Prorocentrum and Ostreopsis

[larrysaltisfun]

I started a post over under the reef chemistry, thinking I had Diatoms I have prorocentrum and a little ostreopisis and hair algae . Algae drove my phosphate down to zero. It’s been recommended I add micro bact7 to the tank and doing a five day blackout don’t disturb the rocks and slow down the flow through my UV sterilizer which is a 57 W on a 210 gallon tank. Any other thoughts or recommendations?

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Bump

 

[EnterName]

I always recommend the following approach:

First you start by bringing nutrients down (yes down). Everything, including dinoflagellates requires nutrients to grow. If there is a lot of growth, there have to be lots of nutrients, they are just taken up fast so you can't detect them. Reducing nutrients includes manual removal of the nuisance, water changes, cleaning the substrate, if possible rinsing a few rocks in old tank water after a water change, etc.

If this doesn't fix the issue I recommend adding the required nutrients with stock solutions instead of overfeeding. This avoids introducing organics that can cause trouble by themselves or might already be part of the issue. Down below you can find the required recipes.

If this still doesn't work you can try more experimental approaches like silicate dosing (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/silicate-dosing-for-reef-tanks.1129689/), or hydrogen peroxide dosing.

There are also general ideas that might help like your UV sterilizer or improving water flow making sure there are no dead spots or spots where the current is so strong no coral would survive.

Nutrient DIY recipes:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-phosphate-dosing-recipe.1109919/

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Isn’t there a thought that doing water changes and blowing off the rocks will increase the spread? Depending on where I look like a different recommendations this is exceedingly frustrating

 

[slingfox]

My #1 recommendation is manual removal. Then dose nitrates and/or phosphates to make them detectable, UV which you already have, and dose silicates. I have found Microbe Life Special Blend much more effective at combatting Dino’s than MicroBact7. I literally dose $100+ of Microbacter7 and it did nothing.

 

[slingfox]

Isn’t there a thought that doing water changes and blowing off the rocks will increase the spread? Depending on where I look like a different recommendations this is exceedingly frustrating

You want to manually export as much Dino’s every day as possible. Then dose in hopes that every day less and less Dino’s come back as it is out competed. Gene I have small amounts of Dino’s to cyano, etc. I just scrape it off the rocks into the water column and it is filtered out my my rollermat. In the instances when I had a huge Dino outbreak, I turned off my return pump and used a Marine Magnum Polishing Filter to clean the water column as I was scrubbing Dino’s for the rocks. I also used sheets of filter floss hung on the glass to passively collect Dino’s. Those sheets were rinsed once a day. Eventually the Dino’s go away after consistent manual removal, UV and dosing.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Thanks that is practical and doable. Do you ever do black outs?

 

[larrysaltisfun]

@slingfox

What do you dose?

 

[slingfox]

@slingfox

What do you dose?

My issues is low nitrates so I dose ammonia (many threads on this board on how to do that).

When dealing with Dino’s I also dose silicates (I use the Loudwolf water glass sold on Amazon) and MicrobeLift Special Blend. I also dose DIY coral snow once a week. For bottled bacteria it seems like Tropical Marine Nitrobiotic is becoming popular so may be worth trying as an alternative to MicrobeLift. I also hear good things about Aquaforest Life Source. I have been using that for two weeks, not to battle Dino’s but as part of weekly maintenance (I use much less than what the directions state).

 

[EnterName]

Isn’t there a thought that doing water changes and blowing off the rocks will increase the spread? Depending on where I look like a different recommendations this is exceedingly frustrating

If the growth is only limited by trace elements (which surely can happen) it's possible that water changes gives them a temporary boost until nutrients become the limiting factor.

You will find contradicting information because there are contradicting experiences and the overall treatment methods are highly experimental and debated. That's why I recommend "both ways" with nutrients. First try to get rid of them (especially organics). Then add nitrogen and phosphorus if you don't have success with that approach.

In my tank I was reliably able to encourage dino growth by stopping nutrient dosage. After dosing they vanished just as reliably. I tested this multiple times over 2 years in the same tank. However, there are people that make different experiences or people that have dinoflagellates and still decent nutrient levels. It would be naive to assume this treatment worked for everyone, so trying both for a while is arguably the better way.