Sand-Cycle

[newenglandreef]

I'm tired of looking at dinos in my tank-- I have a very thin sandbed that is more or less saturated with dinos. I'm doing a water change today--I'd like to just siphon out all the sand, which consists of maybe a half inch of sand. At the same time, I'm thinking of taking a toothbrush to the rocks before the water change. I'm also going to take out my zoas, which are covered, and stick them in the sump without light for a week or so. My question is, by removing my sand and by scrubbing the rock, am I destroying my biological system?

Thank you as always...

 

[JayM]

a week is a long time for coral to go without light.

you will be reducing your biofilter if you remove your sand....

 

[newenglandreef]

Re: lights out, it really is but the dinos are killing my zoas anyway. Some haven't opened up in a month. The dinos cover the tips, and zoas just don't open. I blow off the dinos, but they just come back the next day. I feel like I don't have a choice anymore. Hopefully won't be that long.

What if I remove my sand and put it in an unlit sump for as long as it takes to kill the dinos? I can't do a DT lights out for too long, because the fish become very stressed after a couple days, and I don't want to do that to them. So not an option. Raising PH hasn't worked.

 

[number1gsxxr]

How high have you raised the pH and what are you, or have you done, to reduce nutrients? Cutting the light will slow them down but with any nuisance algae or pest you have to get to the cause of it. Have you read this article? http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php#6 I experienced dinos early on in my tank and I dripped limewater at night to maintain a high pH. It worked for me and I've never had them come back. In the article I linked to it says it may take several weeks before it works. I forget how long it took to get rid of mine but I feel like it was about two weeks or so. Perhaps you need to keep at it a bit longer. And try to siphon out as much of them as you can each day.

 

[newenglandreef]

I had PH up pretty steadily to 8.5-8.6 for at least a couple weeks and didn't see a change. Once the fish starting looking stressed, I dropped it back to normal. For nurtrients I run carbon, skim, plenty of LR, phos ban, don't overfeed. I'm fairly certain the dinos came over from my old tank in which I had poor nutrient control. I'm on a 6 hour light cycle.

 

[number1gsxxr]

Hmm... the article also mentioned that certain types of dinos can seem to survive high pH. Perhaps you have one of those kinds. What about your water source. Are you using RO/DI? If so, when's the last time you replaced the filers?

 

[newenglandreef]

RO-DI with 0 TDS