Dinoflagellates.

[mike810]

I had dinos for months. I used dino-x everyday until it was gone. Turned off UV for several hours after dosing. Dino-x instructions state you should dose every 48-72 hours, I can't remember off the top of my head which is correct. I however, dosed every night until the dinos was gone. I've been dino free for the last several months. I also made sure to sterilizer all equipment that was used on the tank but was not part of the in-tank treatment.

I'd also like to add that my dinos was really bad, covering all surfaces and smothering/killing my corals. That's why I said F it and dosed every single night and at a higher than recommended dosing strength.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that they likely are dinoflagellates. That makes sense, given the symptoms. You could try Dino-X. I am not sure that any animal is likely to help.

 

[rsucre]

Here's a video of the dinoflagellates from my tank: link

 

[rsucre]

Here's a video of the dinoflagellates from my tank: link

Hi. Just wanted to share some additional information provided by Tarisha regarding ID of my dinoflagellates sample:

the grooves at the "front" outline a tongue or nose like projection (epicone) that is the best indicator of amphidinium. ​

Tarisha thinks it is Amphidinium and not Ostreopsis, and after more detailed observation, I agree. It really looks like Amphidinium.

Also wanted to share that raising PO4 to 0.07ppm and NO3 to 0.25 this week and siphoning out the brown dust "amphidinium" that I had on the sandbed, seems to be working. It is returning at a much slower pace than before and I hope that I can win this by sustaining the PO4 and NO3 at those values and siphoning out any sign of brown dust when doing my weekly water changes.

 

[bertoni]

I'm glad you're making some progress!

 

[rsucre]

I'm glad you're making some progress!

The dinos are very reduced, but I can still see some remanent on the sandbed. PO4 = 0.1 and NO3 = 1.0. I started to see some green algae on the rock, which is consistent with raising PO4 and NO3. KH = 8.1dKH.

An unexpected situation happened. A relatively large montipora capricornis colony that I had, which was growing very well and looked very beautiful (bright red, with visible polyps) for about year; died suddenly. One day it was beautiful, the other all its tissue was melted-brown slimy. Frags that I had of that same monti cap on the other side of the same tank, are also dying. Luckily, I have some frags in my other system that I can eventually bring back to this tank.

Illumination has not changed.

I'm baffled...

Things that I can think of:

1. Could the dinoflagellates be related to this?

2. I introduced a new Montipora Capricornis, very similar to this one that died (red), but with yellow polyps. I have seen it called "Starburst Montipora", Tyree Starburst or Starburst Cap. That frag seems to be doing OK. Can it be related, perhaps chemical warfare (allelopathy) between Montipora Capricornis species?

How can this be so specific to just the montipora capricornis (large colony and small frags) and not other corals in the tank? And how can it happen so suddenly, one day all good, the other all dead?

 

[rjjr1963]

I'm using a UV sterilizer right now which is somewhat effective but hasn't eliminated the problem yet. I've only been running it about a week.

Dino's are virtually gone. Small spot here or there but those are going away too. I don't have to siphon the sand at all anymore. Once everything is clear I'm going to turn off the UV and see what happens. I'm using a 25W UV on a 40 gallon breeder.

 

[CLJ94104]

Dino X worked for me after 4 treatments with reduced light period. Blues only for 4 hours per day during treatment. No casualties.


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Still Dino free, still no casualties. I will keep the thread updated.


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[taricha]

Dinoflagellates.

An unexpected situation happened. A relatively large montipora capricornis colony that I had, which was growing very well and looked very beautiful (bright red, with visible polyps) for about year; died suddenly. One day it was beautiful, the other all its tissue was melted-brown slimy. Frags that I had of that same monti cap on the other side of the same tank, are also dying. Luckily, I have some frags in my other system that I can eventually bring back to this tank.



Illumination has not changed.



I'm baffled...



Things that I can think of:



1. Could the dinoflagellates be related to this?



2. I introduced a new Montipora Capricornis, very similar to this one that died (red), but with yellow polyps. I have seen it called "Starburst Montipora", Tyree Starburst or Starburst Cap. That frag seems to be doing OK. Can it be related, perhaps chemical warfare (allelopathy) between Montipora Capricornis species?



How can this be so specific to just the montipora capricornis (large colony and small frags) and not other corals in the tank? And how can it happen so suddenly, one day all good, the other all dead?

Didn't you describe a brown blob-like infection that would show up when an sps got a cut?
It sounds like you have brown jelly disease in your system.
Throw some of the brown melted slimy tissue under the microscope.

 

[rsucre]

Didn't you describe a brown blob-like infection that would show up when an sps got a cut?
It sounds like you have brown jelly disease in your system.
Throw some of the brown melted slimy tissue under the microscope.

Hi Taricha. Yes, I had some incidents with Euphillia LPS (not SPS), which seemed consistent with brown jelly disease. Overall, my Euphillia (hammer and frogspawn - has not occurred with Torch) seem very delicate -- specially hammer.

The recent incident was with Montipora Capricornis (SPS), which was doing great for a year or so. I gave away many frags, it had amazing growth and color was bright red. Then one day it just suddenly died (skin becoming brown death melted stuff).

