How I beat ostresopsis dinos, and how you can too!

JosephM

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I would like to share my experiences with others. This is all my opinion based on experience and reading. I don’t want to gather data but will if you guys would like, I’m just lazy lol. First off I want to start that ostreopsis dinos are over complicated. When I first ID’ed mine I was overwhelmed by the amount of contradicting information out there. Given that there are many variables in different tanks it makes sense.
Information on my tank and what I did:
I have a 29gal DT with a 20gal sump the system is about 3 months old. I have 40lbs of KP live rock, 40lbs of Carib sea live sand (unrinsed), filter sock, 2L of matrix, tiny HOB skimmer, chaeto, GAC reactor, and then return pump and it all starts over. I have 35+ frags currently (probably overstocked if you ask me but hoping to upgrade soon). I observe my tank atleast once a day for a few min. The key is to catch the dinos quickly. If you even think you have dinos, get a microscope. It only costs $17, including tax, to get a cheap one on Amazon that will work. I caught them early when they were only on a few corals. I let it go a little bit hoping my biodiversity would be enough to fight it back. When it start getting on all my corals and affecting their health I knew I needed to take action. I began by monitoring N03 and P04 daily. I recommend at least 0.05-0.12 P04 and at least 10-25 N03. Yes, I’d consider these high numbers but running these on my ULNS had no negative affect on my corals. I have a mix of softies, LPS, and SPS. I only did manual removal a couple times by siphoning water through a filter sock and back into the tank. I stopped because I was using 200micron socks which are practically useless against dinos. You need 50 micron or smaller to actively catch them. I began dosing MB7 at 2ml/10gal. Having my nutrients elevated that much I was starting to see great progress within a week or so. I installed a overpowered UV (36w) hooked up directly to DT running 200gph through it. Within a day or two the dinos were nowhere to be seen. I still have it running just to make sure. It’s also noted that I slightly lowered my light intensity and photo period.
Main takeaway:
Don’t over complicate this: don’t freak out and start throwing everything in your tank. Starting a few days later with the right tools will likely save you in the long run.
•Go big on the UV, I used jebao, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Running it only at night versus 24/7 will have similar results since ostreopsis is mainly in the water column at night
•Get a microscope, you’ll use it many times throughout your ventures into this hobby
•Increase biodiversity - this can be through bottles bac, live rock, live sand, pods, live phyto. The more the merrier to help compete with the dinos. Be careful when adding some types of biodiversity such as bottled bac as they will sometimes result in a decrease in N03. Just be ready to dose to keep them elevated.
Things that I believe do not work against ostreopsis dinos (I would like to reiterate, this is what I think, my opinion)
Black outs - you’re only hurting your corals and light dependent creatures more then anything. Ostreopsis dinos are extremely resilient and will go dormant at the lack of light but not perish. Hence why many that do black outs will see immediate visual relief but they’re back just as bad within days
•Hydrogen peroxide - I didn’t go this route solely because I don’t think it belongs in a reef system. But ostreopsis dinos have an armor that is known to be quite resilient against H202
•Lowering nutrients - this should be a given, dinos thrive in system that is stripped of N03 and P04. Keep them elevated
•Grossly over feeding - although it may give you the elevated nutrients you’d like you’re not only adding N03 and P04 you’re adding organics into the system that it likely can not handle. Since you should not be doing water changes while finding ostreopsis dinos I recommend dosing nitrates and phosphates (I use neonitro and neophos)

If I missed anything or if you have any questions or comments don’t be afraid to share :)
Hope this helps some people. Once again, my opinion on what has worked for me and the research I have done.
 
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HolySmoke

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You do know Microbactor7 has a carbon source with the bacteria right? I was confused by you saying Microbactor7 dosing was raising your nutrients. It should have the opposite effect. I think your success was from the very large UV in relation to your system size. The problem is if people have larger systems UVs get very expensive I have had Dinos in both very high nutrients and low nutrient tanks so raising the nutrients isn't always the answer. Just my 0.2, not trying to take away from your success and glad you shared it.

My apologies I miss read your post. I thought you were using MB7 to raise your nutrients and not neonitro and neophos
 
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JosephM

JosephM

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You do know Microbactor7 has a carbon source with the bacteria right? I was confused by you saying Microbactor7 dosing was raising your nutrients. It should have the opposite effect. I think your success was from the very large UV in relation to your system size. The problem is if people have larger systems UVs get very expensive I have had Dinos in both very high nutrients and low nutrient tanks so raising the nutrients isn't always the answer. Just my 0.2, not trying to take away from your success and glad you shared it.
I don’t think I said anywhere about MB7 raising nutrients. I said it lowers nutrients and be ready to dose to raise them. I’ll give it another re-read though. I definitely get the bigger systems are harder price and everything wise. I have a friend that has dinos with elevated nutrients, curious to see how his play out. Thank you for taking a read though!
 

