Nice work!
I had them in my Fluval EVO 13.5 and eventually removed sand and kept it bare bottom for 6 months, when I upgraded to a new 70g I foolishly brought the rock with me and had a brand new sand bed and they came right back. Maybe if after a while you try to replace with live sand such as from Tampa Bay Saltwater or Gulf Live Rock you might have a chance? If no corals you could go dark for a long time (21+ days) as well and maybe also Dino-X?
I feel your pain. I too have spent over $500 in bottled bacteria products. I'm starting to feel they may be the culprit in producing dinoflagellate issues rather than the cure.
Your perspective is exactly the one I have taken over the course of 2 years. It has been an interesting experiment and I have spent many hours a week working at it. My wife asked me last weekend if there are any other hobbies I might be interested in, noticing that the joy I got from the past was not quite the same. I am at the point where I believe the quantity and type of LCA is here to stay no matter what is done. In the beginning it covered every surface of the tank. For 1 year it is now only prominent in the sand. My recent ICP shows that the silicate level that I have maintained is crazy high enough. The nutrients have remained well above levels I'm used to keeping. My choice now is to accept them as a part of my ecosystem or nuke them. Even though they are the least pathogenic of the types. They kill conch, astrea, and turbo snails quickly. The urchins, spiny turbos( like astrea with more pointed parts near the attachment area) cerith and nasarious don't seem to be bothered. Almost all corals regardless of type have struggled to the point of needing removal. I would say that my coral success rate is 10%. I have tried every type of coral including high end torch, scolymia, acanthophyllia, elegance etc. I bought 20 cheap LPS corals of different types and put them on a rack just to observe. Over the course of 8 months all but 3 were ailing to some extent and needed removal. Could ailing corals be due to something else? Its possible. But this is not my first tank and my focus was SPS dominant in the past and I had an easier time with SPS in earlier times then this. I have not spared any expense on this tank and have an open budget. I spent a lot of time acquiring real dry rock with ledges, plates, tonga so I like my dry scape alone. I could keep a fish only with very little coral and still enjoy it. But the sand would be brown when the lights are on. My main concern now which I think I may be willing to risk, is doing the Dino x hoping that the fish don't suffer. I feel forced to make a decision because my 350 reefer coral holding tank split 2 inches from the top and is being held together with clamps right now. I believe its stable but silly to keep it this way long term.
