Dinoflagellates question

[anon9896]

Hey everyone,
I'm having a moderate problem with dinoflagellates.
I fixed the problem wich caused the outbreak and I wish not to speak about that.
Right now the situation is pretty stable and I tend to remove a lot of them daily.
I remember back in the days , I did manage to keep some oyster and clams for a while in my tank.
Did anyone ever udes those to combat a dino outbreak?
Does it make any sense to think they would help?
I have the type of dinos that goes into the water column at night ( I know I could use a UV sterilizer lamp)
I just wonder if anything else than adding pods could help out right now , like adding a filtering critter.
Cheers

 

[Snoopdog]

UV light, worked for ostreopsis on mine.

 

[anon9896]

UV light, worked for ostreopsis on mine.

I think you omited to read my post.

 

[Mikedawg]

Don't know if they can be filtered out, but doubt it. H2o2 dosed 1 ml/10 gal will weaken their cell structure and dosing bacteria will provide more organisms to outcompete them. Also you'll want to make sure you have detectable nitrate and phosphate.

Good luck

 

[anon9896]

I read that dinoflagellates are mostly known to be 15-40 microns. I can't seem to find clam food size (yet)

 

[ScottB]

Hey everyone,
I'm having a moderate problem with dinoflagellates.
I fixed the problem wich caused the outbreak and I wish not to speak about that.
Right now the situation is pretty stable and I tend to remove a lot of them daily.
I remember back in the days , I did manage to keep some oyster and clams for a while in my tank.
Did anyone ever udes those to combat a dino outbreak?
Does it make any sense to think they would help?
I have the type of dinos that goes into the water column at night ( I know I could use a UV sterilizer lamp)
I just wonder if anything else than adding pods could help out right now , like adding a filtering critter.
Cheers

I don't keep clams myself, but understand they need a pretty stable environment and a really good light source.
Three reasons I would not put a clam in there now:
1) If you have a dino that swims at night like procentrum or ostreopsis they have toxins which a filter feeder would ingest.
2) Supplemental food sources for the clam would be feeding the dinos first.
3) Blackouts are a common treatment tool for dinos. Not good for a new clam.

I'd wait until you are done with the dinos.

Lastly, I always thought oysters were a brackish water species and not a marine one.

 

[anon9896]

I don't keep clams myself, but understand they need a pretty stable environment and a really good light source.
Three reasons I would not put a clam in there now:
1) If you have a dino that swims at night like procentrum or ostreopsis they have toxins which a filter feeder would ingest.
2) Supplemental food sources for the clam would be feeding the dinos first.
3) Blackouts are a common treatment tool for dinos. Not good for a new clam.

I'd wait until you are done with the dinos.

Lastly, I always thought oysters were a brackish water species and not a marine one.

I did not refer to those very nice clams we can see in some of those drastically nice aquariums.
I was thinking of a cheap live clam from the grocery store maybe.
I keep in mind about those toxins.
cheers.

 

[Mikedawg]

I have read where razor clams are a "maybe" on ingesting dinos, but think most clams eat phyto/zoo plankton, and organic material. https://www.bioexplorer.net/what-do-clams-eat.html/#:~:text=What Do Giant Clams Eat? 1 Giant clams,home to live and thrive. More items...

But, wouldn't it be great to discover that there is a common tank-friendly marine animal that eats dinos voraciously.....

 

[Snoopdog]

I think you omited to read my post.

Yes I missed what you had in parens.

 

[anon9896]

I have read where razor clams are a "maybe" on ingesting dinos, but think most clams eat phyto/zoo plankton, and organic material. https://www.bioexplorer.net/what-do-clams-eat.html/#:~:text=What Do Giant Clams Eat? 1 Giant clams,home to live and thrive. More items...

But, wouldn't it be great to discover that there is a common tank-friendly marine animal that eats dinos voraciously.....

I could not say it better, when i see diatoms, I see food for an animal, hence the search for the critter that would eat it.
Thanks for the link. Btw I might try it since there is not real counter indication, ill keep you posted.

 

[Mikedawg]

On this blog I saw a claim that Acartia tonsa pods eat dinos but follow up questions were unanswered so validity of claim is still in limbo I think. This species is commercially available (Live Aquaria, etc.) and it may be a good idea to contact vendor and get their take. However, in reviewing several vendor websites I read no claims suggesting this species eats dinos and if there was any supporting evidence I'm pretty sure it would be well known.

As widespread as dinos are, seems like we would know more about the conditions they require.

