New Tank After Dino Disaster

[BillFish Coral Lover]

After one and one-half years of ostreopsis ovata dinos killing my best and most of my corals, and saving and borrowing and waiting patiently, I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm scrapping my standard 120 for a new custom barebottom 80-gallon system from Crystal Dynamics Aquariums and a 25-gallon IM 25 AIO for quarantine.

I will start from scratch with standard BRS RO and Spectrapure MaxCap and SilicaBuster RODI add-on, HW-Marinemix salt and Marco Rocks, plus all new equipment. Nothing from the old system goes in the new one!

Except.... The question is, can I safely use ANY of my fish or corals in the new system? I'm leaning toward an expensive, painful "no" but want to get some opinions from you experienced reefers.

I have a 29G NanoCube that was connected to the system that I can use as a prequarantine, either plumbed to the sump or separately.

What do you all think? Thank you in advance!

 

[Spare time]

Dinos are likely in everytank. They key is to just make it unfavorable to them.

 

[vtecintegra]

I started with dry rock, let PO4 and NO3 go to zero about a month in, and dinos took over. Killed most of my coral. I had to change out tanks, and used that as an excuse to restart.

Second go, I got new carribsea rock (wanted something different), and cured it in a tub with live sand from the gulf for a couple of months. This time I kept PO4 and NO3 up in the new tank, and got hair algae growing where there was none before.

As for the fish, I kept them in a tank for a couple of weeks with only ambient light, to knock out any dinos that may have been in the water. Corals were already pretty much dead, and I trashed them. They were all cheap soft stuff for the most part. I tried doing peroxide dips and that got no where. Corals didn't like it, and dinos re-infested them.

With that said, I think dinos are pretty much everywhere. They aren't a problem until they have an environment that lets them run wild over everything else.

 

[Gup]

A couple months into my Reef, dinos set in. My tank crashed because I was able to do the necessary husbandry. Starting from near scratch, I purchased Dino X anticipating a rematch. 7 months in, I have no dinos or cynos. I'm Prepared

 

[BillFish Coral Lover]

Thanks for your input. I agree. From everything I've read it seems impossible not to have dinos of one kind or another even if they are not visible.

I was planning to use acid to cure my existing rock but decided to go with dry rock. I've also decided to have a large UV in a separate loop behind the tank after watching the BRSTV episodes on using them properly.

Fingers crossed!