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

[Im shallow]

Can some id this Dino and advice me how to fight it .. thanks

 

[coachb9]

I am new to the fight. Only yesterday did I break out the microscope. Hoped it was cyano or diatoms for weeks.
I haven’t tried any cures and have only made it to page 10 on this thread but will make it thru them all by tomorrow. Any insight as to what I am dealing with would be great. It appears my dino is mostly on my sand bed with bubbles appearing on the surface of some but not all of the sand where the dino exists.
Nitrate 5
Phosphate 0.16

 

[mcarroll]

@Im shallow @coachb9 I'd suggest doing your reading over here instead:
Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

Much more current info and more eyeballs on that thread.

 

[Justin Ostafew]

Hey everyone. I've now officially exhausted all options for ridding the system of dinos (Ostreopsis), including heavy dosing of chlorine bleach. I ran two courses of bleach in my 50gal (total water volume) system consisting of the doses below twice a day for three days. Bleach used was a fresh bottle of 8.2 something Sodium hypochlorite. I'd already moved all fish and most inverts to quarantine, so I was free to go to town with the bleach.

Round 1:
1.8ml in 50gal
This dose should have been safe(ish) for the fish, and all inverts. Dinos were knocked back, but after a day were clearly visible. Scope confirmed happy Ostreopsis spinning away.

Round 2:
7.5ml in 50gal
This dose is borderline dangerous for inverts, definitely a fish killer. I had a large turbo snail, couple hermits that I'd missed, and a GSP colony left in the tank. All survived the dose, along with Ostreopsis. They were knocked way back with this dose, but still remained. I'm sure in the process I probably nuked most of the pods and particularly bacterial load in the tank.

At this point I'm throwing in the towel and taking a break from reefing. Sure I could nuke the system and start over, but to be honest if I was starting over I'd do so with a different shape and size tank, and I don't want to invest the time and money to do that right now. I'm also burnt out. So I'm going to convert the system to FW and take a break from reefing, hopefully to return to the hobby in a few years refreshed and better equipped for success.

In case anyone's interested, here is a list of the strategies I tried to salvage this system:

• running extreme ULN (likely caused the problems in the first place)
• changing lighting from 300w of MH and T5 over a 35gal shallow tank, to 100w of T5
• Dosing N and P for many months and maintaining the accepted targets in the other Dino centric threads
• Feeding heavily
• 3 day round of metroplex
• 5 doses of Vibrant
• Doing nothing
• 2 rounds of bleach.

I never did try DinoX, my reading told me it probably wasn't worth my time.

So, thanks for the hours upon hours of reading Reef2Reef, hopefully one day I'll be back doing something more fun than reading about Dinos.

 

[rockskimmerflow]

Hey everyone. I've now officially exhausted all options for ridding the system of dinos (Ostreopsis), including heavy dosing of chlorine bleach. I ran two courses of bleach in my 50gal (total water volume) system consisting of the doses below twice a day for three days. Bleach used was a fresh bottle of 8.2 something Sodium hypochlorite. I'd already moved all fish and most inverts to quarantine, so I was free to go to town with the bleach.

Round 1:
1.8ml in 50gal
This dose should have been safe(ish) for the fish, and all inverts. Dinos were knocked back, but after a day were clearly visible. Scope confirmed happy Ostreopsis spinning away.

Round 2:
7.5ml in 50gal
This dose is borderline dangerous for inverts, definitely a fish killer. I had a large turbo snail, couple hermits that I'd missed, and a GSP colony left in the tank. All survived the dose, along with Ostreopsis. They were knocked way back with this dose, but still remained. I'm sure in the process I probably nuked most of the pods and particularly bacterial load in the tank.

At this point I'm throwing in the towel and taking a break from reefing. Sure I could nuke the system and start over, but to be honest if I was starting over I'd do so with a different shape and size tank, and I don't want to invest the time and money to do that right now. I'm also burnt out. So I'm going to convert the system to FW and take a break from reefing, hopefully to return to the hobby in a few years refreshed and better equipped for success.

In case anyone's interested, here is a list of the strategies I tried to salvage this system:

• running extreme ULN (likely caused the problems in the first place)
• changing lighting from 300w of MH and T5 over a 35gal shallow tank, to 100w of T5
• Dosing N and P for many months and maintaining the accepted targets in the other Dino centric threads
• Feeding heavily
• 3 day round of metroplex
• 5 doses of Vibrant
• Doing nothing
• 2 rounds of bleach.

I never did try DinoX, my reading told me it probably wasn't worth my time.

