The essay suggest that dinos die at low nitrate concentrations, I don´t know what would happen with high concentrations such as 20 ppm, my guess is that it would create enough nutrientes for bacteria and dino blooms alike.
In my experience the best is to keep them at a 2-3 ppm nitrate range, 3-4 might start causing other problems.
My nitrate source is the tank itself, somebody suggested adding nitrate products, but there are many elements that contain nitrogen and we don´t know which ones work etc. So the best is to just stick to the tank producing its own nitrogen.
It was extremely visible how going back to 0 nitrates would inmediately trigger another bloom. That´s why people can´t get rid of them, cuz they keep doing water changes looking for the perfect water quality thinking that would get rid of them.
I don´t know if I would go back to the sandbed, It was a pain to remove it, so much work to do in case I have to remove it again, and even though I stirred it all the time before removing it, once you remove it you realize its full of dirtness.
Also mantainance is ridiculously easy without sandbed, also you have to be more careful with the sandbed in order to not scratch the acrylic.
I would go starboard, which looks like sand, although I´m guessing hte starboard would get covered with coraline algae, that´s what I have to find out.
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Originally posted by redfishsc
That certainly is unusual. If that's the case, as it seems to be for your situation, that is very good news.
I have a lower-level dino outbreak in my 20g frag tank right now, but it's only a month old so this is normal. However, the nitrates in the tank went as high as 20ppm, at which point I added a refugium and now they are down to around 3-4.
When the nitrates were the highest, so was the dino population. I suspect that if bacterial action can kill off dinos, that not all dinos will be affected by it.
That being said, I also think there is something to be said for your steadfast endurance. I would wager that your persistence and patience killed the dinos as much as anything!
What was your nitrate source?
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