Where are you getting your fresh phyto? I think I might try your approach, I'm starting to get desperate. ....
Dinoflagellates.
- Thread starter DNA
- Start date
Where are you getting your fresh phyto? I think I might try your approach, I'm starting to get desperate. ....
GilliganReef
Member
The best way I found out to rid of Dino was to just let your tank go and extend out your W/C. I added bacteria which in the long term I didn't find it very useful at all. Best thing to do is, be patient and let it starve itself out. Had a Zoa go from 25+ polyps to 6 when I finally won the battle.
bheron
Active member
My last tank ended in my battle with Dino's. I Didn't find this thread then so just started all over with a new tank last October. Started with 6 small fish in a 220 tank and no coral. Everything was just great until about 7 months in.
During month 7 I noticed an algae outbreak all over my sand, so I started doing a lot of water changes and running GFO. I Was going for the totally clean tank thing which I now know can be a trigger. Then Dino's out of nowhere. I Found this thread and immediately stopped water changes and turned off skimmer. I Noticed an immediate improvement and after a few weeks Dino's were barely noticeable. I tried taking a sample under a toy microscope but it wasn't powerful enough to determine the type if Dino's.
Now, all the sudden, 2 months later the Dino's are back with a vengeance. Killed two of my fish. I haven't turned water on nor done water changes. I'm wondering if I just don't have enough bio load and other live to counterbalance the Dino's?
Help!!
During month 7 I noticed an algae outbreak all over my sand, so I started doing a lot of water changes and running GFO. I Was going for the totally clean tank thing which I now know can be a trigger. Then Dino's out of nowhere. I Found this thread and immediately stopped water changes and turned off skimmer. I Noticed an immediate improvement and after a few weeks Dino's were barely noticeable. I tried taking a sample under a toy microscope but it wasn't powerful enough to determine the type if Dino's.
Now, all the sudden, 2 months later the Dino's are back with a vengeance. Killed two of my fish. I haven't turned water on nor done water changes. I'm wondering if I just don't have enough bio load and other live to counterbalance the Dino's?
Help!!
I am culturing my own phyto, I got the culture kit from Florida Aqua Farms, I culture it in 2L pop bottles.
Thanks for the reply. I'll have to look into it. Have you had any noticeable P04 increases? I've read that phyto are loaded with phosphates.
EvMiBo
VictoriaConcordiaCrescit
I got amphipod copepod mix from reefs2go
http://www.reefs2go.com/product/INV_POD-1000-BOGO/Live-Saltwater-Amphipods-Copepods-1000---Buy-1-Get-1-FREE.html
Live copepods from algaebarn
http://www.algaebarn.com/shop/pf
Pod+ from reefcleaners
http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/pods
And I have an order of pods, worms, stars coming from IPSF
http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/pods
Phyto culture and micro macro grow from Florida Aqua Farms
http://florida-aqua-farms.com/shop/microalgae-disks/
My micro fauna was decimated from algaex, I originally started my tank with real live rock and had a very diverse system so that is what I am trying to get back to, diversity is the key.
My system turned the corner when I let the system get dirty and started rebuilding my micro fauna, I grow a nice crop of nice green micro algae on the glass in 3 days and am maintaining po4 at 0.025 and no3 at 2ppm.
Budman422
New member
I had been battling dinos for a long time not sure what type. Mine have almost completely disapeared. I started overfeeding my tank the cheato and culurpa in refugium started growing and I believe out competing dinos. I also quit running gfo and carbon. Now my skimmer and refuge take care of it
I think that if we get our systems too clean the micro fauna suffers, letting it dirty up brings it back but you have to be careful as to not cause a hair algae problem.
DNA
New member
Since we are leaning towards rich and diverse plankton as a way towards getting our tanks back on track let's discuss it further.
Algae killing products seem to open the door for dinos. Are they taking all the food away from the good plankton or simply killing the plankton in the process?
For best success with achieving a high population of "pods" is, an ample food source, (detritus, algae decay, plankton, micro-algae, diatoms, etc....), places to hide from predators and good water quality should be your goals.
http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/pods
Ample food source.
Looking at the amount of the dark brown/green stuff in my skimmer that collects there every day and the never ending gunk that gets blasted from my rocks and vacuumed from my sand I'd think there is plenty of food for pods, but is it the right kind?
Detritus as fish poo is at the same amount every day as go into the tank as fish food and it exits the fish with much of the nutrients intact.
Free floating algae decay is picked up by the skimmer very fast, but plenty of it will get picked up by the rocks and sand as well.
I do have living micro algae on my rocks visible with magnification.
Plankton is our missing ingredient as a food source for other plankton.
We have some diatoms, but it seems like the dinos always have the upper hand and a it seems like a diatom bloom can never push the dinos out as they can in the ocean.
