Dinoflagellates - dinos a possible cure!? Follow along and see!

[dansreef]

So....here is a second variety... This is a different shape as you can tell from the video. I was able to get a much better picture of it under higher magnification. Again, if someone can ID the variant I would appreciate it.

 

[dansreef]

So...a Quick couple of additional observations from Day 2.

- very little noticeable strands of DINOs in my DT. I am seeing strands in the sump coming off of the filter socks. I did a microscopic review and the type of DINOs is the more oblonged one in the previous picture.

- skimmate is very wet and a pea green. The odd odor is gone. Still smells like Krap....but there was something different with it yesterday. I did a microscopic review of the skimmate and the foam complex. DINOs of the variety in picture above were present in both. All appear live...

- sand has a dusty hue to it again. That is where I found the DINOs in the video I posted. This is very disappointing as this variant I know is hardy and toxic. This was what I battled hard for months...and ultimately lost a lot of corals. This variant is like a dust on rocks....sand...and basically everything.

- I heard someone say that DINOs may not affect fish. I lost some fish due to the initial outbbreak. I had a school of two spot cardinals that were pretty small. I also had a school of Antias... Fairly small... These fish seemed to be impacted by the DINOs when I started to do all of the things one tries... Blackouts, Raised PH.. H2O2, DinoX....etc. they may have died from toxins released from dying DINOs or from the treatments.

-third treatment this evening after lights go out.

So....I am treating at 125mg per 10gal. I have seen some here doing double that. I had planned a 10 -14 day regimine. Thoughts?

 

[twilliard]

So....here is a second variety... This is a different shape as you can tell from the video. I was able to get a much better picture of it under higher magnification. Again, if someone can ID the variant I would appreciate it.

That is the same as I have
I am on my last day of a 10 day treatment

 

[dansreef]

What dosage rate are you running and have dosed contiuallly for all 10 days?

 

[dansreef]

I also just ordered 500g of Metro from Jehmco. That should cover me for a full 10-14 days...and allow me to go to a higher dosage than the 5g MetroPlex. For $35... I am assuming it is 100% Metronidazole. Any suggestions on dosage??

 

[twilliard]

I dosed 125mg per 10 gallons for 7 days then upped it to 175mg on day 8 then upped it to 250mg for day 9 and 10
I am looking for potential overdose situations.
So far no negative reaction at 250mg per 10 gallons
Also I am not sure if it's legal to sell 100% metronidazole

 

[dansreef]

I dosed 125mg per 10 gallons for 7 days then upped it to 175mg on day 8 then upped it to 250mg for day 9 and 10
I am looking for potential overdose situation
So far no negative reaction at 250mg per 10 gallons
Also I am not sure if it's legal to sell 100% metronidazole

Are you using MetroPlex? I did not ask Jehmco what the % was....

 

[twilliard]

Are you using MetroPlex? I did not ask Jehmco what the % was....

I am using flagyl which is metronidazole

 

[Reefer1978]

Here's my update for day 12. I added another Metro dose last night. My observations:

Still plenty of moving dynos, and some unmoving ones. In the first picture, pretty much every single cell away from the mass is free moving. But, what is the big dark mass to the left of the picture?

If you guys recall, I am collecting dynos by hanging a clean tiny sheet of filter floor in the main tank in front of a powerhead. Filter floss is cleaned daly, so this is 24 hours of collection. I squeeze the floss into a container (second picture), then pull a sample under the microscope.

Second observation, there's absolutely no more toxic smell from the collected dynos. I have a very sensitive nose and usually could smell them feet away. Nothing now, even when I am smelling the collection cup directly.

 

[SandJ]

We ended up tearing down this tank because we could not defeat whatever was growing in it. Was this dinos? It looks completely different (growing and under the scope) than what is in our other tanks.

 

[twilliard]

We ended up tearing down this tank because we could not defeat whatever was growing in it. Was this dinos? It looks completely different (growing and under the scope) than what is in our other tanks.

I have seen this several times under the scope.
There is no visible digestive system or nucleus
I opt them to be single algae cells as the chloroplasts are obvious.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

We ended up tearing down this tank because we could not defeat whatever was growing in it. Was this dinos? It looks completely different (growing and under the scope) than what is in our other tanks.

Looks a lot like mine, which i'm still not 100% convinced are dinos. They start out as rust colored blobs much like yours, only mine are a deep rust color and yours appear golden. They can literally grow about an inch in a few hours. What's weird is I did the dino test where you place it in a bottle, shake it vigorously then put it in a cup under your tank light. Unlike the dinos I had last time, these never grouped back together which isn't surprising since they're motionless under the microscope. It's been an hour and they're still kind of clumpy sitting at the bottom of the glass, which is what you'd expect out of cyano when doing this test.

And here's some old pics, tank was about 1 month old at this point. Looks similar to yours aside from the color.

 

[RMS18]

So I gave in and did a water change as more and corals did not look happy. My purple sea fan is dead, it disintegrated as I touched it. Now my red one has not opened in a few days. So I did a water change and when I had the water in a white bucket it was really brown, i was in shick. The tank looks so much clearer. Even with the reactor going for 12 hours a day it wasent good enough for how polluted the water was. I also vacuumed the sand, I'm going to continue with the metro. Hopefully the water change will help save anything else that is on its way out.

 

[AdamC00]

I have dosed for 5 days. At the end of day 3, I did a siphon of all of the rocks. When I came home from work the next day, it looked like I had done nothing. I am noticing very little to no growth in my very high flow areas. Before, they would grow back anywhere, regardless of flow. So this is telling me that it is starting to work. Last night I used a powerhead to blow off all of the rocks and sand bed. I added extra filter floss to my overflow box and my sump. When I checked the tank this morning (all lights are off) it looked like the sand bed was pretty dirty. I am not sure if that is loose dinos or new growth. I will know more tonight when I get home and the lights are on. I am still hopeful this will work, but would have thought I would see better results halfway through.

 

[twilliard]

It took 10 days in our tank to notice a significant change
I know people are desperate to get rid of dinoflagellates but we still need to follow the rules of reefing... patients

 

[Reefer1978]

Todd any thoughts on the lack of toxic smell from my sample on day 12?

 

[twilliard]

Todd any thoughts on the lack of toxic smell from my sample on day 12?

If I remember right you are talking about the skimmer?
I do have a thought on this but I need to make sure that is what we are talking about.

 

[Reefer1978]

If I remember right you are talking about the skimmer?
I do have a thought on this but I need to make sure that is what we are talking about.

Nope just the regular dyno smell. If you have a fresh dyno sample, pinch some between your fingers and take it out of the tank. Normally there's a smell within 30 seconds of exposure with air.

At day 10 I still had this smell. Day 12 it's gone.

 

[twilliard]

Nope just the regular dyno smell. If you have a fresh dyno sample, pinch some between your fingers and take it out of the tank. Normally there's a smell within 30 seconds of exposure with air.

At day 10 I still had this smell. Day 12 it's gone.

That is interesting! I learned the hard way I can not pinch them between my fingers so I have never done that since.
Would you think this is related to cell degradation and the lack of toxin production?
What I can say is at the initial day 12 of my tank the smell in general was 100% better than before treatment.
I used heavy amounts of carbon to control the toxin levels are you using carbon now?

 

[twilliard]

Well I think I made a 7 day error
So for the first 7 days of dosing I was not adding what settled to the bottom of the beaker thinking it was unneeded excipients
Well I was stumped as why I was not seeing a drastic reduction of my dinoflagellates during the 7 days.
So on day 8 I started dumping it all in
Now I look 3 days later and the population is almost gone again!