Please ID my dinos

[Idech]

Taken a few weeks ago :

@taricha you’ve helped me before and I want to know if it’s the same specie as 2 years ago.

Thanks !

 

[Kmst80]

Looks like Amphidinium to me.

 

[Idech]

Looks like Amphidinium to me.

Would you need better pictures or video to confirm ?

 

[Kmst80]

Would you need better pictures or video to confirm ?

Sharper pictures would be better but I ruled out

osteo
due to no visible clear theca
Cells aren't sesame shape
doesn't spin in circle around point

prorocentrum
not symmetric
no circular structure in centre of cell
Cells moving

Apart from that it appears like Cells have a beak. To me that leaves Amphidinium from the list of the common dinoflagellates.

I have Amphidinium myself atm, I only do manual removal because it's not a lot.

Got a tank shot? Where are the dinos, sandbed,rocks,everywhere? Heavy mucus or dust like?

 

[MeganV]

I like Kmst80's elimination criteria. It is hard to tell from the pics, but it doesn't matter as long as we can eliminate ostreopsis. Because it's not ostreopsis, balance your nutrients and dose silicate to encourage diatoms would be a good course of action. That's been helpful for me with amphidiniums. I still have a dusting on some areas of my sandbed, but I'm not going nuts with the silicate or anything, I add 1ppm a couple of times a week.

 

[Idech]

That’s all I have for now. I’ll have to get new pictures.



They’re pretty much everywhere on the sand. I also have some type of fuzzy algae on the overflow box and on the rocks. I thought lyngbia but not sure anymore.

This has been going on for 3 years…

 

[Idech]

I like Kmst80's elimination criteria. It is hard to tell from the pics, but it doesn't matter as long as we can eliminate ostreopsis. Because it's not ostreopsis, balance your nutrients and dose silicate to encourage diatoms would be a good course of action. That's been helpful for me with amphidiniums. I still have a dusting on some areas of my sandbed, but I'm not going nuts with the silicate or anything, I add 1ppm a couple of times a week.

My nutrients are always moderate/ high. Because I was dosing dino-x, I stopped my regular routine and they are now very high :

Nitrates : 53 ppm
Phosphate : 0,76

 

[Kmst80]

My nutrients are always moderate/ high. Because I was dosing dino-x, I stopped my regular routine and they are now very high :

Nitrates : 53 ppm
Phosphate : 0,76

As long as your corals are happy I wouldn't do much.
Like Megan said you could dose silicate( in form of sodium silicate), randy has an article about it.
Other than that blow it of the sand with a Turkey baster so it gets into the watercolumn and some will get skimmed out.
I had prorocentrum before and that is no joke, heavy dark brown mucus everywhere, corals weren't happy at all.
How I got it? Dosing reefflux to get rid of caulerpa and then chemiclean to get rid of cyano. Stuffed the microbial balance of the tank. Never again dosing wonder cures.
Wouldn't be to worried about the nitrates/phosphates, corals look happy in the pictures and as long as fish are healthy all is good.

 

[Kmst80]

What is the regular routine?

 

[Idech]

What is the regular routine?

Videos says Prorocentrum because that’s what I thought I still had. But they’re the same you id’d as amphidium.

My usual daily routine :
Dosing All for reef
Dosing vodka
Adding different bacteria on and off
Adding phyto occasionnaly

I feed mainly frozen, twice a day. Nori daily. Sometimes a little pellets.

I run a skimmer and a phosphate reactor. I have a refugium with lights on 12 hours at night. No socks, I use filter floss.

DT lights are on for 8-9 hours with ramp-up and down. Mostly UV and blues. A little white and almost no red and green.

I don’t do regular WC as they feed Dinos dramatically.

I can only keep very easy corals. All the nice LPS corals, anémones and others, I can’t have. They all shrivel and die.

 

[Idech]

I took a video and some pictures today. Can anyone id with those ? @Kmst80 ?

 

[Kmst80]

I took a video and some pictures today. Can anyone id with those ? @Kmst80 ?

Still think they are Amphidinium.
Here is a video I found from taricha that shows amphidinium and they look similar.

 

[Idech]

Still think they are Amphidinium.
Here is a video I found from taricha that shows amphidinium and they look similar.

Thanks, it’s confirmed then ! Amphidium it is. LCA surely.

 

[Kmst80]

Thanks, it’s confirmed then ! Amphidium it is. LCA surely.

I am not an expert but that is what I think. You said you had them 3 years?...and which dino was it last time? What are you doing to fight it if anything? Just asking out of curiosity, i am dealing with the same dino right now.

