Removing sand to get rid of amphidinium dinos

REEFRIED! · Mar 4, 2024

noobreefer2 said:
I used the Seachem sillica test, it's pretty good for just getting an idea, I started at about 2 ppm, and I have been dosing waterglass, now it's up to 6 ppm, which aligns with what I have been dosing. Still no diatoms, but I have been upping the dose, I hope to get them soon.

I think most people believe they will see a giant diatom bloom. Clearly visible to the eye and all over their glass. A “bloom” so to speak is difficult, especially the more established the system is. The best way to see if you are getting diatoms is with the microscope. In my case I believe (I forget now) that i was up to somewhere around dosing 40-50-ish MLs of silicates daily and in my last sample I looked at under the microscope it was 85-90% Dino’s, about 5% diatoms and about 5% other crap. Not the bloom I was hoping for. Also I believe at my last and highest dosage my acros were not happy. That could be from a myriad of reasons including the Dino’s. However when I stopped dosing silicates and still had Dino’s running rampant my sticks started looking better. I know that just have experienced no ill effects from dosing silicates and my issue could easily have been from 25 different things.

k log(omega) · Apr 13, 2024

Kellie in CA said:
Just back for another update... Ripped out all the sand and went bare bottom for 4 weeks. No sign of dinos.

This past weekend I washed the heck out of some new sand until it ran clean, then have slowly been adding it back to the tank over the past couple of days. Sand is sparkling white... no sign of anything coming back.

If your tank isn't huge, this is the way to go! Way less work (and expense) then all the other crap I tried!

hey! any updates? still dino free?