Dino Tank Reset

[CarolinaReef]

Hello all. I have a 20g water box cube that keeps bottoming out phosphates and nitrates, which caused Dino’s. I fought Dino’s (prorocentrum to be exact) for over 10 months. I won, but then the diatoms took over and became out of control. We then moved out of an apartment and into a house so i decided to try a tank reset. I used all new sand and rock (fake rock) and had no time to cycle unfortunately as i didn’t have a second tank. Well…. The prorocentrum is back again. I don’t want to go another potentially 10 months of dosing silicates to fight this. Part of me wants to do another tank reset, but do it correctly this time. Get a new/used tank (preferably bigger), new sand, real live rock, and let it cycle for the proper amount of time. My question is, if i use true live rock this time, do you think I will be more safe from the tank bottoming out and growing Dino’s again? Or what are your thoughts on that? Open to suggestions.

 

[piranhaman00]

You can restart with live rock sure.

Dinos, diatoms, cyano, ect ect are all part of the game. Every tank will get them at some point. All just take patience.

 

[Lavey29]

I agree with the above but if you don't correct your underlying problems with nutrients then the cycle of uglies will just continue. You do realize that the first year with a tank is filled with various ugly phases right?

 

[CarolinaReef]

I agree with the above but if you don't correct your underlying problems with nutrients then the cycle of uglies will just continue. You do realize that the first year with a tank is filled with various ugly phases right?

Yes i do understand that. The tank before the reset was set up for almost 2 years. For whatever reason I just couldn’t get the phosphates and nitrates to increase. Tried increasing feedings, tried letting the tank get dirtier, etc. I just know that with a larger tank the chemicals don’t swing as much so I was hoping it would be easier to manage. I have neophos and neonitro now. I just haven’t figured out how much I need to start dosing. And since i have prorocentrum again, do i need to be dosing both of these as well as silicates? Or just silicates?

 

[Lavey29]

Yes i do understand that. The tank before the reset was set up for almost 2 years. For whatever reason I just couldn’t get the phosphates and nitrates to increase. Tried increasing feedings, tried letting the tank get dirtier, etc. I just know that with a larger tank the chemicals don’t swing as much so I was hoping it would be easier to manage. I have neophos and neonitro now. I just haven’t figured out how much I need to start dosing. And since i have prorocentrum again, do i need to be dosing both of these as well as silicates? Or just silicates?

If you don't get numbers in correct ranges your problem will never go away. I had to double dose neophos and neonitro for multiple months before I got measurable numbers. Silicates is a bandaid solution. I feed heavy 3x per day. What is your feed schedule? Do you dose coral food?

 

[Katrina71]

You'll always have uglies, but live rock will help. A good diverse cuc too.

 

[The_Paradox]

For whatever reason I just couldn’t get the phosphates and nitrates to increase. Tried increasing feedings, tried letting the tank get dirtier, etc.

Did you try dosing?

 

[CarolinaReef]

If you don't get numbers in correct ranges your problem will never go away. I had to double dose neophos and neonitro for multiple months before I got measurable numbers. Silicates is a bandaid solution. I feed heavy 3x per day. What is your feed schedule? Do you dose coral food?

Usually i feed just once a day, and i alternate between pellets and frozen mysis shrimp. I do not as currently I have no corals, just 2 snowflake clowns. All the corals i hade did not make it through my last battle. So I’m waiting till I get this under control before I start getting more.

 

[CarolinaReef]

Did you try dosing?

Silicates yes to get the diatoms that killed the Dino’s. Neophos and neonitro, like i said earlier I have not yet. Trying to figure out how much I should be dosing since it’s only a 20g.

 

[The_Paradox]

Silicates yes to get the diatoms that killed the Dino’s. Neophos and neonitro, like i said earlier I have not yet. Trying to figure out how much I should be dosing since it’s only a 20g.

Start with the suggested, wait an hour then test. Rinse and repeat. After a few days you will have a good idea what the daily consumption is. That will tell you if a dosing pump is warranted or just dumping in a couple ml every few days will work. That will get your nutrients up in a few hours and should start to make a difference in a few weeks.

 

[Rscott]

How does a zeo tank deal with zero nitrates
I tried it once, got Dino’s and was done with this hobby $15k later I gave up

 

[Lavey29]

Usually i feed just once a day, and i alternate between pellets and frozen mysis shrimp. I do not as currently I have no corals, just 2 snowflake clowns. All the corals i hade did not make it through my last battle. So I’m waiting till I get this under control before I start getting more.

Feed those clowns one cube of frozen 2x per day and pellet snack in the middle.

