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- Thread starter Reefried
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OP
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Reefried
In need of Reefhab
Yes they seem to be!
OP
OP
Reefried
In need of Reefhab
OP
OP
Reefried
In need of Reefhab
Update. So my Dino’s are not gone. Frustrating. I am considering dosing silicates to fuel a diatom bloom to outcompete. Not sure what I’ll do. My corals look great and are growing. Especially sps. The Dino’s bother my zoas. They aren’t happy. I am also thinking of adding some established live rock from somewhere to help with micro biome. However I am not too excited about just grabbing some from the LFS
OP
OP
Reefried
In need of Reefhab
Another update. I have Dino’s still and absolutely hate them!! You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how long I thought about building this current tank. It was literally over ten years. I broke my last tank down in 2010 and thought if this one ever since. I thought of everything. I would continually check in with the hobby and see what’s new, methods, equipment etc. I wanted a nice NSA scape and was set on dry rock as to not introduce any unwanted pests. While I know you can get Dino’s with a live rock tank, I believe a dry rock/dry sand tank is like a welcome mat for these little f***ers.
I have read both the Dino threads on R2R completely. Especially the LCA thread. I have large cell amphidinium, confirmed via microscope. I decided to go with the dosing silica method to encourage a diatom bloom to eventually outcompete the Dino’s. I run a UV although it doesn’t really help with LCA as they do not go into water column. They stay mostly on my sand and I have some on my rocks. By “mostly” on my sand I mean they cover 98% of it. It is gross. I first started my attack by trying to balance and keep stable nitrate and phosphate numbers. Then started dosing silica. This is a slow process and I am about 6 weeks into it. My last look under the microscope shows some diatoms but not many. It is still 95% Dino’s. They swim around on the slide like they have no care in the world!
I have decided that I am going to remove my sand. I will do it slowly over the next month. I am currently building two wrasse beds for my sand sleeping wrasses. When they are done I will start removing sand. I have tried everything recommended to fight LCA. I started with easing temps and adding Iron. Jake Adam’s and Chris Meckley mentioned that this works. I figured it was easy and worth a shot. It definitely doesn’t work. It has been proven that Iron fuels Dino’s. The temp change also did nothing. Blackouts also do nothing. The Dino’s come right back. LCA has been proven to go into “cyst” mode for over a month. I have tried siphoning the sand. Siphoning through a 5 micron sock. Doesn’t do anything. I have tried leaving the sand/tank alone and hoping the system would just right itself as the micro biome develops. I have dosed both a tube and dormant bacteria. This does not work. I’m sure it helps the system overall however does nothing to fight off the Dino’s. Also worth noting that everyone who doses bacteria while trying to fight Dino’s is playing a back and forth game. Keeping balanced nutrient levels is key. In my case that means adding nitrate and phosphate, not trying to lower. So adding MB7 for example is counterproductive as that is nitrifying bacteria.
I will update with how the sand removal works. Funny thing is that my SPS and LPS are thriving. Even the Dino’s on the rocks don’t bother them at all. SPS will continue to encrust no problem. The Dino’s do bother my Zoas. They will completely cover them. I have to baste them off twice a day, and even then they are just slowly melting away. I have a few Zoas that are in the shade under rocks and these are happy as the Dino’s love light. I have never been more envious of people white sand. I absolutely hate the look of a bare bottom tank, but I am willing to try it. Hopefully after sand removal and basting the rocks every other day or so a switch will flick on the tank and the Dino’s will recede. I’m hoping to eventually add sand back but I am not in a rush to do so. I should also mention that I did add established live rock to the system. From two different sources. I’m sure it helped my micro biome but it did not help with Dino’s. The Dino’s on the rock cover up my coraline and that has even started to die off.
I have read both the Dino threads on R2R completely. Especially the LCA thread. I have large cell amphidinium, confirmed via microscope. I decided to go with the dosing silica method to encourage a diatom bloom to eventually outcompete the Dino’s. I run a UV although it doesn’t really help with LCA as they do not go into water column. They stay mostly on my sand and I have some on my rocks. By “mostly” on my sand I mean they cover 98% of it. It is gross. I first started my attack by trying to balance and keep stable nitrate and phosphate numbers. Then started dosing silica. This is a slow process and I am about 6 weeks into it. My last look under the microscope shows some diatoms but not many. It is still 95% Dino’s. They swim around on the slide like they have no care in the world!
I have decided that I am going to remove my sand. I will do it slowly over the next month. I am currently building two wrasse beds for my sand sleeping wrasses. When they are done I will start removing sand. I have tried everything recommended to fight LCA. I started with easing temps and adding Iron. Jake Adam’s and Chris Meckley mentioned that this works. I figured it was easy and worth a shot. It definitely doesn’t work. It has been proven that Iron fuels Dino’s. The temp change also did nothing. Blackouts also do nothing. The Dino’s come right back. LCA has been proven to go into “cyst” mode for over a month. I have tried siphoning the sand. Siphoning through a 5 micron sock. Doesn’t do anything. I have tried leaving the sand/tank alone and hoping the system would just right itself as the micro biome develops. I have dosed both a tube and dormant bacteria. This does not work. I’m sure it helps the system overall however does nothing to fight off the Dino’s. Also worth noting that everyone who doses bacteria while trying to fight Dino’s is playing a back and forth game. Keeping balanced nutrient levels is key. In my case that means adding nitrate and phosphate, not trying to lower. So adding MB7 for example is counterproductive as that is nitrifying bacteria.
