Reef nutrition

Dinoflagellates: Who has beat them?

rdriggett

rdriggett

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Hi all! I borrowed a microscope and was able to have my unknown red stuff ID'd as large cell amphidinium and ostreopsis, if not other types in addition. From my research it looks like I should run an oversized UV and dose bacteria to deal with the Os. Dinos. For the LCAs, sodium silicate dosing was recommended to cause a prolonged diatom bloom to outcompete the dinos. I dosed 2 large bottles of mixed pods, raised my nitrates to 5-10ppm and am daily dosing live phyto. I signed up for AquaBiomics live reef sand to boost diversity whenever that gets back in stock.
What else should I be doing to combat and reduce my dinos?

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I just successfully beat them, just in time to tear down my tank and setup the new one...

Do you have a breakout or just looked at the water and saw them? I think no one really knows how to beat them, but the Mack's group on Facebook has a bunch of anecdotes, bad logic, and bits of good stuff.

Osteo you can fight with UV. My success eventually came from high nutrients, getting some sand from @under_water_ninja, and a black out with UV running. I know the sand from underwater sounds like a silly correlation, but it was correlated 3 times with turning my dino problem around. I had 2 tanks with dinos. I got some sand from him, put it on both tanks, and they turned a corner almost immediately.

The one (main display) regressed, but that was mostly because I had to stop taking care of it for a bit. I then added a cup of sand again, and things immediately improved.
 
Temporary UV + Live Rubble worked for my Os. Dino’s. I also was temporarily successful using NoPox but that wasn’t a great long term solution.
 
Anyone knows where I can get silicate dosing from around here without ordering this? I would like to use this ASAP. Aquatic Collection did not have any today and they seemed to not carry this in stock. Thanks! Btw, I am trying to beat prorocentrum dinos.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Anyone knows where I can get silicate dosing from around here without ordering this? I would like to use this ASAP. Aquatic Collection did not have any today and they seemed to not carry this in stock. Thanks! Btw, I am trying to beat prorocentrum dinos.
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You can order waterglass and dose it at 0.1ml per 15 gallons. And aim for 2-3ppm. (Going higher doesn't really harm anything aside from fueling more diatoms which is what you want at this time) reports up to 50ppm not having adverse affects aside from the glass always getting brown easily.

Sodium Silicate (40% solution) (amazon link)

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If you PM me your email address I can send you the how to beat dinos guide from Mack's Reef group on FB.
 
I’ve beat them twice. I don’t know what worked as I tried everything.

The one anecdote that does seem to be a pattern (sample size of 2, grain of salt) is that right before they started going away I had a massive increase in pod population: ie never saw one then all of a sudden the glass is covered 24/7. In both instances they “went away” within a week of noticing the pod explosion.

Take it for what it’s worth but, like the folks above said, try phyto …
 
phatduckk said:
I’ve beat them twice. I don’t know what worked as I tried everything.

The one anecdote that does seem to be a pattern (sample size of 2, grain of salt) is that right before they started going away I had a massive increase in pod population: ie never saw one then all of a sudden the glass is covered 24/7. In both instances they “went away” within a week of noticing the pod explosion.

Take it for what it’s worth but, like the folks above said, try phyto …
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I’ll be a counter case then. I never saw any pods in my tank. It’s possible they were there but they must have been hiding.

I did remember in addition to the UV and phyto, I also got three 5 micron socks and stirred everything up each day for 3 days (one sock/day). After that it was fairly minimal and I just let the UV and phyto run its course. I think it took about 2 weeks before I couldn’t see any evidence of them anymore.
 
Arvin R said:
You can order waterglass and dose it at 0.1ml per 15 gallons. And aim for 2-3ppm. (Going higher doesn't really harm anything aside from fueling more diatoms which is what you want at this time) reports up to 50ppm not having adverse affects aside from the glass always getting brown easily.

Sodium Silicate (40% solution) (amazon link)

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If you PM me your email address I can send you the how to beat dinos guide from Mack's Reef group on FB.
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Thank you. Yes, I am a member of this FB group since I had Dinos previously due to low nutrients and was able to beat them in 5 days with their instructions. Apparently, the prorocentrums are harder to beat (e.g., no UV lights work for them), as I have and had higher nutrients since the last Dinos and still got them (immediately after dosing AB+ again!).
 
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