Battle with Ostreopsis Dinos.....

SaltLife77

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Hello reef keeping friends,

I am fighting the good and often times treacherous fight with the famed Ostreopsis Dinos - and as with any fight, there have been casualties. Thus far I have lost:

-Bird's Nest Coral
-Montipora (on it's way)
-1 Belted Sand Fish (he was the only fish in the tank, long story but he is a sea bass that we got in a TBS sand order about 5 years ago and he killed all other fish).

And I have a setosa coral that is under duress as well as a brittle starfish and an 18 year old candy cane that I do NOT want to lose, also under duress. Everything else (Zoas, Hammer Coral, Maxima Clam, 1 remaining setosa, 2 gorgonians, pulsing xenia, tuxedo urchin, sea cucumber, fighting conch I hope he has gone to the sand bed for a bit, nassarius snails, a couple of trochus snails, a couple of blue leg crabs and 2 rock flower nems) .....well....it's all hanging on for now.

For the past three weeks I have been doing the following:

1) Running a UV Sterilizer 24/7 (blowing off the rocks probably 10 times a day and night)

2) Overfeeding tank (I feed Rod's red daily, phyto once a week and nori once every couple of weeks

3) changing carbon weekly, plus running extra

4) NO water changes in the last 4 weeks.

5) GFO turned off completely

6) Blacked out tank for 3 days (but have only done that once, because of the clam).

7) Manual removal with a filter sock (siphoning water through sock and then pouring strained water back into tank).

8) Running skimmer as dry as possible, I cannot bring myself to turn it all the way off.

9) Still running my biopellet reactor for now.

Before I realized I had dinos, I made the mistake of thinking it was diatoms, so, I did what I thought was right, given what I thought was happening....massive water changes, new GFO, etc. PRISTINE conditions and watched as the dinos bloomed over every, and I mean every square inch of my tank. It wasn't until I read threads here that I learned about how to identify the dinos, so I bought a kids microscope (I highly recommend this for any reef keeper) and I found out that I had Ostr. Dinos. Yay me.

Personally, I am shocked I haven't lost more life. My parameters were holding steady but this week they shifted a bit and I think that is because I have not done a water change in a bit. Here are my current parameters:

Alkalinity: 8.8 (normal for my system is in the 7.3 to 7.6 range)
Magnesium: 1,000ppm (normal for my system is in the 1150 to 1200 range)
Calcium: 393 (normal for my system is in the 425 to 475 range)
Nitrates: 7.5 (this is due to my intentional attempt make the tank dirty, normal for my system is 2)
Phosphates: 0.08 (normal for my system is .02 or less)
PH: 8.2 (normal for my system is 8.0)
Salinity: 1.023 (normal for my system is 1.025) but no water changes to replenish salt that comes out from salt creep....so maybe I should top off with salt water?

My system is a 40 gal breeder w/ sump, TBS sand and rock, est. Aug. 2016.

Changes that I have noticed since correctly addressing the problem:

1) a LOT less dinos. They are almost non-existent under the microscope. But I see them trying to take hold in little spots in the tank.

2) a SMALL hair algae bloom on a power head in the display.

3) an uptick in bristle worms.

4) an odd little green tube like algae (I am manually removing until I figure out what it is)

5) the occasional sprig of briopsis - which I guess isn't actually new, but I remove it manually immediately.


A thought that I have had, is that I need to add more sand and rock to the system, and now that the sea bass of death (he was so friggin cool though) has passed on, more critters too. I am afraid to add critters, because I am worried that the toxicity of the remaining dinos could kill them, on the other hand, I am afraid if I don't add more critters, the tank will die of imbalance.


So, if you have read this far, first - thank you, secondly, if you have any advice on this topic, I welcome it - we have had reef tanks for 18 years, and have never run into this particular issue. It is so hard to see corals that were once massive and thriving, basically disintegrate right before your eyes.

Basically - I am interested to hear from those folks who have fought this battle and come out on the other side, is it even possible?

Thank you in advance, I appreciate it!


-Stressed in Cleveland.
 

WyoMt.Chef

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Hello, I understand the frustration with the pesky evil ostreopsis. There are a couple great dino threads on here that can read. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/ . Had a battle with them after dosing vibrant. What gave me the edge was taking the light down to a 3 hour actinic only period, adding an hour back everyday for a week. Dosing phosphates up to 1. My rock/ corals we're consuming/binding it very fast at first, and it really took a lot of dosing. Testing your nutrients daily until theyre stable was necessary as well. Phosphate stays in the tank for a week now at about 0.2 . Adding fresh rock for silica to boost diatoms. I didn't do a water change until my Cal was low. Around 10-12 weeks. I hope you find the needed help friend, they really try your patience! After the dinos were on the glass only. I added 4 new fish over a month and it's seems to be in the clear now. No dinos on my slides for over a month now. Best wishes!!
 

DavidinGA

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What size UV are you running?

I seriously just beat Ostreopsis (confirmed that's what I had with a scope) like yesterday. I finally broke down and bought a 36w UV on my 100g system and it was taking it out in like 12 hours!
 

DavidinGA

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15W on a 40 breeder. That is amazing that you are knocking them out so quickly!

Ya I am still shocked personally myself! I never even bothered to blow off the rocks or sand.

Prior to the UV I had been dosing silica and NO3 to no avail. I say to no avail, but I can't say for certain that the combination of those 3 working together didn't actually make it happen in the end (the uv being the last piece to the puzzle).
 
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SaltLife77

SaltLife77

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Update!

It seems I am coming out on the other side of the Ostreopsis Dino nightmare.....they are still present but I have pushed them back rough 80% at this point....my parameters are getting back in check, death has seemingly stopped, and I am going to be adding "competition" now.

Tonight: Adding Trochus, Blue Legs, Scarlets and two cleaner shrimp.

Wednesday: Adding 10K copapods

Friday: The piece de resistance: 3 lbs of TBS live rock (post quarantine of course) and 9 lbs of live sand.

I am hoping this helps right the ship, and bring balance back to the force! :)
 

TheDuude

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What size UV are you running?

I seriously just beat Ostreopsis (confirmed that's what I had with a scope) like yesterday. I finally broke down and bought a 36w UV on my 100g system and it was taking it out in like 12 hours!

How did you have the UV plumbed? In display or fuge? Brand of UV? I have identified my lingering rust looking spots in my sand as ost. Dinos. Looking for best next steps.
 

DavidinGA

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How did you have the UV plumbed? In display or fuge? Brand of UV? I have identified my lingering rust looking spots in my sand as ost. Dinos. Looking for best next steps.

I added an external 36w Jebao UV and used a little maxi-jet pump with it.
 

WilliG

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Easy way to beat osteropsis is to raise nitrates (stump remover), raise phos, use a UV, turn your lights off. That is all I did and they were gone within a week. After that I made sure I had nitrate and phos in my water column all the time, they never came back .
 
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