Could this be anything other than Dinos?

[Just John]

I recently had dinos and they were eventually dealt with and gone. Now a few days after I stopped treating this is growing on the sand rocks and glass. It spreads rapidly and mostly blows off like diatoms. It is brown. It does not look like any dinos I am familiar with. They do not move, no slime, do not have that beak thing, round (not oval), do not have the obvious line around them like coolia. It seems like it must be dinos though. What else could this be?

400X

 

[Just John]

@ScottB and @taricha any thoughts?

 

[ScottB]

On the way out to dinner. Inconclusive. Quick check here? Not a good match though to your tank description.

Symbiodinium. Got any treatment ideas?

While it looks kinda similar to ostreopsis in the tank, it is very different under the scope. They are VERY small and completely motionless. They are easily basted or siphoned away but return the next day. They don't stick to coral flesh, but do stick to everything else. I FEEL like they are...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Garf]

I recently had dinos and they were eventually dealt with and gone. Now this is growing on the sand rocks and glass. It spreads rapidly and mostly blows off like diatoms. It is brown. It does not look like any dinos I am familiar with. They do not move, no slime, do not have that beak thing, round (not oval), do not have the obvious line around them like coolia. It seems like it must be dinos though. What else could this be?

400X

You got a pic of the tank, now? A lot of stuff just sorts itself out.

 

[Just John]

On the way out to dinner. Inconclusive. Quick check here? Not a good match though to your tank description.

Symbiodinium. Got any treatment ideas?

While it looks kinda similar to ostreopsis in the tank, it is very different under the scope. They are VERY small and completely motionless. They are easily basted or siphoned away but return the next day. They don't stick to coral flesh, but do stick to everything else. I FEEL like they are...

www.reef2reef.com

The main difference is that Symb. has a lot of mucus, this has none. Thanks for the link!

 

[Just John]

You got a pic of the tank, now? A lot of stuff just sorts itself out.

I just did a water change so there is nothing to see. It does not look horrible right now anyway, I just need to get on it asap before it does. I know what's coming. There was nothing there this morning and this afternoon it was on the sand and half of the new clean plugs I put in a few days ago and some on the glass. The corals - all soft and lps - are REALLY unhappy. I don't know if that's related or not. Hopefully the water change will help.

 

[Garf]

In 18ish years , never experienced a Dino outbreak, so I will make way for those that have experienced it. Good luck.

 

[Just John]

In 18ish years , never experienced a Dino outbreak, so I will make way for those that have experienced it. Good luck.

I'm jealous. I'm blaming mine on a bad Salifert phosphate test. I discovered it always read between .01 and .02 whether it was 0 or really high. I'm glad I finally took some water to the LFS and got a new test. Maybe that's not it, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Garf]

I'm jealous. I'm blaming mine on a bad Salifert phosphate test. I discovered it always read between .01 and .02 whether it was 0 or really high. I'm glad I finally took some water to the LFS and got a new test. Maybe that's not it, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

If only it were that simple. My new little tank had zero phos and nitrates for 6 months, no Dino. I’m in the camp that “**** happens”. I had bryopsis, I know what depression is, lol.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I recently had dinos and they were eventually dealt with and gone. Now a few days after I stopped treating this is growing on the sand rocks and glass. It spreads rapidly and mostly blows off like diatoms. It is brown. It does not look like any dinos I am familiar with. They do not move, no slime, do not have that beak thing, round (not oval), do not have the obvious line around them like coolia. It seems like it must be dinos though. What else could this be?

400X

Looks close to amphidium dino

 

[Just John]

Looks close to amphidium dino

I agree. Similar size to the small cell Amphidium. But, that is what I just got rid of and looking at my old videos, this is not them. It is curious. A few days ago everything was covered in diatoms. I never would have thought that one day I would be happy to see diatoms, lol. Now barely any diatoms seem to be there.

