Dinoflagellate Microscope ID

Aquaman6410 · Aug 4, 2019

Also, side note, I took a clump of hair algae from my other tank and put it under the same scope. 50x magnification. Sorry for bad pics. Is this a dinoflagellate as well or no? I was wondering if I should put some of the hair algae into the new tank to add a competitor. Anything bad under this slide? Any ideas @taricha ?

Aquaman6410 · Aug 14, 2019

Okay, so dinos seem to still be coming but slower maybe and less of the dino smell. Every few days a manually remove what I can. I do see some hair algae in spots so some diversity is happening. I grabbed a patch of brown that was blown off the rock and took some pics on the old microscope I have access to. I've added some silica once or twice along with a water change for the first time in a month as I'm trying to get coralline to grow. Any ideas of what I'm seeing? What are these clear worm things as well that are in some pics? They wiggle pretty fast under the scope. I'm guessing this is good biodiversity?

Aquaman6410 · Aug 16, 2019

Any thoughts?

joshwaggs · Oct 29, 2020

Aquaman6410 said:
Any thoughts?

How did this go?

Aquaman6410 · Oct 31, 2020

I never was able to get an ID on them. I still have them on the sand bed but nothing seems harmed. Phosphates at .06ppm and Nitrates at 2ppm. Coral seems fine, fish seem fine, coralline growth in my tank is finally at a steady rate. I have no idea about these dinos but I'm watching them close. I siphon the sand during a water change to remove them but they come back in a few days. I've stopped aminos still, at least until the dinos go away. Hoping they burn themselves out, idk.

joshwaggs · Oct 31, 2020

Aquaman6410 said:
I never was able to get an ID on them. I still have them on the sand bed but nothing seems harmed. Phosphates at .06ppm and Nitrates at 2ppm. Coral seems fine, fish seem fine, coralline growth in my tank is finally at a steady rate. I have no idea about these dinos but I'm watching them close. I siphon the sand during a water change to remove them but they come back in a few days. I've stopped aminos still, at least until the dinos go away. Hoping they burn themselves out, idk.

Those things are evil.

Aquaman6410 · Nov 20, 2020

I'm still struggling with dinos, took better pictures but still not the best due to the microscope not being the greatest and then having to use a phone uo to the eye piece. Any ID on these? My nitrates are around 4-5ppm and phosphates around .1 ppm per hanna checker. Trying to keep the tank dirtier to get rid of them but not helping. I've not bottomed out nutrients at all in the past few months but these are stubborn. They are mainly in the sand but I believe they smothered one of my acans out. The higher nutrients seem to be feeding them, not sure. Fish all seem fine so I'm hoping they are not really toxic.

taricha · Nov 21, 2020

Aquaman6410 said:
I'm still struggling with dinos, took better pictures but still not the best due to the microscope not being the greatest and then having to use a phone uo to the eye piece. Any ID on these?

large cell amphidinium dinos.

Aquaman6410 · Nov 22, 2020

Dang, that is like the 3rd or 4th different type I've had in this tank. I'm just collecting them all!
They seem to be mainly harmless at this point so I'm going to try to figure out careful and safe ways to get rid of them. I know the growing diatom method might work, I may try that. Ugh, these guys definitely dont care if the tank is nutrient starved or high nutrient like the others, they seem to thrive in both.