BIG Congrats. You did it !!! If anyone could do it, it would be you. Good research, patience, persistence, and laughing all the way. I would be crying myself silly and then tearing things apart. Looking forward to the new 2nd beginning on this tank. I am certainly going to consider adding some bio-diversity to my newly restarted tank (the one I gave up on and tore down).
A few other tips I did when battling UV resistant Dinos: 1) Constantly tested Nitrate and Phosphates to maintain an approximate 1/100 ratio between them (i.e. 10 ppm nitrate to .1 ppm phosphate 2) decreased my light schedule (I only ran blue lights and no white lights while battling dinos), 3) decreased my skimmer so it's not taking out all the nutrients, 4) increased water flow (added another powerhead) so it is harder for dinos to attach to things, 5) I added Money Cowrie snails and Tisbee Pods (both are known to eat dinos), 6) added Phytoplankton, and 7) Bought a 5 micron filter sock and siphoned out the layers of Dinos on the sand bed by lightly grazing over the top of the sand with a siphon hose. I did try the Python gravel cleaner but the Dinos would not siphon up through the tube so I just used a 1/2" hose which worked great, but you will siphon some of the sand as well. I put the filter sock attached to a 15G drum so that the water siphoned through it and caught the Dinos (and some of the sand). I then pumped just the water back into the tank. I then put what little sand that was caught in the filter sock into a bucket and let it soak in 12% Hydrogen Peroxide and then rinsed it with RODI water. I repeatedly did this siphon every few days whenever more Dinos reappeared.
Hopefully the tank will turn around soon for you. Glad to see you’re still hanging in there. I had same Dino’s and had no luck removing them. Eventually just suck out all the sand.
Thanks for the update. I feel like a lot of us older reefers have been struggling lately lol. I have jokingly dubbed my current tank the shit show tank. It has gone through huge outbreaks of bubble algae, vermatids and aptaisia. Then discovered monti eating nudis. Then a mysterious torch killing disease that kills one torch every several weeks (hopefully I got a handle on it). And almost forgot that I had one instance of some kind of predatory sponge that killed a coral. I threw out the whole rock it was on. Hence shit show tank but right now its actually settled down.
2-3 ppm nitrates and 0.04 phosphates but I went away for a few weeks both n and p bottomed our leading to the last dino outbreak. Nutrients bottoming out also spell trouble for me
@@TheBioReef silicate dosing, I have a huge diatom bloom, I culture my own pods and Phyto and dose those daily, i also dose bacteria daily and rotate between 3 different types. I’ve done many ICP tests and changed my water source. Ive balanced nutrients and got trace elements all in check. I have a ton of diatoms, an inch thick everywhere including the glass, I removed my sand too. I check under a microscope and Dino’s are in every gap between the diatoms
