Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

[taricha]

@taricha after about 3 days the sand is brown and i stir it up then 3 days later the sand is brown.. not like before where the dinos came back immediately

Sounds like you are slowly turning things around. Let us know what the microscope says.

 

[merereef]

Sounds like you are slowly turning things around. Let us know what the microscope says.

So i checked its definitely dinos very very small moving around.. ive turned my lights to mainly blue now as i was running high whites

 

[JCTReefer]

Microscope finally came in. This is what I discovered. Large cell and possible small cell Amphidinium. And not sure what else. Possible coolia? I’ve been dealing with this for a while now. Pulled most of the sand bed. po4 and no3 have been at acceptable ranges for a while now. Not sure what the next step is. I did find some diatoms in the mix also. That’s a good thing!

 

[taricha]

I see small cell amphidinium and maybe a coolia, but not sure on the single coolia cell.

 

[JCTReefer]

I see small cell amphidinium and maybe a coolia, but not sure on the single coolia cell.

I noticed some would just turn in circles “ staying in place and spinning on there own axis. And others were moving so sporadically, I had to chase them around to keep them in view. I haven’t looked into a microscope since junior high, and that’s been a while. I haven’t tried the 25x eye piece. These where at 400x. I purchased the.
AmScope M150C-I 40X-1000X
I read somewhere on here that it was a decent scope.
The thing is, these are only on the sand bed. 3 day black out helped, but they came back. I know large cell amphidinium is unaffected by blackouts according to everything I’ve read. Not sure on small cell. I’ll have to do more reading. The thing is, I’m upgrading from a 54 to a 210. And really don’t want to deal with this again. I’m considering a large uv on the new tank. I just don’t want to plumb it directly in the tank where it would be most effective with certain kinds of dinos. I’ll be starting with new sand and new rock. I plan on keeping nitrates and phosphates up from the beginning and introducing as much diversity as I can. But knowing my luck, it’ll probably rear it’s ugly head again. I read through the whole “Are you tired of battling dinos “ Thread. That took a while!!! Thanks for getting back to me.

 

[taricha]

I have seen those round barely moving spinning cells before. They are another weird kind of amphidinium.
My advice on a new tank is make sure it's crammed full of life, nothing is starving, and everything well established before moving anything over.
Good live rock. macroalgae, etc.

 

[JCTReefer]

I have seen those round barely moving spinning cells before. They are another weird kind of amphidinium.
My advice on a new tank is make sure it's crammed full of life, nothing is starving, and everything well established before moving anything over.
Good live rock. macroalgae, etc.

First is the one that’s barely spinning.
Second has the curve like beak, but spinning faster and not swimming around. That’s kinda why I thought I had large cell also with it’s roomba like movement.
I am a complete newbie when it comes to microscopic life. No doubt!!!

 

[hankacrank]

I cut my lights to 65% of what they were, removed most of my sand, and increased the temp on my tank. Amphidinium Dinos finally gone. Please watch my video and let me know if you disagree and if I should modify the video:

 

[Cooper 2020]

I cut my lights to 65% of what they were, removed most of my sand, and increased the temp on my tank. Amphidinium Dinos finally gone. Please watch my video and let me know if you disagree and if I should modify the video:

Have you left your temperature up there or brought it back down ? Thanks

 

[hankacrank]

Have you left your temperature up there or brought it back down ? Thanks

So far I've left it there for a week cuz everything looks happy.

 

[Michael Gray]

I'm about 6 days of dosing 12ml brightwell silica. And starting day 2 of Dr Tim's waste away at half dose leaving uv off completely and skimmer off for 8 hours as long as tank doesn't get cloudy.

I had 10 turbos shipped.last Thursday I was terrified they would die like my other snails. But at night they are running around like crazy. Which might be a good sign. Dino's aren't killthem them. I have crazy long GHA on rocks. They might be hitting that. But it's a little long so I doubt they will clean up my gha unless I scrub it and knock it down. But don't wanna do that yet.

I haven't samples the sand that's all brown yet to see diatoms/dino ratio yet. Maybe I'll post one today

 

[Mark]

hankacrank FYI, I tried your temperature thing, and I'll be danged....

A little backstory, my tank was see-sawing between Cyano and Dino's occasionally. I cut out iron sources and that helped. I've had a UV from the start, but that helped only marginally. Increased feeding diminished their presence. But the dino's persisted in a manageable state(minor patches hanging in there). My tank is a nitrate/phosphate eating machine. No matter how much potassium nitrate/phosphate I add and overfeed, I cannot get a reading on my test kits.

