Ques. (Question of the Day) Dinoflagellates, Ever had? How did you successfully beat them?

[Cpage101]

Hey Members,
Have you ever had Dinoflagellates in your tank and how dis you successfully beat them and what strain did you have if you know?

Images Below from www.Humblefish.com

 

[Mike Lemming]

After trying everything that I found online, the one thing that got rid of them for me was a 4 day complete black out. I cut up some cardboard boxes and made it completely dark in there!

 

[Tim_RI]

Had a case a few months into starting my tank. Pretty sure it was Ostreopsis, based on microscopic observation (cheapie microscope off Amazon). I believe it was caused by bottoming out phosphate with GFO, after freaking out about a high phosphate reading (can't remember what it was). Did some research and bought Dino-X for eradication. Did more research and abandoned that idea (still have an unopened bottle of Dino-X if anyone wants it)--seemed too risky. I don't have a UV on my tank, but online research pointed me in that direction. Got one of those green killing machine in-tank UVs and ran it every night. I started dosing phosphate and nitrate (which was also at 0). Combo of dosing these two and UV seemed to do the trick. Dinos were gone after a week or two.

Part two of this experience was a big cyano bloom right after the dinos. Addressed that effectively with Chemi-clean.

 

[JohnK]

Back in the day I saw dinos a couple of times. Bump up the PH (kalk) a bit and wait. (as persistent as they can be, dinos are actually petty sensitive to some things just as well. Dinos thrive in fringe conditions - Just right in the wrong way) Siphon dinos out as possible into a filter sock and return the water (avoid water changes). Try not to look at tank when it's looking like a T-rex blew it's nose into it....

Somehow it seems chronic lower PH is an almost universal thing these days which I suspect contributes to the increased prevalence of dinos now vs years ago. That and lack of diversity in newer systems.

I miss the days of plentiful live rock. Get new shipment, start curing, abandon house for a few weeks until the smell started to clear. Nothing like the smell of an ocean dying in the living room.

 

[TPhan]

I fought LCA for more than 6 months. During those six months I dosed water glass for diatoms to grow to out compete lca. I put a sample under a scope weekly to monitor the progress, it took about 4 months to notice the diatoms starting to take over the glass, rocks and some on the sand bed. While dosing water glass I did the bare minimum water change and glass cleaning to let the diatoms take over the tank, it was ugly. No cleaning or syphoning helped. They just come right back. By the sixth month I only had 2 big patches of lca left in the back corners of the tank on the sand that would not go away no matter what I did. I stopped dosing water glass after 6+ months, gave the tank a good cleaning. It was so nice to be able to see the inhabitants clearly through the clean glass and white sand. A week later the diatoms receeded and green and red cyano starts to cover the sand and rocks. I scoop up a patch of cyano on the sand then placed it on top of the 2 patches of lca that would not go away to see which one will out compete the other. A few days later those 2 patches of lca and the cyano i placed on top slowly dissappeared. Surprisingly they both eradicated each other and the cyano on the rocks slowly went away in a couple weeks la. From what I've read most people have dinos because they bottom out their nutrients, it was the opposite in my case. Some of the characteristics of dinos look the same as other algae to the naked eye. It is best to put a sample under a scope to find out exactly what u r dealing with. Luckily the lca I had was the least toxic so i did not have any lost.

 

[K1conway]

Currently in the thick of it. Just ordered a microscope. I was dosing Microbacter and bumped my phos/nitrates up and they were almost gone, but now back with a vengeance so thinking I may have another type? Oh and green hair algae on top of it now. Currently can’t stand looking at the tank

 

[serwobow]

I had them, I think it was Ostreopsis. I tried raising nitrates, lowering the time that the lights were on to about 6 hours a day and also decreased the intensity, and doing mechanical filtration, and using a UV sterilizer. They gradually went away, so I don't know which of those things, helped or if it was something else. I think I still have them at a low level. At the end of the long light cycle, I still see small bubbles start to form on the rockwork, and I think it its probably dinos. They are just waiting for the right conditions, and they are ready to explode again. I think that the major reason for getting them is a combination of the low nutrients and the super-intense and long cycles of lighting.

