Dino ID

iaa12 · Oct 16, 2020

I posted this in the Critter ID forum, but this seems like a better place for it. Sorry, new here, somehow I missed the dedicated forum.

These guys are growing over patches of the sand. Looks brown under the LED lights, but when you take them out, it's green. Looks like dinos to me, can anyone tell what kind? They move around a lot, seems to change shape from round to elongated, and don't spin around like they're tethered.

Little bit of background, I'm rehabilitating a neglected tank. Only 4 small fish, some zoas. Cleaned things up, maybe too well, nitrates/phosphates down to 0. Dosed nitrate back to 2ppm with potassium nitrate and phosphates to 0.1 ppm two days ago. Dosing Vibrant every 3 days.

What do?

SMSREEF · Oct 17, 2020

I am not sure. @taricha @ScottB are you able to ID this?

taricha · Oct 17, 2020

iaa12 said:
but when you take them out, it's green.... They move around a lot, seems to change shape from round to elongated, and don't spin around like they're tethered.

Looks and sounds like euglena. Not a dino.

iaa12 · Oct 17, 2020

taricha said:
Looks and sounds like euglena. Not a dino.

So how do I deal with these guys? Just wait it out? The only issue is they're "dirtying" the sand.

Miguel Negron · Oct 17, 2020

Do you have any pictures in white?

Dark_Knightt · Oct 17, 2020

Following along, I'm having a problem and I dont know if its dinos or smth else.

iaa12 · Oct 17, 2020

Miguel Negron said:
Do you have any pictures in white?

I don't, and I just vacuumed the sand today. I'll try to get some tomorrow.

The tank is not that blue to the naked eye btw, for some reason the phone really enhanced the blue.

Miguel Negron · Oct 17, 2020

iaa12 said:
I don't, and I just vacuumed the sand today. I'll try to get some tomorrow.

The tank is not that blue to the naked eye btw, for some reason the phone really enhanced the blue.

Okay whenever you can

SMSREEF · Oct 18, 2020

Dark_Knightt said:
Following along, I'm having a problem and I dont know if its dinos or smth else.

Take a look at these, they have some good info.

Reef Cleaners

A good guide to identify most of the nuisance algae that plagues the hobby. Complete with pictures and suggested treatments

www.reefcleaners.org

Hunting With A Microscope

Diatoms and blue-green algae are only two of many groups of organisms that can be studied using a microscope.

reefs.com

The PDF Below is created by @taricha

iaa12 · Oct 18, 2020

Miguel Negron said:
Okay whenever you can

Here's a picture with the flash after lights out. Yep, there's Nassarius snails

iaa12 · Oct 20, 2020

Well, I cleaned up the microsocope lenses, zoomed in all the way on my phone, and got a much better video of these critters. One of them is moving around and you can spot a flagellum. Maybe two, because as I'm looking around on the internet trying to figure out what this is, the closest match seems to be Chlamydomonas reinhardtii - a type of green algae found pretty much everywhere. Regardless, I think aggressive cleaning of the sand bed caused a bloom. These guys reproduce FAST.

Any further opinions on ID and/or control welcome. Nitrate at 5ppm, phosphate at 0.05 currently.

iaa12 · Nov 9, 2020

General update on this algae issue in case someone runs across this post with a similar issue. I think it's dinos even though it is green. I tried a 3.5 day blackout and the tank cleaned up very nicely, but the nuisance was back in 2 days. Tried Microbacter Clean for about 10 days with no significant results. Before that I was using Vibrant and that actually seemed to make it worse. Stopped dosing any kind of stuff except kalk, brought phosphate to 0.18 and nitrate to 15.6, set the Kessil lights to 10% on the color scale (so mostly blue) topping at 50% intensity, increased kalk to 1.5 teaspoons per gallon in top off water, alkalinity is at 11dKH, pH holding steady at 8.1. Stopped all water changes, turned off protein skimmer. Increased flow from about 25x to about 50x. We are at a stalemate, it's not growing anywhere near as aggressively as before, but it's hanging in there. Sand is 50/50 instead of 100% covered, live rocks are mostly clear. Going to just keep it going for now, see what happens. Have Dino-X on hand as a very last resort, it would have to get a lot lot worse in order for me to consider using it.

iaa12 · Nov 13, 2020

After 1 week of shutting off the protein skimmer, strong transition towards red cyano taking placing. Never thought I'd be happy to see cyanobacteria.

vetteguy53081 · Nov 13, 2020

Actually you shouldnt see cyano either. If you were feeding coral feed or adding NoPox, may be why the cyano.
Recipe for dino is:
Prepare for a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off for 5 days and st night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) 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 and work your white lights up slowly