Things are slowly improving! My lights are currently on a 8 hour window. One hour ramp on both ends. Dino's are obviously still there, some more than others, but larger clean patches or cleaner patches are coming along. Parameters in the tank are stabelizing but now i'm noticing i'm having to top off with RODI now which for a month I had to top off with the mixed saltwater. I'm also noticing that with treating dino's and having to increase nitrates i'm increasing Magnesium well beyond the recommended range, so i'm pulling back on flakes today and just focusing on frozen foods. I did a six day course of phyto which was fun to do as well, some extra bacteria, tons of copapods, and shorter photo periods. I even did hydrogen peroxide during the first week or so.
Honestly nothing seemed like a silver bullet, which I kinda gathered from watching tons of videos and reading posts here. The low down i'm coming away with is, do all the things, be consistent and taper off slowly. Truth is, they just have to be eradicated from every angle and eventually other things will take their place. I refused to buy UV, and its probably just as well. I was going to get a microscope, but I decided it'd just be better for the reef in general if I attacked the problem holistically and from every aspect rather than trying to find that "one thing" that worked.
I won't lie, I was tempted multiple times to just do a 100% water change. But i've managed to tough it out. Because i've heard that doing that is really just a temporary relief and sometimes it can exacerbate the rebound.
I did notice the dino's tried to attack my low laying coral. I lost a single acro frag, which to be honest, wasn't surprising. The older ones that had been in my tank from the word go have weathered it well. I moved them all up in the tank, made sure they ate, and I blew them clean of any stringy hanger ons as I saw them. I also increased aeration of my water for the fish. I noticed my YWG got a little sickly with a white patch where his yellow faded. I moved him to our 9 gallon display and in two days he healed completely so I assume it was all the irritation from treatments and the dino bacteria in the tank.
I also moved my larger montipora frags out of the tank to protect them from similar issues, and they are thriving in my wife's 24G. I dipped both before rinsing and transferring them to her tank, and it seems to have worked out. Both are thriving with great visible polyp extension. Bottom line? I removed and medicated anyone that exhibited high risk, hit all the notes, and i'm staying consistent. Hopefully in another week or so this will be behind me, but I won't be surprised if it fights hard before I extinguish it completely.
