Keys to beating dinoflagellates

20 20,

Your picture for me is too blurry. I cant really make out what it is. I would try and get a slightly better picture. Maybe try one that is zoomed in like your previous photo and one that has a bit bigger field of view so we can get a better look.

I think I took a photo of the stuff I had, I will try and find it when I get home from work so others can see what I was dealing with. I used the article referenced above as my identification and then mixed and matched what I needed to get rid of them.
 
My camera stinks, as do my photography skills. That's the best pic I could get, and as of today it's gone (just scrubbed the rocks yesterday). No idea if it'll stay 'gone', but based on past history it'll be back. :( But it looked pretty much like iwishtofish's picture, and that doesn't look like the cyano I'm familiar with.
 
One way to learn if in fact it is dinos, is to blow it off into the water column. If it's dinos, IME, you will find the rocks covered again the next day. Algaes cannot do that.
 
Yep, that's how I realized I had dinos and not cyano, the stuff could take over a whole tank in 15 minutes if the circulation were turned off completely.

But hey, you think you have it bad? Check this out:

La-Jolla-Red-Tide.780.jpg
 
When the stuff in my tank is short, it doesn't blow off. Just looks like short fine lightcolored algae. So what I've got, and what's in the pics above (at the top of the page), might not be dino's?

I'm sooo confused... :lol:
 
Whatever I have doesn't have those stringy type things on it. It's just a brown / rust colored mat, with some o2 bubbles in it. If I blow it with a turkey baster, they mostly all blow off, but are back the next day.

I'll try to post some pictures later.

Man.. these things suck big time.
 
jonathan - yup red tide is caused by dinoflagellates, consumption of seafood during a bloom has been known to cause human fatalities (clupeoptoxism) as some of these dinos carry palytoxin or other toxins

20 20 - when you turn off all your circulation what happens? does it cloud up around the areas it is growing?
 
uhuru - what exactly do you mean by 'cloud up'? Do you mean the water around the stuff becomes cloudy? How long would I wait to see if this happens? Can't try this now, as I just scrubbed off the rocks. Heh, unless it's started to grow again while I'm here at work.
 
20 20: If it doesn't blow off, I doubt it's dinos. It is probably just nuisance algae and the fix for that can be very different than the fix for dinos, although I have red that increased pH can help with some algaes. If it is back when you get home, I take that all back! :lol:

law086: Looks like you got 'em dude. Read the article linked above by Randy. Try testing for silicates as well. I would stop doing water changes and swap out carbon every 3 - 4 days. Try the lights out too. This seems to lower the dinos ability to multiply so that when you attack them, they can't come back as strong.
 
Well, I'm back home, and I'm seeing some of the stuff. Not a lot yet, but it's there. :( Tried 'turkey bastering' it off, no go.
 
It's hard to imagine that it wouldn't blow off if it is dinos, but equally hard to imagine that you scrubed off algae and it's back already.
 
Heh, like I said, I'm confused... :p Just tested the water, ca at 430, alk 10.8 dKH, PH 8.20, amonium/nitrite/nitrate all 0. My phosphate test kit must be old, water should have changed to some shade of blue, but ended up a slight yellow.
 
20 20 - you should see a rust tinted cloud around the dinos when you turn off the circulation. it's a very delicate cloud and as soon as you blow at it even a little bit it disintegrates.

At the end of the battle I did have dinos that would not blow off. It was the short thin hairs like yours and stuck to the bare bottom and the panes of the tank. Some of it stuck to the pointed branches of my birdsnest. It was the last of the dinos to go probably about week 5 or 6 of dosing zeovit is when I noticed that stuff finally dying off.
 
20 20 that doesnt sound like dinos your dealing with.

when i got home tonight after a normal light cycle it wasnt too bad, maybe half as bad as it was the last time i ran a full day of lighting.

if i cut all circulation i get the cloud of floating white stringy nasty stuff floating around the tank.
 
- the stuff reproduces incredibly fast, you should be able to see growth within 5 minutes without circulation to break it up

- I know you're just being humorous but honestly I don't know where that belief comes from that zeovit is expensive, I have an 85g system I'm dosing it on and I only dose like 1 - 3 drops of the additives and not even everyday - IME, now if you have a 500g tank that's a different story but then again EVERYTHING is expensive in that range :)
 
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