It is too late to take a sample of the brown stuff, but will keep in mind taking a sample next time I see any brown stuff like that in my tank.

Do you think it can be the same "brown jelly disease" that attacks euphillia, that now attacked the monti cap? Does it stay in the tank forever latent? How can I get rid of it? Is it dinos?

 

[xabo]

Is there some type of correlation between Dinos and LEDs? Never had them when I was running MH's.

 

[taricha]

Hi Taricha. Yes, I had some incidents with Euphillia LPS (not SPS), which seemed consistent with brown jelly disease. Overall, my Euphillia (hammer and frogspawn - has not occurred with Torch) seem very delicate -- specially hammer.
Do you think it can be the same "brown jelly disease" that attacks euphillia, that now attacked the monti cap? Does it stay in the tank forever latent? How can I get rid of it? Is it dinos?

Yes, it can. Brown jelly disease is now understood to be a community of organisms - bacteria, ciliates etc. that work together to degrade the coral tissue. The ciliates zooming around eating the zooxanthellae looks CRAZY under the scope.

Is there some type of correlation between Dinos and LEDs? Never had them when I was running MH's.

I personally believe it's possible there's a minor effect with the frequencies of LEDs being more selective than MH were, and perhaps MH supported more dino competitors than LED fixtures. But It's more likely that other things have changed about your tank care since MH that make a bigger difference.

 

[rsucre]

Yes, it can. Brown jelly disease is now understood to be a community of organisms - bacteria, ciliates etc. that work together to degrade the coral tissue. The ciliates zooming around eating the zooxanthellae looks CRAZY under the scope.

Thanks Tarisha, how can I treat the tank? How to do a profilaxis and mitigate the possibility of having the conditions for brown jelly? Is this like Dinos that you don't eliminate them, but take actions to maintain a healthy balance of micro fauna, bacteria and algae?

 

[rsucre]

The dinoflagellate issue has improved (reduced) since I increased nutrients (NO3 1.25 and PO4 0.1 most recent measures). I also introduced some copepods from a friends sump and they seem to be reproducing quickly.

I noticed that the dinos are now only growing (or most noticeably) on the sandbed under the shade of an euphyllia torch coral.

 

[Salty Irishman]

Winning!

Winning!

I'm finally winning the battle (knock on wood) after the most agonizing battle I've had in 30+ years of reefing! Took me to the brink of throwing in the towel. After trying everything under the sun, the only thing that had any real impact was to raise P04 from zero to .1 & N03 from zero to 5-10 respectively. Running those two elements at zero was most definitely the cause of the disaster. I've never been so happy to see green again! Here's a few pics of what's left... now to rebuild!

 

[jason2459]

Do nothing is still my strategy. [emoji16] YMMV

 

[MuscleFish]

1ml of peroxide is good for 10g water each 12h?

Thanks

 

[rjjr1963]

1ml of peroxide is good for 10g water each 12h?

Thanks

I used 10ml in a 40 gallon tank. It didn't do a damn bit of good. I've read but can't confirm that it breaks down in about 8hrs.

 

[DNA]

I've got some very good leads for you to play with.

Today I took a quick look to see if the internet has come up with a solid solution for the dino epidemic and was disappointed to see it seems to be lost and confused.
With all those people with the same problem we should the further down the road already.

I've been able to keep my tank dino free for a very long time and to grow montipora successfully, but my test acropora frags usually fade away in a few months.

Even when the tank had no visible dinos at all I was able to make them reappear for a single day with two methods.

The first one was quite a surprise since I added only about 1 gallon of fellow reefers tankwater to my own and the following day I had a single patch about one square feet and the following day after it was gone for good.

The other one was an experiment that I was quite confident that would bring dinos back. I had been running the tank in algae based mode for the duration, but elected to give GFO a go at the accumulated algae in the display tank and to see if it would help with the sps. Over the years I've noticed that when you replace the GFO media there is always less of it to remove than it was before and if you put your sandbed in a bucket and leave it there for some weeks the white sides of the bucket will turn brown.
I opted this time to use more GFO than usual and not to throw away the dust that comes out with new media as I've always done and for a single day I got most of my sand covered with a thin layer of dinos. The following day I could hardly see them and then they where gone. After running GFO for a month or two the dinos slowly started to show up as the GFO in the reactor dissolved.

I've noticed that the tank is generally doing better when the skimmate is greenish rather than brownish and as some of you know iron is known for red coloring in nature so that has been in my spotlight as a player for dinos for quite some time. I can speculate that iron is vital for dinos or the effect that iron has on the water chemistry can cause a dino bloom or the combination of these or something entirely different is going on, but I leave with saying that iron is a major player.

Have fun!

 

[CLJ94104]

If i were a betting man....and i am....the dinos will be back. Especially if you have a sand bed. Dinos have a way of forming a protective barrier and hiding to wait out the bad times (chemicals) and come out a visit when the time is right.



Ive had the dinos receed for several months after chemical treatments and then out of nowhere the dinos blow up once the N & P levels bottom out.



If you beat it with dino x....thats great and your the first person ive met who beat dinos with this product.

Just an update, my tank is still dino free after treating with Dino-X.


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