Ultralife Red Slime Remover. I have used it in two tanks to remove red cyano. It does a great job. However, it will have zero impact on other algae in the tank.
Dinoflagellates.
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Ultralife Red Slime Remover. I have used it in two tanks to remove red cyano. It does a great job. However, it will have zero impact on other algae in the tank.
karimwassef
Active member
is red slime remover a bacteria killing agent?
Quiet_Ivy
New member
Don't panic, try to remove it by dragging a plastic fork through it and twirling like spaghetti. Pick it off your sps, should come easily. It's like cycling a tank in reverse, you get waves of various nuisances. Let your P rise slightly too and it will turn to green algae.
Wouldn't dose chemi clean unless it's bad enough that your corals are affected. Red slime remover sounds like it's enzymes and probably an oxidant like peroxide. Again I wouldn't dose unless your animals are being affected.
hth
ivy
bheron
Active member
So how do we know when to resume water changes? When is the nuisance algae is enough and the dinos in check that its safe to try? I'm dealing with the same as Billybatz it seems. Tons of red/dark growth all over sand. So much I finally sihponed it out last night. And now it seems like getting green hair algae outbreak. Dinos are 99.5% gone, only a few scattered in my overflows and return plumbing.
Is this saying that my nutrients from the dirty method are high enough and dinos no longer able to keep them in check?
Is this saying that my nutrients from the dirty method are high enough and dinos no longer able to keep them in check?
Gooood question. Let me know when you know. Every time I do a water change, I get a slight dusting of them.
Fish Keeper82
New member
Dino X does not work for Ostreopsis
Dino X does not work for Ostreopsis
Confirmed : Dino X so far after 6 doses has produced no visible results on the Dinoflagellates Ostreopsis.
Im going to stop using it after that 6th dose since I'm seeing absolutely no improvement in the Dinos whatsoever. I know it says to use for up to 21 days but from what ive seen as far as myDinos is concerned I might as well dosed water. Dinos is not getting better or worse in my case. Other algae however has subsided and now i have a bit of bryopsis that seem to be on the rise from the increased food nitrients(never had this problem before) since im also tinkering with the dirty method as well.
On the plus side i didn't lose a single coral or fish or shrimp. The product does say not to overdose and to dose per 5 ml per 26 gallons. I belive the small case of people's overdosing might be due to not knowing exact water in system after you subtract for live rock and sand. I have a 125 gallon tank with 20 gallon sump and some reactors which is roughly 145 gallons. But when i filled my tank i kept count of the gallons and in actuality is only 110 after rock and sand. This could be an easy miscalculation and potential overdose if not taken in to account so be careful. I have 2 cleaner shrimps who i monitored very closely the first times i dosed. They showed ZERO signs of stress.
I now just plan to live with it since it was not extremely bad to begin with but i may have upset the tank balance killing the other algae off time will tell.:facepalm:
My next approach will be to add my UV sterilizer i have laying in my garage into the system and continue the higher nutrients. I plan on keeping GFO out of my system for a while since i belive the low PO4 and nitrates were a contributing factor of the Dino rise. In 10 years of prior reef keeping( the wrong way not QT and minimal waterchanges) i never even heard of Dinos. This tank i have done all by the book( minus QT for coral, I just use coral dip for corals) and Dinos has thrived on this low nutrient setting.
Dino X does not work for Ostreopsis
Confirmed : Dino X so far after 6 doses has produced no visible results on the Dinoflagellates Ostreopsis.
Im going to stop using it after that 6th dose since I'm seeing absolutely no improvement in the Dinos whatsoever. I know it says to use for up to 21 days but from what ive seen as far as myDinos is concerned I might as well dosed water. Dinos is not getting better or worse in my case. Other algae however has subsided and now i have a bit of bryopsis that seem to be on the rise from the increased food nitrients(never had this problem before) since im also tinkering with the dirty method as well.
On the plus side i didn't lose a single coral or fish or shrimp. The product does say not to overdose and to dose per 5 ml per 26 gallons. I belive the small case of people's overdosing might be due to not knowing exact water in system after you subtract for live rock and sand. I have a 125 gallon tank with 20 gallon sump and some reactors which is roughly 145 gallons. But when i filled my tank i kept count of the gallons and in actuality is only 110 after rock and sand. This could be an easy miscalculation and potential overdose if not taken in to account so be careful. I have 2 cleaner shrimps who i monitored very closely the first times i dosed. They showed ZERO signs of stress.
I now just plan to live with it since it was not extremely bad to begin with but i may have upset the tank balance killing the other algae off time will tell.:facepalm:
My next approach will be to add my UV sterilizer i have laying in my garage into the system and continue the higher nutrients. I plan on keeping GFO out of my system for a while since i belive the low PO4 and nitrates were a contributing factor of the Dino rise. In 10 years of prior reef keeping( the wrong way not QT and minimal waterchanges) i never even heard of Dinos. This tank i have done all by the book( minus QT for coral, I just use coral dip for corals) and Dinos has thrived on this low nutrient setting.
