Hi Tom,
First of all, spectacular build thread you have here.
I have subscribed it since the beginning so I feel for you knowing the hard work you have put in this project...
Nevertheless, I am with Leonardo; I am sure you will get past this obstacle and the satisfaction will be overwhelming.
Regarding Dino´s, I am too currently handling the same problem in my 30G LPS and softies tank. I have been battling Dino´s for a month now, after two weeks trying to keep NPS corals with daily frozen food, several times/day. The skimmer + WC were not enough for the organics and bam: Dino´s. The white sand became red with O2 bubbles spreading the threads of the Beast, the glass was covered in a red web as well as the rocks and corals started to become affected with red strings attached to them.
Before corals were affected, I read and read and tried to apply the following:
- stop feeding corals and reduced feeding on fish
- increase pH with kalkwasser saturating the top off water; ph is always 8.3
- add GAC and change it every two weeks
- water changes of 20L two times/week with detritus in the Sump and Dino´s in the Display syphoned
- wet skimming
- UV filtration for day period
- turkey baster the corals everyday to keep them free of algae and keep the stringy Dino´s suspended to be overflowed and filtered by the UV
- clean the glass and MP10 everyday to remove as much nasties I could
After three weeks with this routine, I have not noticed positive results, much on the contrary. After one hour the lights go on, sand and rock were still red, glass still had the red webs, corals were getting more affected, specially the Zoanthids. I consider myself a patience guy but enough is enough so I rethought my steps, asked why these things would come back after trying to control the organics and decided to go extreme:
- removed all the fish and inverts to the bigger tank to completely stop throwing food in the tank
- increased GAC
- UV filtration for 24h
- covered the whole tank with beach towels
- performed a 20L WC and vacuumed all the Dino´s I could on the sand and rocks
- cleaned the glass and pump
- turkey bastard the corals
- immedeately turned the lights off and left the tank in total darkness for 4 days ( I read that some people went 7 days but I am not that radical)
At the 4th day, I turned the lights on for 6 hours and performed a WC to syphon the dead Dino´s. Corals took the beating and looked good, sand was white again, rocks and glass were clean and the Beast was dead ( or so I thought)...
At the 6th day, It resuscitated! Tiny red patches started to color the sand grains to take the lost Glory It once had! The first reaction was: " Not in my watch you won´t, Bit**". Clearly, there were still some organics left but the only affected area was the sand bed. In the same day, I went to the LFS and bought a bottle of MB7, along with a bottle of Vodka. When I got home, I once again rethought my theory but reached the conclusion that injecting Vodka would most likely fuel the algae since it would be another nutrient at the Beast´s disposal and I wouldn´t want that. Oh, what the heck. I´ll just use the MB7 and keep the Vodka for happier days ( or sadder days, depending on the evolution of the situation :sad1: ).
So, new actions have been taken:
- leave the lights for only 6h/day
- remove the UV filter
- return to 20L WC once a week
- turkey baster the sand and rock every day in the nocturnal period to keep the POM suspended in order to feed the corals and the DOM available for Bacteria that, consequently, could be skimmed out or also feed the corals.
- the extra Bacteria introduced by the MB7 would aid in this conversion for feeding and exportation of the system. No extra carbon source is used.
I´m on my 6th day of these newly simple tasks and on the 12th day after the blackout and Dino´s are slowly fading. The rock, corals, glass and pump are 100% clean, corals never looked happier, the sand has still some patches of red but it stays withe for longer time through out the day and this is evident day by day to the point I decided to give a sweet to my LPS corals made of Mysis and Lobster eggs today. I am confident that it won´t take longer until things get back to normal but I won´t be opening the champagne bottle just yet. For now, I can only say that Dino´s are under control but not gone.
Now, I see some details that turned my task easier to control this pest, such as:
- my tank is small ( 30G) so it really helps when it comes to turkey baster, WCs, cleaning, skimming, injecting bacteria, etc
- I only had three small fish and a couple of Inverts that were easy to remove to facilitate maintenance and stop feeding the tank
- it is a tank exclusive for softies like Ricordeas and Zoanthids and LPS like Acanthastreas, Trachyphyllias, Catallaphyllia, Favias, Caulastreas, etc.
- Lighting is composed of 6 x 18W T8
- Flow is also imperative and the MP10 in this tank doesn´t allow dead spots
- It is also imperative that much of the detritus that are suspended with the turkey baster are overflowed and skimmed out of the system or vacuumed with WCs in the Sump
I am sorry for the long post but I figured that the more the experiences, the better. Hopefully, something will work out for you though I know it won´t be easy in such a big system. In the end, you must not let this take you down but, instead, stand and fight it with the persistence and patience of a buddhist monk. The Beast won´t stand a chance!
Good luck. :beer:
André
