Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[FunkEngine]

If reeferfoxx said prorocentrum, I would go with it. You could certainly have many types, but nutrients will help with all of them and UV will help with most of them.

Oh am I misremembering which kind I had?

I added a 36W jebao UV a month or so ago. Reasonable flowrate more inline with trusted industry brands recommendations.

If you have good test kits and are reading zero, you have too little nutrients. I would have a Hanna ULR phosphate kit for sure.

I use salifert for nitrate and the ULR checker for phosphorus. I usually clock in around 0-3ppb, which is within test error of 0. Nitrate is never any perceivable color change unless I've recently dosed.

 

[dwest]

Sorry, I thought you were the one that had prorocentrum. My mistake.

I have gone through a nasty bout of amphidinium myself. That would be consistent with UV not helping.

You are using good test kits. I would dose to elevate levels. I had to remove my sand bed to make a dent in amphidinium. I later dosed silicates. If I were to do it all over again, I would dose silicates to promote diatom growth (keeping phosphates and nitrates measurable). Then remove sand as a last resort.

 

[saltyhog]

Nice tank salty! Your coralline growth is amazing. You running a calcium reactor?

No sir just dosing 2 part. Coralline is one thing that has always done well in my tank for some reason. even the bottom of the shelf rock has coralline over growing it

Oh am I misremembering which kind I had?

I added a 36W jebao UV a month or so ago. Reasonable flowrate more inline with trusted industry brands recommendations.

If you're referring to the recommended flow rates that come with the unit, they are way too high. My unit recommended flow rates up to 4,400 gph. As I understand the recommendations here the recommended flow rate is much lower....1-3 times total water volume. For me this was 150-450 gph. I chose a pump that's in the middle of that range. Probably not the reason for it being ineffective if you have amphidinium but it might be a factor if you have other addtional species.

 

[FunkEngine]

If you're referring to the recommended flow rates that come with the unit, they are way too high. My unit recommended flow rates up to 4,400 gph.

No, I meant that I had the much lower flow rate.

 

[OpenOcean33]

okay so this morning the brown stuff on the sand intensified and broke the microscope and there are more dinos than last time. The cyano is almost gone besides the last liitle patch on the sand. However the dinos are making their re appearance which isnt bad yet but im trying to stop it from getting bad. Nitrate 8, phospahe .12, calcium 450, alk 10.1 and added supplement for that. Im not sure if i should increase nutrient or not because as soon as cyano dies off it comes right back.

 

[Zhark17]

Ok guys, im looking for a UV. My tank is a little 31gl/120L.
Would a 11W UV work in my tank vs prorocentrum??

Thank you all!!

 

[dwest]

Ok guys, im looking for a UV. My tank is a little 31gl/120L.
Would a 11W UV work in my tank vs prorocentrum??

Thank you all!!

Yes. 1 watt per every 2-3 tank gallons usually does the trick. Plump from DT back to DT. Run slow. 1-3 tank volumes per hour through the skimmer is about right.

 

[dwest]

okay so this morning the brown stuff on the sand intensified and broke the microscope and there are more dinos than last time. The cyano is almost gone besides the last liitle patch on the sand. However the dinos are making their re appearance which isnt bad yet but im trying to stop it from getting bad. Nitrate 8, phospahe .12, calcium 450, alk 10.1 and added supplement for that. Im not sure if i should increase nutrient or not because as soon as cyano dies off it comes right back.

Nutrients are good. Have you ID’d them yet? UV is helpful for many types, but not amphidinium.

 

[Tjm23slo]

I used 55 on my 120 nano and it worked great.

I have a 45 Gal cube with a home made in tank sump. I have a dual overflowwhich flows over some Bio Home media the on one side a small Tunde skimmer. The with my 2 return pumps I have a small power head 3/8” outlet. Flowing to my algae scrubber which is current fairly barren, the to the Jebao 36 watt UV. Returns to the return chamber again. Could this set up work or should I hang the power head over the sump wall and into the display tank along with the return?

Thanks
Tom

 

[OpenOcean33]

Nutrients are good. Have you ID’d them yet? UV is helpful for many types, but not amphidinium.

