Brown String Algae?

[JimboSlice]

Hi, I have a reoccurring problem with this Algae. What type of Algae is it? What's the best way to get rid of it? My local fish store recommended a UV sterilizer and I'd like other opinions before making a big purchase.

[jedimasterben]

Not an algae at all. Single celled organism called dinoflagellates. There is NO cure, no matter what you read or hear from anyone. You can mitigate their spread by a large (and I mean large, as in 30 watts or more depending on tank size) UV sterilizer, but again it's just mitigating their spread. Using a UV sterilizer with dinoflagellates will turn your water piss yellow as a side effect, even with a protein skimmer and good quality carbon.

[Cencalfishguy56]

Not an algae at all. Single celled organism called dinoflagellates. There is NO cure, no matter what you read or hear from anyone. You can mitigate their spread by a large (and I mean large, as in 30 watts or more depending on tank size) UV sterilizer, but again it's just mitigating their spread. Using a UV sterilizer with dinoflagellates will turn your water piss yellow as a side effect, even with a protein skimmer and good quality carbon.

This. Don't try fighting it you'll just be wasting your time and money, unless you want to go that route, better to break it down and start over

[Exodus]

This. Don't try fighting it you'll just be wasting your time and money, unless you want to go that route, better to break it down and start over

He's not kidding, I spent over a year trying every so called method in fighting Dino's, It's not worth the time and Effort at all. I ended up just tossing all my corals sterilizing everything then starting over. Wish I had just did it when I 1st noticed it rather than just slowly watching everything go to shit, would have saved me a lot of time and money. Adjusting pH, Peroxide, Blackouts, O2, Removing sandbed, heavy skimming...and the list goes on. I have tried it all, there is a reason this is one of the worlds oldest organisms.

[Cencalfishguy56]

He's not kidding, I spent over a year trying every so called method in fighting Dino's, It's not worth the time and Effort at all. I ended up just tossing all my corals sterilizing everything then starting over. Wish I had just did it when I 1st noticed it rather than just slowly watching everything go to shit, would have saved me a lot of time and money. Adjusting pH, Peroxide, Blackouts, O2, Removing sandbed, heavy skimming...and the list goes on. I have tried it all, there is a reason this is one of the worlds oldest organisms.

Well said. I have personally not had to fight this problem but I have seen people waste so much time and money trying to eradicate it only to see them slowly watch everything go to shit, I think flower mama on here had this problem can't remember

[Sancho]

Not an algae at all. Single celled organism called dinoflagellates. There is NO cure, no matter what you read or hear from anyone. You can mitigate their spread by a large (and I mean large, as in 30 watts or more depending on tank size) UV sterilizer, but again it's just mitigating their spread. Using a UV sterilizer with dinoflagellates will turn your water piss yellow as a side effect, even with a protein skimmer and good quality carbon.

Come on man every time you post this deep down I know your right. I just hope your wrong. 2 years now no Dino's . It killed every coral in my tank the only thing to survive was the nem and some ####ing GSP. I tried a UV sterilizer, snake oil like Nualgae, I dosed H202 and left the tank was dark for weeks. Ultimately I swapped out the sand killed off most of my live rock tank is rebounding now and am starting to add corals to it again. So far so good.

This happened to me over the course of maybe 3 days.

 

I stopped taking pics after that the tank turned into a brown slimy bubbly mess. within a few months my corals were all pretty much dead and engulfed in the dinos.

[Astinus]

Damn! I hope this doesn't happen to me.

How do you get dinoflagellates? From untreated Coral?

[Exodus]

Damn! I hope this doesn't happen to me.

How do you get dinoflagellates? From untreated Coral?

Its just like any other Organism in the Ocean, anybody is at risk getting it, just be careful and limit where you get your corals from, inspect everything very closely and use quarantine for everything and you eliminate a large possibility, yet that in itself isn't 100%, when its in the tank it has no intention of leaving, Just like Bubble algae you can do your best to avoid it, but sometimes it just finds its way.

[Astinus]

Can I get away with a 5 or 10g Tank with a HOB filter? Would this tank have to cycle?

