Dinoflagellates.

[karimwassef]

34 ... I think getting dinos can create a victim response... like the aftermath of a physical assault!

So your paranoia is probably a natural reaction to the horror.

 

[taricha]

These other dinos that I have now are more round and there swimming motion is nothing like the tetherball. This new dinoflagellate has more of a burst swimming motion in no particular pattern.
So in an unexpected result slow flow UV killed my Osteopsis and now another type has taken its place and seems to not make strings and stay more on the sand. Even when my return pump was out i never saw strings just heavy dusting.
...
If i ever set up a youtube account ill post the videos

by chance does it look like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBBaXVqwlMM

first time I found a vid of this kind (Coolia). I'm now 100% that this is my dino species #2.


edit: just for jollies, the same youtube user (group from canary islands studying fish poisoning) has 2 videos of a what they call a polycheate worm with a bellyfull of prorocentrum dinos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuGB0chG0bE

 

[karimwassef]

are you saying the answer has always been bristleworms?

 

[tastyfish]

So far, it has been 4 months since my first (& last) bout of Dinoflagellates. How is everyone doing so far?

 

[karimwassef]

I'm still in good shape. I saw a dusting on a rock where a glued coral had died... I turned the UV back on 24/7 and it's gone.

 

[mannyhernz]

Im dino free..but the dirty method left me with gha all over my rocks. I had a question for any of you that had the gha sprout up after dinos...should i attack the gha with heavy gfo or just take it slow and remove it over time? I have some turbos, trochus, and a lettuce nudi putting in the work but as we all know they like to take naps after heavy meals..

 

[KritikaL]

blackouts got rid of this for me, and im just seeing a few spots again with dinos again i think due to increased photoperiod.. and i'm gonna hit them again with a 3 day blackout.. doesnt seem to affect sps corals too much.

 

[KritikaL]

my tank is very clean never seen phos or nitrate in it :S using elos and salifert and red sea pro ive never had any algae in the tank. but i have had huge dino blooms and twice i have done 3 day blackouts with lots of filter floss and skimmer on very wet and 3 times it has been like a system reboot... however i'm still trying to find that balance of the right amount of light. I had this lighting schedule for 1.5 months with no appearance of dinos and then bam one day at the tips of some hysterix it shows up, and slowly over the next couple of days you start seeing it on the rock and then if i keep the lighting as it is im sure the tank will be covered in 4-5 more days.. so i'm gonna hit it with a 3 day blackout as of tomorrow and hopefully they will be gone! again.

My main concern when i do these blackouts is my alk/calc consumption. so make sure you test your kh daily when you do this.

 

[karimwassef]

I use an ATS and an army of tangs. Heavy feeding and no algae in the DT

 

[Fish Keeper82]

by chance does it look like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBBaXVqwlMM

first time I found a vid of this kind (Coolia). I'm now 100% that this is my dino species #2.


edit: just for jollies, the same youtube user (group from canary islands studying fish poisoning) has 2 videos of a what they call a polycheate worm with a bellyfull of prorocentrum dinos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuGB0chG0bE

Best guess i can make from PANTS website is i now have amphidinium Dinoflagellates.

I have not seen Ostreopsis since i added the UV sterilizer. These seem to be much easier to deal with since in my case they do not seem to bother corals where as ostreopsis would make them close up.
Interesting vdeo you posted. I found several of these worms with what appears to be a bely full of Dinos. I obsereve him under the slide for about 10 mins but did not see any actual ingestion of them.

One interesting occurance was i only had 2 lights on my aquarium as seen here when i got "rid" of Ostreopsis .

After adding the 3rd light a dinos explosion came over the white lightless rock.

It has since died back quite a bit but was surprised to see how quickly they initially took hold of this new area. They even produced bubbles for a few days.

 

[karimwassef]

The worm actually looks full of dinos. It may not have been feeding because it was so full.

 

[Fish Keeper82]

The worm actually looks full of dinos. It may not have been feeding because it was so full.

I siphoned out in a 20 gal brute can 1/4" of the sands top layer to get most if the amphidinium dinos out of tank. And did a 20 gal WC.
Out of that big mess i took a small sample and saw a few of these worms. Lots of other life.
All the worms i saw of this type appeared to be full of dinos.

 

[34cygni]

Best guess i can make from PANTS website is i now have amphidinium Dinoflagellates.

I have not seen Ostreopsis since i added the UV sterilizer.

This fun science fact dropped into the mix about a week ago...

02/13/2016, 10:06 AM #3086
taricha

Turns out some amphidinium species (Those that are laterally flattened, like mine) makes a daily cycle within the sand going deeper at night.

By killing dinos in the water column, UV would be a strong selection pressure favoring species that stay in the sand at night.

I found several of these worms with what appears to be a bely full of Dinos. I obsereve him under the slide for about 10 mins but did not see any actual ingestion of them.

Maybe they're not food. Maybe they're parasites or pathogens or even symbiotes.

