Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

[Kaiser]

I think I managed to kill off my dinos through dosing silicates, haven't been able to find dinos under the microscope for a bit. Now I have to eradicate the diatoms that are covering my glass and sandbed. How can I remove silicates without bottoming out my phosphates via GFO?

 

[attiland]

I think I managed to kill off my dinos through dosing silicates, haven't been able to find dinos under the microscope for a bit. Now I have to eradicate the diatoms that are covering my glass and sandbed. How can I remove silicates without bottoming out my phosphates via GFO?

Just ride it out. They will go by themselves

 

[Reefer Dan]

I think I managed to kill off my dinos through dosing silicates, haven't been able to find dinos under the microscope for a bit. Now I have to eradicate the diatoms that are covering my glass and sandbed. How can I remove silicates without bottoming out my phosphates via GFO?

About how long did this take for you? I’ve been dosing about 1-1.5 drops/gallon of spongexcel for almost 2 weeks now. I’ve seen a decrease but definitely see a lot of them still. Also battling spirulina, but trying to get rid of dinos first to avoid fueling the dinos.

 

[lost66]

I am also curious more or less what kind of time period are we talking about. I have small bottle of it, I have 240g aquarium. Applied 4 doses and bottle is half way empty. Order from BRS takes some time.

 

[attiland]

I am also curious more or less what kind of time period are we talking about. I have small bottle of it, I have 240g aquarium. Applied 4 doses and bottle is half way empty. Order from BRS takes some time.

I have ended up buying a 2nd bottle. We are talking about months here, potential relapse. Don’t forget we are trying to give competition upper hand not actually killing dinos.

 

[lost66]

We are talking about months here

Oh so in this case I need something bigger than 125ml. I purchased 2L bottle.

 

[attiland]

Oh so in this case I need something bigger than 125ml. I purchased 2L bottle.

Maybe one more bottle. I have kept the diatoms blooming for about 2 weeks and than let it run out. I had small relapses maybe twice when dosed again smaller doses for a few days but I have never fully used the second bottle. mine is 130liter.
the full recovery comes from the upper hand of communication but this takes time.

 

[thedon986]

Oh so in this case I need something bigger than 125ml. I purchased 2L bottle.

That’s the best choice for a tank that size. And even after dinos it’s not a bad thing to dose some here or there. Good for sponges and the microbiome so nothing wasted.

 

[lost66]

I think I won the battle. I cannot link exact treatment because I utilized multiple approaches but:
* for 2-3 weeks I was dosing phyto from algae barn. I don't even know if that phyto was alive though
* Dosing 15ml of sponge excel (250g of water in total). I did that for 2 weeks only because I ran out of small bottle and my Amazon order for 2L bottle took ages to arrive. Recently started to dose again but not daily.
* My phosphate was 0 and that was weird because I stopped changing water. So I dose phosphate to sustain recommended 0.10ppm.

The whole treatment took me like month or so and I barely see dino spots here and there. From downside I lost most of my sps - they bleached and covered with brown algae (I think its diatoms) but I never was able to keep sps in a long run. LPS and soft corals look good. I think I will just convert my corals to less demanding. I spent way too much money on corals...

 

[Zoajohn]

Anyone know how long amphidinium cysts can survive without light? The last of my few corals are toast so it opens up the ability to run long blackouts with just fish in there.

 

[edolan]

When you say amphidinium cysts what do you see? A while back and still now actually I noticed kind of gold colored orbs that amphidinium were swimming around on my sand bed and some were actually attached to the individual grains of sand. I never got a clear answer as to what they were. I tried many things to have an affect on these cysts. The only thing that I clearly had make a difference on them was syphoning out the clusters, rinsing the sand and then completely drying out the sand preferably in the sun. When I dry them out under the microscope they look dried out and "dead" (who knows if they are actually dead). I have done this together with this method https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/analyzing-a-bacterial-method-for-dinoflagellates-and-cyano.635165/.
This seemed to slow them down but has not completely gotten rid of the problem.

 

[Zoajohn]

When you say amphidinium cysts what do you see? A while back and still now actually I noticed kind of gold colored orbs that amphidinium were swimming around on my sand bed and some were actually attached to the individual grains of sand. I never got a clear answer as to what they were. I tried many things to have an affect on these cysts. The only thing that I clearly had make a difference on them was syphoning out the clusters, rinsing the sand and then completely drying out the sand preferably in the sun. When I dry them out under the microscope they look dried out and "dead" (who knows if they are actually dead). I have done this together with this method https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/analyzing-a-bacterial-method-for-dinoflagellates-and-cyano.635165/.
This seemed to slow them down but has not completely gotten rid of the problem.

From my understanding, when doing shorter blackouts the dinos just enter cyst form. Which is why they often come right back.

But I've decided to try DinoX starting tonight. I have tried at least 5 methods with no success going on 6 months. If this doesn't work then I'm bleaching everything and starting over.

 

[ScottB]

From my understanding, when doing shorter blackouts the dinos just enter cyst form. Which is why they often come right back.

But I've decided to try DinoX starting tonight. I have tried at least 5 methods with no success going on 6 months. If this doesn't work then I'm bleaching everything and starting over.

How long have you been dosing SpongeExcel? Did you never get diatoms going with it?

 

[Zoajohn]

How long have you been dosing SpongeExcel? Did you never get diatoms going with it?

Since January 20th. Never once got a diatom bloom

 

[DrMMI]

Since January 20th. Never once got a diatom bloom

Were you running a uv at the same time? That can inhibit a diatom bloom.

 

[Zoajohn]

Were you running a uv at the same time? That can inhibit a diatom bloom.

At first yes, until I realized this. Probably went 1-1.5 months with no UV and still no bloom.

Did the first DinoX treatment last night. Weirdly enough these zoas that have been mostly closed for weeks are open now.

 

[Zoajohn]

I figure I'll keep my Dino X progress in this thread for future readers. Two doses in now. Sand is the whitest I've seen it since before Thanksgiving. Rocks are less brown as well, and the few zoas I have are opening. GHA is being reduced too. I'm dosing per the directions but maybe just barely under the recommendation. I resumed skimming when I started as well. No invert or fish deaths.

 

[Zoajohn]

4 doses in now. All GHA has been eradicated, and most of the dinos too. There are some traces of dinos around low flow areas, but they are a very faded shade of brown instead of deep brown like normal. I'll probably take this to 10 doses before stopping. Still no fish or invert deaths. Skimming heavily

 

[Zoajohn]

8 doses in now. The traces of dinos never really seemed to further diminish past the 4 dose mark, so yesterday I went and pulled 90% of my sand bed. Left enough for the wrasse and diamond goby. I was lights out all yesterday, but didn't notice any brown in the remaining sand today. I am supposed to do dose 9 tonight, but may call it here.

 

[Zoajohn]

Haven't dosed Dino X in almost a week now. Still have small traces in the remaining sand, and dusting on rocks. I was also able to identify some cells in a sample from dead algae still on the glass. Very disheartening, but at least their numbers have been reduced. Not really sure what I will be doing next. Getting out of the hobby is tempting after 9 months of an ugly devoid tank, but idk if I'll actually do that.