 

[Idech]

I am not an expert but that is what I think. You said you had them 3 years?...and which dino was it last time? What are you doing to fight it if anything? Just asking out of curiosity, i am dealing with the same dino right now.

I had Prorocentrum before and maybe another type before that.

For these I was fed-up so I used dino-x with a black-out before, a black-out during and then very low light for the duration of the treatment (1 month). I also used my UV stick once and ran my in-line UV. I lost lots of CUC and 2 fish so not sure I recommend this.

Now that the treatment is finished (they came back as soon as I started to increase the light) I am adding lots of phyto and bacteria and using a turkey baster everyday to get them off the rocks and sand and into the filter floss and skimmer. I am also dosing silicate every day. I also added more white and some red to my light, to help grow algae.

Do not dose vodka as it can fuel them and do not use GFO if you are dosing silicate (it will decrease it, along with phosphate).

IME dinos are a very resilient organism and you need to create competition in order to get rid of them. They won’t die, they can adapt to almost anything.

 

[Kmst80]

I had Prorocentrum before and maybe another type before that.

For these I was fed-up so I used dino-x with a black-out before, a black-out during and then very low light for the duration of the treatment (1 month). I also used my UV stick once and ran my in-line UV. I lost lots of CUC and 2 fish so not sure I recommend this.

Now that the treatment is finished (they came back as soon as I started to increase the light) I am adding lots of phyto and bacteria and using a turkey baster everyday to get them off the rocks and sand and into the filter floss and skimmer. I am also dosing silicate every day. I also added more white and some red to my light, to help grow algae.

Do not dose vodka as it can fuel them and do not use GFO if you are dosing silicate (it will decrease it, along with phosphate).

IME dinos are a very resilient organism and you need to create competition in order to get rid of them. They won’t die, they can adapt to almost anything.

I had prorocentrum a couple years ago too, took me half a year to win that battle and they produced heavy brown mucus, corals weren't happy.
Just be carefull not to overdose on silicate, I did when having prorocentrum and ended up with a bacterial bloom(brown water) which killed more than the dinos.
Lots of people say not to do alot for amphidinium, just let it run it's course.
I am dosing silicate once a week and blow them off once a week. Some weeks there is less, some there is more. If they only would kill aiptasia.

This link is a little write up by taricha too, some good info to keep.

https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/guide-to-dinoflagellates_r2r_begaud-pdf.2027770/

 

[Idech]

I had prorocentrum a couple years ago too, took me half a year to win that battle and they produced heavy brown mucus, corals weren't happy.
Just be carefull not to overdose on silicate, I did when having prorocentrum and ended up with a bacterial bloom(brown water) which killed more than the dinos.

I dosed it before. A lot. When I did my ICP test, my levels were 3000% higher than normal, lol ! I never had any problems.

I am dosing a little over 1 ppm daily. This needs to end or I am taking everything down next summer (can’t do it in the snow). I checked my notes and I had them since 2021. So it’s not even 3 years, it’s 4. I lost so much money…

 

[Kmst80]

I dosed it before. A lot. When I did my ICP test, my levels were 3000% higher than normal, lol ! I never had any problems.

I am dosing a little over 1 ppm daily. This needs to end or I am taking everything down next summer (can’t do it in the snow). I checked my notes and I had them since 2021. So it’s not even 3 years, it’s 4. I lost so much money…

But your corals look happy? Isn't it mainly in the sand? Not sure a pull down will solve your problem coz you just might end up at the first square .
I've read too in one thread where the person put a correlation between raised temp and dino bloom, I see if I can find that diagram a bit later

 

[Idech]

But your corals look happy? Isn't it mainly in the sand? Not sure a pull down will solve your problem coz you just might end up at the first square .
I've read too in one thread where the person put a correlation between raised temp and dino bloom, I see if I can find that diagram a bit later

Only softies can live in my tank. I would love an anemone, some hammers, torches and so forth. But they all die.

Dinos are also on the rocks. They’re everywhere now.

Also I raised my temperature to 27C for a month. I just went back to 25,5C today as it did nothing. This stuff is something else.

 

[Kmst80]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/d...ttling-altogether.293318/page-46#post-4030566
Check out post 905.
There is a diagram of how certain conditions affect a bloom in the ocean. Probably won't help you much now but i found it interesting, for example if you keep the temp under 25degree celsius it won't contributed to starting a bloom as well as under 20 degrees C will impact the bloom negatively.
How much manual removal have you done?