prymnesium parvum

[ShakeyGizzard]

Interestingly, I just found out that I have Prymnesium parvum as well. The symptoms, including snail deaths, clam deaths, corals mad, water params fine, presence of diatom-like dust on sand, glass, rocks, smelly smell, all check out. The pics from under my microscope also confirm.

At this point, I guess I will try UV and GAC. If that doesn't work in a month or so, I will probably restart the tank.

depends on what's in the tank, may as well try an algaecide if your going to tear it down, dino-x is an algaecide also

 

[tpirovol]

Its a mixed reef

 

[juanzepeda90me]

Has anyone had any luck treating prymnesium parvum algae? I scoped a sample and that is what it is. I can’t find any info related to treating it in a saltwater aquarium. Thanks

I bought a UV sterilizer. Took a small stick abd stir up sand bed every 2 hrs or so and blasted rocks with turkey baster. I also added seachem clarity to bind the algea cells into bigger clumps for the UV sterilizer to work better. 80 gph flow rate. I have been doing this for 2 weeks now and after 3 days no more parvum accumulation on sand bed. I will continue running for about 2 more months just incase any cysts reactivate. This to me was great because corals started opening up more and more each da. I also did 10 percent water changes every 3 days but im dosing neo phos and neo nitro to keep from bottoming out. So far so good and everything is going back to normal . Hope this helps

 

[Island Goby]

I bought a UV sterilizer. Took a small stick abd stir up sand bed every 2 hrs or so and blasted rocks with turkey baster. I also added seachem clarity to bind the algea cells into bigger clumps for the UV sterilizer to work better. 80 gph flow rate. I have been doing this for 2 weeks now and after 3 days no more parvum accumulation on sand bed. I will continue running for about 2 more months just incase any cysts reactivate. This to me was great because corals started opening up more and more each da. I also did 10 percent water changes every 3 days but im dosing neo phos and neo nitro to keep from bottoming out. So far so good and everything is going back to normal . Hope this helps

what size tank and UV in the display or? flow rate is pretty low - which UV did you employ? appreciate your responding on here...the battle is real

 

[juanzepeda90me]

I have the same issue, covering my glass within 3 hours! Let me know if you find any info, struggling!

Seachem clarity and UV worked for me

 

[Arkayology]

After doing a literature review on how biologists deal with this in brackish and freshwater, UV seems to way to go for our tanks IME. I got a UV sand sweeper and a Sicce clarity UV-C 13w and things have been slowly improving. No need to take the tank down.

 

[tpirovol]

I bought a UV sterilizer. Took a small stick abd stir up sand bed every 2 hrs or so and blasted rocks with turkey baster. I also added seachem clarity to bind the algea cells into bigger clumps for the UV sterilizer to work better. 80 gph flow rate. I have been doing this for 2 weeks now and after 3 days no more parvum accumulation on sand bed. I will continue running for about 2 more months just incase any cysts reactivate. This to me was great because corals started opening up more and more each da. I also did 10 percent water changes every 3 days but im dosing neo phos and neo nitro to keep from bottoming out. So far so good and everything is going back to normal . Hope this helps

How is this going?

 

[Reefrats]

My corals started dying so I just dosed razor and clean today.

 

[tpirovol]

My corals started dying so I just dosed razor and clean today.

What is razor?

 

[Reefrats]

What is razor?

Brightwell product that is a cleaning polymer - whatever that is. I’m desperate.

 

[tpirovol]

Brightwell product that is a cleaning polymer - whatever that is. I’m desperate.

Let me know how it goes.. I ordered a uv wand

 

[FenrirAysen]

I followed the same treatment steps many do for dinos. I actually had multiple baddies at once.

Scraped Glass and turned over sand bed then dosed Hydrogen Peroxide 3% for first five days

Lowered The whites in my light spectrum and shortened photo period to 8 hours.

Dosed good bacteria, live phytoplankton and Apex pods for a week. I think I ultimately wound up with like 10k + worth of copapods.

When I started the dinkins pods and Phyto I stopped cleaning the glass or sucking up the sand bed because I didn't want to undo anything I was dosing.

I also added extra Trochus, Cerith, and Turbo snails. I also feed my fish like 3x a day to naturally push my nitrates and phosphates but some people straight dose them.

I avoided UV because it can actually kill all the other good live stuff you're dosing. It's a bit of a nuclear button if I understand correctly.

Took nearly three weeks to see results but I don't even have to scrape my glass anymore. My current theory is this nasty stuff always is in your tank it's just a question of if your microbiome or other habits control it or not.

 

[Moe K Verified Sponsor]

My corals started dying so I just dosed razor and clean today.

Any updates on this??

I thought I got rid of my PP problem with UV plumbed into the tank for a few weeks. Turned off the UV for one day it came back in full force. I am about to go nuclear with razor too. This stuff affects corals and fish.

 

[Arkayology]

Update on my system. I have been dealing with P.p. since November and I give up. I've tried UV, DIY coral snow/flocculants, sandbed removal, addition of ocean sand/live rock, and blackouts. This stuff is a plague that I am done with.

In the next couple of weeks I will frag my SPS off of their bases, rinse them very well, and then move them to a frag tank. Zoas will be put into a dip of hydrogen peroxide, rinsed, and added to the frag tank as well. I will then move the fish over to the frag tank and tear down the system to give it a deep clean. The frag tank will only be ~16g and I will be running UV in it 24/7. I'm thinking about running citric acid through the display system to kill off everything. I will then set the tank back up with TBS live sand and rock and let things sit for awhile. If no P.p. appears in the frag tank, I will move frags back to the display. Unfortunately, I may have to euthanize my hermits and snails because I don't really see a way to clean them sufficiently to ensure that the P.p. doesn't come along with them. Any ideas on how to not kill the snails/hermits? I really would like to keep them if possible.

