sahin, I'm very close to deciding on a complete restart myself. Did you re-use any of your rock, remaining coral, fish, etc? Or did you restart with 100% new everything? What was your process of cleaning everything before you restarted?
I thought I had them beat for a while until they recently came back. Snails started dropping to the sand bed unable to move. I just hate the thought of restarting only to have another outbreak.
I had two different kinds of Dinos . I viewed them under the microscope to confirm this each time I had Dinos.
Anyway, the first time I got them, I got rid of the rocks. My LFS took them for free and put them in his fish only tank sump which is dark.
The tank was reset with 100% new corals, rocks, fishes and water; I even clean teh tank and run bleach water through the whole tank to clean the overflow and piping areas. Man I sold my two blue Maxima clams to my LFS...I grew them from tiny clams to 5inch+
The 2nd time I used Marco Key Largo rocks. This time round I put most of the rocks in storage for future use, and retained a bit less than half for my tank use.
I poured Hydrogen Peroxide over the badly affected areas and use a spray bottle with the mist function to spray the Dinos with Peroxide directly.
I then put the Marco rocks in bucket with a powerhead and poured nearly half a bottle of Ultra Algae X.
I then left the whole thing in the dark for a few weeks (I think it was about 3-4weeks) and changed 100% water a few times.
When I got the rocks out, all the Dinos had died away and I was left with clean rocks.
These rocks have been in my again reset tank for over 3 months with lighting and so far no problems.
Oh, the tank itself, I cleaned everything out with Vinegar and tap water to kill everything.
What I can tell you though is that if you want to avoid a whole cycle etc, new rocks etc etc, get rid of your corals. Use a temp 40 breeder or something to keep your fish. Or give them away as well.
Now run the tank in the dark for 2 months. I mean complete dark. Dose some bacteria and add a few flakes to the tank to keep the biological filtration up. Add Peroxide at a high dose for one week. Then add the Ultra algae X for 2 weeks.
With a lengthy dark period all the Dinos will die as they did for me.
The thing is, I'd rather do that then having to go through a whole years worth of tank cycle. I'd rather have an established mature tank.
I did restart my tank and got them again. New rock, new sand, new water but transferred over my corals and fish to the new system.
I would suggest all new rock, sand, etc. but if using the same tank. Completely wipe it clean, including your sump. If you reuse any rock, make sure you give a good 2 week no lights, or completely dry it out. When I restarted the tank, I didn't completely clean out the tank and sump and equipment and some strain somehow made it though again. They didn't show up for a few months, but around month 6 I could see some bubbles and just hoped they were normal bubbles. Then the stings appeared....
Yup, completely wash out the tank and equipment.
The thing is, I didnt even have the same species of Dinos either time. And used new everything and wash the tank in bleach and still ended up with Dinos. So there is no guarantee that a complete reset will cure your problem. Theoretically it should; but it didnt work in my case which is very unlucky for me.
When I used the Marco Key Largo rocks, I acid washed the rocks and had a barebottom tank. So there is NO question of excess nutrients. I got less than 0.01ppm on my Hanna Phosphate meter. I know it wasnt nutrients.
In my opinion, it was a simple case of a bacterial imbalance in the system. With the dark period, you help shift the nutrient utilization to your ordinary bacteria, rather than Dinos using the nutrients. A bit like Rock Cooking.
Good luck guys. Happy new year.