I used the dirty method and let it go until hair algae was starting on the back glass then I started my skimmer and skimmed dry, I let the cyano go for a couple weeks removing some with a turkey baster to keep it under control then did Chemiclean treatment, follow instructions and add aeration, skimmer will go nuts for 4 or 5 days so shut it off, after 48 hours I did a 20% water change, all the time I was dosing phyto daily and pods weekly and it was the final blow to the dinos. I put a new sand bed in a couple weeks later and resumed reg water changes a few weeks after that.
I am 28 weeks dino free, still dosing phyto daily and adding pods weekly.
The dirty encourages a healthy micro fauna and this is what I believe keeps the dinos in check, I maintain my po4 @ .04 and my no3 @ 5 ppm.
When the hair algae and the cyano are starting to take off then it is dirty enough but you must add plankton to win the battle.
Ostreopsis Ovata.
bheron
Active member
Thanks for the input DFee and Cal_Stir. So, a few nights ago I siphoned out 90% of the growth on my sand. I say "growth" b/c I dont know if it was Cyano, or Dinos or Algae. Looks like Cyano to me. Darkish, almost black. But it was literally a layer like algae. No bubbles tho.
So, WOW, what a result. The next night my tank looked AMAZING! not just the clean sand but the rocks and the water look great! So clean and clear. The little bit of growth I was seeing each night on my rocks is gone.
So I'm thinking that whatever I removed was polluting my water column in some way? and removing it just helped everything so much. I will say I'm also running carbon at this time.
I'd prefer not to have to siphon this stuff out periodically but we'll see what happens in the next few days.
So, WOW, what a result. The next night my tank looked AMAZING! not just the clean sand but the rocks and the water look great! So clean and clear. The little bit of growth I was seeing each night on my rocks is gone.
So I'm thinking that whatever I removed was polluting my water column in some way? and removing it just helped everything so much. I will say I'm also running carbon at this time.
I'd prefer not to have to siphon this stuff out periodically but we'll see what happens in the next few days.
zoolan70
Member
Help with ID, please!
Help with ID, please!
Here are some pictures and a few videos of my dinos. I'm thinking one of the Ostreopsis species but could use some ID help. Thoughts?
The dark mass is green algea, just the little dots were moving around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d9lFBy9Dc0
Help with ID, please!
Here are some pictures and a few videos of my dinos. I'm thinking one of the Ostreopsis species but could use some ID help. Thoughts?
The dark mass is green algea, just the little dots were moving around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d9lFBy9Dc0
Fish Keeper82
New member
From the video looks like Ostreopsis to me
zoolan70
Member
Oooops I missed the video, Ostreopsis for sure.
You have to make things unfavorable for them, there are 2 methods here, the clean method and the dirty method, I subscribe to the dirty method. Both methods require the addition of plankton.OK, so how do I kill the things?
sonnus
Member
I have used the method described in this thread to identify dinoflagellates with very consistent results. It doesn't necessarily help identify between different types of dinos but it should help differentiate between dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria which seem to be the most commonly confused.
Once dinoflagellates are confirmed I've personally had a 100% success rate with the kalkwasser (elevate pH) method described here. The major drawback to using kalkwasser is your dKH will likely increase a bit despite turning off dosing pumps and calcium reactors (mine goes up about 1-3 dKH during a treatment). But realistically, if your tank is being overran by dinos a high dKH is probably the least of your concerns.
Budman422
New member
My dinos went away after I added an ato. In that ato I run kalkwasser. I also ran the dirty method and fed heavy removed gfo and carbon . I am now at 12 months dino free. I never removed the sandbed which has been there since 1997. But I added macro algea from 4 different tanks. To help with diversity. Not sure which method helped or a combo of all. This was after a 3 year battle.
DNA
New member
The dino clump up id method was described in this thread very early on by myself.
Since then my dinos do not behave that way any more so it's not a good method if you need to be certain.
I've also gone the Kalkwasser route with all the evaporated water replaced as Kalkwasser and it does not work for Ostreopsis.
Microscope is the way to go and there is a high chance of identifying the type of dinoflagellates at the same time.
Dinos and Cyano look very different in a microscope and are also easy with a little practice with the naked eye.
Quiet_Ivy
New member
OK, so how do I kill the things?
Well I'm confident in saying that's not diatoms. Movement does look like Ostreopsis unfortunately.
Many of us are trying the 'dirty method' which essentially just means letting your nitrate and phosphate creep up to or slightly above reef normal values. You can do this by feeding heavily, feeding phyto, removing GFO, cranking your skimmer down/off, stopping all water changes and dosing. (I have O. ovata and I can't keep N above 0 without actually dosing it. Adding copepods is often helpful. I leave carbon in since my Ostreopsis are definitely toxic.
No reason you can't combine the above with high pH, assuming you have a doser. Blackouts are rarely curative on their own but you may get results combining a short blackout with raising N and P.
hth
ivy
