Quote:
Originally Posted by tnias
Just wanted to give an update and how it appears I beat the dino's.
First I shutoff my skimmer and vodka doser.
Second I stopped all water changes.
Third I cut the lights for almost a month. (since all of my corals had died except one duncan and 1 purple fan I figured it didn't matter if they didn't survive and I didn't want to take them home and risk spreading it to my home tank)
My nitrates rose from undetectable to .2, which was a strategy from another forum. At this time the rocks looked great and I restocked my CUC. What I didn't expect was an ammonia spike from all the die-off from the dino's and my base rock, since it was covered for so long, didn't have enough bacteria to counter the effects. Fortunately, with only 8 fish in 200 gallons the levels never rose high enough to stress the fish. Or at least I didn't perceive any stress. I did loose some of my CUC in the process and I am pleased that my (2) surviving corals survived the extreme lights out.
The lights have been back on full strength for the past 2-3 weeks and the sand and rocks look great so I think I beat the dino's. It's possible that just one of the strategies would have been sufficient but the all out guns blazing approach worked and I can now start restocking the tank.
Good luck if you are battling the same issues!
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Did you cover the tank for a whole month? Or just keep the lights off and let ambient light reach the tank?