Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[ScottB]

Fun. Had these once, exchanged them for Amphidinium then beat those. Upgraded my 120 to a 180 and even used 60% TB saltwater rock and 40% brand new thinking the flora / fauna would be beneficial for keeping them at bay. Threw out all the old rock / sand and FW dipped corals and got all new equipment hoping I wouldn't transfer. Guess it's back to the fight

Well if you beat Amphids, ostreos are a walk in the park. Love to hear your method against Amphids. Folks really struggle there sometimes. End up pulling the sand bed. And yeah, very common to have one replace another.

I would've hoped the live rock diversity would have kept you safe. Did you have any nutrient going when they appeared? How old is this set up?

 

[Dsantamaria29]

The amphidinium was irritating. I poured sponge excel into that tank with a vengeance and hardly saw any diatoms. I stopped that and I basically set my doser to dose seachem phosphorus and my feeder to overfeed and left it be. When I say left it be I literally wouldn't go look at it for a week or two at a time. People would laugh because you couldn't see through my glass because I just left all the algae in place. After 5-6 months most of the amphidinium was gone but I had a lot of GHA, an explosion of my zoas and fat fish.

It's almost a "set it and forget it" with these things. I'd try something for a week, see it didn't work and feel defeated. After burning money and time I just let it do its thing and luckily it worked.

 

[K.miller]

Im interested in hearing about this also as i am about to upgrade my 120 to a 180 and had the same plan. Was planning to use some TB live rock and live sand hoping the diversity it provides would keep me safe.

 

[Dsantamaria29]

As for the new tank, It was cycled with fish added in November. I went through the uglies (GHA, Cyano and now Dino) I'm kind of wondering if its just a phase but I don't want to take my chances with it. I took my PO4 doser offline (mistake #1) and cut back bit on my feedings (Mistake #2) After finally finding my nutrients were 0's I knew I was behind the ball

 

[Dsantamaria29]

Im interested in hearing about this also as i am about to upgrade my 120 to a 180 and had the same plan. Was planning to use some TB live rock and live sand hoping the diversity it provides would keep me safe.

I bought new everything, heats, pumps, return pump, upgraded my Apex, skimmer, ect. I cut all my corals from the rocks, dipped them and FW dipped them. Still have Dinos in the new one. I think Dinos are just a thing that no matter what you do they find a way to show up. The TB saltwater rock was amazing looking out of the box and I I think it facilitated a faster than normal maturation (all my Marco rock was growing coralline in the first week). Im hoping that if I can beat back this Ostreopsis the other algae will come back.

I guess if I could do anything differently with my change over it would've been to continue dosing nutrients. After Dinos there's some beauty in the green algae.

 

[K.miller]

Thats exactly the method i was planning with my upgrade. Only thing i was worried about was hitchhikers on the TB rock. I was thinking of putting in a fuge or something. Looks like ill be planning to continue dosing nutrients from day one on the new one also. Its so weird, I am returning to the hobby after a 8-9 year break. I dont ever recall even hearing of dinos back then and now it seems they are everywhere.

 

[nickkohrn]

@ScottB — After displacement has been accounted for, my total water volume is ~60-65 gallons. Is there a benefit to getting a 57w Aqua Ultraviolet over the 25w model?

 

[Dsantamaria29]

Thats exactly the method i was planning with my upgrade. Only thing i was worried about was hitchhikers on the TB rock. I was thinking of putting in a fuge or something. Looks like ill be planning to continue dosing nutrients from day one on the new one also. Its so weird, I am returning to the hobby after a 8-9 year break. I dont ever recall even hearing of dinos back then and now it seems they are everywhere.

I have so many gorilla crabs....like MONSTER sized ones but they don’t bother anyone yet because I feed a lot of food. I also got a pistol shrimp. My tank had just that Rock in it while it cycled and it was amazing to watch.

I’m not sure your plan but when I asked a few people they said have your tank set up and ready to run before you get the rock instead of sitting in a brute or something.

 

[JCOLE]

Ok so after battling Dino's after using Vibrant and Winning(So I thought) I now have them again. My question is it common for Dino's to stay isolated into a certain area of the system? I have a 150 gallon diplay tank plumbed into my garage. It plumbs in a 40 gallon sump which has another return pump that feeds a 20 gallon refugium, 55 watt UV, carbon reactor, and a 50 gallon low boy frag tank. I dosed NO3 and PO4 and Dino's cleared up after about 2 weeks. They cleared up for a month or so. Dino's have hit hard after installing the 50 gallon low boy but they are only in the low boy and I cannot get rid of them. I have no Dinos in the fuge, sump, and display tank.

Is this just cause the low boy tank is new? If so, what would be the suggestion?

FYI, seems that they are finally going away. I dosed Microbacter7 for the last week and a half with daily manual removal. GHA and other algae has taken its place and I barely see anymore Dinos. Must have been the new sterile environment that allowed them to thrive. They are a pain but I can live with them if they are gone in a couple weeks.

 

[K.miller]

I have so many gorilla crabs....like MONSTER sized ones but they don’t bother anyone yet because I feed a lot of food. I also got a pistol shrimp. My tank had just that Rock in it while it cycled and it was amazing to watch.

I’m not sure your plan but when I asked a few people they said have your tank set up and ready to run before you get the rock instead of sitting in a brute or something.

Gorilla crabs, pistol shrimp, nuisance algae all stuff im worried about which was why i was thinking of just tossing like 20lbs in a fuge just to get bacteria and such. I was planning to have the tank up and running so it could go right in. I really wanted to use the rock from my 120 also but when i started planning this upgrade i didn't have dinos to worry about

 

[dwest]

@ScottB — After displacement has been accounted for, my total water volume is ~60-65 gallons. Is there a benefit to getting a 57w Aqua Ultraviolet over the 25w model?

