E. Quad and H. Crispa and dinoflagellates

[brian762]

Out of the blue my tank has been over run by dinos (seriously the last day and a half). Both my BTA and H. Crispa have both deflated and do not look good, which upsets me because my Crispa is recovering from severe bleach and I thought it would be just fine (gained most of its zoo back). Since the search is not working, I figured I'd ask the experts. I am mixing water now for a WC tomorrow. I have heard that H2O2 at 1ml per 10 gals works, but i do not have enough info to be dumping it in my tank. The only other corals that are effected are 2 or 3 heads (out of about 20) of frogspawn. What should i do????

 

[Rockys_Pride]

Go to google, type in search bar "site: reefcentral.com dino"

I'm no expert on dino, but that will do a search for you

 

[BonsaiNut]

Be careful. Zooxanthellae = dinoflagelletes. When they are inside your coral and anemones - everyone is happy. When they take over your tank - no one is.

Good husbandry should address the issue - water changes combined with increased dissolved oxygen and water movement. You can speed things up by siphoning out the visible dinos (though there will still be plenty of microscopic ones).

You have to address the underlying causes of your dinos or they will just come back regardless of what treatment you use. Like many other microscopic flora/fauna dinos are ALWAYS there in a reef tank - you only see them when conditions are right for a dino bloom at which point they get to numbers that become visibly obvious. Most of the time they appear when you are cycling a new tank - and once the tank cycles to the next phase the dinos will dwindle and eventually disappear (visibly). But if you have high dissolved nutrients (especially phosphate), low water movement, and low dissolved oxygen, they will be difficult to keep under control.

Hydrogen peroxide is just an oxidizer. It addresses the symptoms but not the cause.

 

[brian762]

Be careful. Zooxanthellae = dinoflagelletes. When they are inside your coral and anemones - everyone is happy. When they take over your tank - no one is.

Good husbandry should address the issue - water changes combined with increased dissolved oxygen and water movement. You can speed things up by siphoning out the visible dinos (though there will still be plenty of microscopic ones).

You have to address the underlying causes of your dinos or they will just come back regardless of what treatment you use. Like many other microscopic flora/fauna dinos are ALWAYS there in a reef tank - you only see them when conditions are right for a dino bloom at which point they get to numbers that become visibly obvious. Most of the time they appear when you are cycling a new tank - and once the tank cycles to the next phase the dinos will dwindle and eventually disappear (visibly). But if you have high dissolved nutrients (especially phosphate), low water movement, and low dissolved oxygen, they will be difficult to keep under control.

Hydrogen peroxide is just an oxidizer. It addresses the symptoms but not the cause.

Why do dinos irritate nems? My Crispa was mostly affected deflating from about 3 1/2" to about 1 1/2".

 

[BonsaiNut]

Why do dinos irritate nems? My Crispa was mostly affected deflating from about 3 1/2" to about 1 1/2".

I don't really know. There are tons of different types of dinoflagellates, and some have the ability to release toxins into the water (ie Red Tide). Could be that they were directly irritating your anemone, or could just be that your anemone was irritated by the conditions that led up to the dino bloom.

 

[brian762]

Nothing has changed in my tank. I have been feeding less than I normally do. My scheduled 25% WC was supposed to be Saturday, but came down with a nasty cold, so I postponed it till I felt better. I hate my tank! Cant wait to restart!