DinoID Confirmation please - Ostreopsis [Confirmed]

josephxsxn · Dec 1, 2020

Recently my tank started to suffer from what I believe to be a dino outbreak, to help with treatment plans I picked up a microscope. After some reading and using the great dino id guide from @taricha I believe I have Ostreopsis but would love the experts to also share on opinion. Sorry about the quality of the photos I can try to take better ones if these are not good enough; this sample was taken from a high flow, high light, top of rockwork area that had some bubbles starting to form in the dino mat. I did have another on the sandbed that was long and stringy in the high flow, low light area but it has not yet returned today! Should it return ill take a sample.

In my last test results I had 0.07 phos and greater then 2 ppm nitrates, typically my phos runs 0.1 - 0.2 and have been using Lanthanum to take it down. Currently I have many speculations on what could have caused it; Amino Acid dosing, Lanthanum overdose that temporarily drove my phos <0ppm, tank being in a fallow period without fish, changed lighting to have more white light... who knows, just random thoughts that stand out as I dont feel my tank has suffered from low nutrients with normal nitrates around 12ppm (in last high range test) and phos greater then 0.03 in all tests (at least once a week).

Right now the actions I have taken are

Turned off plant light in the refugium and removed most of my macro algae, the remaining algae is dying slowly back into the water from no light...
Stopped all dosing of aminos, coral food, etc
Stopped any Lanthanum use
Raised tank temp to 82
Started Silicate dosing
Change filter socks every day
Brush with a toothbrush all affected rockwork once a day in the evening
Stopped cleaning my glass

Test history for anyone curious, using Hanna phosphate checker and Red Sea for nitrate.

DATE	TEST	RESULT	UNIT	NOTE
2020-10-01	Test - Phosphate	0.18	PPM	AM
2020-10-01	Lanthanum	2	ml	1:500 LaCl3:h2o
2020-10-03	Test - Phosphate	0.23	PPM	AM
2020-10-03	Test - Nitrate	16	PPM	AM
2020-10-03	Lanthanum	4	ML	1:300 LaCl3:h2o - Finished Oct 4
2020-10-05	Test - Phosphate	0.25	PPM	AM
2020-10-05	Lanthanum	10	ML	1:100 LaCl3:h2o end oct 8
2020-10-09	Test - Phosphate	0.32	PPM	AM
2020-10-09	Lanthanum	8	ML	1:100 LaCl3:h2o
2020-10-17	Test - Phosphate	0.32	PPM	AM
2020-10-17	Test - Nitrate	24	ppm	AM
2020-10-17	Lanthanum	10	ml	1:100 LaCI2:h2o
2020-10-20	Test - Phosphate	0.23	PPM	AM
2020-10-20	Lanthanum	5.5	ml	1:100 LaCI2:h2o - stopped with 200ml left. Restarted remaining 200ml on 24th
2020-10-24	Test - Phosphate	0.16	PPM
2020-10-31	Test - Nitrate	16	ppm	AM
2020-10-31	Lanthanum	8	ml	1:6, dosed quickly under 1 hour
2020-11-05	Test - Phosphate	0.14	PPM	AM
2020-11-07	Test - Nitrate	12	PPM	AM
2020-11-14	Test - Phosphate	0.2	ppm
2020-11-14	Lanthanum	7	ml	no dilution. all dosed in under 5 min
2020-11-14	Test - Nitrate	8	ppm	AM
2020-11-21	Test - Phosphate	0.25	ppm
2020-11-21	Test - Nitrate	12	ppm
2020-11-21	Lanthanum	8	ml
2020-11-26	Test - Phosphate	0.17	ppm
2020-11-26	Test - Nitrate	>2	ppm	low range test
2020-11-27	Lanthanum	3	ml	into skimmer, no dilution
2020-11-29	Test - Phosphate	0.07	PPM

dwest · Dec 1, 2020

It’s hard to tell. If you see the classic sesame seed shape, then ostreopsis.

josephxsxn · Dec 1, 2020

Thanks, yeah I think it looks like a sesame seed. Tried to take a few more photos.

taricha · Dec 2, 2020

josephxsxn said:
Thanks, yeah I think it looks like a sesame seed. Tried to take a few more photos.

yep. ostis indeed.

josephxsxn · Dec 7, 2020

My nitrates and phosphates bottomed out as of my last tests so I feel like this fits pretty well in the standard dino cases. Both Hana for Phosphate and Red Sea low range nitrate read 0.0ppm.. Started dosing neonitro and neophos to boost levels. Thinking that once the fish get returned to the display tank and my fallow period ends that they may help produce the needed nutrients to prevent the dinos from continuing.

