Dinos? Recommended plan of attack?

[SurfLife]

Hello R2Rers. Just joined R2R today.

My tank is about 1 year old and I have been dealing with what I am being told is Dinos. It has never been a major problem but I would like to get rid of it once and for all if possible. I have heard some Dinos are deadly to snails yet my snails have been munching on this stuff every night and have not lost any. My few corals are so far unaffected and have been growing well.
I will detail what I have done in the past month. I felt that flow was inadequate so I purchased a couple Gyre 280's . The sand in the attached picture would blow around too much set as low as 10% no matter what I tried so I removed approx 80lbs of sand(about half) and replaced with Florida Crushed Coral. Next I did four 70 gallon water changes over a 2 week period. Everything seemed good for a few weeks and then the areas that are still sand started showing the brown slimy algae again. On the coral it just looks like brown dust.
If it would help, I have considered removing all the rock, vacuuming out all of the sand and gravel. Clean the gravel(or trash it) and put back in while adding more gravel to replace the rest of that sand.
Where do the Dinos live? In the substrate or the water column?

So what is my next move? Any experts on the subject around?

 

[TreyC2010]

You probably started your cycle over by removing the sand. Do you have the brown algae on the rocks? If so, add a picture of that and the corals with the algae.

 

[SurfLife]

You probably started your cycle over by removing the sand. Do you have the brown algae on the rocks? If so, add a picture of that and the corals with the algae.

Wow, that was fast. Thank you.
That was a concern but my parameters have remained unchanged.
Ph:8.2 ; Phos:0.01 ; Mag:1400 ; Ammonia:0 ; Nitrites:0 ; Nitrates:20

On 2 large rocks I have a brown hair like algae that has been scrubbed off a few times. On the other 15 or so rocks there is little to no brown but I can see that slowly increasing.
As I said, there is no effect to my corals and I never see the algae on them. I don't have many but I can post some pics of them.
I will get some shots of the algae on the crushed coral also.

 

[John3]

When I had Dino’s it grew on everything including corals. Worst crap I dealt with. I used hydrogen peroxide dosing per the thread found here and I used a turkey baster to suck them up. It took about 3 weeks but once the tide turned it actually cleared fast.

 

[K. Steven]

Verify they are dinoflagellates with a microscope. There are a lot of misidentifications.

 

[Big G]

I used twice a week 20% water changes, filter sock changes and chaeto in my sump to absorb the excess nutrients in the water. But you also need to clean the chaeto. Rinse it in fresh mixed saltwater. Took several weeks. Lots of work. I even started changing my filter socks every other day for a couple of weeks. All I have now is a bit of algae on my rocks.

 

[Zack K]

Your picture looks like Cyano Bacteria to me. Dino’s look like snot with bubbles. Cyano is just a slime.

Oh and Welcome to R2R! Great to see you here!
-Zack

 

[SurfLife]

Your picture looks like Cyano Bacteria to me. Dino’s look like snot with bubbles. Cyano is just a slime.

Oh and Welcome to R2R! Great to see you here!
-Zack

Thank you and Thank you
I have NEVER seen bubbles. I was told on another forum (that I am starting to lose confidence in) that it was without a doubt Dino.

I wouldnt say it looks like snot. Its just stringy slimy brown.

 

[SurfLife]

OK here are some pictures to hopefully help. I am no photographer. The lights have just come on within the hour so things are just starting to open up and the brown 'algae' has just started laying on the crushed coral.

I tried my best to get a close shot of the hair algae.

You can see some more of the hair around this coral

 

[TreyC2010]

you see how this has little “twig” looking parts. Does yours have that?

 

[mcarroll]

My tank is about 1 year old and I have been dealing with what I am being told is Dinos.

Check out Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?, which is a sticky in our Algae (including nuisance algae and bacteria) forum.

Use the instructions in the first post of that dino thread to help you decide if you really have dino's before you do anything too crazy.

There are tests there which you can do with normal household items, as well as instructions for microscope ID. (the most basic scope is around $10, so really consider getting one. (a link from that first post: Selecting a microscope) ....there's even a cyano test in there that works!

Phos:0.01; Nitrates:20

Are you doing something (e.g. GFO) to artificially limit phosphates (in which case stop immediately)?

I doesn't speak to whether you also have a dino bloom, but we can say that if your phosphates are essentially zero AND you have static or rising nitrates, then you have a problem.

You should have all manner of algae and other microbes growing and blooming at this stage of your tank. Every one of them wants to use boatloads of nitrogen.