I haven't got 1 yet. (Still new to game and cost)

[Cencalfishguy56]

Can I get away with a 5 or 10g Tank with a HOB filter? Would this tank have to cycle?

I haven't got 1 yet. (Still new to game and cost)

Yea any tank would have to cycle unless you get sand and live rock from an established tank but that setup would work

[dandelion]

I'm just wondering. Has anybody tried chemical treatments? I suppose if you're going to toss everything and rebuild the tank, there's nothing to lose in giving chemicals a shot. Has anyone had success?

[rosecity]

I'm just wondering. Has anybody tried chemical treatments? I suppose if you're going to toss everything and rebuild the tank, there's nothing to lose in giving chemicals a shot. Has anyone had success?

 

I got rid of it easily by dosing 3% H202 for 8 days. 1 ml per 10 gallons at night. Half in the tank and half in the filter. Cost was $1.50 for fresh bottle of H202 at Walgreens. The key is no water changes that will stir up the sand bed or any other activity that will stir up detritus and cause another bloom that will take another 8 days to kill. Plenty have had success with this method who follow it. Most don't follow it and give up after 2 or 3 days. You won't see a big dino population decrease until day 6. Day 8 they will all be gone IME. No need to black out. Dose at night when the dinos become free swimming and H202 will kill them on contact.

[Sancho]

 

I got rid of it easily by dosing 3% H202 for 8 days. 1 ml per 10 gallons at night. Half in the tank and half in the filter. Cost was $1.50 for fresh bottle of H202 at Walgreens. The key is no water changes that will stir up the sand bed or any other activity that will stir up detritus and cause another bloom that will take another 8 days to kill. Plenty have had success with this method who follow it. Most don't follow it and give up after 2 or 3 days. You won't see a big dino population decrease until day 6. Day 8 they will all be gone IME. No need to black out. Dose at night when the dinos become free swimming and H202 will kill them on contact.

Just noticed this was your first post. Followed a H202 regiment for weeks. Seemed to work a bit but definitely did not annihilate it. Some strains seem to respond to this treatment some dont. I hate to say this but........just start over. You got the reef herpes. My tank has been pretty much without anything pretty for 2 years.

[JimboSlice]

So when you say completely start over. What do I do with all of my fish and coral?

[Exodus]

So when you say completely start over. What do I do with all of my fish and coral?

Corals go in the trash, any tank they move too they will simply spread the issue, get the fish and rock into a small quarantine tank in the meantime and get all the other equipment sterilized and re cycled and move the fish back to their home. When the tank has been cycled again (with NEW rock) be sure to toss the old rocks in the quarantine tank out, no sense in keeping them.

 

Some will say Dino's can be carried in the slimecoat of the fish, but I think those odds would be ridiculous and I wouldn't worry about it. If you have any doubts the 1st week you move the fish back into their original tank just dose peroxide for 5 days and anything that was in that coat will be dead.

[jedimasterben]

I'm just wondering. Has anybody tried chemical treatments? I suppose if you're going to toss everything and rebuild the tank, there's nothing to lose in giving chemicals a shot. Has anyone had success?

The zooxanthellae within corals are dinoflagellates - anything that you can do to treat the toxic dinos chemically will also affect them.

 

Some will say Dino's can be carried in the slimecoat of the fish, but I think those odds would be ridiculous and I wouldn't worry about it.

Unfortunately the photo of an Ostreopsis dinoflagellate stuck to a neon goby link is broken, but unfortunately it is more than possible

[rosecity]

I would not listen to the advice telling you to trash your tank but that is just MO. There is not a single strain of dino that H202 will not kill on contact. I would read this thread to see if you have any of the few corals that are very sensitive to 3% H202 in the concentration I have detailed (1ml per 10 gallons):

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/268706-peroxide-saves-my-tank-with-pics-to-prove-it/

 

If you are entertaining the idea of throwing all of your livestock away then why not spend $2 and 1 week and see where you are at the end of it? Like I said the key is do NOT stir any detritus, just dose at night half in the tank, half in the filter. At night the dinos will break those long brown chains you see and become free swimming. The H202 in the water will kill them on contact as well as oxidise alot of other organics. This small of dose will only last a few seconds and it takes a few nights to start putting a noticeable dent in the dino population. That is why you don't want to do anything to cause another dino bloom. All of the waste built up in your rock and in your sandbed will feed them and cause another bloom and then that will be another 8 days. This is the mistake most people make battling dino. They are constantly in the tank syphoning it off, moving rock, blowing their rockwork etc and the dinos just bloom all over again and it is with this cycle it seems like nothing will kill them when in reality they are very easy to defeat.

