Dinoflagellates.
- Thread starter DNA
- Start date
Pants
Member
The really ironic thing is that my biggest problem is in getting these things to stay alive in the lab. Part of it is just inattention (I have a lot of other commitments), but the main issue I have is that contaminating algae out-compete dinos in the nutrient rich media I am accustomed to using. So I have the options of isolating the dinos and waiting the very long time it takes to go from a single cell to a large enough number to work with, or trying to find a medium that will allow the dinos to out-compete the other algae. And all of you have stumbled upon that magic dino medium by accident.
It would be nice if someone nearby with dinos could just give me 100 gallons of their water for me to use as growth medium.
It would be nice if someone nearby with dinos could just give me 100 gallons of their water for me to use as growth medium.
I haven't done a water change in 4 weeks trying to beat these demons, but eventually I'll have to do one, 20 or 30 gallons I guess, so we can probably figure something out. I'll be glad to do so. Ha! given how much progress I'm making you'll have to thank me for keeping your pets well fed and healthy!
SurlyT
Member
Man, I wish I'd known you needed it - I scraped everything down and did a 100+ gallon water change last week, presumably with a lot of ostreopsis in it. I'm hoping to get the population under control here shortly but I'll be glad to get you water from my tank anytime, since I assume I'll always have some of them in the water column.
Pants
Member
Amphidinium are tiny so you'd need a good scope to see that wrinkle at the top. Any chance I could pick up a sample this week or weekend?
I'd never really thought about getting a bunch of water with a sample until I mentioned it here. It probably would really help address my issues. I could also use the cell sorter to get a cleaner sample. Maybe pull a bunch of water off the day after you start a black out period so I'd have water and a bunch of dinos in the water column.
DNA
New member
Update from my tank.
All the algae in the display tank is gone.
Almost all of the cyanobacteria is gone.
Got at least twice as many dinos as on my last update.
Calcium and alkalinity are now at more normal levels at 390 and 7.
I raised them with kalkwasser only and had the calcium reactor off.
That puts CO2 and Ca reactor contaminants on the sideline.
As a result the aquarium has been running at pH 8,3-8,5 for two weeks.
High pH is not a solution for Ostreopsis.
The outlook is not good, but time will tell.
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Pants do you have a paper out yet?
All the algae in the display tank is gone.
Almost all of the cyanobacteria is gone.
Got at least twice as many dinos as on my last update.
Calcium and alkalinity are now at more normal levels at 390 and 7.
I raised them with kalkwasser only and had the calcium reactor off.
That puts CO2 and Ca reactor contaminants on the sideline.
As a result the aquarium has been running at pH 8,3-8,5 for two weeks.
High pH is not a solution for Ostreopsis.
The outlook is not good, but time will tell.
---
Pants do you have a paper out yet?
I had dino for over a month everything covered in them. I was keeping up by siphoning multiple times daily but as you know they were back within hours. On Wednesday I picked up a used uv sterilizer and small powerhead hooked it up shut off the lights and by the next day all of the dinos were gone. The uv sterilizer is oversized for my tank. Tank is 28 gal nano cube and the sterilizer is the 18 watt coralife 6x twist. Best $25 bucks I've spent recently. Anyways I hope my experience helps others. The only thing I did to get rid of them was add the uv and turned off lights for a day because the dinos go into water column when no light apparently.
DNA
New member
Same here and I think I have added quite a few pieces to the puzzle.
DNA
New member
Same goes for filtersocks and skimmers, but still the dinos persist.
I'm sure UV works, but there will allways be dinos left, they multiply blindingly fast and they will maintain the population on the following day.
If UV is the answer I've not heard many if any success stories.
Perphaps with an over sized UV and for your type of dinos.
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Almost forgot. I've tried UV for dinos. It was a small one and it had no impact, at all.
Kieth71
New member
I have made some significant progress by dosing mb7 and no/pox. I am on my third water change and i don't see any signs of dinos. I also ran cuprisorb in my tank for about a month during this process. I am now just running carbon in a reactor. I also have a kalk reactor that i added along the way. I have my lights up to full cycle as well. I am dosing only 3 ml of no/pox and 20 ml of the mb/7 each day in a 140g tank. I also feed pretty heavy as the carbon dosing tends to drop nitrates a bit lower then i would like. I cant say for sure this will work for everyone but it has worked for a longer period then anything else i tried. The ultra algae x would work while i was dosing but as soon as i removed it the dinos would come back. Lights out periods beat them down but they would come back fast as soon as i turned the light cycle back up. I will say that i had them only growing on the rocks when i started this regiment.
Pants
Member
This is a bit off-topic so I apologize.
Since I set up the website to help people ID their dinos I've ben trying to expand it to other pest algae as well. I was very excited therefore when I found a nearly free frag of nearly dead goniopora with bryopsis growing on it. I could get some pictures of the bryopsis and nurse the goniopora back to health. Both the goniopora and the bryopsis have been doing wonderfully with new growth. Unfortunately this morning I caught my new toby puffer (~1.5") pecking at the frag and on closer examination the little guy ate ALL my bryopsis!
