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Unread 08/22/2015, 08:45 PM   #1590
34cygni
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 59
Quote:
Originally Posted by DNA
Here in Iceland are less than 50 reefers and I've heard none of them is able to keeps SPS healthy and they tend to end up dead.
From the photos they post it looks like almost all of them have dinos. The LFS included.
They are in denial or don't have a clue about what is going on. Same goes for the rest of the reefers in the world so it's normal.

There is only one exception, a reef on the opposite of the scale. An outgrown SPS tank where unicorns and rainbows live.
I imported seeded live rock from that tank earlier this year without success.
Quote:
Originally Posted by karimwassef
So I think it is not a magical 'thing' in his system. It is his system.
Quote:
Originally Posted by karimwassef
Things I would stay away from...
Any heavy duty phosphate removers like Lanthanum Chloride.
Mixed on GFO- I'd take it offline.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Montireef
After 6 months dealing with ostreopsis and amphidinium, here are my findings:
...
- They can be easily triggered by a drop in PO4, specially when rapid.
...
I have no doubt as well that the use of PO4 resins like Phosguard are one of the triggering factors when talking about dino blooms. Every time I have used it I have noticed an increase in ostreopsis and amphidinum.
Quote:
11/24/2014, 06:15 PM #449
LelandF.
Ive been in this hobby a very long time, and I honestly can't remember many people having problems with, or having dinoflagellates at all in the past. What has changed to allow dinoflagellates to thrive in our tanks? GFO was not used then, and I'm wondering if using too much GFO and having ultra low nutrient levels in our tanks are giving the dinos everything they need to thrive, since there seems to be a very common problem with them in the last 10 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 34cygni
Trends in the hobby seem to have converged to create systems that are tailor-made for dinos: ULN is their preferred competitive environment, we're providing what is probably the ideal sort of sand for organisms that love sand, and then we fill the sand up with detritus and bacteria. If you build it, they will come.

So what do we do about this?


Quote:
Originally Posted by Quiet_Ivy
-People adding copepods are probably doing the right thing. They are the most efficient predator on dinos.
...
Eutrophication is actually my goal-many infauna have direct reproduction. Flatworms are the harmless acoel type, not planaria. Hydroids are jellies yes but not too worried about them. I am trying to reproduce what happens during the initial cycle without actually boosting ammonia. I hope to see a sucession of organisms, putting dinos in their place. I have undetectable N and P STILL.
Quote:
04/14/2015, 01:29 PM #948
Montireef

I still have some ostreopsis visible only the microscope. I am fostering further biodiversity and getting a lot of micro critters by dosing big amounts of phytoplankton and aminoacids (copepods, snails, amphipods, tube-worms...). I dose 100 ml phytoplankton per day (nanochloropsis, Isochrysis and tetraselmis) with a peristaltic pumps in a very linear way (a squirt every hour).

The first days I got a little spike of dino-snot but now it seems to have come to a balanced situation and ostreopsis is clearly vanishing even in full sun light and doing WC.

Never got better results and so easily. I bet it is a matter of time to fully get rid of this pest.



04/20/2015, 02:11 PM #968
Montireef

Quote:
Originally Posted by yeldarbj
If you want a permanent solution, then I'd suggest nutrients, nutrients, nutrients. I've been skimmerless for 10 months now and dino free (ostreospsis) for 8 months. I run a small home made algae turf scrubber for filtration and have a full sps tank. Algae is your friend and the dino's enemy.

I agree, if I switch on my skimmer I get a dino bloom a few days later.
Now I am dosing KNO3 and everything looks better. I have no algae anyway, not even the smallest one, they just don't thrive although my big tank (600 gal) sits in the sun (it is outside the house).


04/22/2015, 01:41 AM #975
Montireef

After 6 months dealing with ostreopsis and amphidinium, here are my findings:

- Some dinos are almost always in our tanks, they just don't thrive (amphidinum). Others are caught.
- They can be easily triggered by a drop in PO4, specially when rapid.
- The best way to deal and get rid of them is competition. Foster other forms of life, specially algae that needs some PO4 to thrive. If you are lucky you can get other kind of dinoflagellates like oxyhrris marina and beat them very fast.
- Some kind of them form cysts and therefore are really difficult to get rid of. They can disappear for months and suddenly show up again if conditions are favorable.
- Stong flows help them spread and make the problem worse.
- Nutrient depletion slow them down but won't help on the long run. It is better to foul the water slowly increasing feedings and stopping waterchanges, this is food for dinos, but also for competitors that eventually will suffocate them.

As an example of this I am succesfully getting rid of ostreopsis by dosing large amounts of phytoplankton. No algae at all and water is pristine; NO3 and PO4 are still undetectable but high enough to permit other forms of life like copepods, worms, amphipods...



05/01/2015, 05:05 AM #1014
Montireef

I am sure now.
After six months and five ostreopsis blooms the best strategy to fight these dinos is just foster other living forms.

A month ago I started dosing phytoplankton gel on a 120 ml/day basis (split in 24 doses with a peristaltic pump to avoid nutrient peaks and maintain a constant amount over time). Two weeks later I started to see thousands of pods, little snails, worms...and no algae at all. NO3 and PO4 tests keep at undetectable levels thought the heavy phytoplankton feeding (because all the new critters keep up with it and nothing is being accumulated). These pods and snails ate ostreopsis clumps like crazy and now my 600 gal system is dino and algae free, thousands of copepods, red planaria, collonista snails...even trochus snails are breeding (I have seen some baby trochus).

Other thing that helped me a lot was switching off the skimmer.

I have no doubt as well that the use of PO4 resins like Phosguard are one of the triggering factors when talking about dino blooms. Every time I have used it I have noticed an increase in ostreopsis and amphidinum.

My tanks sit in the sun, in Spain. I was concerned about the increase of light and rise of temperatures now in spring time. But I still don't see any dinoflagellates anywhere.

I will keep dosing phytoplankton but I will lower down the dose to 80 ml/day
Quote:
Originally Posted by cal_stir
Po4 did increase from phyto to .05 but am slowly bringing it back down to .03, no3 is 4 ppm.
The diverse micro fauna/plankton was the key but the phytoplankton was the nail in the coffin IMO.

Meanwhile...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Quiet_Ivy
Trend here is very very much Berlin style, ulns, biopellets type systems.
Quelle surprise.

I know you guys started out looking for a fix for dinos, but has it occurred to any of you that you've basically concluded that ULNS reefing is a dead end?


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