My amphidinium learning and acceptance

[devocole]

240 gallon tank started 18 months ago.

Dr. Tims bacteria and ammonia start. Mostly sterile start. Some small pieces of live rock and sand from my 5 year system. Added many bottled bacteria: Many bottles of Microbacter 7. 12 bottles of Pink Fusion and purple helix. Some others. Transported microfauna from my other systems and the fish store. Macroalgae from my other systems and Algae barn. Good fish load.

Got rusty colored dinos in the sand.

Before getting a scope to ID. Attempted the Dr Tims method with 1 week blackout, UV sterilizer, hydrogen peroxide dosing, over dosing chemiclean. No expense spared.

Then Identified as Amphidinium with scope. Yuk

Went through 15 bottles sponge excel and at one point my sand was white. Thought it was cured. Saw only diatoms in the scope. Amazing.

Then back it comes. Not as thick, but resilient and everywhere. My nitrates are 25 my phosphates are 0.1. Good stable KH with reactor. Now I have pharmacy grade 35% sodium silicate. Dosing a cap daily. Still little change.

It really does feel helpless. I’m not willing to remove the sand. The only creatures it has taken is astrea snails, conch, and smooth shelled turbo snails. They all flip themselves over and pray for death. Spiny turbos have no problem. So it isn’t that toxic. My sand is nothing but holes and tunnels dug by pods. Fish poop is shredded and disappears in moments from all the crawling critters I have. Its a healthy tank. But this amphidinium can prevail through it all.

I have learned to not be afraid of algae and diversity from the start. Nothing could be worse then this relatively dry start that I have experienced.

If anyone knows of a live ocean rock vendor shipping to Canada? I would like to know.

My best advice is to ID your pest with certainty before treating. Saves time, money and headache.


Cheers and may you be without pests.

 

[P-Dub]

Sage advice!

 

[Lavey29]

Sounds like you are making wise decisions. How about some good bacteria in there? I'm a huge proponent of PNS probio natural bacteria supplement.

 

[GarrettT]

Are you feeding coral foods (reef roids)? If so, you likely never be able to manage it. Dinos love this stuff. I had amphidiniums for over a year until silicate dosing. Went through a small bottle and the sand was clear within a month or two. If I add reef roids, it will come back, otherwise it plays nice.

 

[Lavey29]

Are you feeding coral foods (reef roids)? If so, you likely never be able to manage it. Dinos love this stuff. I had amphidiniums for over a year until silicate dosing. Went through a small bottle and the sand was clear within a month or two. If I add reef roids, it will come back, otherwise it plays nice.

With broadcast feeding roids?

 

[GarrettT]

With broadcast feeding roids?

Yes. One week after broadcasting a small amount I had an outbreak. After treating with silicates, it came back almost immediately once I started feeding it again.

When you are dealing with dinos and trying to raise po4, you want to dose, not feed. I use nori to raise no3 without issue.

 

[devocole]

Sounds like you are making wise decisions. How about some good bacteria in there? I'm a huge proponent of PNS probio natural bacteria supplement.

Okay. Never tried it. I'll look into it. Thanks

 

[devocole]

Are you feeding coral foods (reef roids)? If so, you likely never be able to manage it. Dinos love this stuff. I had amphidiniums for over a year until silicate dosing. Went through a small bottle and the sand was clear within a month or two. If I add reef roids, it will come back, otherwise it plays nice.

I have the plank auto feeder that does a 1 minute feed of reef jerky once per day, which may be similar in some ways. In a water volume of 240 gallons and mechanical filtration of 20 micron I doubt it would add a huge bioload. I do wash my frozen food before adding. Why do you think the amphidinium thrive from this?

 

[GarrettT]

Yes. I too have used reef jerky and had the same results. Whenever I added it, bubbles started to pop up. I used a very small amount and only added 2x per week. I don’t have this issue with fish pellets (new life spectrum).
IME you will need to dose silicates again to reduce the dino population. Withholding reef food won’t eliminate it, but once gone, it should prevent it from coming back. This is assuming you have some po4 and no3 in the water. I keep my po4 at 0.03-0.05ppm and no3 at 2.5-5ppm without issue.

 

[GarrettT]

Why do you think the amphidinium thrive from this?

I don’t know the science behind it, but it’s well known for reef foods to encourage dino’s. A filtration sock won’t have any impact on controlling the population, especially the dino’s that cling to your sand. Stability is keep. Don’t vacuum the sandbed and don’t add any unnecessary products to the tank. Just focus on dosing silicate, no3, and po4 when needed.