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Unread 04/16/2014, 10:36 PM   #134
Surly
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Maryland
Posts: 40
Increased lighting has only made the outbreak worse. Not all that surprising, but it was worth a shot.

The algae scrubber has been very slow to get any growth going, but adding some chaeto and ulva helped and it's filled in nicely. Can't really see any difference in the tank, though, since the Ostreopsis has such a stranglehold on the ecosystem.

For lack of any better ideas, this weekend I'm removing going to attempt a full-on assault that will begin with a serious physical extraction. I plan to remove all the sand, dip all rocks in freshwater, scrape all surfaces and swap out as much of the total system water as possible (60-70%). Hoping this will give me a leg up on them, I'm then going to run another round of Ultra Algae X with little to no lighting, which will take probably 2 weeks. Will probably plumb in an old UV sterilizer to kill off the free-swimming buggers as well. Then another major water change to pull out as much of the final die-off nutrients as possible.

I realize doing all this will undoubtedly cause a full tank cycle, but I literally don't have much to lose at this point. I'm writing off pretty much everything except my fish, which I'll relocate to a temporary home while doing all this.


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