I recently set up a 90 gallon with all dry aragonite sand and mostly dry rock..seeded it with some stuff from my previous tank.....I'm seeing what I hope is diatom but fear dinos....the previous tank had a dino issue.....I haven't seen air bubbles yet so I'm hoping its just diatom, but it seems severe for diatom. I know dry sand/rock can be known for causing silicates and diatom and I've seen an explosion of pod population (also seeding tank with fuge rock periodically)....dino is a fight I never want to face again and I'm just looking for some opinions. ...I'm going to start running my carbon/gfo soon as well
Question about dry sand
- Thread starter solaris11
- Start date
shifty51008
12-5 Chiefs record
I would just wait it out for now, keep the nitrates and phosphates low and hope for the best.
Well, whats best is you should cut down on the lights.
Sift the sand physically with your hands or you can get sifting clean up screws.
Also a small water change won't hurt.
If it is dino/cyanno, well you should use a product called chemi-clean they work wonders: just follow the instructions.
hope this helps
Sift the sand physically with your hands or you can get sifting clean up screws.
Also a small water change won't hurt.
If it is dino/cyanno, well you should use a product called chemi-clean they work wonders: just follow the instructions.
hope this helps
Quiet_Ivy
New member
Ehh normally I'd vote diatoms in a new tank, but you had dinos before? Do you have any pictures? Having dinos come back from reusing rock is unfortunately really common. Hit up the Reef Chemistry forum for a long thread on fighting dinos; there've been some good cures with the 'dirty method' so even if it is dinos all is not lost.
Oh and diatoms sometimes have air bubbles. You added sand which usually provokes diatoms. Don't panic yet. Def get the GFO going to drop silicates, would NOT recommend stirring the sand. Have you got snails? If they're happy and all over the stuff it's not dinos. Turning the lights out won't help.
hth
ivy (wouldn't wish dinos on my worst enemy. Sheesh what a nightmare)
I did my best to keep the rock and coral in my old system from transfering dino to the new tank while doing my best to keep it alive. Lost an octospawn, a cleaner shrimp and a pistol shrimp (gotta admit not too unhappy about this one). All fish=2 clowns, 1 small foxface, yellow watchman, bengai cardinal and tailspot blenny doing fine. A small acan colony is loving life, a small digi colony just bleached right out in 24 hours yesterday, green zoas are happy, a branching hammer is hanging in but not thriving.
I'll post pictures tomorrow. I have brs dosing pumps they were dosing 5ml a day 2 part but my levels got a little high
