Dinoflagellates: Help needed

mtdaly85 · Jan 1, 2019

Hello everyone,

I am battling the scourge that is dinoflagellates. I don't have a microscope, but I am confident its dinos. I have never seen anything like these dinos in any pictures I've seen online. I have MASSIVE strands (up to 12 inches long) connecting the glass to the rock, to the sand, to the corals, etc. I've lost almost $1,000 in coral since setting up the tank in July (I know, I probably rushed into it and learned my lesson).

What is strange is that I dosed Vibrant a couple weeks ago, per the instructions, and it decimated the dinos. All that was left was some on the rocks that I figured would die off upon continuing to dose Vibrant and working on my nutrients.

Well, they are back with a vengeance: Huge strands up to 12 inches long, stressing corals, just an absolute mess. I am trying to get my nutrients up, but my phosphates are 0.00 (per the Hannah low range checker) and my nitrates are finally right around 2.5 (after being 0 or nearly 0 since setting up the tank). I'm going to continue dosing Vibrant and working on elevating the nutrients, but I'm so defeated. I can't get over how ugly these dinos are and I don't understand why my phosphates are zero. Stats are below, would love some positive words or additional advice:

Waterbox 130.4
Used dry rock and dry sand, but added about 10 lbs of live rock to seed
Two MP40wQD
Vectra M-1 return pump
BRS Carbon reactor running ROX 0.8
Deltec 600i running on the dry side (empty it about once per week)
Running mesh filter sock and felt filter sock

Alk: 7.5
Ca: 425
Mg: 1350
Phosphate: 0.00
Nitrate: 2.5
Temp: Between 78 and 79
Salinity: 1.025

glb · Jan 1, 2019

mtdaly85 said:
Hello everyone,

I am battling the scourge that is dinoflagellates. I don't have a microscope, but I am confident its dinos. I have never seen anything like these dinos in any pictures I've seen online. I have MASSIVE strands (up to 12 inches long) connecting the glass to the rock, to the sand, to the corals, etc. I've lost almost $1,000 in coral since setting up the tank in July (I know, I probably rushed into it and learned my lesson).

What is strange is that I dosed Vibrant a couple weeks ago, per the instructions, and it decimated the dinos. All that was left was some on the rocks that I figured would die off upon continuing to dose Vibrant and working on my nutrients.

Well, they are back with a vengeance: Huge strands up to 12 inches long, stressing corals, just an absolute mess. I am trying to get my nutrients up, but my phosphates are 0.00 (per the Hannah low range checker) and my nitrates are finally right around 2.5 (after being 0 or nearly 0 since setting up the tank). I'm going to continue dosing Vibrant and working on elevating the nutrients, but I'm so defeated. I can't get over how ugly these dinos are and I don't understand why my phosphates are zero. Stats are below, would love some positive words or additional advice:

Waterbox 130.4
Used dry rock and dry sand, but added about 10 lbs of live rock to seed
Two MP40wQD
Vectra M-1 return pump
BRS Carbon reactor running ROX 0.8
Deltec 600i running on the dry side (empty it about once per week)
Running mesh filter sock and felt filter sock

Alk: 7.5
Ca: 425
Mg: 1350
Phosphate: 0.00
Nitrate: 2.5
Temp: Between 78 and 79
Salinity: 1.025

I’m dealing with a similar problem of too low nutrients. I read somewhere that starting with dry rock and sand like we both did can lead to problems. I had a different kind of outbreak and treated it with Reef Flux. That took care of the outbreak but not my no3 and po4 levels. I dosed Brightwell nitrogen and phosphorus to bring up the levels. The no3 is 5-10ppm now but the po4 still reads 0ppm. I’m continuing daily phosphorus dosing until there are measurable levels. I remove any new algae so it won’t take up nutrients. From what I’ve read, it’s a proces and eventually things will even out. #reefsquad really helped me out so I’m tagging them on this post. Good luck!

saltyhog · Jan 1, 2019

Start dosing Flourish (by Seachem) for phosphate ASAP. Remove manually as much you can and run a UV if you have it. Try to get you PO4 up to around 0.1 and keep your nitrates around 5-10.

You can get a cheap microscope quickly from Amazon (there's a thread on here about that) because identifying which species can greatly help.

Read the first page of this thread also. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

Edit....stop dosing Vibrant. It can lower nutrients and is counter productive with dinos.