Finally recovering from Dinos. Anyone else? (1 Viewer)

[jamesw]

Did anyone else have a dinoflagellate bloom in May/june? I had a really bad one this year ant it killed a bunch of my snails and it caused all of my anemones to shrink up and even some to die. I even had 2 sps bleach and one eventually died.

I have noticed in my 12 years living in Houston that these blooms are pretty common in May/June. I did 2 or three massive water changes, but they didn't really help. Just had to wait it out and glad I didn't lose anything else.

Cheers
James

 

[Llama]

No dinos, but I did have cyano start up in my DT.

Glad to hear they went away. Sorry about the losses.

Have any input as to why those months cause the change?

 

[Guest]

There's a thread on RC about something like this. Guy was complaining that he would always get dinos around June/July every year for past 10 years.

 

[RGH69]

Ok, ok, What are Dino's?

 

[Llama]

Dinoflagellates - Very bad stuff that will plague your tank. Hard to get rid of most of the time.

 

[tmgrash]

No dino's here, guess I'll knock on some wood right now.

 

[rxonco]

I've noticed that dinos and cyano can be "seasonal" and cyclical also.

Could it be temperature related which might set it off. June/July is the time of year that we really see an increase in temperature outside. Many may therefore see the temp in their house increase by a few degrees which may play a role on the overall condition of the tank.

I really have nothing to back that up though.

 

[Timanator]

I've noticed that dinos and cyano can be "seasonal" and cyclical also.

:

There is alot of truth in that statement.

 

[jamesw]

Yep. They are dinoflagellates - the same little one celled guys that cause the poisonous red tide. They are definitely seasonal in the oceans and I think in our tanks too. It's probably related to temp, light cycle, or ?????

They looks sort of like diatoms in that they blanket everything w/ a brown coating, but they are more "gooey" than diatoms. They are toxic and if your snails eat them they will die. They seem to have really affected my anemones this year...

My temp didn't go up because my fishroom stays at a nice chilly temperature and the tank is between 78 and 80 all the time. So for me at least I don't think that's it.

What really pissed me off is that TWO 60% water changes within a week of eachother didn't help. So it wasn't just nutrient supply in the water but something else... unless it was in my Reefsalt.

Cheers
James

 

[Llama]

Did you change salt recently?

My cyano popped up as soon as I switched from IO to reefcrystals. That really pissed me off, but I'm just riding it out. It has stayed contained to a low flow area of the sandbed right near my elegance.

 

[paraletho]

Yes I had a pretty substantial bloom (June/July) in fact I'm hoping it is on the decline right now. I was carbon dosing with VSV for about 4 mths and have recently switched to NP Biopellets.

I am a biological technician for TPWD and we sampled for K brevis and other red tide organisms for a couple of years to support a study by UT. It is definately a nutrient thing to start a bloom but then a series of events have to fall into place to sustain it to the epic proportions of a RED TIDE event. I'll have to check I don't know if that paper ever went to publicaton yet. I would be curious to know the species of dino that hits our tanks.

 

[Ducksmasher]

RAWR! i still have fuzzy wuzzy rocks not to bad though. para: got me a ton of olive nerites the other day, and talked to RM.. Low DO's?

 

[paraletho]

Stayed up last night and added lime slurry enough to keep Ph at 8.25. My normal swing is down to 7.90 early morning to 8.2 in the late evening. It was a fight as there were like 10 little kids over for a slumber party or sumthin. Can anyone say CO2.

 

[rishma]

I used to have this problem when the weather got warm. Keeping the house closed and running AC causes CO2 to build up in the house. If have a controller and chart the pH through the year, you will see it is lowest during the hottest (and sometimes coldest) months.

Getting the pH up and keeping it up was the only way I successfully got rid of the dinos. I know others have been successful with water changes, etc, but dinos can thrive in a very low nutrient system. pH was the key for me.

if you can draw skimmer air from the outdoors it really does wonders for the pH. This worked great but I couldnt do it long term.

I use Kalk for all my top-off. One trick that helped night time pH was to put my top-off on a timer and a float switch. Nothing is topped off during the day when lights are on and pH is high. All the top-off is dosed during the night. It keeps the pH from dropping below 8.0. Since starting this, I have not had dino's for 2 summers.

If you are wondering if CO2 is high in your house, do the following: take a water sample in a cup and put you pH probe in. walk outside and stir is vigorously or run a air pump to bubble outside air through the sample. If the pH rises this indicates excess CO2 in the house. A tough issue to resolve in July in Houston.

 

[paraletho]

I already have a hole through the floor with external skimmer air. It helps but still not quite enough. I top off with limewater but I have the small BRS doser on an AC Jr so it takes all day and night running just to try and keep up with evap. I dose baked baking soda 6 times during the night with another doser and it keeps alk at 9.3 pretty steady. Helps with the Ph but still not quite enough. I had to give up the lime slurry the alk was 10 .3 this morning and I know it is going to burn some tips. I might have to look into ozonator or CO2 scrubber. Just what I need more stuff in the sump.

 

[jamesw]

All good advice.

I do all my topoff through a Kalk reactor so I think I'll put a rotary timer on there so that dosing is only done at night.

I also have a pretty "tight" fishroom and it's not getting a lot of outside air this time of year. I bet that has a lot to do w/ the Dino bloom come may/june.

Thanks for the ideas everyone!

Cheers
James