Spirulina vs Porocentrum Dinos. Help needed.

[MikeTheNewbie]

Hello reefers,
I've been dealing with "the uglies" for a couple of months now. It started with porocentrum dinoflagelates and it has now evolved into spirulina and another thing I haven't been able to identify.
I found a great deal of information on Dinos and Cyano but haven't been able to find much on spirulina. I hope someone can point me in the right direction to find recommendations or a protocol to remove them and if possible, help me figure out what is the other thing tagging along in the spirulina blob.
I understand porocentrum dinos were toxic so I'm happy spirulina has mostly replaced them but I don't know the effects of spirulina other than looking ugly.
I've seen my conchs, turbo snails and even one of my yellow tangs munching on the spirulina. The snails mouth shows a red tint and and the tang looks like if it was wearing maroon lipstick
Video and details below:
This video shows a blob of spirulina mixed with the other thing I would like to identify. I have better videos of the spirulina but I'm mostly interested on figuring out what else is in there.


Here is a pic of my tank with the uglies on the sand.

My nitrates and phosphates seem to be under control for the past moth (6-8ppm NO3 and 0.06 PO4 measured with Hanna checkers). I think that contributed to the demise of the porocentrum.

I have tried different methods to get past "the uglies":

• Get my nitrates and phosphates in check by reducing pellets and using more frozen food and the refugium seems to be in better shape.
• Physically removing them from the sand
• I installed a big 90w UV that is running on a closed loop directly to my tank (not in the sump). I know porocentrum don't go to the water column but I added it in case it could help.
• I have also added a lot of Nitrobacter 7 and a bit of PNS Pro Bio

 

[taricha]

spirulina is just a type of cyano.
The majority of the other single cells in the vid are diatoms.

 

[MikeTheNewbie]

Hey taricha, thanks for the hint. I searched for spirulina cyano and forund more info including a thread started by @twilliard where they discussed they are edible and seemed to be nutritious. I feed San Francisco Bay Brand Frozen Spirulina Brine Shrimp Cubes and Hikari Mysis Shrimp daily. Do you know if the Spirulina in the Brine Shrimp is the same I'm getting on my sandbed? Could I be promoting its growth by feeding spirulina enriched brine shrimp?

 

[Dan_P]

Hey taricha, thanks for the hint. I searched for spirulina cyano and forund more info including a thread started by @twilliard where they discussed they are edible and seemed to be nutritious. I feed San Francisco Bay Brand Frozen Spirulina Brine Shrimp Cubes and Hikari Mysis Shrimp daily. Do you know if the Spirulina in the Brine Shrimp is the same I'm getting on my sandbed? Could I be promoting its growth by feeding spirulina enriched brine shrimp?

Food Spirulina is a different organism. Besides, isn’t it dead in fishfood?

 

[MikeTheNewbie]

That's good to know. I'm not familiar with the propagation of microbes. It is frozen food, I guess everything is dead but I thought maybe some microbes could be preserved. The conversation in that thread made me think the powder spirulina you buy and the one that grows on rocks was the same thing.

 

[MikeTheNewbie]

To close the loop on this, my sand has been free of visible cyano and dinos for the past 2 months. I feel that I have beaten the first wave of the uglies.
In case this helps anyone and to leave a record in case any of these hit me again:

• I first got porocentrum dinoflagelates (confirmed with microscope and the help of an expert). I tried to address them using non invasive methods like dimming lights, removing them frequently by vacuuming the sand and I also installed a 90w UV closed loop. Nothing helped. I knew UV was not supposed to help with my type of dinos but I decided to try anyways. It didn't make a dent to the dinos but it does clear up the water.
• Then I got spirulina cyanobacteria combined with the dinos. Spirulina was easily identifiable under the microscope.
  Over time, the spirulina outrun the dinos. The dinos were more brownish and were located in the lower flow areas of the sandbed. The spirulina was more reddish, started in the higher flow areas where there were fewer dinos.
  I still feel that the spirulina cyanobacteria outbreak was caused by feeding spirulina laden frozen brine shrimp (which I did daily for several months before the outbreak) but I won't argue here.
  If anyone wants to give my spirulina brine shrimp a try. I have 5 packs of cubes that I can give away if anyone wants to test this. I haven't disposed of them in case I need to seed spirulina cyano to combat dinos again hehehe.
• After the spirulina had taken over the sand bed I learned that they were a type of cyanobacteria, thanks to @taricha for the hint, so I decided to try chemiclean.
• After the first dose of chemiclean, all the spirulina was gone and my sand looked as clean as new. That was a bit over 2 months ago. Since then, neither spirulina nor dinos have appeared in my tank. I have seen a bit of algae on my sand but the conchs take care of it and I've been really happy.
• I would certainly recommend chemiclean and I think that outcompeting dinos with a spirulina bloom could be considered an alternative approach to dosing silicates to promote diatoms.

I know how frustrating the battle against dinos and cyano can be so I wish everyone who's dealing with that good luck and hope this helps someone.