Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

[KMG]

Hi to all,here is some pics how Si and taricha help me to clean Dino.

The reddish braun pach is not Dino it is Diatom,but am happy with that,because after that coming the green.Natural occurring.

Hi!
Could it be due to lack är trace elements? You have N, P and Si but how about Fe, Mn, B, Cu, Zn and Mo? A water change or a dose of trace elements to fill up the empty reserves that might be the limiting factor for the algaes to take of?

 

[cchomistek]

So I am trying the sponge excel method aswell. So far I have upped the N and P by dosing KNO3 and flourish phosphorous to about 5-10 and around .1 respectively. I have been dosing the silicate since Tuesday. I do not have a silicate test kit ( I know I know) i should have one but Hanna silicate checkers are not available in Canada from what I can tell. I am going slow and started at 20 drops and increasing by about 5-10 drops each day on a 230 gallon system.

Any thoughts on how fast I should start seeing a diatom bloom??

So far no real green hair algae taking hold and I appear to have bothered amphidinium and ostreopsis dinos as I have some stringing bubble catching ones on the rock.

I am thinking about deploying a UV sterilizer and possibly getting some more zooplankton and farmed phyto to help get the good microfauna increased in mass. Any thoughts on this approach aswell.
Thanks

 

[bdub22rhp]

Alright guys I posted a few times on this thread as I have been fighting these guys for a few months and I am happy to say my sand bed is finally white again. I tried water changes through socks, blackout, let tank get dirty, and none of it worked. I started dosing Spongexcel from brightwell heavily for 2 weeks and got my siliacates to .8 ppm and had to leave for a week for work. When I got back my and bed looked worse than when I left. Thought for sure the dinos were getting worse. I started symphoning them out cause it was terrible looking and all I can say it they just have been crazy concentrations of diatoms cause after doing it twice my sand bed is clear and I have noticed diatoms some diatoms on my rockwork where my hermits have all congregated now. I now have a hanna SI checker for sale if anyone would like it that is fighting these things.

 

[cchomistek]

Alright guys I posted a few times on this thread as I have been fighting these guys for a few months and I am happy to say my sand bed is finally white again. I tried water changes through socks, blackout, let tank get dirty, and none of it worked. I started dosing Spongexcel from brightwell heavily for 2 weeks and got my siliacates to .8 ppm and had to leave for a week for work. When I got back my and bed looked worse than when I left. Thought for sure the dinos were getting worse. I started symphoning them out cause it was terrible looking and all I can say it they just have been crazy concentrations of diatoms cause after doing it twice my sand bed is clear and I have noticed diatoms some diatoms on my rockwork where my hermits have all congregated now. I now have a hanna SI checker for sale if anyone would like it that is fighting these things.

I would take the silicate checker. How much and will you ship to Canada?? Also how many tests do you have left for it.

 

[KMG]

Hi!
I got rid of my Amphidinum dino by combining uvc and "heavy" peroxide dosing. I thought about how the doctors now days dose antibiotics. So my way went by dosing 6 ml/gallon, 3 times a day and running uvc around the clock. 3 days later they where gone. Of course i dosed up with natrium and phosphorus. The fish, snails and hermits was fine. The corals got grumpy. But they where pretty beaten up by the dino any ways. Very soon the turbos and hermits starten to move around (was like zombies before) and the coral polyps came out. I take it easy with the light. Starting out with 20% and raising 10% a week. The algae have finaly started to grow (green hair and red turf), but the turbos and hermits eat it. So I'm expanding the cuc. Keeping an eye on the nutrient levels. No more 0

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I was battling Amphidinum Dino's (confirmed by microscope) for several months. After reading this thread, I dosed silicates (water glass off of amazon) for about a week. My sand bed started looking even worse, and I thought it didn't work. I decided to take a sample and look under the microscope, and to my surprise and joy, there were no Dino's visible in the sample, and TONS of diatoms. I then let the diatoms use up the silicates, and within a week, my sand bed is completely clear! I couldn't be happier.

 

[janos]

Hi KMG would suggest to you read Randy Holmes-Farley chemistry forum and you will know what is the 3 most important thing what your reef need.Just like CA,MG,KH, and the next 3 No3,Po4,and maybe Si.Please read Randy`s tread you understand more.

 

[cchomistek]

I have been dosing silicate through sponge excel to my 230 gallon tank for a little over a week now. I am up to about 80 or so drops a day. I have the seachem silicate test kit and still not showing any silicate on that test. Anyone have any idea on a larger tank what it may take drop wise to get silicate numbers up.

 

[CJBuckeyes]

I have been dosing silicate through sponge excel to my 230 gallon tank for a little over a week now. I am up to about 80 or so drops a day. I have the seachem silicate test kit and still not showing any silicate on that test. Anyone have any idea on a larger tank what it may take drop wise to get silicate numbers up.

I have to dose 5x that on my 70 gallon to get any color on the seachem test

 

[n4s]

I took this sample off my back glass. I can’t keep it clean. It grows back within hours. Small cell amphidinum?
I have both on hand. Vibrant and silicate to dose. What would you recommend to dose or both? I haven’t done either yet.

