Dinoflagellates? What to do?

[Peter Keefe]

So I've been battling this since I started the tank 2 years ago. I finally bought a microscope and after looking at all the usual suspects, I think it's dinoflagellates. If anyone can confirm my hunch, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I plan to manually remove (for the millionth time), do a 2-3 day dark period, and dose Micobacter 7. I'm currently running GFO and carbon, will that help or hurt (I stopped GFO/carbon for a few months and started again after this got way worse recently)? Any additional advice on what to do is very welcome!

 

[FrugalReeferJon]

I can only speak from experience but these are the things I did to defeat dinos when I had an outbreak back in 2023.

1) manual removal
2) feed more
3) stop dosing aminos
4) continue with activated carbon but stop GFO
5) stop trace element dosing
6) dose bacteria
7) lower white light intensity and overall lighting period length
8) run UV
9) blackout periods

They didn’t disappear overnight as it lasted for months and I lost several corals but eventually I did defeat it. I wish you luck.

 

[Peter Keefe]

I can only speak from experience but these are the things I did to defeat dinos when I had an outbreak back in 2023.

1) manual removal
2) feed more
3) stop dosing aminos
4) continue with activated carbon but stop GFO
5) stop trace element dosing
6) dose bacteria
7) lower white light intensity and overall lighting period length
8) run UV
9) blackout periods

They didn’t disappear overnight as it lasted for months and I lost several corals but eventually I did defeat it. I wish you luck.

Thanks for the tips! I'll try to do all of the above and hope it works

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Dosing silicate to promote diatoms to outcompete the dinos for space is helpful.

Nitrate and phosphate are what concentrations?

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

For me:
ID under a scope. Typically two routes. UV or the long game. If it’s ostreopsis, UV does the trick. The others take some work.

Again, for me this has always worked:

- Dose waterglass (silicate) like it’s going out of style
- I call the guy I have been buying my pods from for a couple years (reefbysteele) and tell him what I got going on, buy 3x what I need and time it for the 7th day of silicate dosing
- increase my PO4/No3 supplements and feed more
- typically a dosing head goes out of service and I fail to notice it would cause me to get dinos
- dose phyto for 30 days

2 days later I’m free. For what ever reason, while expensive, this has really worked for me. I’ve not had to change my lighting schedule or anything.

I feed 7+ times a day
I dose 50 ML of No3 and 85 ML of PO4 a day

I hover around 8 and .07.
450-500Gs.