Dino ID

[SirHealsALot]

Hey guys, been fighting dinos in the tank for a while. Initially thought it was Cyano since i had a previous cyano outbreak but when water changes and chemi-clean made it worse, figured something was amiss. I was running a heavy-duty Refugium with chaeto, GFO, and Carbon. I have since shut down the fuge and the GFO. Still have carbon running. I am using the Dr Tim's combination method with a black-out period for now. Just got my microscope and took these quick pics. Any ID help would be appreciated

 

[Oldcoder]

Hey guys, been fighting dinos in the tank for a while. Initially thought it was Cyano since i had a previous cyano outbreak but when water changes and chemi-clean made it worse, figured something was amiss. I was running a heavy-duty Refugium with chaeto, GFO, and Carbon. I have since shut down the fuge and the GFO. Still have carbon running. I am using the Dr Tim's combination method with a black-out period for now. Just got my microscope and took these quick pics. Any ID help would be appreciated

I will be watching this with interest. MY Dinos look exactly like yours been fighting them for four months. They now remain only on the sand and completely disappear at night. I have been dosing Phosphate and NItrate and set up a UV which is not optimally plumbed. I have also been adding Miccobacter7 but they still come back every day. At least the are no longer on the rocks. Just yesterday I removed all the Chaeto. Next step I guess is the blackout. I will be watching to see what advice you get.

 

[SirHealsALot]

Since others are going through a similar jourey, let me add some more details regarding my tank.

Tank set up ~ 6 months ago
Dry rock
30 Gal long IM tank
2 AI primes (previously running a modified lower AB+)
20 gallon sump with central chamber refugium with amazon grow lights (mostly red LEDs) - disconnected ~ 2-3 weeks ago
GFO and Carbon mixed via BRS media reactor ~ disconnected 1 week ago (carbon dosing now via media bax in baffle of sump)
Aquamax FC-80 skimmer with air inlet at half

As is the case with many others, i was led to believe that the bigger the sump and the better the filtration, the more low maintainance and thus easier the tank. I thereby drove down my nutrients very aggressively with the above. After few months of undetectable nitrates and phosphates, i began to get some powdering on the sand. LFS people led me to believe it was diatoms so i should ramp up my filtration, which I then did. This in turn only made the problem worse.

I then proceeded to buy a Jebao 35 watt UV filter from Amazon and started dosing with Neophos and Neonitre and Microbacter7. I also turned down my lights quite a bit to 1/4 the intensity and down to 6 hours from 9. My phosphates were very difficuly to bring up (went through an entire 250 ml bottle of neophos without seting a detectable phosphate level). I finally yesterday saw my first phosphate (0.2 ppm) though my nitrates are now going up (possibly due to dinos dying after i turned lights down). They were running mostly between 2-10 ppm but yesterday were ~10-15 ppm. I decided to give the Dr. Tim's method a shot. I have started the black-out today and have dosed the Dr Tim's Re-fresh. I'll keep you all posted.

 

[taricha]

Here's a Dino ID guide for confirmation
(looks like prorocentrum probably)

 

[Oldcoder]

Okay thank you I will research that strain. do have an update removal of Chaeto from the refugium has caused my nutrients to rise without dosing for the first time in months without dosing. The dinos are still the same but has only been a few days.

 

[rkpetersen]

I defeated ostreopsis dinos very quickly by combining treatment with RedX, adjusting nitrate/phosphate to non-zero levels, and siphoning dinos from sand and surfaces through a 1 micron filter sock, then returning the filtered water to the tank. You can do 1 micron filtration frequently, even several times a day, without adverse effect since you return the water to the tank. With this method, you can quickly get ahead of the dino reproduction and before long they just stop coming back.

I haven't seen others use this approach, but ime it's faster, safer, and more effective than blackouts, UV, or just chemical treatment alone.

 

[Oldcoder]

Did you mean 100 micron?

 

[rkpetersen]

No, 100 micron wouldn't do anything. A 1 micron filter is what you want. Like these:

 

[Oldcoder]

No, 100 micron wouldn't do anything. A 1 micron filter is what you want. Like these:

thanks pick it up

 

[Oldcoder]

thanks will pick it up

 

[SirHealsALot]

I just got done using the Dr Tim's combination for Dinos with Re-Fresh and Waste Away combined with a black-out. So far seems to have worked well. 2 days post black-out and only minimal dinos. WIll keep you guys posted on the progress.