My fight with Dinoflagellates

Surfzone · Jan 30, 2020

So I have what I believe to be Dinoflagellates in my 30g system. I started treating with Dr. Tim's Waste Away about 4 days ago so that's 2 treatments so far. I'm not running any UV and this came on with a NO3 of 64 and a PO4 of 0.06. since dosing Waste Away those numbers have come down to NO3 of 16 and a PO4 of 0.02, so be careful with that stuff if you go that way.

DesertReefT4r · Jan 30, 2020

Eww yeah. I would get a UV on the display asap. No3 and po4 are way out of balance, or a bad test kit.

Surfzone · Feb 5, 2020

i'm about two weeks into treating with Waste Away and it has made a big impact with dinos. I would say that it has knocked them back by about half. Still a little ways to go but i'm liking this treatment

Surfzone · Feb 5, 2020

I was able to find my microscope and this is what I found. Any idea on species?

bdare · Feb 10, 2020

Looks like Ostreopsis

nickkohrn · Feb 10, 2020

I just beat them in my system with the help of a UV sterilizer since they were identified as Ostreopsis, which seems to be what you have.

After a few days of running a UV sterilizer, I noticed a Montipora frag with some missing tissue. I put it under the microscope and saw dinoflagellates clinging to it.

Surfzone · Feb 13, 2020

I did some testing today and my NO3 is at 32 ppm on red sea, and my PO4 is at 0. The dinos are going away more and more, but i cannot get PO4 up. Any ideas on how to do this? Do I need to dose PO4? I feed a whole cube of food a day to a 30 gallon system.

edit: I also added an Aqua UV to the tank and has made a major dent in the dinos

bdare · Feb 13, 2020

Surfzone said:
I did some testing today and my NO3 is at 32 ppm on red sea, and my PO4 is at 0. The dinos are going away more and more, but i cannot get PO4 up. Any ideas on how to do this? Do I need to dose PO4? I feed a whole cube of food a day to a 30 gallon system.

You can definitely dose PO4. Easiest way is to buy something like Seachem flourish phosphorus. You can also buy dry ingredients and mix your own solutions. It is much cheaper, but also the dosing amount can be a little bit more confusing.