HolySmoke

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I edited my first post. I'm glad you beat the little boogers. I agree that it is usually too low of nutrients but not always. Good advice not to panic and a little carbon is good for the toxins so you don't lose your whole cleanup crew.
 
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JosephM

JosephM

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I edited my first post. I'm glad you beat the little boogers. I agree that it is usually too low of nutrients but not always. Good advice not to panic and a little carbon is good for the toxins so you don't lose your whole cleanup crew.
Yeah. I remember when I first got them it was constant panic and so hard to find a clean plan of attack. Every thread about beating them was just links to other threads all that had tons of pages that would take hours upon hours to read. I’m a big believer in GAC, just nice to have that piece of mind IMO.
 

Twillyg21

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I would like to share my experiences with others. This is all my opinion based on experience and reading. I don’t want to gather data but will if you guys would like, I’m just lazy lol. First off I want to start that ostreopsis dinos are over complicated. When I first ID’ed mine I was overwhelmed by the amount of contradicting information out there. Given that there are many variables in different tanks it makes sense.
Information on my tank and what I did:
I have a 29gal DT with a 20gal sump the system is about 3 months old. I have 40lbs of KP live rock, 40lbs of Carib sea live sand (unrinsed), filter sock, 2L of matrix, tiny HOB skimmer, chaeto, GAC reactor, and then return pump and it all starts over. I have 35+ frags currently (probably overstocked if you ask me but hoping to upgrade soon). I observe my tank atleast once a day for a few min. The key is to catch the dinos quickly. If you even think you have dinos, get a microscope. It only costs $17, including tax, to get a cheap one on Amazon that will work. I caught them early when they were only on a few corals. I let it go a little bit hoping my biodiversity would be enough to fight it back. When it start getting on all my corals and affecting their health I knew I needed to take action. I began by monitoring N03 and P04 daily. I recommend at least 0.05-0.12 P04 and at least 10-25 N03. Yes, I’d consider these high numbers but running these on my ULNS had no negative affect on my corals. I have a mix of softies, LPS, and SPS. I only did manual removal a couple times by siphoning water through a filter sock and back into the tank. I stopped because I was using 200micron socks which are practically useless against dinos. You need 50 micron or smaller to actively catch them. I began dosing MB7 at 2ml/10gal. Having my nutrients elevated that much I was starting to see great progress within a week or so. I installed a overpowered UV (36w) hooked up directly to DT running 200gph through it. Within a day or two the dinos were nowhere to be seen. I still have it running just to make sure. It’s also noted that I slightly lowered my light intensity and photo period.
Main takeaway:
Don’t over complicate this: don’t freak out and start throwing everything in your tank. Starting a few days later with the right tools will likely save you in the long run.
•Go big on the UV, I used jebao, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Running it only at night versus 24/7 will have similar results since ostreopsis is mainly in the water column at night
•Get a microscope, you’ll use it many times throughout your ventures into this hobby
•Increase biodiversity - this can be through bottles bac, live rock, live sand, pods, live phyto. The more the merrier to help compete with the dinos. Be careful when adding some types of biodiversity such as bottled bac as they will sometimes result in a decrease in N03. Just be ready to dose to keep them elevated.
Things that I believe do not work against ostreopsis dinos (I would like to reiterate, this is what I think, my opinion)
Black outs - you’re only hurting your corals and light dependent creatures more then anything. Ostreopsis dinos are extremely resilient and will go dormant at the lack of light but not perish. Hence why many that do black outs will see immediate visual relief but they’re back just as bad within days
•Hydrogen peroxide - I didn’t go this route solely because I don’t think it belongs in a reef system. But ostreopsis dinos have an armor that is known to be quite resilient against H202
•Lowering nutrients - this should be a given, dinos thrive in system that is stripped of N03 and P04. Keep them elevated
•Grossly over feeding - although it may give you the elevated nutrients you’d like you’re not only adding N03 and P04 you’re adding organics into the system that it likely can not handle. Since you should not be doing water changes while finding ostreopsis dinos I recommend dosing nitrates and phosphates (I use neonitro and neophos)

If I missed anything or if you have any questions or comments don’t be afraid to share :)
Hope this helps some people. Once again, my opinion on what has worked for me and the research I have done.
Wonderful to hear!! :) please share your story here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/“...d-you-beat-them-real-experiences-only.819443/
 
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