OP
OP
I will keep it in the tank for at least a week after I think they look gone. Enough time has gone by I am confident the hoses are secure.
As far as identifying what led to this... from what I have read it could be a combination of things. The use of only dry rock seems to be a contributing factor. In the past I would at least have one piece of live rock to seed the tank but I didn't this time. My nutrients bottoming out to undetectable... all in all I think it simply came down to a lack of biodiversity that gave them full reign on every inch of rock. I got my phosphates up keeping them between 0.05 and 0.08 by feeding reef roids (I think that is what helped raise it) and I got some liquid nitrate from ESV I started doing to get them to around 15ppm. I also recently added three strains of pods and have been dosing tetra phyto that I culture.
The rocks aren't bone white like they were for a while anymore. After the major scrubbing to free up real estate and changes that were made I am getting the normal different color spots that in the past week have covered almost all the rock. I am regularly dosing nitrate and testing often to make sure everything stays stable. The rock now looks as expected during the first real signs of maturity and the dinos were not growing back in those spots.
I know I should take it slow with one thing at a time but I was desperate and tried multiple things... slowly though... to bring it back in check. I can't pinpoint one thing besides the UV that made the difference, but I think the combination of what was done should keep them from coming back, at least to anywhere near the extent they were. I'm kind of in the mindset now of allowing conditions for other things to outcompete them and if I stay on top of that I am hoping it will be ok in the future.
Thanks again for talking me through this. Much appreciated!
Last edited:
I guess changing the o-rings on them is the next order of business 