I did the deep clean in my tank for Dino’s. I removed all my sand and did all step I listed above and it’s been just about two weeks with zero signs of Dino’s and I’m starting to see algae on my glass for first time in months! The point of the deep clean is to rinse away all unwanted organisms (algae/Dino’s/ detritus etc). I stand behind cleaning the sand if he wants to go down this route.Yeah, i think that's where we part. I think dinos like low nutrients or very high nutrients when you don't have coral/macro established.
I have been feeding very very heavy after my dino outbreak, to a point it seems ridiculous, in the same 20 gallon tank... and the dinos went away...
If he does the deep clean and cleans the sand too well--the uber low nutrients could just bring back the dinos with vengeance IMO.
Also i think stability is key and dino's will love any major change. the deep clean is a big enough change. Washing away all the beneficial bacteria and detritrus in the sand bed i think is just too much change all at once if he's putting the corals/fish back in...
Personally, i would just scrubb the rocks, rinse the sand lightly (if at all), clean the tank lightly, do a big water change marching salinity, temp, and alkalinity perfectly, put the corals back in, and keep dark for three days while running UV, keep running UV, add a refugium (very minimal macro algae though--maybe golf ball size chaeto to start), add copepods and dose phyto every night, and add some hearty corals like shrooms, ricordia, leathers, zoos, euphilias, xenia, etc.
Also @Mywifeisgunnakillme if you haven’t read the sand rinse thread I posted above go check it out might show you why rinsing sand is well worth it.
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