My experience with Dinoflagellates

[patricklhc]

Hi guys,

Though of sharing my experience battling this pain in the neck bacterial(some call it algae)

Due to the high po4 leaching from who knows where po4 went up to an alarmingly high level.

It started off with the usual brown looking "algae" which I I just brush it off thinking it's just diatoms since my tank is new so I assume that it's just another NTS(this is my 4th tank) totally ignoring it and simply continue with my usual weekly routine maintaining the tank doing WC testing my mg ca and kh dosing. I was lazy to test my po4 assuming ultraphos will take care of it.

Slowly as these brown "algaes" started to have bubbles growing within patches and patches I took a closer look and realize they have already evolved into string like algae with some growing on and over my sps!!

After lots of online checks and asking around other reefers it was more or less confirm its dinoflagellates BUT nobody gives me a sure fire answer in solving it. What I read online is that dinoflagellates has got a total of don't know how many identify spices and difference spices has a different method against them.

I got solution from friendly friends and reefer like off light for 3 days, feed less, siphon them everyday increase water flow etc etc everything tried but nothing works. I was on the verge of restarting the whole tank!!

Someone told me to try algae X from fauna marin. It's specifically target at Dino and some algae which I didn't bother to know since dinoflagellates is my target. Went to iwarna to get bottle from bro fuel. Here really want to thank him for his great advice. He told me to settle my high PO4 before using otherwise it will not work.

As I'm lazy and didn't want to keep changing ultraphos to save money true enough after half a bottle of dosing, these dinoflagellates show no sign of going away. So end up LL just keep changing Ultraphos in higher than recommended volume( usually not recommended because sudden drop in po4 can be damaging to sps) but I was desperate and I couldn't care much. But anyway thankfully other than some frags STN majority of my sps are all ok.

So once PO4 is stable at a lower reading of 0.05-0.00ppm dosing of algae X resumed. Until today this point I don't know how many weeks past I won't say I have won the battle yet. But there are definitely signs of dinoflagellates reducing and not growing back in masses on area where I siphon them. They use to grow back fast but now still grow back fast but much lesser.

I think I am on my way to victory but I'm prepared for unforeseen events leading to dinoflagellates beating me flat down. I will update here again on final winner of this battle...

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[Pacman]

Wah bro it's a long but detailed write out. Bravo. After reading ur post I realized I also have this brown colour stuffs covering the rocks and even sand. Same as its my tank is also new. Qtn here. How long from the brown stuff to the nightmare?

[patricklhc]

About 1 week? They are really nightmare. How long have U been getting them?

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[Pacman]

It's already 2 months with these brown stuffs growing on rocks and sand

[patricklhc]

Show us a pic? Maybe can better help ID what is it

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[Pacman]

And I read a post by a Afghanistan reefer Goldiou, If I got the name right, describing these Dino stuffs and remedies on them. Have u tried any? And coming back to mine. Wat do u thing my brown stuffs could be? Thanks

[xiggie]

I had them Dinos for close to 3 months , when the time is right they will go away. nitrate ,phosphate and silicate . When these 3 goes away so will they

[patricklhc]

I don't know about this reefer post so didn't know what method he as haha. But back to yours for 2months I suspect it's just brown algae or diatoms which are not as tedious to deal with as long as with the usual stuff most reefers will tell u reduce feeding do major wc keep your tank nutrient low etc etc etc

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[Pacman]

Sorry I'm still figuring how to attach a picture.

[patricklhc]

I pm you my number U send to me I help u post here

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[Admiraltian]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1620464

Can try this. Dunno if it will work though.

[Pacman]

Finally. Is that the same?

[Pacman]

Try again

[Pacman]

Sorry attached wrong pic

[patricklhc]

Try again

Wow that's a beautiful sps!! Is it for sale??

Anyway yours look like cyano looks red

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[Pacman]

So is it deadly? And any suggestion to get rid of it?

[patricklhc]

Not deadly as compared to Dino haha check your nutrient like no3 and po4. Reduce feeding increase your nutrient export siphon out as much as you can and do a major wc

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[patricklhc]

Not deadly as compared to Dino haha check your nutrient like no3 and po4. Reduce feeding increase your nutrient export siphon out as much as you can and do a major wc

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[ngjaso]

How's the digging with dinofla? I'm now having the same problem. Is algae x working?

[patricklhc]

It has been cleared have not see them for about a week now. Yes algaeX is working but have to really remove po4 to low level.

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[Dez Ching]

Hi bro Patricklhc, can I know if the Dino algae you meant looked red, or even some dark red and patches with air bubbles being trapped beneath? When you brushed it off, it came off it flakes rather than dissolved? I have such a problem, but not sure if it's similar to yours. Just started only recently. But further to it, my live rocks started to have air bubbles on its surface each time I come home from work... Does anyone has this problem and can advise?

[patricklhc]

They look dark red to brown. Yes there are bubbles and in flakes. Why not u post a pic ?

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[Dez Ching]

I certainly will take some pictures to verify with you all tonight when I get back home. Just to confirm that the ID is right and I get down to reducing the PO4 that's in my tank. I have 2 types of such now in my tank. One is brown slime that have air trapped on the tip, and they go dangling and swaying from the Live rocks, similar feel like a tight-down hot air balloon. The other is reddish patches from light red to dark red that has bubble trapped within them and flakes off releasing the bubbles when brushed off by hands. I saw that raising PH might help too right? In anyway, these are really some nuisance to me as I have to get my hands wet each time I got home.

[FuEl]

Sometimes solution is very simple. Just check that DI water TDS is acceptable and try a better brand of salt mix. That is the root cause for most dino/cyano issues. There are other elements that cause cyano/dino blooms, not just nitrates and phosphates.

[Angel Keeper]

One sounds like dino and the other sounds like cyano. Both are easily cleared with increased flow.

Angel Keeper