So, thanks for the hours upon hours of reading Reef2Reef, hopefully one day I'll be back doing something more fun than reading about Dinos.

Rough luck buddy. Barking up the wrong tree for sure with bleach. UV is the only helpful attack method Ive found against ostreopsis. Must be done with nutrient management in detectable ranges as well as seeding of turf algaes and pods. Munnid isopods are O. ovata munching machines. You've gotta foster conditions for other organisms to successfully compete for all available substrates in the tank. Dino have entered the hobby in full force and theres no going back. I operate under the full assumption that every client tank I manage has or will get dino. Youre wise not to think a full reset would fix the problem, because getting dino again is an inevitability. Sad to lose another hobbyist to the scourge.

 

[Justin Ostafew]

Thanks for reminding me. I started with a 19w UV sterilizer on the sump, moved that to the DT, then bumped up to a 55w jebau unit. When I say I've tried it all I mean it.

 

[rockskimmerflow]

Thanks for reminding me. I started with a 19w UV sterilizer on the sump, moved that to the DT, then bumped up to a 55w jebau unit. When I say I've tried it all I mean it.

Bummer. If you were in the socal area I'd say shoot me a PM and I could likely have you free of any visible dinos and growing corals again in under 6 weeks. The past 2 years or so, I've seen more dino ridden tanks than in all the years prior. Really big change to the whole US reefing landscape IMO.

 

[Justin Ostafew]

I appreciate the sentiment, I would have been happy to try to learn if you were closer. I will make note of that species of pods when I inevitably give it another go. Out of this whole struggle there's one thing I've gained and that's knowledge. And a pretty decent microscope

 

[Rich Klein]

I appreciate the sentiment, I would have been happy to try to learn if you were closer. I will make note of that species of pods when I inevitably give it another go. Out of this whole struggle there's one thing I've gained and that's knowledge. And a pretty decent microscope

I very recently beat Dino, that I believe I caused by carbon dosing (a very small amount) to try to eliminate a bit of hair algae. I fought it without success for months, trying Dino-X, blackouts, etc.. But one comment that I read from a Reefer kept haunting me, "I have never seen Dinoflagellates in a tank that has other algae". Finally that lit a bulb, and I stopped listening to the posts of all the ways to try to kill it, and focused instead on growing macro algae and micro fauna in my tank to out compete it. I dosed Nitrate (>= 5) and Phosphate / Phosphorous (>=.05) to encourage other algae to grow and out-compete the Dino. I also dosed Pods (and Phytoplankton). The tank went through a stage of beautiful colors of red and green cyano (better than the Dino), but once different types of algae started to grow the Dino disappeared. It's all about keeping a healthy tank with a small amount of phosphate and nitrate. I won't ever dose carbon again, and now control nutrients with Chaeto (small fuge with copods, and a PaxBellum n24 algae reactor for nutrient export). It was the best education and worst experience as a Reef Keeper. One last observation: there is a clue in one of the warnings that you read in hundreds of posts, "don't do water changes, it fuels the Dino growth". Most of the posts hypothesize that there is a trace element that fuels the Dino. I am not an expert, but if you take a look at salt mixes, most boast low nitrates and phosphates. Could it be that water changes lower the nutrients that competitors to Dino need to grow? I suggest that water changes are just fine, but afterwards test for Nitrate and Phosphate and raise them both as needed.

 

[rockskimmerflow]

I very recently beat Dino, that I believe I caused by carbon dosing (a very small amount) to try to eliminate a bit of hair algae. I fought it without success for months, trying Dino-X, blackouts, etc.. But one comment that I read from a Reefer kept haunting me, "I have never seen Dinoflagellates in a tank that has other algae". Finally that lit a bulb, and I stopped listening to the posts of all the ways to try to kill it, and focused instead on growing macro algae and micro fauna in my tank to out compete it. I dosed Nitrate (>= 5) and Phosphate / Phosphorous (>=.05) to encourage other algae to grow and out-compete the Dino. I also dosed Pods (and Phytoplankton). The tank went through a stage of beautiful colors of red and green cyano (better than the Dino), but once different types of algae started to grow the Dino disappeared. It's all about keeping a healthy tank with a small amount of phosphate and nitrate. I won't ever dose carbon again, and now control nutrients with Chaeto (small fuge with copods, and a PaxBellum n24 algae reactor for nutrient export). It was the best education and worst experience as a Reef Keeper. One last observation: there is a clue in one of the warnings that you read in hundreds of posts, "don't do water changes, it fuels the Dino growth". Most of the posts hypothesize that there is a trace element that fuels the Dino. I am not an expert, but if you take a look at salt mixes, most boast low nitrates and phosphates. Could it be that water changes lower the nutrients that competitors to Dino need to grow? I suggest that water changes are just fine, but afterwards test for Nitrate and Phosphate and raise them both as needed.

