Hello,
Been a few weeks, been battling some dinos which were KILLING my babies. (nems)
My tank had more dinos than most people had ever seen, toxic dinos all throughout the nems, by 12 o clock they were stretching across the whole tank, covered the sand, etc.
First of all I think people need to see this, I have started lots of successful tanks over the years and never stopped one due to a nuisance. The first thing is it can be fixed, easily.
Here is where most will disagree with me - Don't waste your money on a microscope to figure out what dinos you have. For gods sake, why would you do this?
Who cares, they are dinos, and if you want a successful tank then you need to elimate them the right way. If you restart your tank you will have the same problem.
Identify what you are doing wrong, WHY do you want a 0 nutrient system 6 months into owning a tank? SPS will survive in nitrates, eliminate your thought of needing 0 nitrates and phosphates.
If you are carbon or vodka dosing, throw it away and never do it again.
If you are starting new start with quality live rock, (gulf live rock) you wont have this issue.
If you started with dry rock thats fine. Heres what you do
If you see a couple dinos, and you have nitrates in your (young) tank, you do absolutely nothing. Yep thats right, nothing. Let them come and go, that's what generally happens. People on sites make people lose their freaking mind over nothing. Listen to this advice and chances are you will be fine.
Second, if they become a serious problem, harming your livestock, etc heres what you do:
First off, buy a huge cleaning crew, yea some are gonna die, but some of these people break their whole tank down. Go to reefcleaners and buy double what they recommend for your tank.
Third: No weird butt product for getting rid of nitrates (such as vodka) these people use vodka in huge systems, and some may show you a beautiful system where they use it, who cares, do what works. (NOT vodka dosing)
I have a tank with huge predators, huge nitrate problem, I found a method to easily control it, and that is by using seachem denitrate and 3/4 recommended dose in a reactor tuned down to about 20 gph. Simple, natural, cheap. Why are we suggesting new methods that are ridiculous?
This method I say is safe and natural without the nonsense dino)
Fourth: algae, I dont care if its nuisance algae, the worst algae in the world, its better than dinos, let it grow, you know why? It steals what the dinos need. Takes it, also takes your nitrates and po4.
5th: AND THE MOST IMPORTANT: feed that tank like you never have before. Fill it with the fish you want, I am not saying overstock it, but put the fish you want in, and feed them TRIPLE the normal amount, no less.
6th: be patient, dont expect a miracle in 40 hours. Stick to this process.
7th: do not let your nitrates get to 0, even in sps tank, test and adjust accordingly, pm me if u want help with this, 1 nitrate does not hurt sps)
TRUST this process and I can assure you dinos will be out of your tank, if you have listened to some of these clowns and dumped peroxide in your tank this may not work for you, I have not done that crazy nonsense.
Heres a vid of me trying to feed the starfish in a pred tank, those nems were almost dead from dinos 3 days ago, no dinos left, and I can assure the whole tank was brown last week.
Please, I know I don't stick to grammar well, but post this so people see it instead of using chemical methods which get people out of the hobby, its a simple process, please ask any questions, it will work, I've done it so many times.
bit twice today, stung by lion the other day, happy times. (don't worry a 12' tank is being built for these guys)
If you can see that nem on the right was splitting, since the dinos have been gone I have seen 10+ splits and bubbles returned, also two "pores" popped up, which are tiny rbtas that spawned via budding. (in random spots in the tank)
Also yerp thats a hydra over my sump, gotta love downsizing lol
Been a few weeks, been battling some dinos which were KILLING my babies. (nems)
My tank had more dinos than most people had ever seen, toxic dinos all throughout the nems, by 12 o clock they were stretching across the whole tank, covered the sand, etc.
First of all I think people need to see this, I have started lots of successful tanks over the years and never stopped one due to a nuisance. The first thing is it can be fixed, easily.
Here is where most will disagree with me - Don't waste your money on a microscope to figure out what dinos you have. For gods sake, why would you do this?
Who cares, they are dinos, and if you want a successful tank then you need to elimate them the right way. If you restart your tank you will have the same problem.
Identify what you are doing wrong, WHY do you want a 0 nutrient system 6 months into owning a tank? SPS will survive in nitrates, eliminate your thought of needing 0 nitrates and phosphates.
If you are carbon or vodka dosing, throw it away and never do it again.
If you are starting new start with quality live rock, (gulf live rock) you wont have this issue.
If you started with dry rock thats fine. Heres what you do
If you see a couple dinos, and you have nitrates in your (young) tank, you do absolutely nothing. Yep thats right, nothing. Let them come and go, that's what generally happens. People on sites make people lose their freaking mind over nothing. Listen to this advice and chances are you will be fine.
Second, if they become a serious problem, harming your livestock, etc heres what you do:
First off, buy a huge cleaning crew, yea some are gonna die, but some of these people break their whole tank down. Go to reefcleaners and buy double what they recommend for your tank.
Third: No weird butt product for getting rid of nitrates (such as vodka) these people use vodka in huge systems, and some may show you a beautiful system where they use it, who cares, do what works. (NOT vodka dosing)
I have a tank with huge predators, huge nitrate problem, I found a method to easily control it, and that is by using seachem denitrate and 3/4 recommended dose in a reactor tuned down to about 20 gph. Simple, natural, cheap. Why are we suggesting new methods that are ridiculous?
This method I say is safe and natural without the nonsense dino)
Fourth: algae, I dont care if its nuisance algae, the worst algae in the world, its better than dinos, let it grow, you know why? It steals what the dinos need. Takes it, also takes your nitrates and po4.
5th: AND THE MOST IMPORTANT: feed that tank like you never have before. Fill it with the fish you want, I am not saying overstock it, but put the fish you want in, and feed them TRIPLE the normal amount, no less.
6th: be patient, dont expect a miracle in 40 hours. Stick to this process.
7th: do not let your nitrates get to 0, even in sps tank, test and adjust accordingly, pm me if u want help with this, 1 nitrate does not hurt sps)
TRUST this process and I can assure you dinos will be out of your tank, if you have listened to some of these clowns and dumped peroxide in your tank this may not work for you, I have not done that crazy nonsense.
Heres a vid of me trying to feed the starfish in a pred tank, those nems were almost dead from dinos 3 days ago, no dinos left, and I can assure the whole tank was brown last week.
Please, I know I don't stick to grammar well, but post this so people see it instead of using chemical methods which get people out of the hobby, its a simple process, please ask any questions, it will work, I've done it so many times.
bit twice today, stung by lion the other day, happy times. (don't worry a 12' tank is being built for these guys)
If you can see that nem on the right was splitting, since the dinos have been gone I have seen 10+ splits and bubbles returned, also two "pores" popped up, which are tiny rbtas that spawned via budding. (in random spots in the tank)
Also yerp thats a hydra over my sump, gotta love downsizing lol
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