In treating dinos, at what time of day should I add bacteria?

Brett S · Dec 28, 2020

So I am dealing with the start of a Dino issue. (Coolia, I believe) and I have decided to try adding microbacter7 to help fight them. However, there is a bit of a conflict because brightwell wants the UV off for 4 hours after adding microbacter, but UV is helping to fight the Dinos, so I’m trying to figure out the ideal time to shut off the UV and add the bacteria.

During the night the dinos all but totally disappear from my sand bed and it’s my understanding that coolia enters the water column at this time, so obviously this is when my UV will be most effective. However when I see the dinos building up on the sand bed again during the day I’m not really sure what’s happening. I’m assuming it’s one of two things:

Does the UV kill off a significant number of the Dinos during the night, and the growth that I’m seeing on the sand is the dinos regenerating and repopulating? If that is the case, then there probably aren’t many dinos in the water column in the morning and shutting off the UV and adding bacteria in the morning would probably be ideal, so the bacteria can hopefully outcompete the dinos and theoretically they won’t be able to repopulate as much.

Or, do a significant number of dinos survive the UV during the night and the growth I’m seeing on the sand during the day is the dinos that survived coming back out of the water column and going back to the sand bed? If this is the case then there’s still a significant amount of dinos in the water column in the morning and that would not be a good time to shut off the UV. In this case I’d be better off waiting until later afternoon when most of the dinos have left the water column and are back on the sand to shut off the UV and add the bacteria.

So which do you think is better? Or am I just seriously overthinking this whole thing?

Willbiker · Dec 28, 2020

I think you are over thinking a little. Dinos cling on to rock and sand when there is light and then enter water column when lights go out. I am battling dinos and I dose microbacter7 first thing in the morning when the sand is the cleanest. My theory is most of the dino is in the water still so there is space on the sand for the bacteria to move in. Its also the time when the dinos will start to leave the water column and cling to the sand so turning uv off for 4 hours at this point it not the best time of day to turn it off but the best time to dose bacteria, so worth loosing 4 hours of uv.

The other option is to dose at night when the dino is most water bound and there is maximum space for bacteria to settle but then you wouldnt want to loose 4 hours of prime fight time by turning uv off.

At the end of the day, keep nutrients up, dose bacteria, and have a well tuned uv and this will be the recipe for success. But it takes time...I'm 10 weeks in and about 80% through it.

Brett S · Dec 28, 2020

That’s a good point. I hadn’t considered that the bacteria would like to go to the same places that the dinos are. It does seem like adding it in the morning while the sand bed is cleaner could be beneficial.