 

Good luck. They are ugly and I was at a loss researching hundreds of posts and it does seem like it is an unwinnable battle. Like any unintelligent pest simply find their weakness and take them out when they are predictably vulnerable.

[GMay]

Before you toss everything out check out this thread on Reef Central.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2307000

 

I also would recommend trying Dino-X treatment. I have had this work twice, but you need to decode the instructions as the German to English translation is very poor. Read the German instructions or get another translation.

[Exodus]

Unfortunately the photo of an Ostreopsis dinoflagellate stuck to a neon goby link is broken, but unfortunately it is more than possible

 

I believe it is in fact possible, but i think my chances of hitting powerball are better.

[Pjanssen]

i had luck getting rid of dines using peroxide and blackouts. Any rock that didn't have corals on it was removed and scrubbed with pure peroxide and slowly added back in after the outbreak was over. It took several weeks-I don't see my original thread about it, but I'm pretty sure I did the treat meant 2 or three times, with total darkness for 3-4 days. I'll try to find my original thread about it

[JimboSlice]

Hey I just wanted to say I was successful in getting rid of Dinos... for now. I did hydrogen peroxide dosing for 7 days, 2 day black out, and siphoning multiple times a day. It's been a couple months and still no signs of them.

[seabass]

I just posted this in a beginners thread, but thought it might be helpful here too:

It is important to make a positive ID, since treatments can get a little extreme (and potentially cause losses to beneficial life and other livestock). Dinos are a single celled protozoa, so you can't think of them as you would algae (seeing less of them doesn't necessarily indicate they are dwindling on numbers). Your changes in lighting might be affecting how they are grouped together, but they are probably still fine and are just free swimming, waiting for conditions to be right for another bloom. This could come from a water change, disturbing the substrate, improved lighting...

 

I wish I had the magic bullet for getting rid of it, as I'm dealing with it myself (currently no signs of it, but I've fallen for that before). It's sort of like an alcoholic that's not currently drinking, it doesn't mean he's not an alcoholic anymore.

 

A lot of smart reefers will tell you to pitch everything (rocks, corals, sand, and water) and start from scratch. However, I still remain hopeful. I've tried Dino X, reducing the photo period, running just blue lights, blackouts, UV, peroxide, cleaning, not cleaning, water changes, no water changes, etc. I haven't tried increasing pH levels yet.

 

Not all varieties of dinos are the same or respond to the same treatment protocols. However, here is what I've personally found.

• Dino X did nothing positive to improve my particular situation.
• Cleaning and water changes only temporarily improve how your tank looks, but you are better off avoiding these disruptions while you fight it off. However, doing nothing is not a cure either.
• A UV pond filter does seem to help, but it didn't eradicate the dinos (this is a good addition to any treatment protocol).
• Dipping the rocks in a salty peroxide solution made the rocks free of dinos, but it did not make my tank free of dinos (so it returned).
• Lighting changes just affected how they group together, but don't get rid of them. However, lighting and the light cycle is very important in how/when you fight this pest. They are much more susceptible to treatment when they are free swimming.
• Dosing peroxide has to be done with the lights out (when they are free swimming). I only use food grade peroxide, as it doesn't contain potentially harmful stabilizers. 1ml per 10 gallons of tank water is considered safe for fish and many corals and anemones. There are, however, peroxide sensitive creatures like pods and shrimp which could be harmed with peroxide treatments. I have been dosing an equivalent of 2ml of 3% peroxide per 10 gallons of tank water during lights out.

Remember this is an alternative to breaking down my tank, so I am willing to be a little more extreme and risk some losses. Also, activated carbon might help reduce the toxicity of the dying dinos, so I would consider running fresh GAC during treatments (although I'm not currently doing this).