Dino then cyano then dino then cyano, now nitrates 50ppm and phosphate .6ppm

[yBlunder]

I lost battle with dino and cyano.
First i got dinos I used dinox which cleared my dinos after 13 doses, after that cyano took over and i used chemiclean cyano cleared after 2 days. After that dinos took over again so i used dinox and cyano took over again and ofcourse i used chemiclean. All my lps are long gone and now nitrates at 50ppm and phosphate at 0.6ppm. Since i dont have any corals left I turned off the lights for 2 weeks now, took all the sand out and started carbon dosing. There are no signs of dinos nor cyano now and the tank looks squeaky clean. I plan to reduced the nitrates to 5ppm and phosphate below 0.1ppm before turning on the lights again. Is there anything wrong with my plan? Is there anything i can do that I cant see from my perspective? Thanks

 

[CasperOe]

How old is your tank? Dosing left and right of various chemicals is rarely the best solution.

I'd say to you to stick to good old fashioned housekeeping and husbandry such as staying on top of your water changes, and muster a bit of patience.

- Do you have any livestock in the tank, and if so what?
- Have you thought about limiting the input of nutrition?
- How much- and how often do you do water changes?

Share a few pictures of your tank, then it is always easier to provide appropriate assistance.

 

[jda]

Both dinos and cyano mostly take over sterile places where nothing else has established a hold. Residual nutrients don't have much to do with it.

When you kill one, the other can take hold... and then vice versa.

This will be an issue until your tank has established bio film, algaes, etc. covering your surfaces. The squeaky clean is what allows them to grow. Starting over just allows them to start over - others on this board love to advocate for starting over, but unless you make huge changes, you just set the clock back.

My guess is that one or the other is going to come back as soon as the meds are no longer effective.

If you want sand, put it back in. Taking it out was short-term at best. If you don't want sand, then never mind.

Order some live rock which can help populate the sterile clean areas in your tank.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I've started bubbling today. Wooden air stone at my return pump and I can see the Dinos are disliking it as they're all bunching up. They don't like oxygen at all and tomorrow I'll be sending the bacteria troops in to deal with this PITA!

My tank is still very young and have limited nutrients, at least I'm not reading 0/0

I'm keeping Nitrate around 6 and dosing Phosphate twice a day to stay above .02

Also been adding Hydrogen Peroxide twice a day, once in the morning befor lights come on and evening when lights turn off I'll add the peroxide into the skimmers air line. No more dinos on the rock now.

I really don't want to use anything like DinoX or Chemiclean. Just waiting till friday when I can identify the strain under a microscope.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Both dinos and cyano mostly take over sterile places where nothing else has established a hold. Residual nutrients don't have much to do with it.

When you kill one, the other can take hold... and then vice versa.

This will be an issue until your tank has established bio film, algaes, etc. covering your surfaces. The squeaky clean is what allows them to grow. Starting over just allows them to start over - others on this board love to advocate for starting over, but unless you make huge changes, you just set the clock back.

My guess is that one or the other is going to come back as soon as the meds are no longer effective.

If you want sand, put it back in. Taking it out was short-term at best. If you don't want sand, then never mind.

Order some live rock which can help populate the sterile clean areas in your tank.

Well said! I did a complete break down and low and behold they came back. This time I have nutrients unlike before the break down where I couldn't keep any nutrients in the tank whatsoever.

 

[jda]

The nutrients are a red herring. This time around, you likely have more bacteria or other film on the rocks and sand which has helped. You can have dinos with huge residual nutrient levels and not have any with natural seawater levels. It is about vacant real estate since they can move into town faster than just about anything.