Made some changes to what I was doing..

Reverted Temperature back to 79F
Pulled socks out and didnt replace
Running skimmer but only for gas exchange not really collecting skim
Not cleaning glass
Dosing Nitrate and Phosphates to be above 0.0
Stopped Silicate dosing (at least until I get the Hanna checker)
No water change this last weekend. Normal do 10-20% a week.

I still feel the outbreak is small but I can tell its growing and gaining strength. Hopefully now that I am boosting nutrients to detectable levels other competitors in the take may start to overtake it.

dwest · Dec 7, 2020

josephxsxn said:
My nitrates and phosphates bottomed out as of my last tests so I feel like this fits pretty well in the standard dino cases. Both Hana for Phosphate and Red Sea low range nitrate read 0.0ppm.. Started dosing neonitro and neophos to boost levels. Thinking that once the fish get returned to the display tank and my fallow period ends that they may help produce the needed nutrients to prevent the dinos from continuing.

Made some changes to what I was doing..

Reverted Temperature back to 79F

Pulled socks out and didnt replace

Running skimmer but only for gas exchange not really collecting skim

Not cleaning glass

Dosing Nitrate and Phosphates to be above 0.0

Stopped Silicate dosing (at least until I get the Hanna checker)

No water change this last weekend. Normal do 10-20% a week.

I still feel the outbreak is small but I can tell its growing and gaining strength. Hopefully now that I am boosting nutrients to detectable levels other competitors in the take may start to overtake it.

You can zap ’em with UV as well if you need to. Let me know if you have any questions about that. I think your plan is good.

josephxsxn · Dec 8, 2020

Thought I would attach a photo of them on the rocks for anyone that comes here in the future.

Right now after dosing nitrates they seem to hold and phosphate dropped out again. Doubled my neophos dose last night will test again later today.

ThePurple12 · Dec 8, 2020

I'll be following along, I just realized my phosphate is at 0 and must be helping my dinos. I ordered a bottle of Seachem Flourish Phosphorus.

josephxsxn · Dec 8, 2020

Nitrates and Phosphate tested none zeros today. Nitrates >4 ppm and phosphate 0.06ppm. If not for the dinos I'd say the corals, massive polyp extension on some, looks better then ever. Alage on the glass pretty much died and turned white, not all of it but some.

Decided to do somthing I wasn't quite sure about as it's not really tested, at least from what I could read. We know UV light kills them off in the water column but everyone is running some pretty expensive lights 24/7 to do that serialization. I don't really want to plumb a light into my system because I don't imagine myself running it after the outbreak... I bought a cheap Chinese UV Sterilizer for Alage outbreaks.. it was $20 shipped.. the thing screams danger but got good reviews for handling green water and bacteria cloud outbreaks. Placed it in my filter sock chamber as I am not running socks. They don't recommend more then 4 hours a day in the instructions, so I ran it for 1 hour after I cleaned the display with a toothbrush and plan to run it for another hour at lights off, and an hour before lights on.

Ps - I didn't look at it to take the photo, used camera around the corner.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 8, 2020

Its small. Reduce drastically or kill white lights for 3-5 days. This alone should stop dino growth. Clean filters daily and add liquid bacteria each day to tank and DO NOT feed coral coral foods or use NoPox

josephxsxn · Dec 10, 2020

Phosphate 0.04 and Nitrates ~2ppm today. I decided to dose 5ml more neophos as a buffer in case I have a day where I can't test.

Cheap China UV does not seem to have done anything

truth be told I didn't expect much for $20 I figured why not. I do think I could make it more effective If I slow down my return rate but I don't want to mess with that.. not going to continue this as it didn't magically improve things overnight like other posts talk about when deploying UV.