 

[Jason Scalise]

Hello all. I have a 20g water box cube that keeps bottoming out phosphates and nitrates, which caused Dino’s. I fought Dino’s (prorocentrum to be exact) for over 10 months. I won, but then the diatoms took over and became out of control. We then moved out of an apartment and into a house so i decided to try a tank reset. I used all new sand and rock (fake rock) and had no time to cycle unfortunately as i didn’t have a second tank. Well…. The prorocentrum is back again. I don’t want to go another potentially 10 months of dosing silicates to fight this. Part of me wants to do another tank reset, but do it correctly this time. Get a new/used tank (preferably bigger), new sand, real live rock, and let it cycle for the proper amount of time. My question is, if i use true live rock this time, do you think I will be more safe from the tank bottoming out and growing Dino’s again? Or what are your thoughts on that? Open to suggestions.

you can be successful with this, yes. As others have said, you do need to try to maintain nutrient stability within an acceptable range. Range is best compared to chasing specific numbers (which leads to volatility and issues).

that said, I had similar situation in a previous, larger (110g) tank. I had recurrent bad outbreaks of dinos and could not get on top of them.
I finally removed all of the sand that I could and replaced as many of the rocks that I had with new live rock. The rock I had in there had been in there for a couple of years, so it was no 'dead'. It was a chore remove the sand and the rock but it worked. The dino's cleared completely.
The tank started exploding with coraline algae growth and the bad stuff stayed away. the corals thrived and really took off.

One of the lessons I learned was that I was trying to run too low on the nutrient side of things and in reality, a 'dirtier' tank would have been a lot better for me.

I was toying with adding the sandbed back to the tank. I had cleaned, washed and re-seeded the sand with bacteria etc. But then the 110g tank sprung a leak when the front glass panel separated from the side panel. In a round about way, that solved my dilemma of 'should I add the sand bed back and flirt with a return of dinos'.....because it was a catastrophic failure of the tank, which now is in a landfill somewhere.

 

[CarolinaReef]

Feed those clowns one cube of frozen 2x per day and pellet snack in the middle.

I’ll start increasing the feeds and dosing as well. Hopefully that will help!

 

[CarolinaReef]

you can be successful with this, yes. As others have said, you do need to try to maintain nutrient stability within an acceptable range. Range is best compared to chasing specific numbers (which leads to volatility and issues).

that said, I had similar situation in a previous, larger (110g) tank. I had recurrent bad outbreaks of dinos and could not get on top of them.
I finally removed all of the sand that I could and replaced as many of the rocks that I had with new live rock. The rock I had in there had been in there for a couple of years, so it was no 'dead'. It was a chore remove the sand and the rock but it worked. The dino's cleared completely.
The tank started exploding with coraline algae growth and the bad stuff stayed away. the corals thrived and really took off.

One of the lessons I learned was that I was trying to run too low on the nutrient side of things and in reality, a 'dirtier' tank would have been a lot better for me.

I was toying with adding the sandbed back to the tank. I had cleaned, washed and re-seeded the sand with bacteria etc. But then the 110g tank sprung a leak when the front glass panel separated from the side panel. In a round about way, that solved my dilemma of 'should I add the sand bed back and flirt with a return of dinos'.....because it was a catastrophic failure of the tank, which now is in a landfill somewhere.

That’s good to know that just replacing sand and rock could help. My only fear of that was messing up the new live rock and wasting money on it. How fast did you do the whole process?

Sorry about the leak… hopefully that didn’t push you away from the hobby. I love the hobby, it’s just the Dino’s are exhausting and having a nasty looking tank for 10 months is no fun. I had a 55 gallon tank with some cheap HOB filters a while back and never had any issues. Except a little bit of bubble algae.

 

[Jason Scalise]

I removed the sand and added the new live rock all in one go.

 

[CarolinaReef]

How does a zeo tank deal with zero nitrates
I tried it once, got Dino’s and was done with this hobby $15k later I gave up

It’s tough. The Dino’s is killing my enjoyment of the hobby but I love the hobby. I hope I can get past it. A lot of people have automatic dosing which is nice but unfortunately it’s not in the budget for me right now. And hand dosing is a pain, especially if you don’t always have time to do it each day. I hope you can get back into it because it’s nice when it does work out!

 

[Rscott]

It’s tough. The Dino’s is killing my enjoyment of the hobby but I love the hobby. I hope I can get past it. A lot of people have automatic dosing which is nice but unfortunately it’s not in the budget for me right now. And hand dosing is a pain, especially if you don’t always have time to do it each day. I hope you can get back into it because it’s nice when it does work out!

O I had every kind of dosing there was.
If you get Dino’s you might as well throw your tank in the trash.

There is so much “information” on how to beat them but nearly everyone ends up calling a quits or does a tank “reset”

Aka starts over

Very few people win that battle

 

[Dan_P]

My question is, if i use true live rock this time, do you think I will be more safe from the tank bottoming out and growing Dino’s again?

No.

How an aquarium is managed is likely the most important factor in determining the outcome. Unless there is a method that is followed consistently, having a nice reef aquarium is unlikely. For example, if you believe nutrients bottoming out cause dinoflagellates, then nutrients never bottom out in your system, right. This type of thinking goes for every other aspect of aquarium care.

Good luck. You can do this.

 

[Troylee]

How does a zeo tank deal with zero nitrates
I tried it once, got Dino’s and was done with this hobby $15k later I gave up

We dose tons of bacteria and feed aminos a lot! Mine runs super low and zero issues.. I dose zeobak and mb7 3-4 times a week.