Scottybgood
Community Member
Hello all, this is my first post in R2R and unfortunately it is regarding my introduction to dinoflagellates.
Tank has only been up and going almost 4 months now. Got everything set up, started the cycle with Dr. Tim's One and Only and dosed Ammonia. Took longer than advertised, but finished cycling in 3-4 weeks. Decided to start with a couple Frostbite clowns and make sure NH4-NO2-NO3 stayed in line. Added 3 Chromis and some hermits. Decided to go ahead and put my GAC and GFO online, "to stay ahead of the game", also added a small amount of Cheato to my Fuge (which didn't last very long before it turned brown so I pulled it out). Then the diatoms appeared, which was a good sign since I am continuing the "new tank maturing" phases. Got a few corals - A Hammer, Duncan, an Acan, and a green slimer Acro. Then the "diatoms" turned "stringy" which raised some concern, so off to trusty good and R2R and immediately saw references to dinoflagellates. As they progressed it was matching all the pictures and "tell-tales signs" - slimy, bubbles on the end, disappear at lights out.
So in my sleepless nights of research, I have come to the conclusion that I probably nutrient starved my tank and started too "clean". Started with Caribsea LifeRock (the man made stuff) and put my GFO and GAC online as soon as I started adding livestock. (My last Hanna ULR Phosphorus test came in a 0.00!!!) So I took the GFO offline, added a batch of copepods (5280 mix from Algae Barn) and started introducing Phytoplankton daily. In additional research, I saw many folks having decent luck with Vibrant (and have added 3 doses of that so far with not much noticeable change). Reduced my lighting schedule (and only run the LED at lower intensity for now). I bought a microscope to validate, and unfortunately, it's Dinos...not sure what strain 9but my hermits have been picking at it quite a bit for weeks now, and have no sign of stopping - so hopefully it isn't the toxic strain).
I have seen so many success and failures on here, I am just not sure which direction to go. I am still working on increasing my biodiversity (getting more pods), and feeding more to try and get my nutrients up to get some competing algae (i have since added more healthy Cheato to the fuge and it seems to be growing). Maybe i should pull the macro for now.
Problem is Vibrant apparently consumes NO3 and PO4, so that is questionable as well. I haven't try Peroxide yet, or Dino X those are my next choices - I am open to all experiences and suggestions...
75G with 20G Sump
Temp : 78 deg
Alk : 7.9 dKH
Calc: 414
Mg: 1450
pH : 8.2
NO3 : 2ppm
Po4: 0 ppb phosphorus (ran out of ULR reagant - more coming in tomorrow) this test was before taking GFO offline
Here are some pics, microscope pic and vid for help if anyone out there is an expert on these things.
Dinos swimming -
Tank has only been up and going almost 4 months now. Got everything set up, started the cycle with Dr. Tim's One and Only and dosed Ammonia. Took longer than advertised, but finished cycling in 3-4 weeks. Decided to start with a couple Frostbite clowns and make sure NH4-NO2-NO3 stayed in line. Added 3 Chromis and some hermits. Decided to go ahead and put my GAC and GFO online, "to stay ahead of the game", also added a small amount of Cheato to my Fuge (which didn't last very long before it turned brown so I pulled it out). Then the diatoms appeared, which was a good sign since I am continuing the "new tank maturing" phases. Got a few corals - A Hammer, Duncan, an Acan, and a green slimer Acro. Then the "diatoms" turned "stringy" which raised some concern, so off to trusty good and R2R and immediately saw references to dinoflagellates. As they progressed it was matching all the pictures and "tell-tales signs" - slimy, bubbles on the end, disappear at lights out.
So in my sleepless nights of research, I have come to the conclusion that I probably nutrient starved my tank and started too "clean". Started with Caribsea LifeRock (the man made stuff) and put my GFO and GAC online as soon as I started adding livestock. (My last Hanna ULR Phosphorus test came in a 0.00!!!) So I took the GFO offline, added a batch of copepods (5280 mix from Algae Barn) and started introducing Phytoplankton daily. In additional research, I saw many folks having decent luck with Vibrant (and have added 3 doses of that so far with not much noticeable change). Reduced my lighting schedule (and only run the LED at lower intensity for now). I bought a microscope to validate, and unfortunately, it's Dinos...not sure what strain 9but my hermits have been picking at it quite a bit for weeks now, and have no sign of stopping - so hopefully it isn't the toxic strain).
I have seen so many success and failures on here, I am just not sure which direction to go. I am still working on increasing my biodiversity (getting more pods), and feeding more to try and get my nutrients up to get some competing algae (i have since added more healthy Cheato to the fuge and it seems to be growing). Maybe i should pull the macro for now.
Problem is Vibrant apparently consumes NO3 and PO4, so that is questionable as well. I haven't try Peroxide yet, or Dino X those are my next choices - I am open to all experiences and suggestions...
75G with 20G Sump
Temp : 78 deg
Alk : 7.9 dKH
Calc: 414
Mg: 1450
pH : 8.2
NO3 : 2ppm
Po4: 0 ppb phosphorus (ran out of ULR reagant - more coming in tomorrow) this test was before taking GFO offline
Here are some pics, microscope pic and vid for help if anyone out there is an expert on these things.
Dinos swimming -
