Everyone who’s had Dino’s, look here. I’d like to do some research but I need your help.

[Bugeater281]

I’d like to create a poll for this, but I’ll see how much interest there is. I was constantly fighting Dino’s last year. I basically let my tank go with no maintenance for a year. Lots of algae, but no Dino’s. Low and behold, I did a water change. And boom they are back again. After talking to my local shops. It seems most of them end up getting Dino’s In a tank or two in the fall season. It also seems rare that Dino’s start right away in a new tank, It could takes weeks for them to show up. This makes me think they may always be present, but don’t get bad until contaminated water is added and tank conditions are right for them.

I ended up doing a bunch of research last year, I kinda just stopped because life got busy. But since my tank got Dino’s again. I decided to continue my research.

Heres some background on my previous research. Did you know, 2 species of Dino’s we see in the reef are actually also found in freshwater. And these same species and found in slugs and other animals in freshwater. This got me thinking. Could fall die offs cause excess Dino’s in tap water? It’s possible, and wouldn’t at all be surprising since my city water comes from the Missouri River. And dinoflagellates can be smaller than 5 microns. Which is smaller than what most of our rodi units could filter out. I reached out to a biologist, I will include his answer in this post.

I have an idea, I’d like to start treating my rodi water with hydrogen peroxide and or uv. See if the blooms continue to get worst with water changes.

Butnid like to ask the community here some questions. To see if this could actually be a viable reason. So if you could, post your answers.

Have you had Dino’s before? And where does your tap water come from?

Im curious if people who use city water,vs well wafter, vs underground aquifers, ect.

 

[Labora]

I thought rodi water means everything is already filtered. That's why it reads as 0 particles per million.

 

[Bugeater281]

I thought rodi water means everything is already filtered. That's why it reads as 0 particles per million.

Im not sure if micro organisms will show-up on a tds meter. Since they may not have an electrical charge. Since a living organism isn’t a dissolved solid. But this makes we wonder if bacteria/organisms could die in the pure water, which is why 0tds water will start to go up as the water sits.

 

[taricha]

The problem dinos we can have outbreaks in our tanks come from a few genera only...
Ostreopsis
Prorocentrum
Amphidinium
Coolia
(rarely) Gambierdiscus

See this page for details

They share the following traits. Benthic (surface and macroalgae attaching) habit, Photosynthetic, toxic, and tropical.

These all occur in reefs in our part of the world...
Benthic-epiphytic dinoflagellates from the northern portion of the Mesoamerican Reef System

"In 2010, we surveyed 42 sampling locations at 11 sites along the Mexican part of the Mesoamerican Reef System, including eight protected natural areas of the coastal state of Quintana Roo, to determine the richness of benthic-epiphytic dinoflagellates in the area. At each site, the host macroalgae of the genera Dictyota, Halimeda, Laurencia, Sargassum, and Stypopodium were manually collected. A total of 383 samples were analyzed microscopically using transmitted light, epifluorescence with calcofluor staining, and scanning electron microscopy. A total of 24 dinoflagellate species distributed among the genera Amphidinium, Bysmatrum, Coolia, Gambierdiscus, Ostreopsis, Prorocentrum, Plagiodinium, and Sinophysis were identified."

So there's no reason to hypothesize a freshwater jump, when we know our problem ones live in reef waters similar to where hobby livestock comes from.

 

[Bugeater281]

The problem dinos we can have outbreaks in our tanks come from a few genera only...
Ostreopsis
Prorocentrum
Amphidinium
Coolia
(rarely) Gambierdiscus

See this page for details

They share the following traits. Benthic (surface and macroalgae attaching) habit, Photosynthetic, toxic, and tropical.

These all occur in reefs in our part of the world...
Benthic-epiphytic dinoflagellates from the northern portion of the Mesoamerican Reef System

"In 2010, we surveyed 42 sampling locations at 11 sites along the Mexican part of the Mesoamerican Reef System, including eight protected natural areas of the coastal state of Quintana Roo, to determine the richness of benthic-epiphytic dinoflagellates in the area. At each site, the host macroalgae of the genera Dictyota, Halimeda, Laurencia, Sargassum, and Stypopodium were manually collected. A total of 383 samples were analyzed microscopically using transmitted light, epifluorescence with calcofluor staining, and scanning electron microscopy. A total of 24 dinoflagellate species distributed among the genera Amphidinium, Bysmatrum, Coolia, Gambierdiscus, Ostreopsis, Prorocentrum, Plagiodinium, and Sinophysis were identified."

So there's no reason to hypothesize a freshwater jump, when we know our problem ones live in reef waters similar to where hobby livestock comes from.

Im not saying freshwater species are jumping from fresh to salt. I’m saying it possible there may actually be some marine species that are actually in freshwater. We know some species can actually handle salinity swings quite well( dinocyst can lay dormant). If you really do some digging. Some of these species have been found in freshwater. How they get there is another story. But for example. We just had an American eel caught north of my city. This fish travels to the Atlantic Coast for breeding. Then they travel back up to Mississippi River system.

This is definitely an older paper. But we do need to remember there are more than one species in the amphidinium and other families. Some of these species are found in brackish water, some in marine. Some possibly in fresh also.