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I believe amphidium is the hardest, as it's all more experimental as the others have consistent success with treatmentsWell crap! Isn't ostreopsis worse and more toxic?
So I would like to report back after about 3 months I think I am finally dino free! I had a bad case of amphidinium and ostreopsis that I confirmed under a microscope. I think identification is important to eliminate the guess work out of what you are doing.
First, what did not work. DinoX. I believe this product might reduce their numbers or keep them in check, but I mostly believe this product to be a waste of time and money.
UV Sterilizer. I have mixed opinions on what this did or did not do. I cant prove much since I was doing other things at the same time. What I can say is that if I turned it off and forgot to turn it back on for more than 12 hours it seemed like the dinos flared up. When left running it seemed to almost maintain the current population and prevent as much spreading. All of this is just a guess tho.
What I believe worked and would recommend. BIOIDIVERSITY!!!
I think the biggest problem is our tanks start out too clean now days. I used dry rock and dry sand and let my nitrates and phosphates completely bottom out. I saw very little results until I maintained Nitrates at 5-10ppm(got as high as 25ppm) and phosphates at 0.2 ppm. Dosing Microbacteria7 and Silicates. Added a bunch of pods and dosed live phyto. Now it was not an overnight fix and I think too many give up because it doesn't fix the issue right away. I dosed both microbacteria7 and silicates for maybe 2 months until I got to the point I am at today.
I was constantly checking microscope samples and after a couple of weeks of dosing silicates I started noticing diatoms popping up. What I noticed was as their numbers grew the number of dinos started to go down. At one point it was almost all diatoms and a few dinos. Now its no dinos and the diatoms are starting to disappear as I have started cutting back on silicates.
Anyway I now have clean rock, clean glass, and bright white sand again. It is possible! Conquer this the natural way. It was frustrating along the way. I lost some inverts and coral, but I learned a lot. Hopefully my experience can help others get back control of their tanks.
If you have any questions just let me know.
Florida aqua farms sells a huge container of concentrated Si. That's what i use now. There's no instructions so people should use the spongexcel for a bottle or two first until they get the feel for how their system handles Si.Besides sponge excel what other silica can we dose? I’m already trying to use ~50ml/day in my 180 and at that rate I’ll go through sponge excel quick.
I used siporax for about a year. It was one of the causes of my dinos IMO. It was great at reducing nitrates for sure in my system. It did not raise Si in my system. I checked levels with Triton. No elevated Si. I have read that it happened to others though.Florida aqua farms sells a huge container of concentrated Si. That's what i use now. There's no instructions so people should use the spongexcel for a bottle or two first until they get the feel for how their system handles Si.
I haven't tried it but siporax has also been found to raise Si but maybe not in a predictable way. It'll also lower NO3 so that would add another level of complexity.
Florida aqua farms sells a huge container of concentrated Si. That's what i use now. There's no instructions so people should use the spongexcel for a bottle or two first until they get the feel for how their system handles Si.
I haven't tried it but siporax has also been found to raise Si but maybe not in a predictable way. It'll also lower NO3 so that would add another level of complexity.
Largely my experience as well. I run two UV in series, dosed MB7, and dosed Sponge Excel. .. Rocks have stayed clear. Coralline is growing again as are some corals.
Yep!Thanks is this it?
For a really long time the reports on bacteria in bottle products vs dinos were quite mixed.
Which was frustrating because we know that dino-bacterial associations are crucial. Bacteria can either feed a dino bloom or disrupt it.
Lately my sense is that bacteria bottle products have proved helpful in many cases. Doesn't hurt the overall direction of treatment, and when it hasn't been helpful - it didn't set things back.
Not a cure, but feels like it ought to be part of the treatment.
Yep!
I've been dosing sponge excel to the tank and not seeing any diatoms. Still seeing the same dino and sand bed is getting worse. Been dosing Dr. Tim's waste away and keeping UV and skimmer off for a bit at a time.
Tested with Hanna silicate tester and got 11PPM. Do I need to convert that to Si? What should I target?
I did a 20g water change (180g tank) in the hopes that brings in some diatoms to start competing...not sure if that's a good idea but I'm throwing anything at the wall here to see what sticks.
Confused. My hanna Low Range Si meter (hi705) goes 0.00 to 2.00 ppm SiO2.I've been dosing sponge excel to the tank and not seeing any diatoms. Still seeing the same dino and sand bed is getting worse. Been dosing Dr. Tim's waste away and keeping UV and skimmer off for a bit at a time.
Tested with Hanna silicate tester and got 11PPM. Do I need to convert that to Si? What should I target?
I did a 20g water change (180g tank) in the hopes that brings in some diatoms to start competing...not sure if that's a good idea but I'm throwing anything at the wall here to see what sticks.
Confused. My hanna Low Range Si meter (hi705) goes 0.00 to 2.00 ppm SiO2.
I've been dosing sponge excel to the tank and not seeing any diatoms. Still seeing the same dino and sand bed is getting worse. Been dosing Dr. Tim's waste away and keeping UV and skimmer off for a bit at a time.
Tested with Hanna silicate tester and got 11PPM. Do I need to convert that to Si? What should I target?
I did a 20g water change (180g tank) in the hopes that brings in some diatoms to start competing...not sure if that's a good idea but I'm throwing anything at the wall here to see what sticks.
I’m using the high range checker
Okay so you did a water change which can be a good thing especially if there seems to be a bottleneck, where nothing is growing.
You say your silica is plenty high, I assume your N and P are plenty available as well. In which case you should start to grow a lot of things. And your description of the sand seems to match that. So let's bring the skimmer and UV back online, and start exporting things to force competition - keep growing and exporting until some Trace elements become scarce and there is competition for them. Also, let's get a microscope shot of sand junk and any other brown patches, just to see what all is there.
Okay plenty of Si. I used a ton of the stuff but never went above 2.0ppm sio2. Should still deplete reasonably fast.
All sounds great. I'd start getting aggressive with export next. Skim hard, grow macro, vacuum etc.Sounds good thanks for the help. I looked at sand and still same Dino’s and nothing else yet. I’ll take another look tomorrow to see if any changes. I’ll bring slimmer and UV back online as well.
NO3 is at 5ppm (dosed some neonitro to bring it up to 10-15ppm) and PO4 is at 0.1ppm.