Help IDing Dinos

[mr fishy 3000]

Hi Everyone,

I believe I have Dinos in my mixed 75g reef tank. A couple month ago I bought a Stylo Colony and a couple Acro frags from my LFS. When I bought them I noticed what I believed at the time, Hair Algae, sticking to them, but because there was little flow in the tank at the LFS I believe that was the reason for it, and I didn't see a problem. I dipped the corals and placed them in my tank. Fast forward a couple months and I was wrong, it was not hair algae it was what I believe is Dinos, and now there are infesting my tank.

A couple of weeks ago I believe I had a mix of Cyano and Dinos. There was red slime but also 100's of tiny bubble covering my Live Rock. I know what Cyano looks like and assumed that is what I had. I turned up the flow on my MP 40's to 40% from 20% and the Cyano mostly went away. After talking with my LFS they recommended I dose Chemiclean, which I did, and it got rid of the rest of the Cyano and left the Dinos. Up until about a mont ago I didn't know what Dinos were. After doing research I learned that I have the perfect environment to grow in. I started my tank from dead rock back in January, and have a refugium and skimmer. My nutrients are extremely low as well. Up until I learned about them I had 0 Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and Phosphate. My Alkalinity was also semi unstable because I was manually dosing 2 part. It was swinging about 0.8 DKH a day.

Since, I have installed a dosing pump, so my DKH is now stable. I haven't been able to track Nitrate and Phosphate because I have been out of town, but I have since increased my feeding, and lowered the amount of hours my refugium is on per day. I will do some Nitrate and Phosphate tests today. To get accurate numbers.

In the end I am looking to get some help with IDing the Dinos, and the best plan to get rid of them. I have included pictures of them and my tank for help. The water is clear, the seem to stick to my rocks, and my coral. But it also looks like my Sea Urchin eats them? Currently I do not have a UV but would get one if it would help get rid of them.

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[Dou g]

Not sure if you're in the US, but when I had Dinos, I bought a Carson microbright pocket microscope off amazon, currently on sale for $13.00. and was able to take and share photos. Afterwards the community helped identify the type of Dinos and pointed me towards resources. Treatments very by type, but I did low, no light periods (only had softies and candy cane), overfed, bacteria in a bottle, cheap UV, no major water changes. My tank is only 40G and did not have a sump at the time.

 

[mr fishy 3000]

Not sure if you're in the US, but when I had Dinos, I bought a Carson microbright pocket microscope off amazon, currently on sale for $13.00. and was able to take and share photos. Afterwards the community helped identify the type of Dinos and pointed me towards resources. Treatments very by type, but I did low, no light periods (only had softies and candy cane), overfed, bacteria in a bottle, cheap UV, no major water changes. My tank is only 40G and did not have a sump at the time.

I have ID it via Microscope, it is Dino Ostreopsis. Looks like uv is what the best way to go about this is.

 

[Dou g]

Great, glad you could ID. And sounds like the best place to start. A good UV should be an effective approach if ostreopsis is free floating in the water column at lights off.