Will it truly ever go away? Dinoflagellates vs. Metronidazole

[twilliard]

Your dinoflagellate population is looking a little thin there!

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

Now this was cool. I though it was a worm I caught in the sample when placing it on the slide. the vid to come soon...

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

Your dinoflagellate population is looking a little thin there!

There's definitely a decrease. And the live mobile ones I found are looking different from what I've seen before. Vid's coming now and hopefully they can show that.

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

This little guy thought he was a pulsar

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

Can see they are getting more transparent

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

The Phlegethon!

 

[jason2459]

Video #13 above is pretty cool too. At first I thought I found a tiny flat worm but this sucker has legs and moves pretty quick.

 

[taricha]

Video #13 above is pretty cool too. At first I thought I found a tiny flat worm but this sucker has legs and moves pretty quick.

Yeah. It's a red ciliate with "walking" cilia underneath (therefore hypotrich.) I can always find bunches of them in a sample of cyano in my system.
Wish I could find a good ID for it. But hypotrich ciliates are a crazy bunch.
Rather, I've found people calling ciliates that look a lot like that by several different names.

 

[jason2459]

Run down Update
Prep

• Dumped in enough food to cause a massive outbreak of cyano and dinos that would normally last at least 1-2 months

Before Dosing

• Turned off Automatic Water Changes
• Took out GAC (would have taken out any GFO too if I had any)
• No ozone (same would apply to UV or dosing H2O2)
• Cut carbon dosing in half
• Tuned down the skimmer but kept it aerating the water
• Kept ATS online
• Kept ATO online
• Kept feeding as normal (a lot)

Day 1 (Night of June 28th)

• 5 grams Metroplex dosed
• (This works out to around 250mg per 10 gallons per day.)

Day 2 (Night of June 29th)

• 5 grams Metroplex dosed

Day 3 (June 30th)

• 5 grams (20 pills) Aquazole dosed
• sample under microscope shows active peridinium dinos

Day 4 (July 1st)

• Added filter sock.(100 micron felt. 4" ring by 14" length)
• Blew of all surfaces
• Changed sock
• Brought skimmer back online
• 5 grams Aquazole dosed

Day 5 (July 2nd)

• Changing filter sock 3 times per day
• Blowing off all surfaces in the evening
• Minor grow back of visual dinos
• extremely minor to no growth back of cyano
• 5 grams Aquazole dosed

Day 6 (July 3rd)

• 5 grams Aquazole dosed.
• Very minor growth again.
• Changing out 100 micron felt sock 3x per day still.
• Blowing off all surfaces at night

Day 6 (night of July 4th)

• Very minor growth again.
• Changing out 100 micron felt sock 3x per day still.
• Blowing off all surfaces at night

• Samples show no recognizable or moving peridinium dinos. A lot more much smaller flagelet phytoplankton of some kind.
• No dosing done

Day 7 (July 5th)

• 5 grams Metroplex dosed
• No blowing off of surfaces done
• Skimmer still online
• Filter sock changed out twice
• Very minor amounts of visual dino growth on rocks

Day 8 (July 6th)

• 5 grams Metroplex dosed
• No blowing off of surfaces done
• Skimmer still online
• Filter sock changed out twice
• Extremly minor amounts of visual dino growth on rocks
• No real change to nitrates or phosphates through out. Possible slight increase in PO4 tontoni

Day 9 (July 7th)

• I didn't blow anything off again
• Changed filter socks twice today
• Found some mobile but slight off looking peridinium dinos
• Cleaned off ATS where the dinos were found
• Dosed 5 grams MetroPlex (dose 8 fyi)

Day 10 (July 8th)

• Dosed 5 grams MetroPlex (dose 9)
• Changed filter socks twice
• No blowing off surfaces

Day 11 (July 9th)

• Dosed 5 grams MetroPlex (last dose #10)
• Changed Filter socks twice
• No blowing off surfaces
• No noticeable difference in dino bubbles (extremely small amount)
• Some very minor cyano growth noticed

 

[jason2459]

Day 12 (July 10th)

• I was going to start blowing off surfaces today but failed to get the time
• Filter sock lasted all day from 7am to the time I changed it sometime after 11pm and wasn't overflowing. First time its lasted more then 12 hours with out overflowing.
• Nothing else has changed and no more dosing
• The tiny amount of cyano growth noticed yesterday didn't get any larger or spread anywhere else
• Noticed a very tiny amounts of dino bubbles.

I'll have to try and look at a sample tomorrow night.

 

[jason2459]

The cyano I noticed yesterday growing a tiny bit has receeded. I only found one small spot with a hint of dino bubbles

 

[jason2459]

I took a look under the scope tonight. First I looked at those bubbles in that first picture above right by the BTA.

I found a couple but not moving at all.

Then I grabbed a sample from inside the Turbo aquatics ATS that I found several mobile ones before.

I found one single healthy looking mobile one. Then some very pale/clearish almost bleached looking ones that were mobile. And possibly some encysted and possibly a couple encysted being attacked by bacteria.

Uploading pics and vids. Will get posted tomorrow.

Didn't get around to blowing things off at all again today.