The fact that you have nitrates "just hanging around in the water" means that all those algae and microbes (which are required for a healthy stable tank) are not blooming and using it up. Your tank is stuck.

We can also say that conditions like these are favorable to dino blooms and can be harmful to any photosynthetic critter, such as corals.

So there are lots of good reasons to resolve the lack of phosphates, regardles of what you're seeing in the tank today. (Any effects you're seeing today is just all the more reason.)

I would acquire a small bottle of phosphate fertilizer and begin dosing until the imbalance is gone. (It's OK to still have some nutrients in the water at this point....the imbalance is the main, real problem right now.)

 

[SurfLife]

you see how this has little “twig” looking parts. Does yours have that?

It has never looked like that but I have never left it alone long enough to get like that possibly. It has the brown strands I see in this picture but they are laying down, not standing up and never bubbles.
I will try to get some more pictures of the algae on the sand (the only place I have seen it get stringy) after leaving it alone for a little while.

 

[John3]

Dino’s grow so fast it’s crazy. You couldn’t keep up with it by just manual removal techniques. I could suck off all the snot and it would look ok and then 3 hours later everything was covered again.

 

[SurfLife]

Check out Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?, which is a sticky in our Algae (including nuisance algae and bacteria) forum.

Use the instructions in the first post of that dino thread to help you decide if you really have dino's before you do anything too crazy.

There are tests there which you can do with normal household items, as well as instructions for microscope ID. (the most basic scope is around $10, so really consider getting one. (a link from that first post: Selecting a microscope) ....there's even a cyano test in there that works!



Are you doing something (e.g. GFO) to artificially limit phosphates (in which case stop immediately)?

I doesn't speak to whether you also have a dino bloom, but we can say that if your phosphates are essentially zero AND you have static or rising nitrates, then you have a problem.

You should have all manner of algae and other microbes growing and blooming at this stage of your tank. Every one of them wants to use boatloads of nitrogen.

The fact that you have nitrates "just hanging around in the water" means that all those algae and microbes (which are required for a healthy stable tank) are not blooming and using it up. Your tank is stuck.

We can also say that conditions like these are favorable to dino blooms and can be harmful to any photosynthetic critter, such as corals.

So there are lots of good reasons to resolve the lack of phosphates, regardles of what you're seeing in the tank today. (Any effects you're seeing today is just all the more reason.)

I would acquire a small bottle of phosphate fertilizer and begin dosing until the imbalance is gone. (It's OK to still have some nutrients in the water at this point....the imbalance is the main, real problem right now.)

I will check that thread. I do not use GFO or anything to limit phosphates. I will look into this Phosphate Fertilizer. Is this something I might find at my LFS or just online? Any recommendations?

 

[Zack K]

It has never looked like that but I have never left it alone long enough to get like that possibly. It has the brown strands I see in this picture but they are laying down, not standing up and never bubbles.
I will try to get some more pictures of the algae on the sand (the only place I have seen it get stringy) after leaving it alone for a little while.

Your tank will look perfect in the morning and like that photo by the evening. So unless you stir it. Up every hour. It is more than likely Cyano

Here is a link to when I fought Dino’s. It is picture heavy. But I agree with @mcarroll statement.

If its not one thing, Its another...

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/if-its-not-one-thing-its-another.305910/

 

[K. Steven]

I will check that thread. I do not use GFO or anything to limit phosphates. I will look into this Phosphate Fertilizer. Is this something I might find at my LFS or just online? Any recommendations?

I used this.

 

[SurfLife]

Your tank will look perfect in the morning and like that photo by the evening. So unless you stir it. Up every hour. It is more than likely Cyano

Here is a link to when I fought Dino’s. It is picture heavy. But I agree with @mcarroll statement.

If its not one thing, Its another...

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/If-its-not-one-thing,-Its-another....305910/https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/If-its-not-one-thing,-Its-another....305910/

I am getting "The requested page could not be found."

 

[TreyC2010]

I may have missed it but do you have a skimmer?

 

[SurfLife]

I may have missed it but do you have a skimmer?

Yes but it is inefficient for my system. Let me explain. My original tank was an 85 gal. I had no sump so a HOB skimmer was used. I soon moved to a 220 and a sump about 1 year ago. It was recommended to go skimmer-less so I never purchased a skimmer for this system. A few weeks ago when the algae started increasing I threw the HOB on the tank to see if it helped any and if so was going to buy a proper skimmer. I have not seen any changes since adding it but that is probably because it is too small. Was planning on removing it today.

 

[Zack K]

I am getting "The requested page could not be found."

Updated the link.