MasonK24
Active Member
Daily I see posts regarding dinoflagellates. It hurts to see great tanks destroyed by them. Ive been there. In fact, i STILL am there after years.
If i’ve learned anything over the last few years of this hobby is there is no such thing as a quick fix. It always comes with some type of possible side effect. Being naive in this hobby on my first tank, I had problems with nutrient control. I was obsessed with the numbers and they weren’t where i wanted them to be. Browsing on here i discovered the magic of carbon dosing. Now im not saying carbon dosing is bad, some of the greatest tanks on here carbon dose daily. Its one of the easiest ways to get your parameters exactly where you want them. Little did I know, being naive, I was playing with fire. In retrospect, i wish i would have went other directions or just used a lot more caution. At first it was fantastic. Algae was a thing of the past. It was the calm before the storm. Not being careful, i dropped my nitrates and phosphates clear to the floor. Then boom, brown snot exploded in my tank. It looked like a warzone. I came on here asking for help and found out I had dinos. I never even heard of dinos, you mean the reptiles that roamed the earth before humans??I tried everything to get rid of them until i gave up and tore down the tank. I was defeated. That tank is long gone but the point of this post is to save someone from the absolute pain of watching something you love crumble. If anyone is asking for advice on carbon dosing, PLEASE warn them of the problems of bottoming out parameters. I know sometimes you have to go through it to learn from it but man did that suck. If just one person reads this post and it saves them from dinos i would be more than happy and this post was worth it.
Nowadays on my almost 3 year old 75 gallon, I dont chase the numbers. I dont even test that often. If everything looks happy and growing, then im happy. I wont ever try to do that again. It gives me a headache thinking about it. Id take green hair algae over dinos any day.
If i’ve learned anything over the last few years of this hobby is there is no such thing as a quick fix. It always comes with some type of possible side effect. Being naive in this hobby on my first tank, I had problems with nutrient control. I was obsessed with the numbers and they weren’t where i wanted them to be. Browsing on here i discovered the magic of carbon dosing. Now im not saying carbon dosing is bad, some of the greatest tanks on here carbon dose daily. Its one of the easiest ways to get your parameters exactly where you want them. Little did I know, being naive, I was playing with fire. In retrospect, i wish i would have went other directions or just used a lot more caution. At first it was fantastic. Algae was a thing of the past. It was the calm before the storm. Not being careful, i dropped my nitrates and phosphates clear to the floor. Then boom, brown snot exploded in my tank. It looked like a warzone. I came on here asking for help and found out I had dinos. I never even heard of dinos, you mean the reptiles that roamed the earth before humans??I tried everything to get rid of them until i gave up and tore down the tank. I was defeated. That tank is long gone but the point of this post is to save someone from the absolute pain of watching something you love crumble. If anyone is asking for advice on carbon dosing, PLEASE warn them of the problems of bottoming out parameters. I know sometimes you have to go through it to learn from it but man did that suck. If just one person reads this post and it saves them from dinos i would be more than happy and this post was worth it.
Nowadays on my almost 3 year old 75 gallon, I dont chase the numbers. I dont even test that often. If everything looks happy and growing, then im happy. I wont ever try to do that again. It gives me a headache thinking about it. Id take green hair algae over dinos any day.
