War of the Worlds (Dinoflagellates)

[cecjr55]

I discovered what I am fairly certain are some variety of dinoflagellates about 6 days ago. This, my second tank, is a 70G display with 30G sump five month old mixed reef tank. There are 6 fish and a mix of SPS and LPS, and inverts. This dino bloom has killed most of the snails and the pistol shrimp
So far the corals are ok although the Slipper Coral looks kind of puny and will not fully extend. Water chemistry for nutrients measured zero probably phosphates were bound up by the dinoflagellates. There was no nuisance algae in the tank. I tried raising the PH (with Kalk), Reducing light and siphoning. I could not keep up with the bloom. Today I moved all the livestock and live rock with attached livestock (anemones or softies) to the empty quarantine tank. I rinsed the remaining rock and put it in buckets with salt water while I clean the display and sump. While I was gone for a few hours today these macro vegetation structures formed in the display tank. Well I would include a url but the site won't let me. If you go to conrads.smugmug.com/other/aquarium/70-G you will find pictures of the tank before and after this attack.

So now my worries are:

1. How to prevent the occurrence of the bloom. Though I got most of the dino vegetation off and out of the tank I am sure there are remnants. H2O2?
2. I am planning a 72 hour black out when the tank is back up.
3. GFO and GAC. I was running GFO for the last week then the sponges clogged with Dino debris.
4. I am not convinced this specie of dinoflagellate is sensitive to ph. Earlier in the week I tried that and it got worse.

If anyone has ideas let me know.

 

[vio]

make sure you siphon the sandbed real good, u need a protein skimmer, use filter sock ( 200 micron) increase water flow in future. if u got lots of snails remove half.replace the active carbon every 2-3 days. reduce feeding. buy good nitrate, PO4 test (Red sea, nitrate) Hanna for PO4.

 

[cecjr55]

Thanks for your feedback. I am running a protein skimmer now with a sock but I will add a finer sock filter than what I have. Flow is 8X when the sump is not gummed up with dinoflaggelates.

If you checked the pics the pumps were off and I had gone out for dinner. When I returned those tree like structures had formed in the still water. I have been siphoning the sand bed for many hours... ug. It is starting to look normal. I remain concerned about re-occurrence when the live rock is reintroduced. I am also a bit concerned about a mini cycle happening because of the large water change.

BTW I am using Red Sea and Hanna still measured 0 Nitrates and 0 phosphates. I will restart GAC as you suggest. Most of the snails are dead. There are probably less than 10 that remain alive. They are presently in the quarantine tank with the rest of the livestock.

 

[KurtL]

I restarted my tank twice because of these. Almost left the hobby too. Come to think of it I dont remember what I did to get rid of them......crap.

 

[vio]

"Most of the snails are dead." make sure u remove the shells out, not even try to smell one, water flow is very important, use pumps like Ecotech Marine Vortech MP40W ES Propeller Pump, Tunze , not the ones like Jacuzzi (power jets) the biggest is the propeller the more water move .

 

[Mattl22]

Dino's r terrible I fought them in my first 75 gal and nothing seemed to work I did stop adding bacteria and vodka then removed as much as I could manually
Then did waterchanges like crazy even though I read that some ppl thought waterchanges made it worse!
Good luck I think eventually they just died off in my tank ran there corse took ) months

 

[mdenesha]

Thanks for your feedback. I am running a protein skimmer now with a sock but I will add a finer sock filter than what I have. Flow is 8X when the sump is not gummed up with dinoflaggelates.

If you checked the pics the pumps were off and I had gone out for dinner. When I returned those tree like structures had formed in the still water. I have been siphoning the sand bed for many hours... ug. It is starting to look normal. I remain concerned about re-occurrence when the live rock is reintroduced. I am also a bit concerned about a mini cycle happening because of the large water change.

BTW I am using Red Sea and Hanna still measured 0 Nitrates and 0 phosphates. I will restart GAC as you suggest. Most of the snails are dead. There are probably less than 10 that remain alive. They are presently in the quarantine tank with the rest of the livestock.

Hey - how did your tank turn out?

I recently set up a 12 Gal Nano - after it finished cycling I started to get algae growth and thought it was cyano/diatoms as part of the cycle, but today I realized there was quite a few bubbles in the algae - googled it - and it led me to the world of dino... ugh!

I'm hoping you worked through it, and do you have any advice???

 

[cecjr55]

With aggressive siphoning, 72 hour black out, GAC and Carbon, maximum circulation and frequent water changes (25-30%) I beat them back. However I had heavy losses in the clean up crew. I was using a Next Reef external reactor to run the carbon about 2-3 weeks later the seal where the cylinder meets the bottom plate failed while I was at work. Roughly 25-35 gallons of water leaked onto the floor and into my neighbor's apartment, the Tunze sensed low water in the sump and ran all the top off water in the reservoir through the Kalk reactor and overdosed the tank. When I got home from work the Ph in the display tank was 9.5 most LPS were dead, 2 fish dead (Wrass and Hippo Tang), two pumps including the skimmer were seized from calcium. I had a serious thought of packing this in.

Today the tank is up with good stable chemistry, the softies, Zoas, Turban and remaining fish Clowns/Gobies/Damsel seem happy. I was thinking of adding some LPS next weekend but tonight I saw Dino-Flagellates in the tank. Not and infestation like before but they are definitely back. I return to siphoning, blackout etc...