CjAmaryllis
Community Member
Hello all,
I noticed some dinos about 3 weeks ago. I'm pretty sure the triggering event was me trying to really kill off some hair algae. I scrubbed rocks a whole lot, disturbed the sandbed, and my nutrients got too low. Amateur move. The system was not happy with this. Dinos quickly ensued.
The day I noticed them, I IDd them as Ostreopsis with a microscope. I panicked a little and tried a 3 day black out, raised the temps, and fed a lot. This made it worse, because my nutrients were still too low, but there was a ton of organic matter building up that the dinos loved. My corals were ticked at this point.
What did work was this:
Dosing nutrients. I don't know my phosphate, but I assumed it was low. I dosed it up to .08 (according to the bottle calculations, this probably isn't accurate because I don't know where I started.)
Dosing nitrates up to 10. I have had a low nutrient system since the beginning. My corals absolutely loved the added nutrients.
Raising the temp up to 82.
Dosing several types of bacteria (Microbacter7, Dr. tims waste away, and Dr. Tims Ecobalance)
I vacuumed the sandbed every day, using a filter sock to collect OM and dinos.
Using a powerhead to disturb them. I paired this with a few filter socks in the tank. The dinos like to collect on the filter socks. I changed them out every day.
I got rid of my lovely Red Ogo. As beautiful as it was, it was magnet for both organic matter and dinos. Plus, they were too efficient at removing my nitrates. I had a good bit of it.
I bought a cheap ($15) 9 watt Green Killing Machine off Facebook marketplace. It is definitely undersized for my 40 gal tank, but I didn't have money to spend, and apparently didn't need to. The dinos were gone in about 3 days after putting it in.
That's it. They're gone in 3 weeks, one of those weeks was me making it worse. I had a huge fear of dinos, and thought I'd be struggling for ages with it. I thought I'd have to dump a ton of money into UV or lose a bunch of corals.
I am just glad to have the worry gone. Hopefully you all are able to win against the dinos. They cause some anxiety for sure.
Edited: I kept my skimmer on. Initially I had it off, but the pH dropped too low. The carbon scrubber really helps things. I didn't reduce my photoperiod, but I did switch to all blue.
I noticed some dinos about 3 weeks ago. I'm pretty sure the triggering event was me trying to really kill off some hair algae. I scrubbed rocks a whole lot, disturbed the sandbed, and my nutrients got too low. Amateur move. The system was not happy with this. Dinos quickly ensued.
The day I noticed them, I IDd them as Ostreopsis with a microscope. I panicked a little and tried a 3 day black out, raised the temps, and fed a lot. This made it worse, because my nutrients were still too low, but there was a ton of organic matter building up that the dinos loved. My corals were ticked at this point.
What did work was this:
Dosing nutrients. I don't know my phosphate, but I assumed it was low. I dosed it up to .08 (according to the bottle calculations, this probably isn't accurate because I don't know where I started.)
Dosing nitrates up to 10. I have had a low nutrient system since the beginning. My corals absolutely loved the added nutrients.
Raising the temp up to 82.
Dosing several types of bacteria (Microbacter7, Dr. tims waste away, and Dr. Tims Ecobalance)
I vacuumed the sandbed every day, using a filter sock to collect OM and dinos.
Using a powerhead to disturb them. I paired this with a few filter socks in the tank. The dinos like to collect on the filter socks. I changed them out every day.
I got rid of my lovely Red Ogo. As beautiful as it was, it was magnet for both organic matter and dinos. Plus, they were too efficient at removing my nitrates. I had a good bit of it.
I bought a cheap ($15) 9 watt Green Killing Machine off Facebook marketplace. It is definitely undersized for my 40 gal tank, but I didn't have money to spend, and apparently didn't need to. The dinos were gone in about 3 days after putting it in.
That's it. They're gone in 3 weeks, one of those weeks was me making it worse. I had a huge fear of dinos, and thought I'd be struggling for ages with it. I thought I'd have to dump a ton of money into UV or lose a bunch of corals.
I am just glad to have the worry gone. Hopefully you all are able to win against the dinos. They cause some anxiety for sure.
Edited: I kept my skimmer on. Initially I had it off, but the pH dropped too low. The carbon scrubber really helps things. I didn't reduce my photoperiod, but I did switch to all blue.
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