Help with Dinoflagellates

[SaltlifeHokie]

So I am a right around 3 months with my 100 Gallon tank and I have what I assume is Dino’s. I am running a carbon and gfo reactor as well as a protein skimmer. I have attached some photos but I have air bubbles all over my rocks from this. I assumed it was diatoms when it first started and was just riding it out and now it appears to be Dino’s. What should I do?

 

[jstabile316]

You probably shouldn’t be running gfo and a protein skimmer on such a new tank

 

[soreefed]

test your nutrient levels and post them here. Get a microscope to Id the culprit. First two steps.

 

[Lavey29]

Agree with both posts above and please provide white light pics along with complete current parameters.

 

[SaltlifeHokie]

 

[SaltlifeHokie]

Will test parameters shortly and post them.

 

[SaltlifeHokie]

Anything else you’d recommend to check to help you help me?

 

[jstabile316]

What helped me was raising temperature to 81ish and making sure nutrients don’t bottom out. A uv light might help depending on the type on Dino’s. Adding pods and different types of bacteria would most likely help also.

 

[SaltlifeHokie]

Anyone else with any helpful advice?

 

[Lavey29]

There is plenty of informative help with dinos via google and thread search here. You can start by getting your nutrients up to good levels because bottoming them out caused your problems. Cut lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only for few weeks no whites. Water changes and siphon the sand. Dose pods and phytoplankton. Dose PRNS probio which is a heterotrophic bacteria that eliminated organic waste. Prepare for a multi month battle.

You should get a cheap microscope and ID which type of dinos you have too.

 

[Uncle99]

Are you sure that’s Dinos, look like Diatoms to me?

 

[Lavey29]

Are you sure that’s Dinos, look like Diatoms to me?

With all those stringy air bubbles, I'm pretty confident it's dinos but maybe he has multiple issues going on.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Anyone else with any helpful advice?

looks like dinos, best determined under a microscope. Do not play with nutrients which is one of the reason dinos are multiplying. When we see zero readings, automatically we assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more.
Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure and tank is already affected. Its important though to identify the type of dino for most effective battle.
No light is first key followed by the addition of bacteria to overcome the bad bacteria allowing them to thrive
Prepare by starting by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10% IF you have light dependant corals such as SPS) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights which works as an oxidizer. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED AMINO OR ADD NOPOX which is food for dinos, however you can feed coral, food which will help no3 and po4 to increase. If increasing nutrients, try to keep no3 to about 5 until you are done battling these cells.
Doing a daily siphoning will help greatly But . . . . . Siphoning will reduce nutrients , so siphon the water into/through a filter sock and save the water and return it back to tank. Obviously clean the filter sock each time.
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

 

[Naturalreef]

Look up tropic Marin plus np to bring up your nutrients without feeding the bad. Did wonders for my tank.

 

[Uncle99]

With all those stringy air bubbles, I'm pretty confident it's dinos but maybe he has multiple issues going on.

Could well be a mix.
Or maybe Iam just plain wrong.
It’s sometimes hard to follow all the variations.

 

[kyle38]

looks like dinos, best determined under a microscope. Do not play with nutrients which is one of the reason dinos are multiplying. When we see zero readings, automatically we assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more.
Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure and tank is already affected. Its important though to identify the type of dino for most effective battle.
No light is first key followed by the addition of bacteria to overcome the bad bacteria allowing them to thrive
Prepare by starting by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10% IF you have light dependant corals such as SPS) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights which works as an oxidizer. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED AMINO OR ADD NOPOX which is food for dinos, however you can feed coral, food which will help no3 and po4 to increase. If increasing nutrients, try to keep no3 to about 5 until you are done battling these cells.
Doing a daily siphoning will help greatly But . . . . . Siphoning will reduce nutrients , so siphon the water into/through a filter sock and save the water and return it back to tank. Obviously clean the filter sock each time.
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

I agree with this 100% it’s all spot on for what has worked for me with Dino’s mainly the reduced lighting, peroxide dosing at night the same dose stated and siphoning into a filter sock and not doing water changes until it was kicked

 

[am3gross]

Check out Devin aka ReefDudes, he just did a live stream tonight with some good info. I will post the link.

 

[SaltlifeHokie]

Should I continue to run my skimmer? I stopped the GFO already.

 

[SaltlifeHokie]

bump?

 

[Stang67]

Do you have any fish if so what how many? Feeding? Try to get phosphates up. I would turn off skimmer also. Do you have a microscope?