Dinoflagellates.

[Adrnalnrsh]

The theory goes that they get sucked into the skimmer and exported with a lot of other micro-organisms.

Montireef, was the user who reported a parasitic protozoa, parvilucifera (I believe) attacking a dino. It is earlier in this thread.

One thing that Montireef also pointed out is that if you do not discard your skimmate, but instead collect it and set it aside for a couple of weeks, that it will become clear and under closer inspection the now clear fluid will be teaming with a veritable soup of micro-organisms. I have been dying to try this but don't have a microscope yet (but I will be getting one soon!).

Wouldn't it be neat if instead of draining skimmate, you could collect it, let it age, bloom and then return the zoo-plankton to the tank once the organics are consumed. Perhaps adding some live phyto at the clear stage to assist with nitrate, phosphate reduction before returning the zoo soup to the tank. Compared to the ocean, our little boxes of water are usually sadly lacking in the lower food webs that higher organisms depend on.

Dennis

I set aside sklimmate from about two three months ago and its been sitting in a 2 liter bottle in my laundry room with the cap sealed tight. I see the clear liquid. Perhaps I should check a sample.

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

Update: since adding the phytoplankton and pods from algaebarn yesterday all the bubbles that were on my dead frags have disappeared. I only see bubbles on the back wall and in upper corners with what looks like brown stringy stuff

All green cyano has turned black after using the chemiclean.

My skimmer is still off and the chemiclean instructions say to run the skimmer and do a water change which I am avoiding.

 

[Quiet_Ivy]

I set aside sklimmate from about two three months ago and its been sitting in a 2 liter bottle in my laundry room with the cap sealed tight. I see the clear liquid. Perhaps I should check a sample.

This is fascinating. Do you think it's bacterial action or microorganisms? I wonder if you've got a mega culture of anaerobic nitrogen reducing bacteria in there.

ivy

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

This is fascinating. Do you think it's bacterial action or microorganisms? I wonder if you've got a mega culture of anaerobic nitrogen reducing bacteria in there.

ivy

It's not a 100% clear and I'm not even sure if there's any life. I am going to put under my microscope.

 

[Montireef]

I set aside sklimmate from about two three months ago and its been sitting in a 2 liter bottle in my laundry room with the cap sealed tight. I see the clear liquid. Perhaps I should check a sample.

I have never done it in that way. I just let the skimmate sit in the skimmer cup for 2/3 weeks and poured it into the tank (a whole gallon of black stinky stuff).
Did a nitrate and phosphate test and it had nothing. On the microscope I could spot three or four kinds of bacteria and many nematodes.

The water got noticeable blackish and dirty for several hours and ALL my corals (more than 800 acros, poccis, seriatoporas...and about 40 LPSs) opened in an amazing way with awesome polyp extension. I did not notice anything weird with my fish and snails went nuts eating sediments.

My theory is that if you let the skimmate sit for some days, there will be a competition and the strongest bacteria and critters will remain after all nutrients are eaten. These surviving bacteria and critters will be an awesome meal for corals and other inverts in the tank. When poured they will keep on competing and eating other critters in the tank, playing havoc amongst dinoflagellate colonies which are on the first trophic stage.

 

[Mightyfish]

I have some dino on glass before, however, after i got rid of most of my bubble algae then dino have come back a lot more. Perhapd less competition for nutrients. They are all in glass at the moment not so much on rocks. Is it safe to use algae scrapper to manually remove them or will it make it worse that after i scrap they will travel to live rocks and start growing on rocks? These algae are brown colour full of bubbles and when i gently it it broke down to like dust.

 

[DNA]

Got sand and live rock yesterday.
There is no immediate impact as to be expected after less than a day.

---

The sand came from a tank that has my dinos so it is not ideal.
I had to order and import the live rock unseen and it's crap.

If we are right about the plankton and this is the quality of live rock people are getting, go figure.

 

[ridetheducati]

Got sand and live rock yesterday.
There is no immediate impact as to be expected after less than a day.

---

The sand came from a tank that has my dinos so it is not ideal.
I had to order and import the live rock unseen and it's crap.

If we are right about the plankton and this is the quality of live rock people are getting, go figure.

With the addition of sand and live rock, do you plan to dose phyto to encourage the fauna to florish?

 

[Montireef]

Regarding living rock I think it's a matter of luck. Six months ago I bought 6 kgs of an Indonesian batch that came with oxyrrhis marina. It took less than a week to clean a 600 gal tank from an ostreopsis outbreak.

A few weeks later, oxyrrhis starved and vanished. Ostreopsis showed up again (it forms cysts).

I think that the key is:
- Being lucky and get a good living rock batch
- Keep on feeding the pods from that rockwork as most of them will starve when dinoflagellates get eaten.