 

[KMG]

Hi KMG would suggest to you read Randy Holmes-Farley chemistry forum and you will know what is the 3 most important thing what your reef need.Just like CA,MG,KH, and the next 3 No3,Po4,and maybe Si.Please read Randy`s tread you understand more.

Thanks för telling. It's mandatory. I use Triton Core 7 balling and NaNo3 and P at one channel. I knocked the dinos as I mentioned before fast with h2o2 at 6 ml/10 gallon 3 times a day (Min 4 h between the doses) No problems except from grumpy anemone

 

[CJBuckeyes]

@taricha any updates on how your Si dosing experiment is going?

I've been dosing for 3 months now, but I have to keep increasing Si to keep it above zero. Hair algae has really taken over the whole tank, two part usage is almost zero (almost no sticks left), and the amphidinium is just chilling out in the hair algae. PO4 is 0.10+, NO3 is 15ppm, and I'm running UV. I've stopped doing water changes at this point. Not sure what else to try.. anybody else go through a long stage of hair algae with dinos?

 

[CMO]

Hi all,

Unfortunately it looks like I'm joining the amphidinum club. Thought these were just diatoms for months now but just got a scope to see what was really going one. Here is what I'm up against. Luckily, I have no issues with my rocks, just sand bed which I've kept somewhat in check my daily stirring (the below photos are end of light cycle before stirring). The only potential evidence of Dino toxin I've seen in my tank is that all my urchins recently died - but no other issues. Snails, Inverts, fish and corals are all doing well.

I like the idea of siphoning the sand through UV and a diatom filter but not quite sure where to start with this. Does anyone have a good UV/diatom filter vacuum setup they'd recommend? I've seen lot of mentions of it in this thread but no specific details on what people are using (but maybe I missed it). And specifically, how many watts of UV are you guys running on the siphon? I have 50 watts of UV on my main system but that would be difficult to plumb in line to a sand cleaning siphon so thinking of getting a smaller on for that.

Might something like this Aqua Ultraviolet 15W UV work for sand cleaning or do I need more power?
https://www.amazon.com/Aqua-watt-Advantage-2000Sterilizer/dp/B003WRL6KG.

Thanks

 

[CMO]

Those of you that have removed you sand can you please tell me over what period you did this and whether or not there were any ill effects. Trying to figure out how slowly I need to remove the sand. My sand bed is about 2" in a 165g so a good amount of sand I need to get out.

 

[dwest]

Those of you that have removed you sand can you please tell me over what period you did this and whether or not there were any ill effects. Trying to figure out how slowly I need to remove the sand. My sand bed is about 2" in a 165g so a good amount of sand I need to get out.

I’ve been removing sand from my 180. I siphon it out and do a 5-10 water change at the same time. I usually only get to remove a few cups of sand for each 5 gallons of water I remove. It’s tedious...I removed about 80% of my sand earlier in the year. I thought I beat amphidinium and tried more more sps. They died when dinos returned. Am currently removing the remainder of my sand. I don’t like it, but don’t know what else to do at this point.. I had about 2 inches as well. I have not witnessed any ill effects, but I’ve been going slowly.

 

[dwest]

@taricha any updates on how your Si dosing experiment is going?

I've been dosing for 3 months now, but I have to keep increasing Si to keep it above zero. Hair algae has really taken over the whole tank, two part usage is almost zero (almost no sticks left), and the amphidinium is just chilling out in the hair algae. PO4 is 0.10+, NO3 is 15ppm, and I'm running UV. I've stopped doing water changes at this point. Not sure what else to try.. anybody else go through a long stage of hair algae with dinos?

I haven’t heard from taricha in a while. I hope he is ok!

I’m fighting amphidinium too. I thought they were gone, but was wrong. I’m removing the remainder of my sand, then will start to blow off rocks again to get them into the water column so that UV can be effective. I hadn’t tried Si dosing yet because I haven’t seen clear cut successes yet, but have been doing nitrates and phosphates.

 

[dwest]

I took this sample off my back glass. I can’t keep it clean. It grows back within hours. Small cell amphidinum?
I have both on hand. Vibrant and silicate to dose. What would you recommend to dose or both? I haven’t done either yet.

@reeferfoxx is good at ID of dinos...

 

[dwest]

I have to dose 5x that on my 70 gallon to get any color on the seachem test

Any sucess dosing si?

 

[reeferfoxx]

I took this sample off my back glass. I can’t keep it clean. It grows back within hours. Small cell amphidinum?
I have both on hand. Vibrant and silicate to dose. What would you recommend to dose or both? I haven’t done either yet.

I think this is some form of amphidinium. Either small or normal cell amphidinium. It did look like one cell was concaved.

 

[ReefPress]

Don't know if this sounds crazy, but has any one ever tried just removing the sand, rinsing it. Then spreading it on something for it to dry out in the sun, and putting it back in the tank?