Yup, competition from algaes and microfauna is the key in my experience as well. I slam all new systems now with a couple varieties of green hair, green turf, brown spot, and coralline algaes. Then pump up the nitrate and maintain measureable phos for a week. Once the other algaes and critters take hold and start to thrive, the dino begins to melt away within a week or so. And you're right that chasing numbers or trying to kill the dino isn't the answer, it's filling your tank with all manner of other less distasteful living things to reproduce and occupy the available substrates. Congrats on your success!

 

[Hartz57]

Need an ID on Dino’s in my reef. Brown, stringy, web like, covering sandbed and rock. Took a pic. Initially thought Ostrio but not spinning around like I’ve seen in other videos. Thanks for any help in an ID

 

[mcarroll]

Need an ID on Dino’s in my reef. Brown, stringy, web like, covering sandbed and rock. Took a pic. Initially thought Ostrio but not spinning around like I’ve seen in other videos. Thanks for any help in an ID

Try the sticky at the top of the forum:
Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

This thread is fairly out of date.

 

[Themako1]

I’ve had Dino’s for a couple months now, for the past 2 weeks I’ve been doing 4ml of bleach 2 times a day on my 100g. I have not seen any decrease, actually they are getting worse. Is there anything else I can try or does anyone thing I should up the dosage, fish seem to be fine with this dosage

 

[Themako1]

Double post, sorry

 

[reefwiser]

I’ve had Dino’s for a couple months now, for the past 2 weeks I’ve been doing 4ml of bleach 2 times a day on my 100g. I have not seen any decrease, actually they are getting worse. Is there anything else I can try or does anyone thing I should up the dosage, fish seem to be fine with this dosage

Need to dose Phosphate and Nitrate per this thread
https://reefsuccess.com/2017/02/08/nitratecalc/

 

[Ahbaloch]

For the first time at day 15 I have not had to blow the frag rack off with my trusty turkey baster!
Oh ya.. Todd 1 dino 0

Total days in process is 15 days

What did you dose,

 

[Ahbaloch]

Help please

 

[Velcro]

Fish only? Move the fish and nuke the tank lol. Otherwise dose phosphate and add UV.

 

[mcarroll]

@Ahbaloch, please check in over here:
Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

 

[CherBear811]

I very recently beat Dino, that I believe I caused by carbon dosing (a very small amount) to try to eliminate a bit of hair algae. I fought it without success for months, trying Dino-X, blackouts, etc.. But one comment that I read from a Reefer kept haunting me, "I have never seen Dinoflagellates in a tank that has other algae". Finally that lit a bulb, and I stopped listening to the posts of all the ways to try to kill it, and focused instead on growing macro algae and micro fauna in my tank to out compete it. I dosed Nitrate (>= 5) and Phosphate / Phosphorous (>=.05) to encourage other algae to grow and out-compete the Dino. I also dosed Pods (and Phytoplankton). The tank went through a stage of beautiful colors of red and green cyano (better than the Dino), but once different types of algae started to grow the Dino disappeared. It's all about keeping a healthy tank with a small amount of phosphate and nitrate. I won't ever dose carbon again, and now control nutrients with Chaeto (small fuge with copods, and a PaxBellum n24 algae reactor for nutrient export). It was the best education and worst experience as a Reef Keeper. One last observation: there is a clue in one of the warnings that you read in hundreds of posts, "don't do water changes, it fuels the Dino growth". Most of the posts hypothesize that there is a trace element that fuels the Dino. I am not an expert, but if you take a look at salt mixes, most boast low nitrates and phosphates. Could it be that water changes lower the nutrients that competitors to Dino need to grow? I suggest that water changes are just fine, but afterwards test for Nitrate and Phosphate and raise them both as needed.

I first started getting dinos when I had a lot of bryopsis (and hair algae growing on return inlets). I knocked the bryopsis down with fluc, and took everything out and cleaned it. I never had it on the substrate or really even on my rock. It would mainly grow on bryopsis strands and my acros. The tank had a hard crash, completely unrelated to this a few months ago which seemed to knock the dinos out too, but now they are starting to come back again, just on the frag rack (which I already took out once before and bleached in a strong solution) and on the corals. I am curious because when I first started having this problem I had a lot of bryopsis and hair algae in the system, which seems to oppose the thought that dinos dont happen in tanks with other algae.