Dinoflagellates.
- Thread starter DNA
- Start date
Amphiprion
Premium Member
Encourage these for as long as you can. I haven't seen any signs of dinoflagellates for well over a month now. I never got the chance to try ich attack, but I kept the skimmer off and fed generously to encourage as much algae as reasonably possible. Plenty of cyano and macroalgal growth ensued. I've even been able to do several 40% water changes (as an experiment) since to no detriment. I did run my skimmer for a couple of weeks afterward (no dino appeared) and all that did was kill off some of my tunicates, so I've left it off.
ya for me the ich attack didn't kill them just seemed to slow growth drastically, Keep siphoning them out and you should beat it if it works the same as it did for me. I did get cyano and green algae I am now working on getting rid of the cyano, my foxface eats every speck of green algae
but dinos still seem to be goneIf you want a permanent solution, then I'd suggest nutrients, nutrients, nutrients. I've been skimmerless for 10 months now and dino free (ostreospsis) for 8 months. I run a small home made algae turf scrubber for filtration and have a full sps tank. Algae is your friend and the dino's enemy.
Yea monti. I put in max dosage of nopox and dinos are gone, as soon as i stop they come back. I can test it like clockwork. Vitamin C dosing was my most recent attempt to get off the nopox. I attempted an Algal Turf Scrubber and it go covered in dino instead of turf algae lol. I tried the growing skimmate bacteria and dosing skimmate as mentioned earlier here. I have not tried the lab cultured parasite one of you mentioned. I've tried everything in this thread except the Kordon and UV, lol. I have a mixed reef. NoPox ****es off my softies and acans at this dosage(no nutrients), but my SPS thrive. Can't find a happy medium where everything is happy and dino doesn't show. Can't permanently eradicate it and don't want to tear down the tank for something that is manageable just annoying. I can give a lot more details of everything I've dosed and done to my tank over the last couple years.
I agree, if I switch on my skimmer I get a dino bloom a few days later.
Now I am dosing KNO3 and everything looks better. I have no algae anyway, not even the smallest one, they just don't thrive although my big tank (600 gal) sits in the sun (it is outside the house).
I understand how that can happen - the dinos growing on the screen instead of algae. That's exactly what happened to my macro algae. Did you have enough nutrients to grow algae. It took my tank at least a month after removing the skimmer to build up some nutrients, and I was feeding often and heavy to increase phosphates. I also slowly dosed the other basic ingredients of fertilizer - nitrate, potassium, iron, silicates, iodide. My goal was to grow whatever I could - algae, cyano, diatoms. Eventually my screen grew algae and dinos started to diminish.
Adrnalnrsh
New member
DNA
New member
There was an environmental accident recently somewhere with massive amounts of iron.
At first it caused an algae bloom of some sorts with increased iron and then it killed it off.
Iron is known for tinting nature red or brown.
I wonder if it plays a part in our dinos fancy brown color.
At first it caused an algae bloom of some sorts with increased iron and then it killed it off.
Iron is known for tinting nature red or brown.
I wonder if it plays a part in our dinos fancy brown color.
Yea Chaeto won't grow. I never gave the turf scrubber that much time so i'm not sure. I just saw it as another place to grow dinos and gave up on it honestly. I had hair algae, doses an algaecide (whoops!), then got cyano so I dosed chemiclean, then hello Dino. Since then i've been dealing with dino. Occasionally, I can get cyano to grow a few days then dino consumes it. So far my only answer has been to overdose nopox(i dose for max nutrient load instead of the recommend ml because i know you can't read tests kits when you have algae or bacteria consuming it immediately). Haven't read nitrate or phosphate on my red sea or api test kits since i got cyano. I think NoPox just act similar to the guys dosing beneficial bacteria - outcompetes. Thinking about removing my substrate completely and giving the ATS another go. For clarity, i still skimmed when i tried the ATS previously.