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

I have never done it in that way. I just let the skimmate sit in the skimmer cup for 2/3 weeks and poured it into the tank (a whole gallon of black stinky stuff).
Did a nitrate and phosphate test and it had nothing. On the microscope I could spot three or four kinds of bacteria and many nematodes.

The water got noticeable blackish and dirty for several hours and ALL my corals (more than 800 acros, poccis, seriatoporas...and about 40 LPSs) opened in an amazing way with awesome polyp extension. I did not notice anything weird with my fish and snails went nuts eating sediments.

My theory is that if you let the skimmate sit for some days, there will be a competition and the strongest bacteria and critters will remain after all nutrients are eaten. These surviving bacteria and critters will be an awesome meal for corals and other inverts in the tank. When poured they will keep on competing and eating other critters in the tank, playing havoc amongst dinoflagellate colonies which are on the first trophic stage.

Cool, thanks for the info. I have a full skimmer cup from when I stopped skimming on Sunday. I could use that.

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

Interesting read.

What are Phytoplankton?


"Derived from the Greek words phyto (plant) and plankton (made to wander or drift), phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that live in watery environments, both salty and fresh.
Some phytoplankton are bacteria, some are protists, and most are single-celled plants. Among the common kinds are cyanobacteria, silica-encased diatoms, dinoflagellates, green algae, and chalk-coated coccolithophores."

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Phytoplankton/

 

[Montireef]

Yes, dinoflagellates are probably the most abundant living form in the phytoplankton "cloud"

The problem is when they go bananas and get out of control smothering everything in the aquarium (specially if we're talking about the toxic species)

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

Yes, dinoflagellates are probably the most abundant living form in the phytoplankton "cloud"

The problem is when they go bananas and get out of control smothering everything in the aquarium (specially if we're talking about the toxic species)

RIght so this completely makes sense to me how they flourish in our closed systems and how adding microfuana and other types of phyto help suppress them.

 

[cal_stir]

I'm gonna try to take a video of my microscope and post it, never posted a video before but i'm sure I can google it.

 

[mfaso24]

Does anyone know if you can safely transfer fish and corals from a Dino infested system to another? Looking for some insight from someone that has first hand experience preferably.

 

[DNA]

Are these two infested tanks or just one?
Even if they are two you should id the dinos in both tanks.

If one tank is healthy you should not risk it.
It may be able to fight off the dinos or not.

If it's corals you are concerned about those can be moved between infested tanks with the same dinos.
I've done that and same should go for the fish.

You are certain to have dino hitchhikers with almost everything from an infested tank.

 

[Quiet_Ivy]

Does anyone know if you can safely transfer fish and corals from a Dino infested system to another? Looking for some insight from someone that has first hand experience preferably.

About 2 pages back, JamesHolt talks about transferring tanks a couple of times.

hth
ivy

 

[dartier]

I am so excited. I finally pulled the trigger and ordered my microscope. Just got the email saying it should be arriving tomorrow. I went for a Trinocular compound microscope along with a 720P Wifi cam and an adapter for my Nikon. I considered the phase contrast version, but it adds quite a lot to the cost (over double) so I figured I would try a basic bright field setup first. I am finally going to be able to inspect my tanks micro-organisms in a more detailed way.

Hopefully these will be decent quality for aquarium use and serve me well.

http://www.microscopenet.com/40x2000x-trinocular-compound-siedentopf-microscope-reversed-nosepiece-p-9047.html

http://www.microscopenet.com/omax-720p-wifi-digital-camera-microscope-compatible-windowsmacioslinuxandroid-p-10746.html

Dennis

 

[cal_stir]

I am so excited. I finally pulled the trigger and ordered my microscope. Just got the email saying it should be arriving tomorrow. I went for a Trinocular compound microscope along with a 720P Wifi cam and an adapter for my Nikon. I considered the phase contrast version, but it adds quite a lot to the cost (over double) so I figured I would try a basic bright field setup first. I am finally going to be able to inspect my tanks micro-organisms in a more detailed way.

Hopefully these will be decent quality for aquarium use and serve me well.

http://www.microscopenet.com/40x2000x-trinocular-compound-siedentopf-microscope-reversed-nosepiece-p-9047.html

http://www.microscopenet.com/omax-720p-wifi-digital-camera-microscope-compatible-windowsmacioslinuxandroid-p-10746.html

Dennis

Wow!, now that's looking at em. I'm trying to get a decent video with my iphone but not having much luck.

 

[karimwassef]

dinos are in every tank and every reef. They're a normal part of the ecosystem.

When we say someone "has dinos", we mean that they've run amuck and taken over the tank due to vacancies in the natural biological hierarchy.

Transferring moves them but the conditions that allow them to explode into disastrous proportions are tank dependent. If the new tank doesn't exhibit the same conditions, nothing happens.

If you tear everything down and set it up again with the same initial conditions, dinos take over again.