Dreaded Dinos

[waldemar]

Hi everyone. I recently did a water change switched out my carbon filter and added a couple of soft corals and as the more experienced reef keepers I’m sure know my nutrients bottomed out. So Dinos… I am over feeding my fish pellets atm to bring the numbers up. It got me wondering has anyone tried using a large amount of live feed namely mysids to combat the low nutrients with the added benefit of them eating Dinos? I have access to plenty of live mysids so I’m thinking of giving it a try. I will have to keep a close eye on it so I don’t crash my tank but I think it’s worth a shot. Any thoughts or has anyone tried this?

 

[exnisstech]

I recently did a water change switched out my carbon filter and added a couple of soft corals and as the more experienced reef keepers I’m sure know my nutrients bottomed out.

I don't know why those actions would cause nutrients to bottom out. What percentage of water did you change?

 

[waldemar]

A little over 25% but I did another 25% the following week because I was seeing what I thought was brown algae it was Dinos so I did the opposite of what I should have done.

 

[waldemar]

I didn’t think it would either but I thought I just made a newbie mistake

 

[exnisstech]

I've never had dinos but I do know it take a microscope to ID them but I'll let someone more knowledgeable address that issue.
I can say I do lot of water changes and I wish they would drop my nutrients. I can get a slight reduction in nitrates but no reduction to phosphate. I have a small tank that I do 4-5 10% water changes a week.
I don't know the cause of your dinos if in fact that is what you are dealing with but I've never heard of water changes and carbon swaps causing them.
Perhaps upload some pictures of what your dealing with along with tank age and test results and see if someone can assist.

 

[BryanM]

I didn’t think it would either but I thought I just made a newbie mistake

Microscope is the ultimate ID tool, I've just had horrible luck getting them to work for me.

Pics second best, but could help, much better under white lights.

 

[CHSUB]

I just got a microscope yesterday and found dinoflagellate in my 1.5 year old tank that has had this mysterious “bottom out” nutrients since day 1…I do weekly WC and clean detritus each time. If you maintain a clean environment with fed fish, dinos and “bottom out” nutrient problems do not exists.

Here is my aquarium with both dinoflagellates and “bottom out” nutrients…

 

[MikeReefs]

Buy some af lifesource, MB7, MicrobLift. A cleanup crew will most likely not help this situation. Dinos are toxic and will kill inverts if they consume. Add Activated carbon to prevent toxins from becoming a problem. You need to build up your micro diversity. Stop doing water changes for the time being. Bring up whatever is bottomed out. Neo nitro will help if it’s Nitrates. Best of luck I beat it after months using this method

 

[Dogeatbird]

Ultimately everyone has Dinos. They are a group of organisms, been around this planet for a very long time, and are specialized at existing in a variety of environments. No they are not bad. No they will not end your life. We as hobbyists instead have labeled them as a nuisance.
Will adding live mysid help. Absolutely! Will compete with said ‘nuisance’; increase bio-diversity.

 

[CHSUB]

Ultimately everyone has Dinos. They are a group of organisms, been around this planet for a very long time, and are specialized at existing in a variety of environments. No they are not bad. No they will not end your life. We as hobbyists instead have labeled them as a nuisance.
Will adding live mysid help. Absolutely! Will compete with said ‘nuisance’; increase bio-diversity.

I agree, we label them as bad but really they’re not. Dinoflagellate are a large part of the food web and are consumed by many different organisms. Yes they can be toxic but it takes a large amount to be harmful. This is how their toxicity makes it way up the food chain to humans in ciguatera poisoning. The dinos I got in my aquarium are living in hair algae that is regular eaten by snails. Pictured here are two mangroves trees where snails have stripped one of algae in a single day and another they have not found yet. Dinoflagellate don’t require any special intervention to control, they should be controlled like any other nuisance algae.