Dinoflagellates.

If the socks are cleaned daily or so, their effect should be small. Otherwise, they might favor some bacterial populations over other organisms due to the high flow and separation from the substrate and live rock.
 
... another comment from this thread that I can't find. Someone said that they had some dinos, ran UV and it did nothing, then later they looked at the microscope to find that the species of dinos had changed.

this was the post I was referring to...
So in an unexpected result slow flow UV killed my Osteopsis and now another type has taken its place and seems to not make strings and stay more on the sand. Even when my return pump was out i never saw strings just heavy dusting.
So just a heads up... if you havent looked under the scope in a while it might be valuable info to take a recent look.

Fishkeeper mentioned in a PM he later ID'd the new ones as amphidinium. From my experience, not a super toxic type. If I had Ostis, and could trade them for amphidinium by running UV - I'd do it every time.
 
If they're fine, they trap dinos as well as pods, detritus, and food waste. It's like a Petri dish of waste. With the right conditions, that feeds the dinos.

Unless the mesh is superfine, the dinos are not trapped. So it's like a pass through buffet with guaranteed food.

It's a philosophy in keeping reefs for me. Everything in my tank replicates a function in nature. I have only two exceptions... Carbon and GFO. Everything else mimics a natural system.

They are 10 micron and changed them daily while I had the dino's.
 
That's what I used: 10 micron sock .. it was disgusting and got clogged constantly... it was POOL size too.

I won't try that again.
 
Ok who was wanting some live dinos shipped to them to experiment on, I'll be glad to send some if you can tell me how to ship,, I'll even pay the charges just tell me how you like to have them, what kind to I have? UGLY seriously I haven't a clue. Robert

I do still want live dinos - even more if they are toxic. I'll send you a PM with my shipping info.

Dfee,thanks so much. I got your sample a few days ago, put it under the scope that night.
Saw almost exclusively diatoms. almost nothing living.
https://goo.gl/photos/fwjbcZ67QqobamDm6
the brown discoloration in the rag was also diatoms
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMiUjIJnz6cbOA66JD3cCEX1I4pC1XxD1NGe9KG

took many samples, and after a lot of looking I am uncertain. I did find a few weird clear shapes of similar size and shape repeated often enough to make me wonder if it was the theca (armor) that came off of a dead dino.
https://goo.gl/photos/5xmgsmBBcHLUpu9E9

then I found a brown pigmented blob of similar size and shape that bore resemblance to a dino
https://goo.gl/photos/HTW1iWNQnnhtKFBL6
zoomed in
https://goo.gl/photos/HVByH74DrFdZDXuJ6

short vid changing focal plane. there's some sort of dino-like structure to it.
https://goo.gl/photos/9oDznmRqkZtohY9bA

I didn't post while I tried to look for possible IDs. Didn't have much luck there. While it's an unusual shape, there are a lot of lumpy shaped dinos...
like
1-s2.0-S0932473908X00021-cov150h.gif
(that's an amphidiniopsis)
 
I dug one of these reports up again and it said benthic, and by that I think they mean short turf like algae and that I have seen plenty of.

I've never seen dinos on my caulerpa, chaeato or other algae that does not stay close to the ground.

Saw some slight brown strings from the exposed "roots" of my caulerpa
3e5a614392a0c7f1d86b4ee0a7c7f9be.jpg


And under the scope, dinos!
89406cd3667f1d1c9cda39a98a5fbdd3.jpg


b8749ef3a0c4d9c03c74ccd6f6f532e5.jpg


So many weird shapes. Like an artichoke?
32881db401ab14f984be1698036e764e.jpg


Lots of reports of "epiphytic" dinos in the literature, all kinds of funky shapes.
 
Of course we have endless species of microscopic life in our tanks which is good.
We just don't want them to bloom, that's it.

I like this cooperation that's going on here.
Unfortunate that you didn't get a definite outcome.
 
Over the last 3 weeks or so I've done around 10 siphons of the sandbed.
One would expect to get less and less gunk out when it's done this frequently, but that is not the case.
The amounts are simply amazing every time.

I took a closer look at the lightest particles and found one type of special interest.
It has the color and similar shape to my ostis but is more uniform, larger and they don't move.
I kept wondering if these are cysts so I melted all the calcium based particles off just to get that possibility out of the way.
It surely looks organic.

Being in their millions in the sand that is close to solely inhabited with dinos it's tempting to assume they are cysts.
 
Has anyone had any issues with a bubble tip and blacking out their tank for 3 days? It is nicely puffed up and settled in it's spot so don't want it wandering?
 
Hmm , interesting. I guess that's good news. Thanks again, Taricha. The reason I thought Dino and not diatom was because they get worse throughout the day and also after water changes. I guess water changes could fuel diatoms and I just found out diatoms are photosynthetic. I didn't think they were
 
Hmm , interesting. I guess that's good news. Thanks again, Taricha. The reason I thought Dino and not diatom was because they get worse throughout the day and also after water changes. I guess water changes could fuel diatoms and I just found out diatoms are photosynthetic. I didn't think they were

My take is that you indeed had a dino bloom at one point, and they have since receded, to be replaced - on the glass at least - by diatoms and green film algae. I take it as signs that your tank has turned the corner on your pest. All good news.

But, I would expect any soon attempt to starve out the diatoms/green film would cause dinos to reassert themselves.
 
My take is that you indeed had a dino bloom at one point, and they have since receded, to be replaced - on the glass at least - by diatoms and green film algae. I take it as signs that your tank has turned the corner on your pest. All good news.



But, I would expect any soon attempt to starve out the diatoms/green film would cause dinos to reassert themselves.


Well, I haven't had long brown snotty dinos in about a year. So if they are indeed diatoms, how have they not consumed all their food (silicates) and died out by now?
 
three days since lights have been back on...no dinos in sight...yet!

hoping I have gotten rid of them for a while...two sps rtn'd during the 4 day lights out, I suppose it was worth it though, if I can keep them from returning. On day three, vaccumed out sump/detritus with shop vac and did large water change. Also bumped my alk up to 10, to try to keep Ph up. I can't say what has resulted in my small success so far...last time I did lights out they came back like crazy a day later...will let all know if they return. Oddly enough, my coraline algae has exploded during the lights out period.
 
three days since lights have been back on...no dinos in sight...yet!

hoping I have gotten rid of them for a while...two sps rtn'd during the 4 day lights out, I suppose it was worth it though, if I can keep them from returning. On day three, vaccumed out sump/detritus with shop vac and did large water change. Also bumped my alk up to 10, to try to keep Ph up. I can't say what has resulted in my small success so far...last time I did lights out they came back like crazy a day later...will let all know if they return. Oddly enough, my coraline algae has exploded during the lights out period.

I'd guess your coraline is doing good because you corals are miserable and most likely not growing at all.
Two of them were is such a bad shape that a short darkness finished them.

---

Well, I haven't had long brown snotty dinos in about a year. So if they are indeed diatoms, how have they not consumed all their food (silicates) and died out by now?
It's been a few years for me.

---


Nice pictures.
I've got hundreds, after way to many years, from a futile battlle.
 
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