Ugh, do things ever go good?

[rstar]

Thanks for all the positive encouragment everyone! I guess it's time to roll up my sleeves and get to climbing over this bump in the road. Any ideas? Has anyone successfully gotten rid of dino's via letting the nitrates rise? Or should i keep doing regular water changes?

[Dolf]

Sorry about your luck. It does seem like sometimes we can not win. I don't have much time, but in an article by Randy Holmes-Farley http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php he says that raising the PH to 8.4 - 8.5 is a good idea. Even letting it wander above 8.6 if you are desperate. (In another link I will provide the author argues that the high PH only works if it is of the toxic variety- basically if your snails are dying.) Anyhow, he also says to get the phosphates way down to unreadable levels. Aggressive use of granular ferric oxide at higher than normal levels and changing it every few days may help. Reducing the photo period to 4 hours a day. He recommended siphoning out as much as you can on a regular basis. In this thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1620464 the person used socks over powerheads to do that without doing water changes. They also used the higher nitrates to help with the problem and removed the sand bed (something that seems to be a common partial solution for other people trying to get rid of it.) Finally, that person used sea hares (though the toxic variety may not work with the animals.)

Best of luck in the upcoming battle.