I hope everyone else has better luck then I did. I gave it a good 10 months, but I will admit when I am beat.

 

[Moe K Verified Sponsor]

Update on my system. I have been dealing with P.p. since November and I give up. I've tried UV, DIY coral snow/flocculants, sandbed removal, addition of ocean sand/live rock, and blackouts. This stuff is a plague that I am done with.

In the next couple of weeks I will frag my SPS off of their bases, rinse them very well, and then move them to a frag tank. Zoas will be put into a dip of hydrogen peroxide, rinsed, and added to the frag tank as well. I will then move the fish over to the frag tank and tear down the system to give it a deep clean. The frag tank will only be ~16g and I will be running UV in it 24/7. I'm thinking about running citric acid through the display system to kill off everything. I will then set the tank back up with TBS live sand and rock and let things sit for awhile. If no P.p. appears in the frag tank, I will move frags back to the display. Unfortunately, I may have to euthanize my hermits and snails because I don't really see a way to clean them sufficiently to ensure that the P.p. doesn't come along with them. Any ideas on how to not kill the snails/hermits? I really would like to keep them if possible.

I hope everyone else has better luck then I did. I gave it a good 10 months, but I will admit when I am beat.

I figured out a way to control them but not fully eliminate them. If I turn my light spectrum more on the whiter side then they stop growing on almost everything. As soon as I try and set a nice blue spectrum they come back full force. I have tested this over and over. They LOVE BLUE LIGHT.

Also they appear to be pelagic so a UV plumbed in does help a good bit. The problem is I found nothing to fully eradicate them.

I am still trying to find a way I can run lots of blue on my schedule but have not been successful. The tank can handle maybe 2 hours of blue actinic at sunset.

 

[Arkayology]

I figured out a way to control them but not fully eliminate them. If I turn my light spectrum more on the whiter side then they stop growing on almost everything. As soon as I try and set a nice blue spectrum they come back full force. I have tested this over and over. They LOVE BLUE LIGHT.

Also they appear to be pelagic so a UV plumbed in does help a good bit. The problem is I found nothing to fully eradicate them.

I am still trying to find a way I can run lots of blue on my schedule but have not been successful. The tank can handle maybe 2 hours of blue actinic at sunset.

Thanks for the tip. I too have noticed that they seem to be benthic. Not sure about pelagic - I took water samples, spun them in my centrifuge, and looked at the supernatant and I didn't see anything. Could be a time of day thing? I also don't think that there are any ways to rid our tanks of these things while preserving the life of the other inhabitants.

Hopefully they will not tag along to the frag tank.

 

[Moe K Verified Sponsor]

Thanks for the tip. I too have noticed that they seem to be benthic. Not sure about pelagic - I took water samples, spun them in my centrifuge, and looked at the supernatant and I didn't see anything. Could be a time of day thing? I also don't think that there are any ways to rid our tanks of these things while preserving the life of the other inhabitants.

Hopefully they will not tag along to the frag tank.

Interesting. The reason I say possibly pelagic is because I notice if a UV sterilizer is added directly to the display tank the same way you would treat ostreopsis then the PP will noticeably reduce in numbers. Maybe some other effect the UV is causing that effects them? The problem though is unlike ostreopsis they come right back when removing the UV sterilizer.

I have not tried Seachem Clarity like @juanzepeda90me did. That is interesting stuff. I am just worried about the iron content in it.

 

[Moe K Verified Sponsor]

Also I am pretty convinced this stuff is way more common than anyone thinks. Besides dinos this stuff is the cause of smelly tank syndrome. Lots of reports on that. I also notice that when reduced, corals are free to thrive. Like really really thrive. When blooms occur corals start to suffer and left unchecked potentially will die.

I am convinced whether you have this organism in your tank or not If there is a way to eliminate this stuff completely from a tank (maybe impossible) growing corals will go to a whole new level.

 

[Arkayology]

Also I am pretty convinced this stuff is way more common than anyone thinks. Besides dinos this stuff is the cause of smelly tank syndrome. Lots of reports on that. I also notice that when reduced, corals are free to thrive. Like really really thrive. When blooms occur corals start to suffer and left unchecked potentially will die.

I am convinced whether you have this organism in your tank or not If there is a way to eliminate this stuff completely from a tank (maybe impossible) growing corals will go to a whole new level.

The interesting thing is I am getting some growth in my SPS - not amazing, but noticeable. PE is poor. Snails die if I don't dose enough phosphate, probably because the PP becomes toxic with reduced nutrients (my observations at least).

I have noticed that there is a smell to the tank though! I'm glad it's not just me, but the tank smells "off". It's not really a low tide or death smell. It's hard to describe, but definitely a funk.

 

[Moe K Verified Sponsor]

Just wanted to update everyone. It looks like my prymnesium problem is over. I can turn up blue lights and they are not showing up. I get a nice healthy green film on the glass, not brown.

I can not say for certain what exactly was the cure but I did do 2 things that were big changes to how I run the system. I started dosing Dr Tim's Waste away first and then I bottomed out my nitrates multiple times. After that it looks like they are not coming back. I now have nitrate on a dosing pump to keep right at 5ppm pegged and po4 under 0.06. So basically trying to go low nutrient system. And also as suspected my corals are taking off big time.

Be careful bottoming out nitrates. Thats an invitation to dinos. I think maybe the key is just keeping ultra low nutrients.