I’d go with the 57 and watch temperature. I think premium aquatics had a return unit discounted. I think both 25 and 57 are same size.

 

[nickkohrn]

I’d go with the 57 and watch temperature. I think premium aquatics had a return unit discounted. I think both 25 and 57 are same size.

Thanks for the heads-up about the returned unit—I just ordered it.

 

[ktn87]

If you're currently fighting an outbreak try reducing your photo period. I had a bad outbreak a couple weeks ago and managed to beat it in less than a week. The only thing I did was introduced some macro algae directly into my display and cut the photoperiod on my T5s from 7.5 to 4.5 hours. I see a dramatic improvement the next morning; about 60 percent of it was gone.

Also, not doing water changes will turn the water in your tank yellow over time. This will reduce light penetration and effectively reduce your PAR. The reduce photo period and PAR might be enough to give the dinos competitor an edge and help you win the fight.

 

[Gw2kpro]

My experience with them:

Fought with an outbreak for about 3-4 months after bottoming out my nitrates and phosphates in a 20 long tank/10 gallon sump with fuge. Tank is stocked with a bunch of frags and rock flower anemones, and 2 small fish.

Had them bad on the rockwork and on the eggcrate frag rack and frag plugs. None in the sand.

• Ignoring the issue hoping it would pass did not work
• Raising nutrients didn't help, actually overshot a bit on the nitrates and got over 40ppm for a bit, maintained it closer to 10 ppm for a couple weeks to no avail.
• Lower photoperiod did't affect them
• One month of no water change during this time did not seem to affect it one way or the other.
• Manual siphoning them would improve the appearance for a bit, but they would always reappear a few hours later or overnight.
• One time I tried blasting them all off the rockwork and changed out my filter sock a couple hours later. Didn't make it better or worse. Still reappeared the next morning.
• Tried dosing some peroxide once daily for a week. No apparent affect on the dinos. It irritated my zoas, though.
• I couldn't really remove the rocks to treat them directly because they had a bunch of anemones on them.
• Did not try a several day blackout.

I read mixed reviews about UV up here and on a few other sites. Got a cheap 9 watt green killing machine UV unit on sale.

Set it up Thursday late afternoon and got it running. Put a bag of carbon in the sump. Thursday night before lights out, I siphoned them off best I could (like I had so many times before) and turkey basted off whatever else I could not siphon.

Checking the tank Friday AM, the only dino growth remaining was in the areas I had not cleaned off well. It had not regrown. So I siphoned off those areas. Before lights out Friday PM, I turkey basted every area of the rocks I could reach.

Saturday AM only one tiny patch remained about the size of a pencil eraser. I siphoned and basted that one patch. It did not regrow. I did not see any Sunday. I do not see any this AM.

That's my experience with whatever kind of dinos I had and UV. YMMV.

Needless to say, I'm happy finally to get them under control, they tend to take the enjoyment out of a fun hobby.

I'm impressed with the performance of a (relatively) cheap UV unit that is not even plumbed inline, but rather recirculates the water in-tank (much less efficient than an inline unit). I have no doubt the UV is what made headway on this issue finally.

My next step is to maintain the nutrients to hopefully let something else take hold, let this UV unit run in the tank for another week or so, take it out, and see if they return.

 

[Kellie in CA]

The UV has been a great help to me. It's been 4 nights now, the first night I forgot to turn of my moonlights, but after that I have been sure to make sure the tank is pitch black overnight. I also started adding MicroBacter7 on the second day.

I was about 80% clear of dinos yesterday, we'll see what the situation is when I get home today. *fingers crossed*

 

[Gw2kpro]

The UV has been a great help to me. It's been 4 nights now, the first night I forgot to turn of my moonlights, but after that I have been sure to make sure the tank is pitch black overnight. I also started adding MicroBacter7 on the second day.

I was about 80% clear of dinos yesterday, we'll see what the situation is when I get home today. *fingers crossed*

What kind of UV unit are you using?

 

[Zoajohn]

I’ve had Dino’s in both my tanks over the past year. Never dealt with them back in the days when we all thought sps required pristine water with zero no3 and po4. I wonder why this seems to be a trend now?

 

[MTBake]

I’ve had Dino’s in both my tanks over the past year. Never dealt with them back in the days when we all thought sps required pristine water with zero no3 and po4. I wonder why this seems to be a trend now?

I wonder the same thing. I've also been fighting these things over the past year. Only in one of my 3 tanks though. The one that was started with only dry rock and sand has them.

How can I transfer live stock to another tank without transferring the dinos? I'm going to take down the tank with the infestation as I'm fed up with dealing with these things.

 

[Kellie in CA]

What kind of UV unit are you using?

Just the drop in unit that IM makes for my tank. It's 9W and was only $50.

 

[Kellie in CA]

I’ve had Dino’s in both my tanks over the past year. Never dealt with them back in the days when we all thought sps required pristine water with zero no3 and po4. I wonder why this seems to be a trend now?

I've always been obsessive about water changes and tank maintenance ever since my first tank in '03, only now has it become a problem for me.

I wonder the same thing. I've also been fighting these things over the past year. Only in one of my 3 tanks though. The one that was started with only dry rock and sand has them.

Yeah, this is the only tank I have ever had this issue in and it's the only one that had any dry rock added. 2/3 of the rock was stuff I've had for 7-8 years. When I upgraded to a bigger tank I added some dry and that's where the issue began.