Felt like things were much better when I was running my filter socks and pulling them daily so I'm going back to that. And additionally I will turn down my cool whites probably to 60%.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 10, 2020

Good quality such as aquaUV Is needed.
Best bet is to turn off white lights for 5 days , even all lights and dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide at night and same dose of liquid bacteria during the day and clean filters daily

josephxsxn · Dec 10, 2020

So I have killed now killed the cool and warm white lights; all at 0% now.. Also been dosing microbactor7 this whole time. Filter socks reinstalled, put the skimmer gate back in so it collects going forward.

josephxsxn · Dec 11, 2020

Tested again today; nitrates 1 ppm, phosphates 0ppm. Dosed 10ml of neophos and 50ml of neonitro. Still running with all white lights off.

looks like the tank may be consuming up to 0.03 ppm per day I am estimating of phosphates

josephxsxn · Dec 12, 2020

Nitrates 2ppm Phosphates 0.06ppm
Dosed 15ml neophos 50ml neonitro 30ml Microbactor7

Don't feel the lack of white light has made a very big change. But the filter socks were loaded with nasty stuff. Still brushing stuff off with a toothbrush daily and changing socks.

DaScubaSteve · Dec 12, 2020

What do u think of these they are sesame oval shape and move around. I stir them out of the sand bed and have my UV on and they dont come noticably back for a couole weeks. The rocks look like theres a brown algea on them.
Tank is 6 months old 100g.
Phos .01
Nitrate less than 2

I have 7 fish that I do feed heavily
But I have a roller fleece/turf scrubber/and skimmer
I also daily change 1.5 gallons

Should I continue feeding heavy or do I need to dose Nitrate?

Thoughts?

josephxsxn · Dec 14, 2020

@DaScubaSteve Could just be the ugly stage ? But it does seem you have some bubbles on rocks which reminds me of the dinos I have. You may want to make a separate thread for your own ID.

####
Dosed more neophos and neonitro today and changed the filter socks plus toothbrush scrubbed the rocks. Even with the white light off it feels like the dinos are gaining speed and growing larger now each day.

Ordered Dino-X to try next... I know many have also recommended h2o2 and while I do use that for other procedures like killing Alage I have never put it directly into my tank so holding off on trying it for now.

One of the concerns I have in following the Dino-X instructions is to stop any trace elements. Using Brightwells reefcode and I believe the A-part has trace elements in it.

Edit -- forgot to mention I cleaned the glass today. The dinos had taken hold and I literally had bubbles attached to the glass.

Snoopdog · Dec 14, 2020

Unless you blast it with UV, you are just poking around the problem. Mine did not decisively go away unless I did some overkill on a UV light. The UV light will not even seem like a big expense if you lose a few corals from the dinoflagellates. Corals do not like dinoflagellates touching them, they close polyps when in contact with them. After losing half a colony of rather expensive zoas, I went medieval on the ostreopsis. I tried the whole dosing phosphates and nitrates to try to achieve some balance, blowing off the rocks and bringing in live rock for biodiversity, it did not help one dang bit. The only thing that helped was to zap every single one of them with UV.

I want do add you really do not have to plumb in a UV light. My first bought with them i just used two drop in the sump lights and that did almost completely eradicated them. Later down the road though I did actually plumb a UV into the sump because months later they started to get a foothold again.

josephxsxn · Dec 15, 2020

Snoopdog said:
I want do add you really do not have to plumb in a UV light. My first bought with them i just used two drop in the sump lights and that did almost completely eradicated them. Later down the road though I did actually plumb a UV into the sump because months later they started to get a foothold again.

Thanks! Did you stop your in sump UV after it was resolved or have you had to keep it on nonstop to keep the dinos at bay?

I had been considering making a chamber for the china UV I got and controlling it's flow rate to get more exposure times... Of course if it's just how it will be I can always go buy a more professional unit. While I am cost conscious it's not a preventor in terms of adding UV to save the tank.. as you say a few losses will put weight it quickly.

Snoopdog · Dec 15, 2020

josephxsxn said:
Thanks! Did you stop your in sump UV after it was resolved or have you had to keep it on nonstop to keep the dinos at bay?

I had been considering making a chamber for the china UV I got and controlling it's flow rate to get more exposure times... Of course if it's just how it will be I can always go buy a more professional unit. While I am cost conscious it's not a preventor in terms of adding UV to save the tank.. as you say a few losses will put weight it quickly.

One of the green machines had died. They are not the greatest at durability. They do they job but they are junk compared to my Jebao I just got.