Dinoflagellates my experience......h2o2 reefing tool!!!!!

[Troylee]

Lights on. Should it be done lights out?

Yes it should be dozed at night when the lights are out. I’m not too sure the effects of it on cyano or hair algae unless used as a dip at full strength. But either way if you’re gonna use it for Dino’s or what ever do it when the lights are out.

 

[Chucky]

Yes it should be dozed at night when the lights are out. I’m not too sure the effects of it on cyano or hair algae unless used as a dip at full strength. But either way if you’re gonna use it for Dino’s or what ever do it when the lights are out.

Well that could explain me ticking off my zoas and shrooms ‍

 

[Kellie in CA]

How long does it typically take before you start seeing a difference?

 

[ELChingonsReef]

It’s 1ml per 10 gallon.. I’m currently doing it to fight some algae I have going on I believe is Dino’s again.. ugh… I tried chemi clean already and saw no improvement and none of my corals were affected.. currently dosing mb7 and h202 and seeing improvements after just 2 days..

Update.. so as far as the cyano I've finally realized that it was my low phosphates that was causing the cyano. Once I brought my p04 up they started to go away on their own. Also I started dosing trace elements. I believe that helps as well with both cyano and dinoflagellates since I have changed those two things I've got rid of both.

 

[Troylee]

How long does it typically take before you start seeing a difference?

All depends any more.. so much more information is available today then 12 years ago when I started this thread.. back then we just had Dino’s.. we didn’t know there was numerous strains of them etc.. each strain reacts differently to different things. Need a microscope to determine what you’re up against first.

 

[Kellie in CA]

All depends any more.. so much more information is available today then 12 years ago when I started this thread.. back then we just had Dino’s.. we didn’t know there was numerous strains of them etc.. each strain reacts differently to different things. Need a microscope to determine what you’re up against first.

I’ve been fighting Dino’s for almost 2 years. It’s Proro.

 

[Troylee]

I’ve been fighting Dino’s for almost 2 years. It’s Proro.

What steps have you taken thus far?

 

[Kellie in CA]

@Troylee I have tried everything (not all at the same time). Daily manual removal for the past year, silicate dosing (past 3-4 months), daily phyto dosing (past year), adding pods monthly, adding rubble rock from the ocean, no water changes, UV, etc…. I wanted to avoid peroxide dosing because was scared, but at this point I’m so frustrated that I’m willing to take the risk.
My tank is doing fantastic aside from this one issue.

 

[Forty-Two]

Good read

Mitigation of Marine Dinoflagellates Using Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) Increases Toxicity towards Epithelial Gill Cells

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has been shown to efficiently remove toxic microalgae from enclosed ballast waters and brackish lakes. In this study, in vitro experiments were conducted to assess the side effects of mitigating toxic and non-toxic dinoflagellates with H2O2. Five H2O2 concentrations (50...

www.mdpi.com

The conclusion seems to be here that yes Hydrogen Peroxide is effective in treating Dino's but with certain species (and I did not see Ostreopsis in there or other species we normally deal with) it can increase the toxicity of non-toxic Dino's and decrease the toxicity of toxic Dino's - so be careful or you could kill your marine life.

 

[Polyp Punk]

You need to be careful. If I’m not mistaken I believe the hydrogen peroxide pulls O2 out of your water. You need to monitor your ORP. I’m also wondering if it would affect the PH level as well.

 

[Forty-Two]

I did a little experiment today because I was curious about the effect of H202 on Ostreopsis. I took approximately 12ml of tank water, and took a sample of Dino's from my tank. I confirmed the sample was alive and active, having collected some of the mucus membrane that they seem to breed in. I applied what I would estimate to be .025 - .05ml of H202 (my equipment isnt sensitive enough to register a drop of that size) to the pitri dish with 12ml of tank water and the Dino sample. Within 3 minutes I did not see much of a change. Within 5 minutes I observed the first signs of Dino's ceasing moving and appearing dead, within 9 minutes it had devestated the entire patch of Dino's which I had collected. I didnt observe anymore living Dino's in the observation site. There was an active, what I would guest to be Copepod still foraging in the dish - indicating that the H202 did not appear to hurt or damage the other life within the dish.

I do have a decent microscope but unfortunately my Mikrokular from bresser is not working so I couldnt capture the pictures/video.

Update: After 20 minutes most of the mucus 'nursing grounds' have been eradicated by H202 - what I mean by that is they are literally breaking up. There are now some dead Copepods as well - they appear to be dying as well.

