Dinos

[rick13]

I let p04 get down to zero and got the sand dwelling dinoflagellates. I raised my p04 to.1ppm. Nitrates at 10ppm. Yesterday I started dosing silica, microbacter7 and phytoplankton. My question is when diatoms start to out compeat the dinos do I just stop dosing silica and do water changes or do I want to keep silica level at a certain level for certain amount of time before getting rid of diatoms?
Thanks

 

[Reef.]

I let p04 get down to zero and got the sand dwelling dinoflagellates. I raised my p04 to.1ppm. Nitrates at 10ppm. Yesterday I started dosing silica, microbacter7 and phytoplankton. My question is when diatoms start to out compeat the dinos do I just stop dosing silica and do water changes or do I want to keep silica level at a certain level for certain amount of time before getting rid of diatoms?
Thanks

I would carry on for a couple of weeks, dinos will always be there you need to get them on their knees, or they will just come back.

I would also scrub the rocks if possible and turkey baste the sand, remove as many as you can daily will help enormously. Changing floss/filter socks daily when you clean.

And if possible live phytoplankton would be the better option.

 

[Miami Reef]

I have this exact question!

I also have the sand dwelling dinos, but they aren’t the toxic type. It’s only visually for me. Diatoms basically look the same.

So I’m dosing silicates and I’m going to get a diatom bloom soon. My goal is white sand, not brown!

What do I do?

 

[Miami Reef]

@rick13 I got a response from Scott just now to my previous question in the dino thread and I think it applies to us:

Don't sweat about .2 PO4. Dinos thrive (generally) when nutrients are too low to support competitive bacterial and film algae.

Maybe this means the silicates will just help us get rid of the dinos until more beneficial bacteria and algae can take hold on the sandbed?

 

[rick13]

@rick13 I got a response from Scott just now to my previous question in the dino thread and I think it applies to us:




Maybe this means the silicates will just help us get rid of the dinos until more beneficial bacteria and algae can take hold on the sandbed?

Hope this works, sick of looking at dinos, good luck to you.