Cyano/Diatom concerns

[Striike]

Hi everyone, I am looking for some feedback on an ongoing problem I am having with my tank. My tank is mostly covered with a red film, and has been for some time. I have been in the salt water hobby for some time, but the tank I am referring to is only around 2 years old. I bought a Coralife 29gallon biocube. I was unhappy with the fluorescent bulbs that came with it, so upgraded to the 32 gallon LED hood. Its not a perfect fit, but it works. I am a patient person, but I am not getting the results I desire. Please see pictures. I have done quite a bit of reading, and videos. I am coming to three possibilities for my issues, but wish to pass this by our more experienced reefers first.
1. Nitrates are too low. I have tested with API, and Nyos. Both read a flat 0 every time. I have read this can cause Cyano as other algae cannot compete.
2. pH is too low. I test with an API test, but the colors are hard for me to tell if they are exact. My pH probe has recently gone down, so ordered a replacement. Testing with the test kit ranges from 7.8 to 8.2.
3. Lights are inadequate or light cycle is inadequate. As I mentioned, the lights are LED, from the Coralife 32 Gallon Biocube hood. I run the Blues for 6 hours and the whites for 4 hours each day.
4. What do the experts think?
I have a few corals in the tank that are going fine, but would not say the growth rate is phenomenal. I have 2 clown fish, a goby, a cleaner shrimp, and 5 snails in the tank.
My last full parameter test revealed the following results prior to my weekly water change:
Salinity 1.025 via refractometer
temp 78.1 stable
pH - ~8.0
calcium 425
Magnesium 1260
kH - 7.8
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
Amonia - 0
Phosphates - 0
Iodine - 0.03

I feed the tank daily. I use a frozen mix of mysis and blood worms. I dissolve a frozen cube in 10 mL of salt water, then drawn 2 mL per day to feed the tank. I also feed 3-5 pellets of Omega One which the clown fish eat 100% of. I change a filter pad out two times per week. I perform a 5 gallon water change every week. I keep a log of my tank, and feel I am putting in my best effort, but I must be missing something. My longer term goal is to upgrade to a larger tank, so I do not wish to put a huge sum of money into this tank. That said, I am hesitant to pull the trigger until I confirm I will be able to run a good larger system.
In the future, I plan to:
1. Replace the pH probe. Arrives tomorrow.
2. Start dosing Kalk in my ATO.
3. Increase the light cycle to 8 hr blue and 6 hr white.
4. Dose Nitrate or increase feeding. Not sure on this one, so would appreciate feedback.

Please, give me your 10 cents. If you have a gorgeous tank, I want to know what you are doing that I am not doing. Thanks as always.

 

[Hemmdog]

Hey great questions! I started with a 32 biocube myself.
Those lights are fairly low par so you will want a longer than average photo period. I would do a 11-13 hour photoperiod. Starting with blues, whites and blues during peak, then back to just blues, and finally complete darkness.
I upgraded the pump in my biocube and found the extra flow very beneficial, cyano and dinos don’t usually do well in medium/high flow areas.
I would feed more until you have a good amount of nutrients. 20 nitrate 0.03-0.1 phosphate is a good target. You will need better test kits than API.
Start testing alkalinity and keep it constant. I like mine around 8.6
Bump up magnesium a tad
Make sure you are using 0 tds RODI water

hope that helps

 

[tstar]

I have the exact same problem! I can't get nitrates or phosphate to register on Salifert kits and have a Cyano and some weird white fuzzy/cotton looking stuff growing everywhere. All the coral and fish are doing great.

I pulled all the Seachem pond matrix out of my fuge and reduced my Chaeto to golf ball size. I am feeding heavy. Nothing yet... I did notice that Reef Roids seems to have fueled more growth of the Cyano but isn't the cause of it...

Tim

 

[Striike]

Hey great questions! I started with a 32 biocube myself.
Those lights are fairly low par so you will want a longer than average photo period. I would do a 11-13 hour photoperiod. Starting with blues, whites and blues during peak, then back to just blues, and finally complete darkness.
I upgraded the pump in my biocube and found the extra flow very beneficial, cyano and dinos don’t usually do well in medium/high flow areas.
I would feed more until you have a good amount of nutrients. 20 nitrate 0.03-0.1 phosphate is a good target. You will need better test kits than API.
Start testing alkalinity and keep it constant. I like mine around 8.6
Bump up magnesium a tad
Make sure you are using 0 tds RODI water

hope that helps

Hemmdog, thank you for replying. For some reason I never got notified I had a response. I run an RODI, and test it with a TDS meter. When it starts to climb I replace the filters. That said, I would not say I have always done this, so good tip.
In addition to my return I run an MP10 as high as I can get it, along with 2 nano power heads on opposite 5 minute cycles to mix things up. I consider this plenty of flow, but listening if someone disagrees.
I hope my recent ATO dosing will drive up my Alk, but need some data to tell for sure.

Since this post I did do a 3 day blackout, with no effect, and finally treated with ChemiClean which cleaned up the tank. Hoping my habits going forward are enough to keep it down.

 

[Striike]

I have the exact same problem! I can't get nitrates or phosphate to register on Salifert kits and have a Cyano and some weird white fuzzy/cotton looking stuff growing everywhere. All the coral and fish are doing great.

I pulled all the Seachem pond matrix out of my fuge and reduced my Chaeto to golf ball size. I am feeding heavy. Nothing yet... I did notice that Reef Roids seems to have fueled more growth of the Cyano but isn't the cause of it...