 

[Kellie in CA]

Just as an update, I have now done 4 Hydrogen Peroxide treatments. Everything in the tank is doing just fine, including the cleaner shrimp. My tank is 40g, but when it was filled it only took 28g of water. I added 3ml of HP every evening after the lights went out.
The dinos (Proro & Amphs) were much less yesterday, so we will see what the situation is today when the lights come on.

After all the money and time I have put into dealing with these dinos, I am going to be amazed if the solution was a $1 bottle from Target.

 

[Budman93]

Imo the best way to defeat dinos is to to do everything to avoid them all in the first place. Make sure nutrients never ever ever zero out. Do not overskim, do not run a refugium unless you need to, same with carbon and GFO etc. I would rather have excess nutrients and fight gha and cyano any day of the week.

 

[Kellie in CA]

I don't have a skimmer or refugium, I also feed heavily. 75% of the rock in my tank is about 15 years old. I'm assuming this problem leads back to a time that I used Chemiclean for a cyano outbreak. I will never make that mistake again!

 

[Forty-Two]

Imo the best way to defeat dinos is to to do everything to avoid them all in the first place. Make sure nutrients never ever ever zero out. Do not overskim, do not run a refugium unless you need to, same with carbon and GFO etc. I would rather have excess nutrients and fight gha and cyano any day of the week.

unless your test kits crap out and they dont give you the correct info *ahem*Mastertronic*ahem*

 

[Forty-Two]

Update on my situation and very very long battle with Dino's - Im now at 4 doses of hydrogen peroxide @ 1ml per 10 G.

At first I had thought it had not improved the situation as my fuzzies seem to have gotten worse - however I took a sample and low and behold most of the Dino's are dead. I did find one big clump on the bottom with very active Dino's - but most of the fuzzyness is GHA at this point. I'll continue dosing for another 2-3 days, and then dose AF Life Source, which Im hoping will start to close the gaps on the bacteria/balance issues and hopefully that will be it (Finally), and I can get back once again to growing beautiful corals.

 

[Forty-Two]

Welp - not sure I’m going to continue this battle. I’ve had Dino’s for almost a year now, lost well over 30 corals - most of them growing nicely, got rid of the Dino’s 3 times total - including a multi-month blackout - and while in the morning after dosing hydrogen peroxide at night it looks ok….by the afternoon they are raging again.

I don’t think this battle is winnable and quite frankly it’s time consuming, irritating and just not enjoyable. I see no way to fix this problem other than getting rid of the tank - which looks like is the only option left - otherwise stare at a brown snotty aquarium all of the time.

 

[enb141]

Welp - not sure I’m going to continue this battle. I’ve had Dino’s for almost a year now, lost well over 30 corals - most of them growing nicely, got rid of the Dino’s 3 times total - including a multi-month blackout - and while in the morning after dosing hydrogen peroxide at night it looks ok….by the afternoon they are raging again.

I don’t think this battle is winnable and quite frankly it’s time consuming, irritating and just not enjoyable. I see no way to fix this problem other than getting rid of the tank - which looks like is the only option left - otherwise stare at a brown snotty aquarium all of the time.

Just reduce your skimming and refugium time, get a few more fish (big if possible).

Have you tried increasing the temperature of your tank to 82-84 degrees?

 

[Forty-Two]

Just reduce your skimming and refugium time, get a few more fish (big if possible).

Have you tried increasing the temperature of your tank to 82-84 degrees?

Ya I’ve tried both of those - even going so far as to stop skimming during certain periods. I did see a slight improvement but not enough to kill them. My refugium light has been off for at least 10 months now.

Yep I tried increasing the temp - I’m at 26 Celsius atm - it made no difference. I can’t go up much more because I’m in a hot climate and if the air con goes off I’ll lose the tank.

The only thing I haven’t done is increase the PH but that’s only a temp solution from what I have read as the second the PH falls they come back.

 

[enb141]

Ya I’ve tried both of those - even going so far as to stop skimming during certain periods. I did see a slight improvement but not enough to kill them. My refugium light has been off for at least 10 months now.

Yep I tried increasing the temp - I’m at 26 Celsius atm - it made no difference. I can’t go up much more because I’m in a hot climate and if the air con goes off I’ll lose the tank.

The only thing I haven’t done is increase the PH but that’s only a temp solution from what I have read as the second the PH falls they come back.

How high was your temperature when you tried to increase it?

What are your pH values?

Is your tank located in a place where no other light than the aquarium lights can illuminate it, in other words, is your tank placed in a place that no sun light enters that room?