So, for giggles I ramped up the temp slowly from the usual 78 to 82.5. First few days I didn't see much change. If anything the patches of resilient dino's looked to be happier. But around the 7 day mark, I went down to the basement to check on the tank and grab a beer from the beer fridge. And I suddenly realized all the Dino's were gone. There's still some diatoms around from the increased feedings. But that's it.

Like I said, I had other battle methods in place already, so the Dino's were in a manageable state. I have some Cyano still in the refugium that doesn't seem to mind the temps. So I suspect if your nutrients are bottomed out and the tank is overrun with Dino's, then an increase in temp might just shift the problem from Dino's to Cyano. I'd probably suggest trying higher temps WITH increased nutrient import.

 

[hankacrank]

hankacrank FYI, I tried your temperature thing, and I'll be danged....

A little backstory, my tank was see-sawing between Cyano and Dino's occasionally. I cut out iron sources and that helped. I've had a UV from the start, but that helped only marginally. Increased feeding diminished their presence. But the dino's persisted in a manageable state(minor patches hanging in there). My tank is a nitrate/phosphate eating machine. No matter how much potassium nitrate/phosphate I add and overfeed, I cannot get a reading on my test kits.

So, for giggles I ramped up the temp slowly from the usual 78 to 82.5. First few days I didn't see much change. If anything the patches of resilient dino's looked to be happier. But around the 7 day mark, I went down to the basement to check on the tank and grab a beer from the beer fridge. And I suddenly realized all the Dino's were gone. There's still some diatoms around from the increased feedings. But that's it.

Like I said, I had other battle methods in place already, so the Dino's were in a manageable state. I have some Cyano still in the refugium that doesn't seem to mind the temps. So I suspect if your nutrients are bottomed out and the tank is overrun with Dino's, then an increase in temp might just shift the problem from Dino's to Cyano. I'd probably suggest trying higher temps WITH increased nutrient import.

BOOM!

Just crank up the temp and give it time! I don't know why it worked but I think it may give the bacteria a competitive edge against the dinos.

I agree with exactly what you said. Increase the temp AND increase nutrient import.

 

[merereef]

I cut my lights to 65% of what they were, removed most of my sand, and increased the temp on my tank. Amphidinium Dinos finally gone. Please watch my video and let me know if you disagree and if I should modify the video:

Very interested man... so increase temp to 82-83 and it went away...

 

[Mark]

I’ll also add that none of my inhabitants were stressed by the gradual temp increase. Funny actually is that 82 is what my reefs ran at in the metal halide days.

 

[merereef]

I’ll also add that none of my inhabitants were stressed by the gradual temp increase. Funny actually is that 82 is what my reefs ran at in the metal halide days.

Under the miscroscope it didnt look like dinos, dinos are normally circle

 

[hankacrank]

Under the miscroscope it didnt look like dinos, dinos are normally circle

These are known morphologies below:

Fig. 4. Light micrographs of the genera Amphidinium (present study). A...

Download scientific diagram | Light micrographs of the genera Amphidinium (present study). A and B: Amphidinium carterae, C and D: Amphidinium gibbosum. E and F: from publication: Presence of benthic dinoflagellates around coastal waters of Jeju Island including newly recorded species | A...

www.researchgate.net

 

[ApolloReef]

@hankacrank @Mark I want to additionally chime in as well. I initially thought it was cyano and hit my tank with Chemiclean and didn't see anything change, only to do the microscope just after to identify dinos. I saw your post and figured I would add temperature to my treatment mix since it was low risk. For four days, I have been cranking up nutrients and moved my temp by 1 deg each day until 82-83 degF. And to my surprise, they started to recede quickly. I am not sure the mechanism, but I really think you are on to something here. I dealt with them before and it took a month of just nutrients to do the same.

 

[sh@rkB@it]

Wow, I guess I will have to give raising the temperature a try. I have been battling this dino thing for a couple months. I too have it in a manageable state but would love to get rid of it altogether. I will report back in a week. Thanks for the tip.

 

[hankacrank]

@hankacrank @Mark I want to additionally chime in as well. I initially thought it was cyano and hit my tank with Chemiclean and didn't see anything change, only to do the microscope just after to identify dinos. I saw your post and figured I would add temperature to my treatment mix since it was low risk. For four days, I have been cranking up nutrients and moved my temp by 1 deg each day until 82-83 degF. And to my surprise, they started to recede quickly. I am not sure the mechanism, but I really think you are on to something here. I dealt with them before and it took a month of just nutrients to do the same.

Yeah, no matter what, I would never advocate a drastic temperature change all at once. I like what you did. Let me know if it works out for you. The video I made makes it sound like everything disappeared in 24 hours but I meant one week. I went up on the temp over a 24 hour period and noticed recession within a day or two, and then gone within 7-10 days. I kept feeding 3-4 times per day during that time and I always scoop out excess food that the clowns don't eat.