BACKGROUND
This thread is a journal of my battle with amphidinium dinoflagellates, just confirmed yesterday by microscope. I have a 29G reef tank with a 10G sump. It has been running for 8 months. Started it with dry rock, live sand and Dr Tims One & Only and Brightwell's Microbacter7. My water parameters are all really good except for PH, which has always been a little low (7.6 - 8.0) and NO3 and PO4. They have never been 0, but have always been low. NO3 runs about 0.5ppm and PO4 0.02ppm. Parameter list:
PH: 7.6 - 8.0
Alk: 9.5
Cal: 475
Mag: 1320
NO3: 0.5
PO4: 0.02
Temp: 79
LIVESTOCK
My tank currently has 6 fish, trochous snails and a cleaner shrimp. So, in my mind it is fairly well stocked for it's size. I want to add some sand sifting snails. I have various small corals from zoas, frogspawn, candy canes and a couple of SPS. Everything in the tank looks very healthy right now. So I want to make changes slowly.
EQUIPMENT
I have a Nano protein skimmer, a 9w Green Killing Machine UV sterilizer, filter floss and an empty refugium. I've been waiting to add macroalgae until my nutrients go up to slightly elevated levels. I didn't want chaeto to consume what little NO3 I have. I think it may be time to start chaeto to try and outcompete the dinos, but not sure it that's a smart move.
FEEDING
I feed half a cube of gut loaded brine shrimp plus some pellet food everyday. Plus recently I've started broadcast feeding Reef Roids. I've been trying to feed pretty heavy to raise my nutrients, especially NO3, but it hasn't made much difference. I don't think my fish can take any more food. They might explode. That's partially why I added the Reef Roids. Next step is to start dosing NO3 directly.
THE PROBLEM
I have a brown dusting of something covering my sand bed. It originally showed up after I went on vacation for a week. I used an automatic feeder with pellet food while I was gone. I figure the change in feeding procedure is what triggered the outbreak. Up until yesterday, I thought the brown stuff was probably diatoms. It's not snotty or slimy. No stringy slime or bubbles. I'd say about 75% of it disappears at night. I've been running a 9w UV sterilizer all along, which doesn't seem to help (now I think it may have actually hurt by killing diatoms).
THE DIAGNOSIS
I did the test where you pour some of the brown stuff through a napkin (I didn't have a coffee filter), shake it up and wait to see if it clumps back up. Mine did not, so I thought that confirmed diatoms. But just to be sure, and because I love sciency stuff, I bought a $20 Smithsonian microscope from Target. It is a super cheap microscope, but it was good enough to positively identify amphidinium dinos. No question. I also watched a youtube video by Inappropriate Reefer and I have exactly what he describes.
THE PLAN
As far as I can tell, the way to beat these dinos is to raise the tank temp, raise NO3 and PO4, and encourage other organisms to outcompete the dinos. Here is my plan to achieve those goals:
1. Turn off UV sterilizer (9W Green Killing Machine)
2. Turn off Protein Skimmer
3. Stop water changes
4 .Slowly raise temp to 82 degrees
5. Start dosing Brightwells NeoNitro and NeoPhos to raise nitrogen and phosphorous.
6. Start dosing Brightwells Microbacter7. This one makes me a little nervous because the last time I added some, right before adding my clown pair, my stylophora started to bleach a little bit. I'm not positive the bleaching was caused by the MB7, but they seemed to coincide.
7. Start dosing Phytoplankton from my LFS.
8. Add some sand sifting snails, cerith and nassarius (I had planned on this anyway)
9? I'm also considering finally adding chaeto to my refugium. I've never added chaeto because my nutrients were so low. But, now that I'll be dosing, it seems like a good time to start macroalgae. Hopefully it will also help to out compete the dinos.
Also researching the use of H2O2.
This thread is a journal of my battle with amphidinium dinoflagellates, just confirmed yesterday by microscope. I have a 29G reef tank with a 10G sump. It has been running for 8 months. Started it with dry rock, live sand and Dr Tims One & Only and Brightwell's Microbacter7. My water parameters are all really good except for PH, which has always been a little low (7.6 - 8.0) and NO3 and PO4. They have never been 0, but have always been low. NO3 runs about 0.5ppm and PO4 0.02ppm. Parameter list:
PH: 7.6 - 8.0
Alk: 9.5
Cal: 475
Mag: 1320
NO3: 0.5
PO4: 0.02
Temp: 79
LIVESTOCK
My tank currently has 6 fish, trochous snails and a cleaner shrimp. So, in my mind it is fairly well stocked for it's size. I want to add some sand sifting snails. I have various small corals from zoas, frogspawn, candy canes and a couple of SPS. Everything in the tank looks very healthy right now. So I want to make changes slowly.
EQUIPMENT
I have a Nano protein skimmer, a 9w Green Killing Machine UV sterilizer, filter floss and an empty refugium. I've been waiting to add macroalgae until my nutrients go up to slightly elevated levels. I didn't want chaeto to consume what little NO3 I have. I think it may be time to start chaeto to try and outcompete the dinos, but not sure it that's a smart move.
FEEDING
I feed half a cube of gut loaded brine shrimp plus some pellet food everyday. Plus recently I've started broadcast feeding Reef Roids. I've been trying to feed pretty heavy to raise my nutrients, especially NO3, but it hasn't made much difference. I don't think my fish can take any more food. They might explode. That's partially why I added the Reef Roids. Next step is to start dosing NO3 directly.
THE PROBLEM
I have a brown dusting of something covering my sand bed. It originally showed up after I went on vacation for a week. I used an automatic feeder with pellet food while I was gone. I figure the change in feeding procedure is what triggered the outbreak. Up until yesterday, I thought the brown stuff was probably diatoms. It's not snotty or slimy. No stringy slime or bubbles. I'd say about 75% of it disappears at night. I've been running a 9w UV sterilizer all along, which doesn't seem to help (now I think it may have actually hurt by killing diatoms).
THE DIAGNOSIS
I did the test where you pour some of the brown stuff through a napkin (I didn't have a coffee filter), shake it up and wait to see if it clumps back up. Mine did not, so I thought that confirmed diatoms. But just to be sure, and because I love sciency stuff, I bought a $20 Smithsonian microscope from Target. It is a super cheap microscope, but it was good enough to positively identify amphidinium dinos. No question. I also watched a youtube video by Inappropriate Reefer and I have exactly what he describes.
THE PLAN
As far as I can tell, the way to beat these dinos is to raise the tank temp, raise NO3 and PO4, and encourage other organisms to outcompete the dinos. Here is my plan to achieve those goals:
1. Turn off UV sterilizer (9W Green Killing Machine)
2. Turn off Protein Skimmer
3. Stop water changes
4 .Slowly raise temp to 82 degrees
5. Start dosing Brightwells NeoNitro and NeoPhos to raise nitrogen and phosphorous.
6. Start dosing Brightwells Microbacter7. This one makes me a little nervous because the last time I added some, right before adding my clown pair, my stylophora started to bleach a little bit. I'm not positive the bleaching was caused by the MB7, but they seemed to coincide.
7. Start dosing Phytoplankton from my LFS.
8. Add some sand sifting snails, cerith and nassarius (I had planned on this anyway)
9? I'm also considering finally adding chaeto to my refugium. I've never added chaeto because my nutrients were so low. But, now that I'll be dosing, it seems like a good time to start macroalgae. Hopefully it will also help to out compete the dinos.
Also researching the use of H2O2.