Since I set up the website to help people ID their dinos I've ben trying to expand it to other pest algae as well. I was very excited therefore when I found a nearly free frag of nearly dead goniopora with bryopsis growing on it. I could get some pictures of the bryopsis and nurse the goniopora back to health. Both the goniopora and the bryopsis have been doing wonderfully with new growth. Unfortunately this morning I caught my new toby puffer (~1.5") pecking at the frag and on closer examination the little guy ate ALL my bryopsis!
DNA
New member
That's really interesting news Pants. Soon enaugh someone else will try this, hopefully with the same results.
I had bryopsis years ago and got rid of it with turf algae that turned out to be even worse than bryopsis.
- - -
My dinos are growing in numbers day by day and I don't like where it's heading.
Most of the sandbed has dinos now, but the rocks don't have any.
They are not producing oxigen or forming strings, yet.
As soon as the Cyanobacteria faded, dinos moved in.
I have a massive ball of Cheatomorpha in the sump so it's not a competition with a death grip on dinos.
I had bryopsis years ago and got rid of it with turf algae that turned out to be even worse than bryopsis.
- - -
My dinos are growing in numbers day by day and I don't like where it's heading.
Most of the sandbed has dinos now, but the rocks don't have any.
They are not producing oxigen or forming strings, yet.
As soon as the Cyanobacteria faded, dinos moved in.
I have a massive ball of Cheatomorpha in the sump so it's not a competition with a death grip on dinos.
TampaSnooker
Active member
FWIW, sea hares demolished my Bryopsis outbreak in a couple days.
TankCla
SPSychology
A few weeks ago I started a loosing battle with my dino's. Yesterday, in desperation, I dosed my first h2o2 (1ml/10g). This morning my acro crab was dead 
and my wife tells me she can see more dino's than before .
The only odd thing I saw in my tank, is that dino's are killing all my zoas. Only zoas.
DNA, I see you have a 1y long war with dino's, and from what I have read (not all 12 pages) there is no good cure for dinoflagellates. I hate the idea of loosing restarting my tank if nothing will kill them.
and my wife tells me she can see more dino's than before .The only odd thing I saw in my tank, is that dino's are killing all my zoas. Only zoas.
DNA, I see you have a 1y long war with dino's, and from what I have read (not all 12 pages) there is no good cure for dinoflagellates. I hate the idea of loosing restarting my tank if nothing will kill them.
rocknut
Rocky
Any opinions on how biopellets react with dinoflagellates? I have been dealing with dinos since April of this year, and am trying to formulate a plan going forward, but can't seem to find much info on the use of biopellets.
The dinos that I have had have had a minimal amount of the typical "snot" like build up on the rocks and sand, but have stayed mostly bubbles attached to the ends of the long hair like structures. About six weeks ago now, I removed my biopellet reactor that had been running for the previous 10 months just to see if it would help with the dinos, treated with Chemiclean, and did a lights out for 3 days. Once I brought the lights back on I was basically dino free, so I started the biopellets up again. Everything was looking good until last weekend when I decided to increase the flow thru my pellet reactor as I wasn't seeing much of a nutrient reduction yet, and the increase in flow caused a layer of biofilm to be released (noticed on the surface of the water in my sump). By the next day I could see the dinos popping back up...
So, wondering if anyone else has found that the dinos can feed on the bacteria being released from the biopellets? I do have the effluent from my pellets feeding directly into the skimmer, but the presence of the biofilm in the sump must mean that the skimmer wasn't processing all of the bacteria, and at least some of it was making its way to the water column. Now I'm not sure if I should leave the pellets going as they are now doing a good job of reducing nutrients, but are possibly feeding the dinos at the same time?
The dinos that I have had have had a minimal amount of the typical "snot" like build up on the rocks and sand, but have stayed mostly bubbles attached to the ends of the long hair like structures. About six weeks ago now, I removed my biopellet reactor that had been running for the previous 10 months just to see if it would help with the dinos, treated with Chemiclean, and did a lights out for 3 days. Once I brought the lights back on I was basically dino free, so I started the biopellets up again. Everything was looking good until last weekend when I decided to increase the flow thru my pellet reactor as I wasn't seeing much of a nutrient reduction yet, and the increase in flow caused a layer of biofilm to be released (noticed on the surface of the water in my sump). By the next day I could see the dinos popping back up...
So, wondering if anyone else has found that the dinos can feed on the bacteria being released from the biopellets? I do have the effluent from my pellets feeding directly into the skimmer, but the presence of the biofilm in the sump must mean that the skimmer wasn't processing all of the bacteria, and at least some of it was making its way to the water column. Now I'm not sure if I should leave the pellets going as they are now doing a good job of reducing nutrients, but are possibly feeding the dinos at the same time?
