Dinoflagellates.

Montireef said:
I have come to a conclusion that differs from what everybody claims:

If I stop the pumps and water movement, dinos also stop thriving and it is very easy to vacuum clean them. I have also found that the stronger the water is pumped the faster the dinos spread and go out of control.

I have also found that it is better to stop the skimmer and feed heavier.
Click to expand...

Less water movement/cessation of water movement led to more strand formation in my case. I can't say there were necessarily more, just slightly more visible. If left off for longer than about the 20 mins I had done, they may have possibly receded as you observed.

Beyond that, I'd have to say that your observations correlate well with mine so far.

mfaso24 said:
I had Dino's about two weeks ago. I caught it really early before it got bad. I originally thought it was cyano but after a day or so realized it was Dino's. I immediately blacked out the tank for 72 hours and then ran only actinics for a week. After a week, I went back to my regular full lighting schedule. It's been like this for a week or a week and a half and still no sign of Dino's returning.
Click to expand...

Be cautiously optimistic. A week is a very short amount of time with this particular pest.
 
FFS!!!! I think the Dino's are back!

Just looked in the sump, and think I spotted some attached to my skimmer.

Does this look like Dinos?

9399d7df831c1955f692db62a5817257.jpg
 
Someone earlier in the thread said that I can take a sample and mail it somewhere and they test it to see what Dino they are? Anyone have that info?
 
I am sure those are dinos as I can even see some of them individually. No doubt they are big ones so I suspect they could be ostreopsis or a kind even bigger (not the usual prorocentrum or amphidinium)
 
The whole theory on blackouts working must be complete BS, as there is zero light that gets to that part of the sump as you can see I had to use a flash light to show them, yet these started to grow there.

There's none in the DT, but I expect it's only a matter of time. :sadface
 
If it is ostreopsis, blackouts don't work at all. They are mixotrophic rascals and don't care about the light, if it is dark they just feed on a minimum nitrogenous matter.
 
A quick update:

So far, the dinoflagellates have stayed at bay, that is, up until yesterday when I started noticing some strings reappearing. It is very interesting how this works. When algal growth is active, dinoflagellates disappear, but when it wanes, they immediately pick up any sort of slack. The funny thing that is occurring now is that while nutrients are slightly elevated from increased feeding, etc., much of the filamentous algae has started to suddenly die off en masse. This immediately corresponded with an increase in dinoflagellates. I have no idea what the impetus for any of this was, as nutrient limitation should not be one. Something is being competitively used/exhausted in the process that is leading to most of the filamentous algae to suddenly die. This is the same kind of succession that occurred before prior to dinoflagellates exploding in population :(
 
I think I maybe going through the same thing I had dinos not sure what kind. I have elevated my levels until cyno started to grow. I hope the dinos don't come back when I get rid of cyno .
 
This already has been a long battle. Almost 2 years I actually have had better results when I took off the gfo. I also quit wetskimming. Blackouts would work for a little while but they only come back stronger . I have a 20+ year old reef and believe at this point it is time to pull all the old sand. And add new. I think I will also try adding some new rock and trying to resead. I think it is a balance issue and it just isn't balanced. On the other hand I am getting growth on all my corals and have to frag all the time. I have a small biocube that I have stocked with frags from my tank and no dinos present.
 
Dinoflagellates.

Amphiprion said:
A quick update:



So far, the dinoflagellates have stayed at bay, that is, up until yesterday when I started noticing some strings reappearing. It is very interesting how this works. When algal growth is active, dinoflagellates disappear, but when it wanes, they immediately pick up any sort of slack. The funny thing that is occurring now is that while nutrients are slightly elevated from increased feeding, etc., much of the filamentous algae has started to suddenly die off en masse. This immediately corresponded with an increase in dinoflagellates. I have no idea what the impetus for any of this was, as nutrient limitation should not be one. Something is being competitively used/exhausted in the process that is leading to most of the filamentous algae to suddenly die. This is the same kind of succession that occurred before prior to dinoflagellates exploding in population :(
Click to expand...


Hm that's weird you say that. I had Dino's, blacked out for 72 hours and when I turned the lights back on, HA started growing but no Dino's. So now I'm battling gha. I hope I don't beat gha only to have Dino's reemerge.

And on top of that, my cuc doesn't seem to bat an eye at the gha -_-
 
mfaso24 said:
Hm that's weird you say that. I had Dino's, blacked out for 72 hours and when I turned the lights back on, HA started growing but no Dino's. So now I'm battling gha. I hope I don't beat gha only to have Dino's reemerge.

And on top of that, my cuc doesn't seem to bat an eye at the gha -_-
Click to expand...

I've repeated something similar quite a few times. Be cautious about discouraging other forms of algae/macroalgae, IME.

*Edit: I mean via water parameter control. I don't know if herbivory would be an issue, though it stands to reason that it would not.
 
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