Early Stage Dinoflagellates

Adamantium

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I’m just hoping to get some condensed versions of what people did to solve their Dino problems. So far, I’m upping feedings, stopping water changes, dosing H2O2 at night, and Microbacter 7 in the day. I also have a UV running.

It’s not a huge infestation, but it seems to be creeping more and more every day.

I’d really appreciate some insights to nip it in the bud.
 

attiland

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I’m just hoping to get some condensed versions of what people did to solve their Dino problems. So far, I’m upping feedings, stopping water changes, dosing H2O2 at night, and Microbacter 7 in the day. I also have a UV running.

It’s not a huge infestation, but it seems to be creeping more and more every day.

I’d really appreciate some insights to nip it in the bud.
Get a positive ID using microscope before you do any treatment. Things you have done not wrong but working with one stain but not with the other.

If you ID it you can be sure what to do
 
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Adamantium

Adamantium

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Get a positive ID using microscope before you do any treatment. Things you have done not wrong but working with one stain but not with the other.

If you ID it you can be sure what to do
I was hoping to avoid buying one, but I’m sure it’s best that I do, you’re right. Is there a page you’d recommend going to once I ID it to figure out what to do?
 

Willis19

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Hi, I will tell you about my experience, so far. I started a 20 g mix reef in Jan (1 domino damsel only), 2021 and after a month the dinoflagellates showed up, did water changes and they always came back, got an UV, they are still alive, I did dose h202 1ml per 10 gallons and it was horrible, I did feel bad with myself after seeing the zoas suffering. I also did the 3 days blackout but they still appear. I noticed that the dino decreased after I added more fish to the tank, i took around a week to go away 95% were gone. I ended rehoming the other fish because they were too big for my tank. Days after the rehoming the dinos came back. I did buy a product called red "Fauna Marin Red X algae control" I haven't used it yet, this will be my last resource. I will add more fish to my tank sometime soon, small this time and I hope I see the same results. I use a AI prime 16HD my blues are at 80% and RG 5%, white 19%, v+uv 115%, I removed the whites but didnt see any change. The mix reef is thriving even after the H2O2, I promised myself that I wont do it again. The fauna marin red X product seems promising but requires to turn off the UV and remove the carbon, tell me lazy but I dont want to put my hands in the tank and disturb the "equilibrium" lol if things get really nasty, I will use it.
 

jeffrey750750

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For me i raised the temperature to 82, microbacter7, tlc optimizer, overfeeding fish and no water changes till at least a couple weeks after not seeing them. I do run uv also and you ramp down lighting a bit depending on what your housing.
 

attiland

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I was hoping to avoid buying one, but I’m sure it’s best that I do, you’re right. Is there a page you’d recommend going to once I ID it to figure out what to do?
eBay is a good start. Go for a used one. Besser does quite good ones. I would spend no more than £30-40 mark. You need 4-500x to able to get a decent look. You also can get phone mount for an another £10
 

attiland

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Hi, I will tell you about my experience, so far. I started a 20 g mix reef in Jan (1 domino damsel only), 2021 and after a month the dinoflagellates showed up, did water changes and they always came back, got an UV, they are still alive, I did dose h202 1ml per 10 gallons and it was horrible, I did feel bad with myself after seeing the zoas suffering. I also did the 3 days blackout but they still appear. I noticed that the dino decreased after I added more fish to the tank, i took around a week to go away 95% were gone. I ended rehoming the other fish because they were too big for my tank. Days after the rehoming the dinos came back. I did buy a product called red "Fauna Marin Red X algae control" I haven't used it yet, this will be my last resource. I will add more fish to my tank sometime soon, small this time and I hope I see the same results. I use a AI prime 16HD my blues are at 80% and RG 5%, white 19%, v+uv 115%, I removed the whites but didnt see any change. The mix reef is thriving even after the H2O2, I promised myself that I wont do it again. The fauna marin red X product seems promising but requires to turn off the UV and remove the carbon, tell me lazy but I dont want to put my hands in the tank and disturb the "equilibrium" lol if things get really nasty, I will use it.
Your experience seems to be in line the heavy input heavy output method which keeps the available nutrients high while nitrates are low. I think your relapse is due to the balance is broken when your fish gone.
 

attiland

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For me i raised the temperature to 82, microbacter7, tlc optimizer, overfeeding fish and no water changes till at least a couple weeks after not seeing them. I do run uv also and you ramp down lighting a bit depending on what your housing.
Again this works for some stains only
 

Kai K

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First it's best to ID the infestation and secondly try to figure out why the opportunist got the upperhand over your beneficial (micro) organisms. Many causes are possible.

I've had an experience with dino's a few weeks after I started a new tank with an old scape. Nutrients dropped to undetectable and dino's popped up everywhere. Apparrantly competition from my beneficial bacteria had minimized, at least so I theorized, because the bacteria had grown hungry and they dwindled in numbers. Dino's are less dependent on nutrient levels in the water mainly because of their photosynthetic abilities.
So I figured I had to boost all life in the tank, while trying to give the dino's a hard time.
I dosed NO3 and PO4 to higher levels, added every day pods, phyto and bacteria, added some extra live rock etc.
Meanwhile I took out all white lights and only ran the tank on blue's.
Within in 2 weeks the tank had cleared up and I started slowly ramping up to previous light levels, watching very carefully for new signs of dino's. The problem never came back though.

Nevertheless, I wish you the best of luck to get rid of it, I know it can be one of an aquarists' worst nightmares.
 
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Adamantium

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I’m just now realizing that I don’t know if it’s large cell, or small cell, amphidinium, though... I have no size reference.

Edit: Looking at videos of both, I’m fairly certain this is large cell amphidinium.
 
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attiland

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I’m just now realizing that I don’t know if it’s large cell, or small cell, amphidinium, though... I have no size reference.

Edit: Looking at videos of both, I’m fairly certain this is large cell amphidinium.
Can you post a picture? I had both.
Have look at my build tread I have put as much details of my journey as I could.
 

rmurken

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My phosphates bottomed out and nitrates were lower than usual. I was lazy and did not put them under a scope. Based on their nightly disappearance and reappearance in the morning, I guessed ostreopsis.

I am having success:

(1) dosing NO3 to keep levels around 10ppm and shooting for a PO4 of .1 (getting to about .08, but seems to be helping).

(2) Manual removal. I am sucking up any sand I see with it through a piece of airline tubing.

After my last round of manual removal yesterday, I haven’t seen much regrowth today.

Knock on wood.
 
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Adamantium

Adamantium

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Can you post a picture? I had both.
Have look at my build tread I have put as much details of my journey as I could.
Here are a couple. The second is it on top of some hair algae lol
 

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DrMMI

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I’m just now realizing that I don’t know if it’s large cell, or small cell, amphidinium, though... I have no size reference.

Edit: Looking at videos of both, I’m fairly certain this is large cell amphidinium.
Elegant corals method worked for my large cell amphidium. I had a heavy infestation and it took 3 weeks in a row of the treatment, but it worked. They were gone for months until I reduced my nitrates from over 100 down to 10 in a matter of a week.
 

lelandmarine

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Here’s a good website for dinoflagellates

 

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