After 6 months dealing with ostreopsis and amphidinium, here are my findings:
- Some dinos are almost always in our tanks, they just don't thrive (amphidinum). Others are caught.
- They can be easily triggered by a drop in PO4, specially when rapid.
- The best way to deal and get rid of them is competition. Foster other forms of life, specially algae that needs some PO4 to thrive. If you are lucky you can get other kind of dinoflagellates like oxyhrris marina and beat them very fast.
- Some kind of them form cysts and therefore are really difficult to get rid of. They can disappear for months and suddenly show up again if conditions are favorable.
- Stong flows help them spread and make the problem worse.
- Nutrient depletion slow them down but won't help on the long run. It is better to foul the water slowly increasing feedings and stopping waterchanges, this is food for dinos, but also for competitors that eventually will suffocate them.
As an example of this I am succesfully getting rid of ostreopsis by dosing large amounts of phytoplankton. No algae at all and water is pristine; NO3 and PO4 are still undetectable but high enough to permit other forms of life like copepods, worms, amphipods...
- Some dinos are almost always in our tanks, they just don't thrive (amphidinum). Others are caught.
- They can be easily triggered by a drop in PO4, specially when rapid.
- The best way to deal and get rid of them is competition. Foster other forms of life, specially algae that needs some PO4 to thrive. If you are lucky you can get other kind of dinoflagellates like oxyhrris marina and beat them very fast.
- Some kind of them form cysts and therefore are really difficult to get rid of. They can disappear for months and suddenly show up again if conditions are favorable.
- Stong flows help them spread and make the problem worse.
- Nutrient depletion slow them down but won't help on the long run. It is better to foul the water slowly increasing feedings and stopping waterchanges, this is food for dinos, but also for competitors that eventually will suffocate them.
As an example of this I am succesfully getting rid of ostreopsis by dosing large amounts of phytoplankton. No algae at all and water is pristine; NO3 and PO4 are still undetectable but high enough to permit other forms of life like copepods, worms, amphipods...
DNA
New member
Good info Montireef!
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SPS RiP
It started with the growth stopping on a football sized Acropora.
After that the color faded.
Next many of the the tips just peeled off, but it took a while.
Over the last 24 hours 95% of the tissue just flew off.
There are a few tiny patches left. That is often how events like this end.
The good news is that I don't need to search for the culprit.
The bad news is that this is depressing.
---
SPS RiP
It started with the growth stopping on a football sized Acropora.
After that the color faded.
Next many of the the tips just peeled off, but it took a while.
Over the last 24 hours 95% of the tissue just flew off.
There are a few tiny patches left. That is often how events like this end.
The good news is that I don't need to search for the culprit.
The bad news is that this is depressing.
bheron
Active member
Thanks for posting this Montireef! I'm not able to read this entire thread right now so your summary (and others the past few pages) have helped.
I've been battling Dinos for years. Completely broke down my last setup (220g) to start fresh. Bleached, acid washed the tank, same for for live rock, brand new deep sand bed. 7 months with a new tank and they are back! I have a very small bioload - 5 small chromis. Tank has been doing great until the sudden outbreak.
I'm hoping b/c my tank is still fairly new with only 5 small fish and two simple corals I can salvage and put up a real fight for once. I've battled so many down in this hobby and nothing has ever broken me. However, this may finally be enough to make me quit once and for all.
Some questions for the forum:
- I do have a simple microscope at home, is there a page in this thread that can help me ID what I have?
- i might be better off than others stopping water changes since my bioload is so small? funny since i've been on a mad water change run the past week or so.
- i have a bunch of filter socks so will run them
- should i turn off the skimmer too?
- while less/lower lighting isnt a cure, will it help speed up the recovery?
- what about adding more fish for the bioload? that kind of scares me.
DNA
New member
Identify your dinos first before anything else.
http://www.algaeid.com/identification/
http://www.algaeid.com/identification/
