diverpat
Community Member
Two months ago my tank looked like absolute $#*&%. Dinos (Ostreopsis) had won the 8 month war. It came in on a piece of shaving brush algae. I tried a bunch of random cures, raise temp to 83, blackouts, feed more, feed less, phosphate reactor, the list goes on... nothing worked long term. I decided it was time to call it quits, I had lost a few Acros, and my torch. All of my corals looked horrible, receding polyps, poor color, covered in bubbly brown algae. My clean up crew succumbed to the dinos‘ toxins, the green hair algae had started to take hold. The sand was a hairy mess of filth. The thought of tearing down and selling it all was horrible.
My fiancé convinced me to give it one last shot, spend some money to keep it going. I bought a 24W UV Sterilizer ($80) and within 3 days things changed, the dinos were not coming back as strong. I started my GAC reactor up to help detoxify the water so I could keep a CUC alive. I did three 20% water changes with filtered NSW. Each day there were less dinos, was it that simple, just a UV sterilzer? 2 weeks later a 3 day blackout ended the battle, I haven’t seen a dino since.
Now the brown has been replaced my fuzzy green hair algae, an issue that is more manageable. My new snails have a chance and have started to get to work. I scrubbed the rock daily with a toothbrush. I’m now adding pods, probiotics, and other bacteria to hopefully bring back biodiversity. The corals are starting to regrow flesh over their white skeletons, coloring back up, and growing again. I still have more GHA than I like but it’s less and less each day. I’m not out of the woods but the light is getting brighter. I know there are a few dinos hiding and waiting for me to let my guard down.
The reason I post this is, if you are in the same situation, don‘t give up, I almost did and would have regretted it. I didn’t think a few weeks could change it around but it did.
My fiancé convinced me to give it one last shot, spend some money to keep it going. I bought a 24W UV Sterilizer ($80) and within 3 days things changed, the dinos were not coming back as strong. I started my GAC reactor up to help detoxify the water so I could keep a CUC alive. I did three 20% water changes with filtered NSW. Each day there were less dinos, was it that simple, just a UV sterilzer? 2 weeks later a 3 day blackout ended the battle, I haven’t seen a dino since.
Now the brown has been replaced my fuzzy green hair algae, an issue that is more manageable. My new snails have a chance and have started to get to work. I scrubbed the rock daily with a toothbrush. I’m now adding pods, probiotics, and other bacteria to hopefully bring back biodiversity. The corals are starting to regrow flesh over their white skeletons, coloring back up, and growing again. I still have more GHA than I like but it’s less and less each day. I’m not out of the woods but the light is getting brighter. I know there are a few dinos hiding and waiting for me to let my guard down.
The reason I post this is, if you are in the same situation, don‘t give up, I almost did and would have regretted it. I didn’t think a few weeks could change it around but it did.
