Dinoflagellates.

[Billybatz9]

When you have dinoflagellates, I know you aren't supposed to do water changes, but does adding calcium supplements defeat the purpose? Or is it okay to add calcium supplements. The two little fishies two part calcium to be exact.

 

[bertoni]

Any supplement will add some trace elements, but dosing calcium and alkalinity should be fine. The volumes are very small compared to the tank volume.

 

[DNA]

DNA made very interesting posts a few days ago on the reason why water changes make dinos bloom.

.
The square is still there.

Last year I did jet another of my brilliant tests.
I siphoned off the top layer of sand into a bucket and let it dry out killing loads of dinos.
Some months later I dumped all the sand back into the tank, knowing there were lots of toxins going in with it.
A Royal Gramma and a pair of Mandarins died in the days that followed.
Much of the dino population disappeared as well.

The square test and the dead dino tests are virtually the same.
I'm theorizing that Ostreopsis dinoflagellates can't tolerate their own toxins.
This is the limiting factor on dino densities I've been looking for since day one.
In the ocean dino blooms get much denser than in reef tanks because the vast ocean carries and dilutes the toxins from the dead dinos.

Did we just reach another milestone?

Not convinced yet?

Many of us have seen their dinos bloom right after water changes.
The toxins got dilluted.

The dirty method: Turn off the skimmer and filters and let the toxins build up.
The clean method: Kill the dinos with UV and let the toxins build up.

 

[karimwassef]

DNA - if it's a toxin ppm that limits them, then adding more carbon would drive a dino explosion...

 

[garygonzales]

its funny you should say that ...i recently add more carbon,.then normal...and now have a dino explosion...hmmm.....maybe

 

[karimwassef]

So dinos cultivate their own brand of bacteria that feeds them and they are limited by their own toxins... Two interesting theses.

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

its funny you should say that ...i recently add more carbon,.then normal...and now have a dino explosion...hmmm.....maybe

What kind of carbon?

 

[garygonzales]

its called api activated carbon...

 

[Quiet_Ivy]

33029 florida. You are in canada. A bit far. Lol

https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/bagfilters.php has every kind of sock
You will need a pump or powerhead to drive water through the sock. In my tank anything below 100 clogs up hopelessly within an hour or two. I believe Ostreopsis is the smallest dino at 40 microns? Some of them are huge.

Good news re hair algae, although I doubt your gf was impressed with your gift of dinos.

Adding Ca/Mg/Alk probably does help the dinos. But I lost a frogspawn due to alk swings (dinos cause wild alk drop, has anyone else experienced this?) so I'm hesitant to stop. High pH is supposed to be bad for dinos..

Haven't updated because tank's going all to heck. Hoping friend will drop off microscope this weekend.

ivy

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

its called api activated carbon...

He may have been referring to carbon dosing like vodka or biopellets

 

[karimwassef]

carbon dosing accelerates dinos too. Did we ever figure out why that is?

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

carbon dosing accelerates dinos too. Did we ever figure out why that is?

I was running activated carbon too and stopped

 

[garygonzales]

why did you stop activated carbon....

 

[Billybatz9]

https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/bagfilters.php has every kind of sock
You will need a pump or powerhead to drive water through the sock. In my tank anything below 100 clogs up hopelessly within an hour or two. I believe Ostreopsis is the smallest dino at 40 microns? Some of them are huge.

Good news re hair algae, although I doubt your gf was impressed with your gift of dinos.

Adding Ca/Mg/Alk probably does help the dinos. But I lost a frogspawn due to alk swings (dinos cause wild alk drop, has anyone else experienced this?) so I'm hesitant to stop. High pH is supposed to be bad for dinos..

Haven't updated because tank's going all to heck. Hoping friend will drop off microscope this weekend.

ivy

Thanks for the info.

 

[bertoni]

carbon dosing accelerates dinos too. Did we ever figure out why that is?

Dinoflagellates are mixotrophic, or at least some are, so they might be feeding directly on the organic carbon, or perhaps on bacteria that are consuming the carbon.

 

[karimwassef]

So in the battle of good bacteria to bad bacteria - carbon just helps the bad guys?

 

[bertoni]

Maybe in some cases.

 

[Billybatz9]

Update on gfs tank...

Green hair algae won!! I did not perform a water change on her tank for 3 weeks either. Just saying.

I was going to add her green hair algae onto my tank but then discovered she has a few Flatworms in her tank. Not doing that!

This is about 3/4 of the amount of green hair algae in her tank. I had already started cleaning it up.

 

[garygonzales]

He may have been referring to carbon dosing like vodka or biopellets

o...ok...well i have a soties tank only so thats why i use activated carbon..but was putting more than before ..and got the outbreak....

 

[Billybatz9]

Here is my Game Plan

- Will be running lights on for 5 hours a day
- Will be dosing hydrogen peroxide for 5 - 7 days at night (3 ml for biocube 29)
- Will only be running filter floss


Here are my questions:
1. Should I do lights out for 3 days when I dose hydrogen peroxide? I did 3 days lights out about a week ago, but the dinos came back.
2. Do I have to take account for the rock work and really only dose like 2ml of hydrogen peroxide?
3. How long should I dose for (how many days)?
4. When should I do water change to get rid of hydrogen peroxide? Or does it become like pure water after a few days and lose its effectiveness?