Places to hide we have as rocks, sandbeds, balls of algae, refugiums etc.
Good water quality is another missing ingredient as the water is dominated with toxic dinos that are certain to compete for food, spots to live in and interfere with reproduction, food sources etc.
We should all shift our forces from the futile dino killings to ways to aid plankton to settle in and see where that leads us. It seems to be working to some extent for some of us already.
---
My tank has some pods, but they are sparse and there are no amphipods, stars, bristleworms, small snails or featherdusters to name a few. I restarted my tank with dry rock, so it started out the wrong way for plankton.
The 20Kg of live rock I added to my sump a year ago did the trick for a short time, but not in the long run.
There are no plankton products available here and they are next to impossible to import because of customs.
Algae killing products seem to open the door for dinos. Are they taking all the food away from the good plankton or simply killing the plankton in the process?
For best success with achieving a high population of "pods" is, an ample food source, (detritus, algae decay, plankton, micro-algae, diatoms, etc....), places to hide from predators and good water quality should be your goals.
http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/pods
Ample food source.
Looking at the amount of the dark brown/green stuff in my skimmer that collects there every day and the never ending gunk that gets blasted from my rocks and vacuumed from my sand I'd think there is plenty of food for pods, but is it the right kind?
Detritus as fish poo is at the same amount every day as go into the tank as fish food and it exits the fish with much of the nutrients intact.
Free floating algae decay is picked up by the skimmer very fast, but plenty of it will get picked up by the rocks and sand as well.
I do have living micro algae on my rocks visible with magnification.
Plankton is our missing ingredient as a food source for other plankton.
We have some diatoms, but it seems like the dinos always have the upper hand and a it seems like a diatom bloom can never push the dinos out as they can in the ocean.
Places to hide we have as rocks, sandbeds, balls of algae, refugiums etc.
Good water quality is another missing ingredient as the water is dominated with toxic dinos that are certain to compete for food, spots to live in and interfere with reproduction, food sources etc.
We should all shift our forces from the futile dino killings to ways to aid plankton to settle in and see where that leads us. It seems to be working to some extent for some of us already.
---
My tank has some pods, but they are sparse and there are no amphipods, stars, bristleworms, small snails or featherdusters to name a few. I restarted my tank with dry rock, so it started out the wrong way for plankton.
The 20Kg of live rock I added to my sump a year ago did the trick for a short time, but not in the long run.
There are no plankton products available here and they are next to impossible to import because of customs.
I would have to say the algae killer killed all my plankton, I saw it happening only a few days after I started using it and I changed nothing else, I vacuumed out their carcasses for weeks. I used to find dozens of brittle stars and amphipods in my sock when I changed it and I would return them to the tank but have not found one since the algaex even with the addition of many hundreds of pods. I used to have fan worms, bristle worms, spaghetti worms, peanut worms and I'm sure some other worms I never knew I had, all killed by the algaex.
My no3 was undetectable and my po4 very low but never did it test 0 and I had tons of plankton and did not dose phyto or anything to feed the plankton nor did I add plankton, but I think if tanks are stripped too clean then the plankton will suffer and set the stage for a bloom but I'm not sure that is the trigger as I read about a lot of tanks with readings of 0 no3 and 0 po4 and no dino bloom, in my case I believe the algaex was the trigger.
My dinos appeared within a few weeks of the algaex treatment and it is supposed to kill dinos.
My no3 was undetectable and my po4 very low but never did it test 0 and I had tons of plankton and did not dose phyto or anything to feed the plankton nor did I add plankton, but I think if tanks are stripped too clean then the plankton will suffer and set the stage for a bloom but I'm not sure that is the trigger as I read about a lot of tanks with readings of 0 no3 and 0 po4 and no dino bloom, in my case I believe the algaex was the trigger.
My dinos appeared within a few weeks of the algaex treatment and it is supposed to kill dinos.
Budman422
New member
My dino bloom started after a tank crash. That was from the crash of the red flatworms crashing and dying lost all starfish and pods plus fish and 90% of corals very rapidly. That is also when my macro algea died. I did lots of water changes started restocking tank. But was never able to grow good macro algea. Then that's when the dinos took over could not keep a snail sand bed always had a mat of dinos and rock everything covered. Tried water changes ,gfo, carbon, new bigger protien skimmer etc. Nothing was working. Started following this thread and really wondered if tank was done. That's when I started feeding heavy back off the protien skimmer. Took gfo and carbon off. Less water changes. And now my tank looks better than it did before all my problems . I still have some dinos but there is less all the time. I am timing my cheato and calurpa in the refugium all the time. I now have lots of pods and snails and the small starfish are back. The diversity is back and finding a balance is what worked for me.