I will update with how the sand removal works. Funny thing is that my SPS and LPS are thriving. Even the Dino’s on the rocks don’t bother them at all. SPS will continue to encrust no problem. The Dino’s do bother my Zoas. They will completely cover them. I have to baste them off twice a day, and even then they are just slowly melting away. I have a few Zoas that are in the shade under rocks and these are happy as the Dino’s love light. I have never been more envious of people white sand. I absolutely hate the look of a bare bottom tank, but I am willing to try it. Hopefully after sand removal and basting the rocks every other day or so a switch will flick on the tank and the Dino’s will recede. I’m hoping to eventually add sand back but I am not in a rush to do so. I should also mention that I did add established live rock to the system. From two different sources. I’m sure it helped my micro biome but it did not help with Dino’s. The Dino’s on the rock cover up my coraline and that has even started to die off.
OP
OP
Reefried
In need of Reefhab
So I have removed all of my sand. It definitely helped battling Dino’s. After I removed the sand, every other day I would turn the return pump off, put a marineland in tank filter in and blow off the rocks with a turkey baster. Over the last month the Dino’s have slowly gone away. Last week I only blew the rocks off once. I am hoping to add sand back slowly eventually. Even though my tank is 90% sps, and bare bottom would be nice for flow and easy detritus removal, I cannot stand the look. I think I will start by putting sand in Tupperware in my sump for a month at a time before adding to the display.
In the hundreds of pages in the Dino threads on R2R I had the worst outbreak I have seen. The day I removed the sand they covered absolutely everything. Every inch of sand. They severely bothered my zoanthids. I lost frags of CB white zombie, CB rainbow bowsers, and WWC AOI. Here are a couple of pics of how bad it was.
When I tell you guys I tried everything. I mean everything. Removing the sand is the only thing that has helped.
In the hundreds of pages in the Dino threads on R2R I had the worst outbreak I have seen. The day I removed the sand they covered absolutely everything. Every inch of sand. They severely bothered my zoanthids. I lost frags of CB white zombie, CB rainbow bowsers, and WWC AOI. Here are a couple of pics of how bad it was.
When I tell you guys I tried everything. I mean everything. Removing the sand is the only thing that has helped.
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garyl
Well-Known Member
Wow! - I have been reading through this tank build with horror. My tank is about 4 months old and I'm not sure what I would do if this happened to me. The worst part, is that it could still happen to me...
Best of luck, those photos were absolutely heartbreaking given all the thought and work you put into this tank.
I'm sure you will persevere.
Best of luck, those photos were absolutely heartbreaking given all the thought and work you put into this tank.
I'm sure you will persevere.
OP
OP
Reefried
In need of Reefhab
Thank you. Things are looking good at the moment. I was not really stressing about the Dino’s. It did deflate me as looking at the tank was painful. The good news is the sps stayed strong during the whole thing. Color was not the best, but now things are looking better every day.
Mike Lemming
Well-Known Member
What worked for you?
OP
OP
Reefried
In need of Reefhab
Tank has been without sand for awhile now. Dino’s are gone. Nutrients are stable and corals are looking good. I ordered some zoas a few weeks ago to replace some that I lost to Dino’s. They are fat and happy. I am battling some type of brownish purple hair algae. I ordered a Sea Hare, hopefully he munches on it. This week I put some sand into a container in my sump. I am going to leave it there for three weeks or so, and stir it occasionally to hopefully let some good bacteria colonize it, then add it back to the display. Hopefully the Dino’s don’t come back. Like I said before I absolutely hate the look of bare bottom, plus I feel for my yellow corris wrasse as he now sleeps in a small Tupperware!!! Plus I want to add a few more sand sleeping wrasses. We will see. I wish I had room for a bigger container of sand in my sump as this will be a long process!
OP
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Reefried
In need of Reefhab
So I finally skinned my stand. It took almost a year!! It took awhile to finally find something I liked. I did not want typical wood. And did not want any detail, no molding, no recessed accents or anything. I just wanted a sleek black finish. I thought about possibly doing some type of hdpe, or starboard. I finally settled on cabinet doors from IKEA. They are particle board covered in melamine. Although they are particle board underneath they should be fairly resistant to normal water spray/spills.
I had originally wanted to use magnets to hold the top part of each panel, while also utilizing a small aluminum angle on the bottom to rest on the base of my stand, holding almost all of the weight of each panel.
Using magnets is a good idea, but a little tougher to accomplish. The stand is aluminum and obviously non ferrous. I would have had to screw them to the stand, then recess the other magnets into the door panels. Or have to use some small angle bracket to attach them to the stand to still have the panel sit flush with the stand. In the end I just used some small profile basic cabinet door hardware. The things that kept your 1980’s kitchen cabinets closed. They work well and don’t take up much real estate. I ordered 6- 1” aluminum angle iron from Amazon for $15 and spray painted them black. I had to cut down the panels so I also used some iron on melamine strips to protect the exposed mdf from the cut.
I had originally wanted to use magnets to hold the top part of each panel, while also utilizing a small aluminum angle on the bottom to rest on the base of my stand, holding almost all of the weight of each panel.
Using magnets is a good idea, but a little tougher to accomplish. The stand is aluminum and obviously non ferrous. I would have had to screw them to the stand, then recess the other magnets into the door panels. Or have to use some small angle bracket to attach them to the stand to still have the panel sit flush with the stand. In the end I just used some small profile basic cabinet door hardware. The things that kept your 1980’s kitchen cabinets closed. They work well and don’t take up much real estate. I ordered 6- 1” aluminum angle iron from Amazon for $15 and spray painted them black. I had to cut down the panels so I also used some iron on melamine strips to protect the exposed mdf from the cut.