 

[Just John]

I was hoping to hear someone identify it as an algae, but I guess I get back to treating for diatoms.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I agree. Similar size to the small cell Amphidium. But, that is what I just got rid of and looking at my old videos, this is not them. It is curious. A few days ago everything was covered in diatoms. I never would have thought that one day I would be happy to see diatoms, lol. Now barely any diatoms seem to be there.

Not sure if I sent you this previously

Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependant corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

 

[Just John]

Not sure if I sent you this previously

Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependant corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

Yes, you did thanks. That's how I just got rid of the small cell amp. Just started again with the h2o2 five min ago.

My phos and nitrate are certainly not low. Actually a bit high. I was promised that would prevent dinos. Someone lied to me.

 

[ScottB]

I agree. Similar size to the small cell Amphidium. But, that is what I just got rid of and looking at my old videos, this is not them. It is curious. A few days ago everything was covered in diatoms. I never would have thought that one day I would be happy to see diatoms, lol. Now barely any diatoms seem to be there.

It is not large or small cell amphids to my eye. They are not moving and lack the shape.

Keep it slow. Stick to the basic measurable elements and nutrients. Let the system do its thing.

 

[Lavey29]

As stated above, if you successfully battled dinos and corrected the problem that caused them initially then you are most likely not having a reoccurring issue. Cut your lights to 6 hours with no whites just blue and UV. Dose some natural good bacteria like PNS pro bio and monitor your parameters for stability.

 

[taricha]

@Just John Since it's not one of our known problem dinos, I would treat conservatively. That is - keep nutrients in a good range (post-dinos) and manual removal.
Although 95% of "uglies" falls into the diatoms, cyano, dino classes - there are many other uncommon things that exist. This sounds like a "None of the above". I'd say it's chrysophytes except the dusty, no slime description excludes that (first called "symbiodinium-like" because they visually resemble coral zooxanthellae so closely)

(golden ones are the chrysophytes somebody sent me, more brown ones are symbiodinium from one of my coral.)

It's small comfort, but you should consider it a positive that it's not a commonly seen / documented type of outbreak. That means it's unlikely to be able to dominate a reef system for a significant period of time.
If you see signs of toxicity (dead CUC) then change tack and treat as toxic dinos.

 

[Just John]

@Just John Since it's not one of our known problem dinos, I would treat conservatively. That is - keep nutrients in a good range (post-dinos) and manual removal.
Although 95% of "uglies" falls into the diatoms, cyano, dino classes - there are many other uncommon things that exist. This sounds like a "None of the above". I'd say it's chrysophytes except the dusty, no slime description excludes that (first called "symbiodinium-like" because they visually resemble coral zooxanthellae so closely)

(golden ones are the chrysophytes somebody sent me, more brown ones are symbiodinium from one of my coral.)

It's small comfort, but you should consider it a positive that it's not a commonly seen / documented type of outbreak. That means it's unlikely to be able to dominate a reef system for a significant period of time.
If you see signs of toxicity (dead CUC) then change tack and treat as toxic dinos.

Thanks for the picture and details. CUC is just snails and they seem fine. What concerns me is that all of my corals are miserable. Most zoas have that crumpled up look or are closed and most Ricordea Fl. are oddly curled or closed. I put in some charcoal last night and did a 50% water change (I have done that occasionally and nothing cares - it's just softies and a couple LPS) but very little improvement this morning.

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks for the picture and details. CUC is just snails and they seem fine. What concerns me is that all of my corals are miserable. Most zoas have that crumpled up look or are closed and most Ricordea Fl. are oddly curled or closed. I put in some charcoal last night and did a 50% water change (I have done that occasionally and nothing cares - it's just softies and a couple LPS) but very little improvement this morning.

Have you done a recent ICP test? I was amazed at how far off some of my Hanna checkers were. Healthy corals = nutrients, lighting and flow. If one of these is out of sync then the corals begin to decline.

 

[Just John]

Have you done a recent ICP test? I was amazed at how far off some of my Hanna checkers were. Healthy corals = nutrients, lighting and flow. If one of these is out of sync then the corals begin to decline.

Not yet. It's a small tank, so water changes are easy and seem to keep things where they should be. Do you know how much those are?