Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

[piehunter]

It looks like all my Dino’s on the sand are staying the same. I’m dozing about 50 drops of silica in my 180g. Not getting any Diatoms and also not getting any readings of silica when I use the test kit (salifert). Might need to get a Hanna like everyone said to really see how much silica I have. Salifert has been reading 0. Marinedepot sent me a replacement test kit and I’m still getting a reading of 0. Possibly my brightwell silica is a bad batch and not doing anything?

I removed my sand bed and they have stayed around on rocks and mixed up in the brown hair algae I have growing in the tank but there is def a reduction in them for sure .. my salifert kit shows nothing either but until I get a bloom I’m gonna keep at it lol .. considered trying the crowding method at the same time ?

 

[JAMSOURY]

I’m getting a little green on the rocks but I’m not growing any gha. It’s kinda weird. I may need to do a water change or two to replace some elements that are missing. Might be the reason I can’t grow any diatoms either. Mine aren’t affecting the rocks too bad but it is in the sand bed like crazy

 

[taricha]

I’m getting a little green on the rocks but I’m not growing any gha. It’s kinda weird. I may need to do a water change or two to replace some elements that are missing. Might be the reason I can’t grow any diatoms either. Mine aren’t affecting the rocks too bad but it is in the sand bed like crazy

More in depth post later, but this is the correct conclusion, in my opinion.

 

[taricha]

From another thread...convergence

...
I'll also note that a mini diatom dusting reappearance coincided with the decay of the gorg tissue. But that's almost certainly got zero to do with iodine.

It's a recurring pattern. Keeping N P Si available, I get tiny diatom dustings that reappear presumably when some scare resource becomes available, and fade a couple of days later.

It's generally assumed that available Si would trigger a big diatom bloom, but among systems (with dinoflagellate history) that have intentionally dosed N P, & Si, we're now like zero for a half dozen in creating a true diatom bloom. Something else is always missing. (Fe being the assumed likeliest choke point.)

To be clear, this may be a good thing. It's possible that having available Si, N, P insures that as iron (or whatever is missing) gets into the system, the diatoms take it up and prevent - or at least mitigate a Dino bloom.
To the question of why we aren't getting a diatom bloom in the first place, probably because we all had a Dino bloom first that ate up scarce resources.

 

[JAMSOURY]

From another thread...convergence



To be clear, this may be a good thing. It's possible that having available Si, N, P insures that as iron (or whatever is missing) gets into the system, the diatoms take it up and prevent - or at least mitigate a Dino bloom.
To the question of why we aren't getting a diatom bloom in the first place, probably because we all had a Dino bloom first that ate up scarce resources.

Makes sense. So some water changes may be necessary because I may be missing trace elements.

 

[taricha]

Makes sense. So some water changes may be necessary because I may be missing trace elements.

Possibly. How long have you had N, P and Si consistently available in the system and not had algae or diatom growth?

 

[JAMSOURY]

Possibly. How long have you had N, P and Si consistently available in the system and not had algae or diatom growth?

I think about 3 weeks now. I did a 20% water change about 3 weeks ago as well. I’m going to try doing 20% once a week and see what happens (I’ll be keeping levels up during the changes)

 

[taricha]

I think about 3 weeks now. I did a 20% water change about 3 weeks ago as well. I’m going to try doing 20% once a week and see what happens (I’ll be keeping levels up during the changes)

K. Have you looked for diatoms under the microscope?
Also be prepared, when you do add whatever limiting resource is missing, everything will grow. That means you may also need to siphon the Dinos that will grow along with the diatoms and green algae.
I'm adding between 5 and 10ml a day of the Spongexcel to my 70 gallon to keep Si in the range of NSW.
Hanna Si meter is great, salifert seems to be problematic for many.
But I do have a bunch of sponges also, so I don't expect others to need that dose. Nor is that much needed to grow diatoms.

 

[piehunter]

Do diatoms bubble ?

 

[taricha]

Yes, they produce plenty of oxygen in bubbles.

Do diatoms bubble ?

 

[piehunter]

Yes, they produce plenty of oxygen in bubbles.

Must be blooming gonna have to get the microscope out thanks

 

[piehunter]

Tank seems to be coming back to life .. snails aren’t being bothered by the toxics of dinos anymore and are grazing like they should be .. feather dusters and bristle worms population through the roof

 

[piehunter]

How long do i let the diatom bloom run its course ?
Also are Diatom cells far smaller compared to Dino's ?

Thanks

 

[taricha]

If it goes according to expected, then let the diatom bloom plateau out on its own.

Diatoms can be much smaller or bigger than dinos.
More different kinds of diatoms than dinos in our systems.

How long do i let the diatom bloom run its course ?
Also are Diatom cells far smaller compared to Dino's ?

Thanks

 

[MannyT]

Hey guys, so it looks like the I have amphidinium dino. I have a few questions on what my next steps should be. I haven’t done a water change in over a week. I keep reading on people siphoning their sand and reusing the water. Question, do you throw the sand out or do you put it back in the tank once it’s been filtered? My nitrates are at 5. P at 0 and my PH doesn’t go over 7.6. Also, do I need to do anything about my lighting? Cut back on running time? Dial back the intensity?

 

[dwest]

Hey guys, so it looks like the I have amphidinium dino. I have a few questions on what my next steps should be. I haven’t done a water change in over a week. I keep reading on people siphoning their sand and reusing the water. Question, do you throw the sand out or do you put it back in the tank once it’s been filtered? My nitrates are at 5. P at 0 and my PH doesn’t go over 7.6. Also, do I need to do anything about my lighting? Cut back on running time? Dial back the intensity?

I have been fighting amphidinium since at least February. IME whether or not you do water changes matters very little. I have removed most of my sand, by siphoning out then replenishing water with a WC. I continue keeping P and N at levels suggested in this thread. These 2 things plus the physical removal of "dino surface area" (sand, algae, detritus) both by blowing/vacuuming and using a micron filter, have seemed to help the most. I do also use a UV, and I think that has helped a little...I am now at a point where the snails I added several weeks ago are removing most of my GHA. My LPS are doing well and I just added a green slimer acropora to test the waters again. Originally my SPS were totally wiped out.

If I were you, I would dose P to get to 0.1 ppm, then start vacuuming the sand bed. You may or may not need to remove the sand. Also, if you haven't done this already, definitely run fresh GAC weekly to remove toxins. It was also suggested to me that the lighting should be shut off earlier in the day so that I could blast the rocks when lights were off. I did that for a while, then resumed normal lighting a couple of weeks ago.

 

[dwest]

Tank seems to be coming back to life .. snails aren’t being bothered by the toxics of dinos anymore and are grazing like they should be .. feather dusters and bristle worms population through the roof

That's where I'm at too. Happy to see my snails do some work!

 

[dwest]

Should have said above to run GAC all the time, but replace weekly...

 

[dwest]

Should have said above to run GAC continuously but replace with fresh weekly.

 

[piehunter]

Trace elements should be good now tank looks a different shade of brown so think diatoms are taking over