Documenting my fight against Prorocentrum Dinoflagellates

[TexanReefer]

Tank information:
- Red Sea Reefer 425xl
- 13 Months Old

So I've had my tank for about a year now, and its been a wild ride. I've had several bouts with GHA and Cyano, which I defeated with nutrient control, patience, and in the GHA's case, a very hungry lawnmower blenny!

Over the last few months I've been battling a huge outbreak of turf algae and bubble algae which ended up engulfing everything in my tank and killing all of my coral except for one frag of acans. Fought for months with no success, so I bit the bullet and tried Vibrant, big mistake. It definitely worked killing off the bubble/turf algae, but it led to a Prorocentrum dino outbreak on the sandbed due to nitrates reaching 0.

My plan of action:
- dose nitrates up to 5-10, test everyday and keep it there
- dose phosphates over .10, test everyday and keep there
- install a UV sterilizer (have a 57 watt Aqua UV) [its currently running the sump, but I have the plumbing to run it straight from the DT if needed]
- disturb the sandbed twice a day to entice the dinos to enter the water column
- stop water changes
- turn off skimmer
- run carbon 24/7, changed every week

I started this a day ago, and so far I have seen about a 20% reduction in dinos on the sand bed, and am seeing a small amount of GHA on some of my rocks.

Any advice or criticisms is welcome!

 

[GarrettT]

Glad to see a thread documenting the process in real time. I don’t see any corals, in which case, I would recommend you do a blackout while running the UV.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Looking forward to see the results, are you using organic or inorganic nutrients? I believe it makes a difference in this situation.

 

[TexanReefer]

Glad to see a thread documenting the process in real time. I don’t see any corals, in which case, I would recommend you do a blackout while running the UV.

Glad to see a fellow Austinite lol.

I know I could do a blackout, but I want to see if it's possible to without, since most people facing this issue aren't going to want to stress their corals.

P.S. there is one Acan dead center!

 

[TexanReefer]

Looking forward to see the results, are you using organic or inorganic nutrients? I believe it makes a difference in this situation.

What do you mean by organic or inorganic?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Or

What do you mean by organic or inorganic?

We have two types of nutrients in our systems.
Organic nutrient will have carbon compounds and inorganic won’t.
Organic will often be referred as nitrogen and phosphorus and inorganic will be nitrates and phosphates.

most of the product if not all the products dedicated to the hobby in order to increase nutrient will contain organic nutrient and in certain situations it could be more detrimental than using lab grade chemicals like sodium nitrate or calcium nitrate that will be inorganic.

The use of organic nutrients in situations like nuisance algaes, Cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates could be detrimental as this would bring them a source of energy and it can take longer to create phosphates or nitrates for the bacteria to be able to outcompete the invasive species.

 

[TexanReefer]

Or

We have two types of nutrients in our systems.
Organic nutrient will have carbon compounds and inorganic won’t.
Organic will often be referred as nitrogen and phosphorus and inorganic will be nitrates and phosphates.

most of the product if not all the products dedicated to the hobby in order to increase nutrient will contain organic nutrient and in certain situations it could be more detrimental than using lab grade chemicals like sodium nitrate or calcium nitrate that will be inorganic.

The use of organic nutrients in situations like nuisance algaes, Cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates could be detrimental as this would bring them a source of energy and it can take longer to create phosphates or nitrates for the bacteria to be able to outcompete the invasive species.

I’m not sure how to verify if it’s organic or inorganic.

im using ESV B-Ionic Nitrate and AF Lab PO4+

 

[sixty_reefer]

I’m not sure how to verify if it’s organic or inorganic.

im using ESV B-Ionic Nitrate and AF Lab PO4+

From a quick google they both inorganic, phosphates and nitrates. Maybe the reason you seeing quick results will follow and observe your results.

 

[TexanReefer]

Update pic taken exactly 24 hours after last tank pic. I’m seeing more progress

 

[gbru316]

We're in the same boat, at exactly the same time (added UV on Saturday). And pretty much following the same plan. I added a bottle of Dino X from BRS, arrives later this week. Not sure if I'm going to use it or not.

Additionally, I:
1. Altered lighting spectrum to blue and UV
2. Ordered 64 oz of eco pods from Algae Barn (should arrive later this week)
3. Continue to dose bottle bacteria (AF Pro Bio), but stopped carbon (also stopped coral food and aminos)
4. stir sand, scrub rocks 3-5 times a day

 

[TexanReefer]

We're in the same boat, at exactly the same time (added UV on Saturday). And pretty much following the same plan. I added a bottle of Dino X from BRS, arrives later this week. Not sure if I'm going to use it or not.

Additionally, I:
1. Altered lighting spectrum to blue and UV
2. Ordered 64 oz of eco pods from Algae Barn (should arrive later this week)
3. Continue to dose bottle bacteria (AF Pro Bio), but stopped carbon (also stopped coral food and aminos)
4. stir sand, scrub rocks 3-5 times a day

Oh yeah, also if it is relevant, I turned off my UV lighting completely about 3 months ago. (Have a newborn and want to protect his eyes)

 

[gbru316]

@TexanReefer - how's the tank looking today?

 

[TexanReefer]

@TexanReefer - how's the tank looking today?

Seems to be a setback today

 

[gbru316]

Seems to be a setback today

I scrubbed my back wall yesterday. It looks similar to yours today, only 24 hours later.

I'm going to give ozone a try. There's some indication that it might work. So I ordered an ozone generator from Amazon today. It was only $40, figured it'd be a good tool to have, even if it doesn't wipe out the dinos. I'll just plug it into an Apex EB832 outlet and turn the outlet off if ORP rises too far.

 

[TexanReefer]

I scrubbed my back wall yesterday. It looks similar to yours today, only 24 hours later.

I'm going to give ozone a try. There's some indication that it might work. So I ordered an ozone generator from Amazon today. It was only $40, figured it'd be a good tool to have, even if it doesn't wipe out the dinos. I'll just plug it into an Apex EB832 outlet and turn the outlet off if ORP rises too far.

I just siphoned my sand down to the sump where the UV pulls from, hopefully that helps a bit

 

[reefbandit]

dose live phyto start at 1/2 cup a day

 

[TexanReefer]

not seeing a ton of progress. I have decided to raise my tank from 78 degrees to 82 degrees

 

[gbru316]

not seeing a ton of progress. I have decided to raise my tank from 78 degrees to 82 degrees

I've been scrubbing my rocks, glass, and stirring sand 2-3x a day in an attempt to get them into the water column and through the UV. Between that and the reduced intensity blue spectrum lighting, things are looking pretty good on my end. Though I can tell that if I reduced the scrubbing things would be right back to terrible.

Dino-X and Ozone generator arrive tomorrow, pods arrive on Friday. I'm going to give the pods and ozone a week -- if they're not able to nip this in the bud by next weekend (7/23), I'm dosing dino-x.

Edit - No3 and Po4 measurements:
No3: 14.1
Po4: 0.03 ppm

Dosing some neophos to bring Po4 back up. Also going to do a 10% water change tomorrow, No3 is rising a bit more than I really want it to.

 

[TexanReefer]

Update 7/14. Dinos looking OK?
Seeing some green algae starting to grow on the rocks

 

[taricha]

thank y'all for doing this.

If UV is in place, then a short blackout (<48hr) or two to push the cells into the water can be very helpful. Prorocentrum are more comfortable hanging out where they are, than say ostreopsis.