 

[ScottB]

Yeah, to date most of the treatment protocols focus on competitors and not so much on predators. Cyano, diatoms, bacterial film, film algae, coralline algae.

The absence or weakness of these populations give dinos their window of opportunity.

To compound things, we see 5 different common dinoflagellate species in aquaria with very different behaviors and levels of toxicity. So a predator of one species may not be effective against another. A pod that eats a non-toxic, lazyass sand dwelling large cell amphidinium becomes PREY for the toxic ostreopsis and procentrum.

 

[anon9896]

Last Year I had a dino trail at a very specific place.
I remember that they would always be at the same place.
I had a fishiring wire holding my magnet so it doesnt fall in the tank when I clean too fast.
Once I tried and changed the whole wire thinking I would clear the problem.
They came back to the EXACT same spot.
obviously it was closest point where light is.

Here is a photo of them back a year https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dino.681142/

The difference now is that it would not go in the water column at night wich seems to be partially different right now.
I'm using the 'fishing rod' technique right now, every morning I place a new filter pad in the sump and I remove about 1/4 of the whole problem / day just before the sump lights are off.

I have a Tiger goby eating some of it but like you said ScottB , I'm starting to think he might get poisoned.

 

[anon9896]

Will be adding an oyster.
I did read some people use them as a natural filter.
I had some back in the days , when skimmers were not so popular. Im starting to think there is a reason my tank was ok.
People would say that it would die from starvation... hey as long its starving from the absence of dino haha

 

[taricha]

I just wonder if anything else than adding pods could help out right now , like adding a filtering critter.

the issue is not whether filter feeders consume them. It's whether toxins will accumulate and harm the filter feeder.
in the wild, this is called paralytic shellfish poisoning. shellfish consume harmful algae bloom, people eat shellfish, and bad effects follow.

 

[anon9896]

the issue is not whether filter feeders consume them. It's whether toxins will accumulate and harm the filter feeder.
in the wild, this is called paralytic shellfish poisoning. shellfish consume harmful algae bloom, people eat shellfish, and bad effects follow.

that clue points to them eating bad algaes, interesting!

 

[ScottB]

that clue points to them eating bad algaes, interesting!

I meant to comment on this but guess I forgot. Oysters live in brackish estuaries with much lower salinity than our systems. Might live for a while but... well how is he doing?

 

[anon9896]

I meant to comment on this but guess I forgot. Oysters live in brackish estuaries with much lower salinity than our systems. Might live for a while but... well how is he doing?

Lol the oyster is fine so far, I did read it can live up to our salinity but it is not the best for them. Aquarium is still battling algaes , I bought a uv light but im not quite sure it really helps. I have half as much red algaes as when I wrote this post so I guess i'm on the right track, even tho GHA started showing itself And some bryopsis ... ill deal with those later. (Phosphate issue)

 

[undbulsu]

Hey everyone,
I'm having a moderate problem with dinoflagellates.
I fixed the problem wich caused the outbreak and I wish not to speak about that.
Right now the situation is pretty stable and I tend to remove a lot of them daily.
I remember back in the days , I did manage to keep some oyster and clams for a while in my tank.
Did anyone ever udes those to combat a dino outbreak?
Does it make any sense to think they would help?
I have the type of dinos that goes into the water column at night ( I know I could use a UV sterilizer lamp)
I just wonder if anything else than adding pods could help out right now , like adding a filtering critter.
Cheers

I am dealing with a similar problem and I don’t know if this would help you, but it has for me. I had some old nylon mesh filter socks for my red sea reefer tank. I tore off the nylon mesh an saved the plastic ring that held the sock.

I then replaced the sock with a 10micron sock I bought on Amazon. Basically superglued it to the plastic ring .

I put those in after the lights go out and crank up my pumps overnight. In the morning, the socks are filled with dinos I have done this three nights straight and today I barely have any Dino’s on the sand.

Hope this helps

 

[anon9896]

I am dealing with a similar problem and I don’t know if this would help you, but it has for me. I had some old nylon mesh filter socks for my red sea reefer tank. I tore off the nylon mesh an saved the plastic ring that held the sock.

I then replaced the sock with a 10micron sock I bought on Amazon. Basically superglued it to the plastic ring .

I put those in after the lights go out and crank up my pumps overnight. In the morning, the socks are filled with dinos I have done this three nights straight and today I barely have any Dino’s on the sand.

Hope this helps

I did something similar and it helped, been changing filters 2X/day in the sump luckyly I have some very inexpensive ones that are perfect for that!