I have a confirmed case of Amphidnium in my reef tank. I’ve been fighting for about 1 year. I tried blackout, I tried Dr Tim’s Dino recipe, and I tried an appropriately sized (expensive!) UV before I knew they were amphidinium (UV does nothing against them because they do not leave the sand bed). THEN I bought a microscope and confirmed why UV doesn’t help. Take my advice, microscopes are cheaper than UV sterilizers.
What did work, for several months, was the Elegance Corals Method. I had to repeat the two week regimen twice but it did work. But, Dino’s are never gone. It’s something you manage with beneficial organisms like bacteria and diatoms that can outcompete and keep it in check. We used to say, we don’t keep corals and fish, we keep water. Now we know what we really need to keep is bacteria.
Unfortunately, the Dino’s are back. Not sure what changed in the tank but man, are they back. So I turned off the expensive UV and started Elegance again. Round 1 (first two weeks) done. Getting ready for round 2.
So my question is this. While I’m confident this will work, I recall BRS TV Guy Ryan talking about how he solved a lot of problems in his 360 by adding Ocean Direct sand. The live bacteria on the sand coated everything in his tank and his ugly phase went away quickly. So I am considering adding 20 pounds to my 120 gal tank. I’ll layer the sand over my existing probably too shallow sand bed, burying the Dino’s under an inch of sand. Now I have no delusions that just burying Dino’s in sand will kill them, but I wonder if burying them in ocean sand with a healthy biome might knock them back long enough to reestablish a healthy biom in the tank faster.
I will still repeat Elegance, because that works eventually, but thought I’d add this.
Thoughts? Anyone try this?
What did work, for several months, was the Elegance Corals Method. I had to repeat the two week regimen twice but it did work. But, Dino’s are never gone. It’s something you manage with beneficial organisms like bacteria and diatoms that can outcompete and keep it in check. We used to say, we don’t keep corals and fish, we keep water. Now we know what we really need to keep is bacteria.
Unfortunately, the Dino’s are back. Not sure what changed in the tank but man, are they back. So I turned off the expensive UV and started Elegance again. Round 1 (first two weeks) done. Getting ready for round 2.
So my question is this. While I’m confident this will work, I recall BRS TV Guy Ryan talking about how he solved a lot of problems in his 360 by adding Ocean Direct sand. The live bacteria on the sand coated everything in his tank and his ugly phase went away quickly. So I am considering adding 20 pounds to my 120 gal tank. I’ll layer the sand over my existing probably too shallow sand bed, burying the Dino’s under an inch of sand. Now I have no delusions that just burying Dino’s in sand will kill them, but I wonder if burying them in ocean sand with a healthy biome might knock them back long enough to reestablish a healthy biom in the tank faster.
I will still repeat Elegance, because that works eventually, but thought I’d add this.
Thoughts? Anyone try this?