 

[TPhan]

Currently in the thick of it. Just ordered a microscope. I was dosing Microbacter and bumped my phos/nitrates up and they were almost gone, but now back with a vengeance so thinking I may have another type? Oh and green hair algae on top of it now. Currently can’t stand looking at the tank

I would also run activated carbon, some are more toxic then others.

 

[mrow1997]

Manual removal and blackout. Did the trick

 

[Chrisnnemo]

I just put in some hydrogen peroxide and covered the tank for a week. Never to be seen again. The water was the clearest I’ve ever seen, thought about using peroxide on a usual basis until a reputable reefer on here said it’s a bad idea to use all the time.

 

[rock-n-reef]

In 2017 i struggled for a while with dinos. I think it was a combination of low nutrients and stirring the sandbed while i was trying to go bare bottom. Tried all the routines and they all alleviated the issue a bit, but it did not clear fully. Everytime, i changed water, it seem to just increase. Finally gave up and nuked it with DinoX

 

[K1conway]

I would also run activated carbon, some are more toxic then others.

Yes, I had read that in the Dino’s fb group so I have been running it.

 

[Reefried]

I could fill this thread with my battle with Dino’s. I tried all the popular tactics. What finally worked for me was to remove my entire sandbed!

 

[Cpage101]

I could fill this thread with my battle with Dino’s. I tried all the popular tactics. What finally worked for me was to remove my entire sandbed!

wold love to hear

 

[Reefried]

wold love to hear

I started with making sure I raised nutrients, and kept them stable. Then like most people I dosed some bacteria. Which I truly don’t believe does anything. Adding bottled bacteria is not really a bad thing for a reef tank, however a cycled tank with fish, inverts and corals will have plenty of bacteria. Also it is a bit counterintuitive as most will tell you to not let nutrients bottom out. Which most believe is a likely cause for Dino’s. Keeping nutrients stable is hard enough. Then you add bacteria, which in most cases (microbacter7) is dormant bacteria, or could be live bacteria (microbacter start). Either way all of these bottled bacteria’s are nitrifying bacteria. Which will inevitably reduce nutrients. It’s a tough balancing act.

The first thing I did after trying to keep nutrients stable was to order an Amazon microscope. I identified my Dino’s as Large Cell Amphidinium. Which don’t enter the water column at night and generally stay on the sand. So UV (which I have had since day one on my tank) is not really effective fighting them.

I tried raising temperature. Did not work. I tried doing what Jake Adam’s and Chris Meckley suggested which is dosing iron. Did not work. And further research has been done that states Dino’s feed off iron. I tried carbon dosing which is along the lines of dosing bacteria. I did it to hopefully encourage a bacteria bloom. Did not work. I tried dosing silica to encourage a diatom bloom. I dosed it for 7 weeks. While testing silica. Did not work. I got a small diatom bloom but definitely did not work. When dosing silica under the microscope I would see 95% Dino’s and 2-3% diatoms. The one thing I did not do was a blackout. For two reasons. One is I have corals in the tank and three plus days would be pushing it. Also because I read the entirety of the three Dino threads on R2R and about 75% of the people who did blackouts had them come back. Dino’s are able to enter cyst mode. They can remain in that state for MONTHS.

Eventually stable parameters and a mature tank can easily handle Dino’s. I used dry sand and dry rock. And during my battle the tank was 6-10 months old. I didn’t leave lights off for long enough. The plan was to leave them off for 4-5 months and like a true junkie I ordered sps frags 2 months in.

So I finally removed the entire sand bed after reading decent results about it. It has worked. I don’t see any Dino’s in the tank now. I did get a brown hairy algae outbreak, that I am dealing with now. I will eventually put sand back in.