Neptune Aquatics

Help with dinoflagellate ID and process

kinetic

kinetic

Supporting Member
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My Dinos are back, killing everything, blanketing everything. I never did a microscope check before, but here it is. Can someone help me identify and give me a good plan of attack?

In the past I tried increasing PO4/NO3 for weeks, and it just made the dinos worse. The way I "won" temporarily was I used DinoX and then started dosing NoPox and built up so much bacteria that nothing could basically live. Dinos were kept to a minimum. Then I stopped dosing NoPox for over a year and there were no issues, but then I started up my chaeto in my algae reactor and started dosing Brightwell Chaetogro. While my chaeto is growing, the dinos came back as well.

Here are the photos with a video as well:

My Microscope (a cheapo kids one I think)

xJztvkl.jpg


Best I could do with the microscope. It was shakey AF:

nYAluGW.jpg


A video of me trying to hold still as possible. This microscope doesn't have a way to keep things still, it's plastic and just has a single layer that I blooped some dinos onto. It's a drop of water that wiggles like a mofo. Sorry.

ocV26zr.mp4

https://imgur.com/ocV26zr
 
Doing research it looks like I need to do:

1. Water change, siphon as much out as possible
2. Run a UV
3. Blackout any white lights for 5 days, then start ramping back

Does that sound right?
 
Yep that tactic has worked for many people. When getting a UV imo there’s only 2 real options. Pentair and Aqua UV, both are great and I chose Aqua UV do to it’s price point being a bit easier to swallow as a good quality UV is not cheap but definitely don’t waste your money on the cheap ones as they are ineffective with what you need to accomplish.
 
The_Lazy_Reefer said:
Yep that tactic has worked for many people. When getting a UV imo there’s only 2 real options. Pentair and Aqua UV, both are great and I chose Aqua UV do to it’s price point being a bit easier to swallow as a good quality UV is not cheap but definitely don’t waste your money on the cheap ones as they are ineffective with what you need to accomplish.
Click to expand...
Yeah I already have an Aqua UV attached to my system, I just haven't used it in years (I had a crazy algae bloom where my water turned green). I just pulled the sleeve cleaner a few times and turned it on. Hopefully it'll do it's job.
 
Hmm, my UV is only an 8 watt.

This is what I have:
www.marinedepot.com

8 Watt Classic UV Sterilizer - White Body

Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizers will eradicate algae, bacteria, and protozoa without any harmful chemicals or additives! UV lamps emit a wavelength that will alter and disrupt the DNA or RNA of single-celled organisms. Combining the UV lamp into a large housing allows for maximum contact time...
www.marinedepot.com www.marinedepot.com

Do you think it's too underpowered?
 
kinetic said:
Yeah I already have an Aqua UV attached to my system, I just haven't used it in years (I had a crazy algae bloom where my water turned green). I just pulled the sleeve cleaner a few times and turned it on. Hopefully it'll do it's job.
Click to expand...
For what you want to do which is basically fry the little critters there’s a chart out there for how much flow to run through it but the jist of it is. Higher flow is great for keeping algae down and slower flow will disrupt protozoan reproduction. If you tell us total water volume and wattage of UV i can ballpark a flow rate for ya.
 
Yeah, 34 gallons, plus a bit here and there.

I'm using a Varios 2 pump running at about 250 gph (though it's a closed loop, there's a lot of loss because it travels through an algae reactor, chiller, and the UV filter).
 
It’s not too small and will work. Most things I’ve read require 180,000µw/cm2 to actually disrupt the dna of protozoan so with that size uv and about 30-35 gallons of water involved a flow rate of 100-150gph should be a good place to start. I’m hoping others can chime in and maybe we can get a more precise number but if not that’s a great place to start.
 
The_Lazy_Reefer said:
It’s not too small and will work. Most things I’ve read require 180,000µw/cm2 to actually disrupt the dna of protozoan so with that size uv and about 30-35 gallons of water involved a flow rate of 100-150gph should be a good place to start. I’m hoping others can chime in and maybe we can get a more precise number but if not that’s a great place to start.
Click to expand...

OK, no flow meter here, but I can probably do some math and fill up a measuring cup with a timer to see what my actual flow is coming out.
 
kinetic said:
Doing research it looks like I need to do:

1. Water change, siphon as much out as possible
2. Run a UV
3. Blackout any white lights for 5 days, then start ramping back

Does that sound right?
Click to expand...

I didn’t have a need to do a blackout. Problem was gone with just UV and regular light schedule. I did stir up the Dinos to get them into the water column whenever I passed by the tank. Problem was pretty much gone by day 4.
 
The_Lazy_Reefer said:
Yep that tactic has worked for many people. When getting a UV imo there’s only 2 real options. Pentair and Aqua UV, both are great and I chose Aqua UV do to it’s price point being a bit easier to swallow as a good quality UV is not cheap but definitely don’t waste your money on the cheap ones as they are ineffective with what you need to accomplish.
Click to expand...
Another good option is the Lifegard Pro-Max.
 
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