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Unread 07/27/2013, 10:45 AM   #10
Potsy
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Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Kinnelon, NJ
Posts: 1,827
Were the acros smothered by dinos upon your return? If not, perhaps dead dinos in the filter sock left to accumulate for a week released toxins?

Since my tank only has new dry rock I've been able to experiment with the dinos to determine the limits of what they can tolerate.

24 hours at a specific gravity of 1.006 killed most of them, but apparently there were a few survivors as they returned after a week or so. Under my microscope, when I lower the salinity in the petri dish, the change is sudden and totally lethal. In the display, I gradually lower the salinity with ro water straight from the filter, so I'm sure some of the dinos adjusted to the change.

For about a week I dosed 1/3 cup of peroxide, sometimes twice daily. This did not seem to affect the bio filtration as an addition of .25 ppm of ammonium chloride was consumed by bacteria overnight.

I dumped in about 120ml of Fauna Marin Ultra Algae X all at once. It didn't work when I used it properly at 12 ml every two days. This did put a dent in the bio filtration as a mini cycle is occurring.

No lights for about two weeks, but there is ambient room light.

The problem with ostreopsis dinos is that they are mixotrophic and so can survive blackout periods. Also, they can take on a protective cyst form when hazardous environmental conditions arise. So I'll be amazed if they survive the torture I've inflicted but not surprised. Interestingly, Pants here on reefcentral discovered that they depend on bacterial symbionts for survival. Theoretically, antibiotics would indirecty kill ostreopsis... but also do away with your nitrifying bacteria.

If, upon running a regular light cycle, the dinos return, I will declare them nearly indestructible and just drain the tank, dry everything out, do a thorough vinegar or bleach cleaning, and restart. My clownfish and single coral are perfectly happy in my temporary 20 gallon. As of now, I can't find any with my microscope after viewing about twenty samples.

Their first two minor appearances in my tank's previous incarnation were short lived and resolved on their own for reasons I don't understand. There were no algae competitors but I did carbon dose. Perhaps bacterial competition?



Last edited by Potsy; 07/27/2013 at 10:56 AM.
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