Coolia been working on it for a while, beat them with cyano, but now cyano is almost gone there coming back just mildly tho

 

[mikey5290]

Still reading this thread ( still two hundred something pages to go). But looking for confirmation to the types of Dino I am dealing with. Not the best photo but the best I could do with my kids microscope and iPhone.

 

[dwest]

I have a 45 Gal cube with a home made in tank sump. I have a dual overflowwhich flows over some Bio Home media the on one side a small Tunde skimmer. The with my 2 return pumps I have a small power head 3/8” outlet. Flowing to my algae scrubber which is current fairly barren, the to the Jebao 36 watt UV. Returns to the return chamber again. Could this set up work or should I hang the power head over the sump wall and into the display tank along with the return?

Thanks
Tom

There’s no harm trying your setup. If it doesn’t work, try DT back to DT. What are you trying to eradicate?

 

[dwest]

Still reading this thread ( still two hundred something pages to go). But looking for confirmation to the types of Dino I am dealing with. Not the best photo but the best I could do with my kids microscope and iPhone.

@reeferfoxx can help.

 

[OpenOcean33]

okay so this morning the brown stuff on the sand intensified and broke the microscope and there are more dinos than last time. The cyano is almost gone besides the last liitle patch on the sand. However the dinos are making their re appearance which isnt bad yet but im trying to stop it from getting bad. Nitrate 8, phospahe .12, calcium 450, alk 10.1 and added supplement for that. Im not sure if i should increase nutrient or not because as soon as cyano dies off it comes right back.

Just tagging @reeferfoxx since we have been working at this for a while together.

 

[Jonreefer]

So I think I am winning. I just have 1 strand of the brown left here and there. Probably a total of 10 I can find in the tank and just like a handful of bubbles. Hopefully they are dying off and when I move to the 40b they don’t explode.

 

[Tjm23slo]

There’s no harm trying your setup. If it doesn’t work, try DT back to DT. What are you trying to eradicate?

I assumed amphidinium as it was just on my substrate. I got my phosphates up to .1-.16 and nitrates are way to high right now, but will deal with that in time. Silicate was 0 so I have been dosing silicate. Went away for a week and obviously stopped dosing silicate and I had Dino everywhere. I have not been able to get a diatom bloom yet so I need to start dosing heavier. I tried to view through a microscope but not having much luck. It’s an old mirror mircoscope. I’m not sure if it’s the scope or my eyes or my eyes with my readers but hard to see much. I may have to buy a scope.

I just blew off the rocks and tossed the sand bed, I’ll order up a scope and let the Dino reformulate and collect a sample. If I suck up some substrate and take a dropper of water I see nothing from my old scope, so I am either doing something wrong, my scope doesn’t work or I don’t have any visible organisms. I am guessing either 1 or 2.

 

[Tamberav]

Recently had a run in with the kind of dino that goes into the water column at night. I blasted it off the rocks during the day and at night dosed food grade calcium carbonate slurry. I left the skimmer running and changed filter floss frequently. The calcium carbonate helped grab onto the dino and remove it via skimmer. Skimmer pulled nasty stuff during that time. I was able to beat it down in a few days this way. Nutrients did come up a bit too on their own.

 

[OpenOcean33]

I was just doing some research and came across this article has anyone attempted this yet ? It includes the Dr. Tims refresh and waste away. I have never heard of it before https://s3.amazonaws.com/brsinstructions/brsDrTims/DrTims_Dinoflagellate_Recipe_BRS.pdf

 

[dwest]

Recently had a run in with the kind of dino that goes into the water column at night. I blasted it off the rocks during the day and at night dosed food grade calcium carbonate slurry. I left the skimmer running and changed filter floss frequently. The calcium carbonate helped grab onto the dino and remove it via skimmer. Skimmer pulled nasty stuff during that time. I was able to beat it down in a few days this way. Nutrients did come up a bit too on their own.

Interesting. How did you know to try calcium carbonate? Did you happen to check your skimmate with a microscope to check for dinos there?

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Day 5 of the UV sterilizer and things are still looking good. I had a look at my skimate under my scope and there are plenty of dead dinos in there which is good.
Still can't seem to shift the remaining brown patches on the sand bed though. They are being annoyingly resistant.