Red slime Vs. Dinoflaggelates (sp?)

[Keri]

As long as they won't Help the dinos I'd like to leave them on at least at night, I feel bad for the fish!

[Reefer Rob]

I don't think the lights out treatment for 2-3 days will do anything for Dinoflagellates. You're going to have to starve them out. Very aggressive GFO will help a lot, along with filter socks, rinsing food well, reduced feeding, etc, etc.

Along with Phosphates, GFO also removes Silicates, so I would change it weekly for a month and see what happens. Have you checked your source water for Silicates?

BTW Dinoflagellates will have a whip tail under the microscope.

Rob

[Keri]

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

I don't think the lights out treatment for 2-3 days will do anything for Dinoflagellates. You're going to have to starve them out. Very aggressive GFO will help a lot, along with filter socks, rinsing food well, reduced feeding, etc, etc.

Sorry, what's GFO?

Along with Phosphates, GFO also removes Silicates, so I would change it weekly for a month and see what happens. Have you checked your source water for Silicates?

The silicates test was negative. I have live rock and live sand (aragonite, caribsea) in there. What would other sources be? I use RO/DI water.

BTW Dinoflagellates will have a whip tail under the microscope.

Rob

Thank-you! I'll get drew to bring me a sample today and I will try to post pictures from under the scope.

[fkshiu]

GFO is granualar ferric oxide - used to control phosphates usually in a phosphate reactor. Sold under brandnames such as Phosban or Rowaphos or it can be purchased in bulk.

[Reefer Rob]

Test your RO/DI water for silicates as well. Apparently the DI resin is not the best for removing silicates.

IMO it's more of a phosphate issue anyway. Your tests won't show any phosphate (or silicate) because it's bound up in the Dynos (or algae, cyano etc.) The trick is to have something to absorb the phosphate as whatever your battling dies off.

A 2 to 3 day blackout will definitely help but it won't do the job on it's own. You need to get the chemicals out of the water. If you don't the dynos will just use them to start all over again.

[Keri]

It makes sense that the readings are 0 if they are all bound up....hmmm...well, I turned the light on *briefly* just to check out the situation and it looks like the stuff is dying, just bits of "dirty crud" floating around in the corners, kinda dead looking. My xenias were like 'LIGHT! Oh BLESSED LIGHT!" and started to unfurl right away so I shut the light off right away again, I'll give it another day, it's definately helping short term. As for the rowaphos.... I'm on the coast and won't get to Vancouver to purchase any for maybe a week BUT.... I do have a sea-chem product called PhosGuard that i can put in the HOB filter i use to run carbon, is that better than nothing? (I had bought it last time I was in town to buy the phosphate test but didn't end up using it because of the 0 reading.

Anyhow, i had drew deliver me some "primo scum" from the tank, bits of the brown snot itself and I checked them out under the scope (40 - 1000 power) and the primary "creatures" seem to be these browninsh ovals that look suspiciously like dinoflagellates... *sad face* and long chains of...cyano? algae? Lots of other cool worms and swimmers too.
ANY AND ALL COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!




I think these are bad...

[fkshiu]

Seachem phosguard is very effective at removing phosphate. The problem is that it is aluminium-based (as opposed to iron-based like GFO) and there are reports of corals reacting adversely to it. You can mail-order GFO in bulk from several sources including one of the site sponsors, bulkreefsupply.com.

[Reefer Rob]

I can't find any pictures on the web of the Dinoflagellates that plague aquariums, but I don't see anything that looks like flagella on those cells. Could it be an algae?

Cool pictures!

[Keri]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

Seachem phosguard is very effective at removing phosphate. The problem is that it is aluminium-based (as opposed to iron-based like GFO) and there are reports of corals reacting adversely to it. You can mail-order GFO in bulk from several sources including one of the site sponsors, bulkreefsupply.com.

Hmmm... well, Poop!
Ok, maybe I'll order it, tho if I were to go in friday it would probably get here sooner... is it all corals? i have mostly SPS and softies, only one LPS (hammer) I'll look into it. I should have bought the rowaphos when i was in town last! I had it in my hand!! But i grabbed the phosGuard because it came in little convenient ready-to-go bags and I was in a rush.... lol oh well.

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

I can't find any pictures on the web of the Dinoflagellates that plague aquariums, but I don't see anything that looks like flagella on those cells. Could it be an algae?

Cool pictures!

I know that I didn't see any flagella either but due to the depth of field once i got it up to 10x100 it was very hard to make ANYthing out in detail. i should have stained a sample, when looking at other samples that's the only time I can photograph flagella. Maybe I'll try a stained slide tomorrow.


On a side note, I've gotten a tentative ID of Prorocentrum lima here is a picture from the web:

I'm not seeing such a clearly defined central organ in my pics ut it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that they were at least in the same family.
I don't see any flagellum on these either. Perhaps they are very tiny? or the name is misleading?

[reptile guy]

I had it once and turned out the lights for a week plus stopped feeding and used phosphate drops to eliminate whatever phosphate was in the tanks and it disappeared and hasn't been back since. I initially tried water changes and that just seemed to fuel it more and from what I've read water changes are a bad idea cause the dinos will feed on the new trace elements in the salt. I basically starved it off from all the major areas it thrives light, phosphates and lack of trace elements and worked quite well for me.