I have sever questions relating to dinos, copepods, and toxins. On page 59 of the Dinoflagellates - dinos a possible cure!? follow along and see, there was a reference to copepods. A brief summary is as follows:
Copepodes such as Acartia tonsa, eat diatoms and dinoflagellates predominately. Dinoflagellate often forms blooms when conditions are good (light plus ?) for their growth and some species release toxins into the water which paralyze or kill animals, including copepods. The dinoflagellates then feed off these animals.
The referenced thread is using a antibiotic to try and eliminate dinos. It first prevents them from clumping and eventually eliminates the poisons. Permanent eradication is the goal.
Question 1. Do dino's release toxins when suspended in the water column or just when in matts/globs? If not, then would it be beneficial to add/replace copepods at this time (when suspended) to help reduce the population faster as well as bring up the pod population to prevent future outbreaks.
Question 2. How can the toxins be removed or neutralized. Neutralizing the toxins before copepods, corals and fish are killed seams like it should be the first step, with the 2nd trying to eliminate the dinos and third to increase dino predators. Lots of activated carbon?
Questions 3. If you can't neutralize the toxins or if question 1 answer is no, can you dilute them? Wouldn't stirring and water changes help dilute the toxins, allowing the natural predators to help finish the job or at least survive?
Question 4. Do overflows or other filter methods remove copepods in the water column? Are any methods better than others (skimming for example) for keeping copepods in the tank?
Question 5. Are any copepods less sensitive to the toxins? If so, maybe these could be added?
Question 6. Does Cheato in sumps tilt the balance of copepods in the aquarium from dino/diatom eating species to algae eating? Or is the algae just a god place for them the eat bacteria?
Question 7. Should getting diatom/dino eating copepods be one of the stages of cycling a tank? If so, shouldn't these be added just before or as blooms occur?
The questions above are more about how we can obtain a balanced ecosystem so nothing takes over in a tank.
Copepodes such as Acartia tonsa, eat diatoms and dinoflagellates predominately. Dinoflagellate often forms blooms when conditions are good (light plus ?) for their growth and some species release toxins into the water which paralyze or kill animals, including copepods. The dinoflagellates then feed off these animals.
The referenced thread is using a antibiotic to try and eliminate dinos. It first prevents them from clumping and eventually eliminates the poisons. Permanent eradication is the goal.
Question 1. Do dino's release toxins when suspended in the water column or just when in matts/globs? If not, then would it be beneficial to add/replace copepods at this time (when suspended) to help reduce the population faster as well as bring up the pod population to prevent future outbreaks.
Question 2. How can the toxins be removed or neutralized. Neutralizing the toxins before copepods, corals and fish are killed seams like it should be the first step, with the 2nd trying to eliminate the dinos and third to increase dino predators. Lots of activated carbon?
Questions 3. If you can't neutralize the toxins or if question 1 answer is no, can you dilute them? Wouldn't stirring and water changes help dilute the toxins, allowing the natural predators to help finish the job or at least survive?
Question 4. Do overflows or other filter methods remove copepods in the water column? Are any methods better than others (skimming for example) for keeping copepods in the tank?
Question 5. Are any copepods less sensitive to the toxins? If so, maybe these could be added?
Question 6. Does Cheato in sumps tilt the balance of copepods in the aquarium from dino/diatom eating species to algae eating? Or is the algae just a god place for them the eat bacteria?
Question 7. Should getting diatom/dino eating copepods be one of the stages of cycling a tank? If so, shouldn't these be added just before or as blooms occur?
The questions above are more about how we can obtain a balanced ecosystem so nothing takes over in a tank.