paper towels, diatoms go through paper towels, but don't regroup, dinos pass the filter then regroup into strands/clumps.

 

[Jolanta]

Hopefully everyone in this thread who doesn't have a microscope has already done the paper towel test to see if you actually have dinos?

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?posts/2486286

Cyano is filtered by paper towels, diatoms go through paper towels, but don't regroup, dinos pass the filter then regroup into strands/clumps.

Make like taricha says or just stop the movement in your tank, let the water stay steady for a 10 minutes or more and you will see brown group, string of dinos in the water column like those

And change a shape on your corals from strings with high flow

To just a brown mass when the water is steady

Those pictures are from my ostreopsis ovata. Im so happy I cant see them anymore

 

[taricha]

So I've used chemiclean twice to get rid of "cyano". Now I'm thinking this isn't cyano. Can you tell by this crappy pic if it's dinoflagellates? It's using my daughters cheap school microscope and my iPhone camera.

Mine did not leave the sand at night. My sand looked exactly the same 24 hours a day. That's one thing that made me question if it's dino. Also no air bubbles or strings. I treated twice for cyano. Neither time had much if any impact.

pic is almost certainly dinos. your description really doesn't sound like dinos.
Could you post a vid through the scope?
Maybe you have dinos + something else. It's surprisingly common.