I just got the upper hand on my dino problem. I won’t say “won” the war, but I’m feeling more confident every day that goes by.
The concept is fixing the micro-biome. If dino outbreaks occur because there is an imbalance in the micro-biome, then the long-term cure is restoring balance and diversity.
My dinos were on the sand and did not fully go into the water column at night. I’ll skip what didn’t work and get right to what did.
1) I ditched the chaeto. That was keeping my nutrients too low. After I removed it, I had a stable 2.5-5ppm NO3 and 0.03-0.05 phosphate . This gave me the nutrients to feed the competitors
2) I started by siphoning the sand as much as I could and getting the rest of the dinos into the water column
3) I used 5 micron filter sock at night to remove any dinos that did enter the water column
4) I introduced live Florida Keys sand and mud from Florida Pets. This adds a huge amount of bacteria and diversity. Florida pets is online and the sand is cheap, like $20 shipped or something. I got the idea from @AquaBiomics Thread 'Effects of live sand & mud on the microbial communities in my tanks (updated with new data)'
5) I covered the sand with filter floss pad. I have a huge roll of it and cut it to fit in between the rocks and coral. This singles out the photosynthetic dinos and gives the new bacteria time to settle in. It also avoids a total blackout which can be stressful on coral. To be honest, I started off with a 2-day blackout then kept the filter pads there another 3-4 days. I got this idea from @Just John Post in thread 'Losing battle w/ Dinos'
6) I disturbed the new live sand&mud every once in a while to make sure the tank was seeded
7) I began this process in low-light mode to help control the dino’s, but throughout the process I increased the lights to full PAR that my tank requires. I’m now up to ~100 PAR on the sand and 250 at the top of my Acros
Since then, I’ve had to siphon the sand once a week as small numbers of dino’s remained. But their numbers are greatly reduced and decreasing.
People say dinos appear when there is an imbalance in the micro biome. So I fixed the mocrobiome. No heterotrophic bottle bacteria that is transient - I added real bacteria from the ocean.
The concept is fixing the micro-biome. If dino outbreaks occur because there is an imbalance in the micro-biome, then the long-term cure is restoring balance and diversity.
My dinos were on the sand and did not fully go into the water column at night. I’ll skip what didn’t work and get right to what did.
1) I ditched the chaeto. That was keeping my nutrients too low. After I removed it, I had a stable 2.5-5ppm NO3 and 0.03-0.05 phosphate . This gave me the nutrients to feed the competitors
2) I started by siphoning the sand as much as I could and getting the rest of the dinos into the water column
3) I used 5 micron filter sock at night to remove any dinos that did enter the water column
4) I introduced live Florida Keys sand and mud from Florida Pets. This adds a huge amount of bacteria and diversity. Florida pets is online and the sand is cheap, like $20 shipped or something. I got the idea from @AquaBiomics Thread 'Effects of live sand & mud on the microbial communities in my tanks (updated with new data)'
5) I covered the sand with filter floss pad. I have a huge roll of it and cut it to fit in between the rocks and coral. This singles out the photosynthetic dinos and gives the new bacteria time to settle in. It also avoids a total blackout which can be stressful on coral. To be honest, I started off with a 2-day blackout then kept the filter pads there another 3-4 days. I got this idea from @Just John Post in thread 'Losing battle w/ Dinos'
6) I disturbed the new live sand&mud every once in a while to make sure the tank was seeded
7) I began this process in low-light mode to help control the dino’s, but throughout the process I increased the lights to full PAR that my tank requires. I’m now up to ~100 PAR on the sand and 250 at the top of my Acros
Since then, I’ve had to siphon the sand once a week as small numbers of dino’s remained. But their numbers are greatly reduced and decreasing.
People say dinos appear when there is an imbalance in the micro biome. So I fixed the mocrobiome. No heterotrophic bottle bacteria that is transient - I added real bacteria from the ocean.