Tim

Tim, sounds exactly like my issues. I do not have anything in the fuge except some live rock rubble. I also recently installed a skimmer, but waiting on break in to get any skim.

 

[tstar]

I should mention that I'm only four months wet... So I'm going to have to accept that I'm still burning through the "uglies". But the stuff was snuffing out my Bird's Nest so I'm taking some action on it. So far I've added a UV filter and am just now finishing a Chemiclean treatment and a 24 hour black out. This morning we are doing a 20% water change...

Right now the Cyano is gone, just a few black strands left here and there. I decided to increase my Chaeto in the Fuge hoping it'll suck up any nutrients that was fueling the bad algae after the Chemiclean treatment and black out and keep running the UV filter. I'll report back in a few days...

I'm curious if you'll see any results from skimming, I wouldn't think so but I'm new to this!!

Tim

 

[Striike]

I should mention that I'm only four months wet... So I'm going to have to accept that I'm still burning through the "uglies". But the stuff was snuffing out my Bird's Nest so I'm taking some action on it. So far I've added a UV filter and am just now finishing a Chemiclean treatment and a 24 hour black out. This morning we are doing a 20% water change...

Right now the Cyano is gone, just a few black strands left here and there. I decided to increase my Chaeto in the Fuge hoping it'll suck up any nutrients that was fueling the bad algae after the Chemiclean treatment and black out and keep running the UV filter. I'll report back in a few days...

I'm curious if you'll see any results from skimming, I wouldn't think so but I'm new to this!!

Tim

I'm not expecting amazing things from the skimmer, especially since the choice of nano skimmers is slim (no pun intended). My hope is everything combined will help with the improvements.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Do you have a CUC? I feel like some snails and crabs would help a lot.

 

[Striike]

Do you have a CUC? I feel like some snails and crabs would help a lot.

Michael, yes, but recent. I have had 5 nass snails for a while, though I think I am down to 3 now. I just added 5 blue-legged and 1 emerald yesterday. I will be adding 5 trochus snails next week.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Michael, yes, but recent. I have had 5 nass snails for a while, though I think I am down to 3 now. I just added 5 blue-legged and 1 emerald yesterday. I will be adding 5 trochus snails next week.

It's just a band-aid but that will help a lot. At least it will help you keep it somewhat under control until you get everything pinpointed.

 

[Blacktip]

Put a mesh or felt bag in your drain pipe. Blow off the cyano with a small pump. Do water change. Remove the felt bag. Increase water circulation. Keep up with partial water change. Cyano comes and goes in a young tank. It goes away with good husbandry and maturity of the tank.

 

[tstar]

I'm personally sumpless but am trying to brainstorm a gravel vacuum of some sort... Daily water changes from vacuuming the sand bed are getting expensive!!

I have an in-tank Tunze 3162 filter that I use as a surface skimming filter but it has a pull down pick-up tube for filtering water lower in the column. I'm going to try and hook up a hose to that to use as a gravel vac and recycle the tank water after running it thru the internal filter floss... I use a toothbrush and scrub my rocks as best I can too.

With your tank being two years old you shouldn't be going through the uglies... Have you tried dosing phosphates? Roughly speaking... nitrates are ultimately produced by fish and phosphates by left over food right?? What other ways can phosphate enter our systems??

Tim

 

[Striike]

I'm personally sumpless but am trying to brainstorm a gravel vacuum of some sort... Daily water changes from vacuuming the sand bed are getting expensive!!

I have an in-tank Tunze 3162 filter that I use as a surface skimming filter but it has a pull down pick-up tube for filtering water lower in the column. I'm going to try and hook up a hose to that to use as a gravel vac and recycle the tank water after running it thru the internal filter floss... I use a toothbrush and scrub my rocks as best I can too.

With your tank being two years old you shouldn't be going through the uglies... Have you tried dosing phosphates? Roughly speaking... nitrates are ultimately produced by fish and phosphates by left over food right?? What other ways can phosphate enter our systems??

Tim

I’m 2 years old, but only recently started adding corals and live stock. So maybe going through a second stage? Since the treatment things have looked a lot better. I’ll update if things get better or worse going forward.

 

[tstar]

My tank is doing great right now! No Cyano and the Dino is on the retreat and barely noticeable!! There is some Dino on the sandbed towards the end of the light period but it is less and less every day...

So a Chemiclean treatment with a 24 hour blackout on the second day and the introduction of a UV filter took care of my problem. In a week I'll turn the UV off and see what happens, I got the larger Green Killing Machine from Petco and it's quite the eyesore in the tank! LOL

Tim

 

[Striike]

I am having good progress. I Started with a 3 day blackout, then treated with ChemiClean. Then performed some large water changes, scrubbed off what I could. Next I added 5 trochus snails, and an emerald crab.
I started feeding more. I take a cube of frozen food, mix with 10 mL of saltwater, then add 4mL daily to the tank. I feed my 2 clowns 5-7 small pellets. I also feed 15mL phyto every other day. (29 gallon biocube)
It should be noted I am still not detecting any phosphates or nitrates with my test kits, but my tank is looking much better. I did not notice a big change right after ChemiClean or the blackout, but have noticed significant progress since then. I dose Vibrant after my WC each week.
I have been slowly ramping up the light cycle. I dropped it to 4 hours white 6 hours blue after the black out. I am increasing each by 1 hour each week.
The sandbed is clean, and the rocks only have a little hair algae which seems to stay in check with the CUC. My conclusion I have is I was not feeding the tank enough. And while I was performing good husbandry, I needed a quick boost (ChemiClean and blackout) to jump start the progress. Hopefully this helps someone else in the future.