Quote:
Originally Posted by DNA
Switching off some filters letting phosphates and nitrates raise was your trick to reduce Ostreopsis dinos.
In my tank the dinos are most visible where they collect on the sand bed.
In a bare bottom tank they will collect on the rocks and be less visible.
Bare bottom tanks get the same dinos as the ones with a sandbed.
I've been here a few times, so expect the dinos to be back at some point.
Enjoy the good periods and hope for the best.
My last one lasted for 6-8 months with good SPS color and growth.
It ended with 99% of the SPS dead.
Having no visible dinos is at least a partial success, but there are certain to be some left, but that's alright.
If you really want to find some, I'd suggest a late night sample with a large syringe.
Let is stand for an hour with the nozzle pointing down letting dinos if any to settle at the exit.
A single drop out of it should reveal what is in your water column.
If you can jinx things you can surely use magic on your dinos.
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It wasn't quite that simple, physical removal by vacuuming, syphoning, skimming wet, running 10uM filter socks and UV (for a while) got the numbers down.
Allowing the nutrients to rise was to allow the micro algae and micro fauna to flourish and out compete the dinos and return the system to pre dino days. Fresh cleanup crew, replenished pods and critters and feeding fresh phytoplankton to maintain healthy micro fauna seems to be final nail, I'm starting to see the return of the small tube fan worms and mini brittle stars that were decimated from the algae X trying to rid bubble algae.
Yes I had bubble algae long before I had dinos and still have some now which I syphon out regularly. The only SPS I have is an encrusting montipora and a scroll coral and both are doing very well. I have things back to pre dino days except I will continue to use the 10uM socks and feed phytoplankton and maintain po4 at 0.03 and no3 at 1 to 2ppm, I have to clean my glass every 3 days now which was normal before I drove my nutrient levels down to undetectable levels where I was only cleaning the glass weekly.
I will continue to view this thread and post my progress, I do believe we can beat this and I believe it takes a natural balance of diverse creatures to do it.