Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

[pinkfloyd1312]

Just took this last night and posted in the main dino topic but that thing is a monster. After looking at pics for comparison and my somewhat grainy photo, mine does not have any semblance of an almond shape and I have none on my rockwork, only on the sand bed. Does have a circle in the center but not a large pronounced one like I've seen with most Coolia examples. Anyone want to give me their opinion on whether this is indeed amph?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I finally beat amphidinium dinoflagellates. What worked was removing all the sand from the system. Now my tank has the snotty form of dinoflagellates.

 

[leepink23]

This is what I have growing on my sand bed. I ordered a microscope and my question is about collecting a sample, what exactly do I do? Other than the sand my tank looks great. All coral growing fast. Will post a picture once I get a sample. Thanks in advance!

This is under microscope. Please advise?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

This is under microscope. Please advise?

Yep thats dinos.

 

[merereef]

Has anyone tried to stir the sand where the dinos are and blow the rocks and immediately dose hydrogen peroxide? Has any one tried this method?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Has anyone tried to stir the sand where the dinos are and blow the rocks and immediately dose hydrogen peroxide? Has any one tried this method?

Hydrogen peroxide seems to be ineffective on dinos. I tied when I had amphidinium and it did not helpmat all. Sand removal was the only effect action I took against it.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

2 day black out and the 9w UV running and my reef is clear of visable ostreopsis. For now at least, fingers crossed I am winning.... Some GHA died off in the process too.

 

[leepink23]

Increased nutrients, added uv sterilizer, dosing phytoplankton from algaebarn.

 

[merereef]

Anyone here ever checked to see how dr tims waste away affects these type of dinos?

 

[Potatohead]

After reading the main dino thread, I bought a UV. It has been running for a couple days but now after reading this thread I am 90% sure I have large cell amphidinium. So... I have a few questions:

Is it still worth running UV?

What is the general consensus on dealing with LCA? Seems the prevailing thoughts are any or all of the following:

- Raise nutrients
- Dose MB7 heavily
- Dose SpongeExcel
- Remove sand (I'd prefer not to)

Anything else?

 

[phatduckk]

Hi all. Looks like I’ve joined the club. Can anyone chime in on whether or not these are large or small cells?

They're in a 10g frag & invert QT and seem to prefer the sand (so im assuming large) but there's definitely a bit on the frag plugs and racks.

Current plan is:

• put all frags on magnetic racks on the glass
• raise N & P
• dose SE
• remove sand

I figure once the sand is gone I should be able to scrape the glass bottom & side to dislodge them nightly. this could allow me to either siphon through a 5 micro socks and/or run a UV unit.

Any validity to trying to forcefully dislodge them & running UV or siphoning? I assume with enough scraping they're gonna have to go swimming & hopefully get sucked up

 

[phatduckk]

@taricha any way you could let me know if the pic I posted above is large cell or small? thanks!

happy to participate in any experiments you folks need. Mine's happening in a 10g coral/invert QT so I'm willing to go scorched earth etc as long as its not obviously gonna hurt my coral

 

[taricha]

any way you could let me know if the pic I posted above is large cell or small? thanks!

This is small-cell amphidinium.

Any validity to trying to forcefully dislodge them & running UV or siphoning? I assume with enough scraping they're gonna have to go swimming & hopefully get sucked up

These kind are capable of going into the water, so yes. UV and pushing them into water can be effective here.

 

[phatduckk]

This is small-cell amphidinium.


These kind are capable of going into the water, so yes. UV and pushing them into water can be effective here.

I have a 18 watt aqua uv. Is that too much for a 10g cube? It’s clearly too much by the spec but in a “the tank is going to hell” scenario like this is it worth using?

 

[phatduckk]

I have begun the fight.

• I put a small Green Killing Machine UV in there. Have the Aqua Gadget uV on standby but am using filter floss in the AIO chamber to catch the dead guys
• Just dosed P & N for the first time
• Tossed in some algae wafers for the snails
• SpongeExel arrives tomorrow so I’ll start that then

Current P via Hannah: 0.01
Current Nitrate via Nyos: 1.0

this weekend I’m going to get rid of the frag racks and use some magnetic ones. After that I’m going to remove all the sand.

I might put a small dish with a bit of sand in there so the 2 snails have a place to chill. TBD

 

[Stephers]

How do you tell the difference between small cell and large cell?

 

[taricha]

How do you tell the difference between small cell and large cell?

here's a dino ID guide .pdf that will help.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellate-identification-guide.671466/
a few more details...
Small Cell is obviously smaller, maybe 1/5th the length & width.
Also small-cell always has a curved "beak", while the large cell is less curved or totally symmetric.
Small cell move much faster, are much better swimmers, and go into the water while most large cell never will.
Small cell has more reports of toxic effects than large cell.

 

[Stephers]

here's a dino ID guide .pdf that will help.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellate-identification-guide.671466/
a few more details...
Small Cell is obviously smaller, maybe 1/5th the length & width.
Also small-cell always has a curved "beak", while the large cell is less curved or totally symmetric.
Small cell move much faster, are much better swimmers, and go into the water while most large cell never will.
Small cell has more reports of toxic effects than large cell.

Thanks. I feel really confident now. I definitely have both. I've had a small patch of large cell on my sand forever. I have small cell growing on hair algae. I've now had all 5 common types of dinos in my tank at some point or another.

Don't needlessly carbon dose, kids.

 

[taricha]

Yep! well done on the IDs.
another thing that your pic illustrates...
The pyrenoid (central circular structure) takes up much more of the cell in the small cell amphidinium.

 

[phatduckk]

Quick update on my battle (reminder: 10G cube housing 12 frags and 3 snails. aka invert/coral QT)

1. started dosing Nitrate and Phosphate from @FishOfHex a week ago
2. began dosing silica at the same time
3. increased feeding (reef roids and wafers for snails)
4. Added a 3w Green Killing Machine UV

I gradually raised my nitrates to 12 and Phos to 0.08. After a week the sand was dramatically cleaner in one quarter of the tank. Ironically this was the corner with the most light exposure (not under a frag rack etc). The area immediately under the UV was clear too. I also started getting some green algae in the sand and quite a bit of coralline algae began to grow on the glass.

Still had a lingering mess under the 2 frag racks and the sand immediately beneath it.

Today I took a measured yet drastic approach to push the process forward:

• I removed the inhabitants and put them in a bucket along with a gallon or so of tank water.
• I then began to siphon out all the sand and water: I hung a 5 micron filter sock in a 5g bucket in hopes of removing as many bad guys as possible.
• I took the tank to the yard and hosed it out & scraped the glass. filled it up completely, drained it, and did a quick paper towel dry.
• Added the original water that I filtered back into the tank
• Then I put in brand new magnetic frag racks, tooth brushed the frag plugs and replaced the coral and snails

Tank's really clear now, of course, but we'll see how long this lasts. I'm going to give it a few days for the coral to recover and see how it goes. still have some flailing bits on the coral but I haven't scoped any to see if they're diatoms or dinos.

Technically, if tap water actually kills the dinos, the only cells that should have survived were the ones I didn't successfully brush off the coral.

Hopefully this wasn't too traumatic on the coral but I went to great lengths to keep them in the original water and return them to the same height/par they were at before I removed them - just to be safe I set the lights on a 5 day acclimation cycle to ease them back in. my zoas, frogspawn and hammer, acans and blasto are looking good (starting to open up). The few SPS look ok too but its too soon to tell.