Tank was running great, so I picked up a battle box. I recieved 6 very nice pieces and got them mounted. They were doing ok but I decided to change the led settings to give a little more par for the new arrivals. Next thing you know I started seeing dinos.
I was told that I had Ostreopsis dinos based on a few images I took under a scope.
So far they aren't really taking over the tank at all. There is just a little slime on the sand by the time lights go off.
Treatment steps:
1. Reduced my white and UV channels dramatically
2. Knocked 1 hr off my T5 schedule so they only run 6 hrs instead of 7
3. Syphoned off the sand just to get a head start on treatment
4. Upped temp to 80 from 78
5. Added filter floss inside the tank in high flow area (rinsed twice daily)
6. Stir sand bed top layer at lights out
So far this has kept everything in check. Still have dinos after 3 days, but nothing on my corals. Not that noticible unless you look for it. I don't want to buy a UV sterilizer, but if they dinos get worse I may just suck it and buy one.
So this all seems to be working as I hoped. The dinos are receding a little each day. I figure it was the increased light that allowed them to take hold. And reducing the lights (or maybe the elevated temps) are knocking them back. Either way everything looks good in the tank, but having the filter floss in there is kind of messy. I do get a good amount of dinos collected on it, so I’m not yet ready to get rid of it.
Also I finally managed to catch a couple of rogue actors from my tank. I caught an emerald crab that had been picking at some zoas and a stylo frag. And more importantly, I finally caught a clown goby that would constantly peck at every acro I had. I had read that they may nip SPS, but this guy was relentless.
Dinos are now no longer an eyesore. I’m sure there are still some in the tank, but it’s certainly not noticeable. So either less intense white light, or slightly increased temp along with manual removal has taken care of the problem.
As a celebration, I added my final two fish from my wish list, a wards sleeper goby and a ruby red dragonette. Both look to be doing good so far...ruby red slowly crawls around the tank picking at rocks, and goby is digging around in the sand bed.
Tank has been looking good lately. Started dosing iodine a month or so ago, and zoas are growing faster than ever. Coincidence...maybe, but no reason for me to stop at this point.
Also, it looks like my RBTA might be splitting. Well, I hope it’s splitting because there is a huge hole in the middle of the nem at the moment. It’s still inflated and was feeding well yesterday, so fingers crossed.