34 ... I think getting dinos can create a victim response... like the aftermath of a physical assault!

Wasn't there a fellow who tried building a dino-based algae scrubber some time back...? Apparently they can even trigger Stockholm Syndrome.

 

[joti26]

anybody know what kind of dip will kill ostreopsis? my tank is still squeaky clean but i have one SPS that's getting overwhelmed by the last few spots of dinos

My experience has been that even if you dip it still returns with avengance if it is still in the main tank and I reckon it is because you are also reducing the good bacteria in whatever it is you dip which is why I decided not to bother but add more bacteria as well as all the other strategies. I siphon it off or blast it off at night hoping it will remain in the water column to be sucked into filter sock or UV. I have dipped my cheato in peroxide several times and it still comes back!

 

[tastyfish]

So far, it has been 4 months since my first (& last) bout of Dinoflagellates. How is everyone doing so far?

I'm still in good shape. I saw a dusting on a rock where a glued coral had died... I turned the UV back on 24/7 and it's gone.

I keep thinking they have made a return, but it's not dinoflagellates in my case, more like diatoms as it's still a relatively new tank

Im dino free..but the dirty method left me with gha all over my rocks. I had a question for any of you that had the gha sprout up after dinos...should i attack the gha with heavy gfo or just take it slow and remove it over time? I have some turbos, trochus, and a lettuce nudi putting in the work but as we all know they like to take naps after heavy meals..

I think balance is probably one of the most important things here, you don't want to cause swings, so tackle whatever is feeding the GHA, but do it gently and ensure you are encouraging competitive micro fauna/flora.

my tank is very clean never seen phos or nitrate in it :S using elos and salifert and red sea pro ive never had any algae in the tank. but i have had huge dino blooms and twice i have done 3 day blackouts with lots of filter floss and skimmer on very wet and 3 times it has been like a system reboot... however i'm still trying to find that balance of the right amount of light. I had this lighting schedule for 1.5 months with no appearance of dinos and then bam one day at the tips of some hysterix it shows up, and slowly over the next couple of days you start seeing it on the rock and then if i keep the lighting as it is im sure the tank will be covered in 4-5 more days.. so i'm gonna hit it with a 3 day blackout as of tomorrow and hopefully they will be gone! again.

My main concern when i do these blackouts is my alk/calc consumption. so make sure you test your kh daily when you do this.

I carried on with dosing Triton during my blackout, however I did a much longer blackout than 3 days which seems to be enough to get the dinos in to the water column (enough to make people think they are gone) but not enough to actually do them any harm.

After 5/6 days, the sump was getting deep in dead dinoflagellates (I was siphoning out regularly), by 8 or 9 days, this was markedly reduced suggesting that most if not all had perished and were siphonable.

I've not had a return outbreak yet, so hoping this stays true.

 

[DNA]

Yesterday I opened the Calcium reactor up to twice as much flow as usual.
At the same time I fired the Kalk reactor up again.

This is a followup to my recent desaturation test,but backwards.
Only twelve hours later the results are in with noticeable more dinos on the sand and rocks.

This leads to a conclusion that it's the main elements we add that fuel the growth, not the small amounts of numerous trace elements.
I find it most likely to be alkalinity, rather than Calcium or Magnesium that is also supplied with my Ca reactor.
There could be a twist with added CO2, but pH stays buffered.

These are repeating results so they are getting pretty solid.

 

[taricha]

This leads to a conclusion that it's the main elements we add that fuel the growth, not the small amounts of numerous trace elements.
I find it most likely to be alkalinity, rather than Calcium or Magnesium that is also supplied with my Ca reactor.

What do we think your ostis are doing with all the alkalinity?
Doesn't seem like they'd have much use for it.

 

[bertoni]

On the other hand, the reactor media might be contaminated with phosphate, for example. It's possible that the higher dKH makes it easier for the dinoflagellates to take up inorganic carbon, though.

 

[Jewilson83]

It's been a couple of weeks since I did the 3day blackout. It really knocked them back. Ive been keeping my ph above 8.4, no water changes since last week of December or first week of Jan. I've been dosing phyto feast and phyco for those two weeks and I must say I finally have a true turning point. I see pods for the first time since I could remember. I only saw 1 dead Dino after collecting samples and viewing on the microscope. https://vimeo.com/156356026
https://vimeo.com/156356054

I will keep y'all posted.

 

[taricha]

Can anyone give me a hint what I'm growing here in my "green tea"?
This is what my skimmate, set in sun/2700k LED bulb with an air bubbler, looks like after a few days.

It's not just one organism obviously, but the water is 99% this thing....
1000x mag.
https://youtu.be/3uiOcmCVoQY

They zoom around pretty fast.
100x
https://youtu.be/g6joZta_fTc

Not direct dino predators, but I've had no luck identifying them, and maybe figuring out their relation (if any) to dino deaths with "green tea" would be easier with an ID.