Cyano help

[turbo21]

Just wondering whats going on here

I have a 220 gal tank and 2 30 gal frag tanks all plumber together in a 150 gal sump. The 220 with a sandbed and the bare bottom frag tank show no cyano at all. but the frag tank with a shallow sand bed is crazy full of cyano.

i added a few powerheads so it is not flow. that thing is swirling like a hot tub lol

i dont believe it is the lights. it has a led fixture but switching the fixtures between the frag tanks didnt reduce the cyano.

i amm getting tired of blowing off frags everyday.

po4 is .04 on a hanna checker
nitrates undetecable
calcium 450
alk 8.5


i like having sand in there but i am getting to the point of pulling all the sand out and see if that helps

any other ideas??

thanks

bob

 

[Djannel]

What type of water are you using for top off?

 

[seancc317]

Purchase this stuff called red slime remover it worked wonders for my Cyano problem.

 

[Reefing Madness]

May still be flow. What does the flow look like on the area you are having issues? Place a piece of nori algae there or something that will settle on the spot, but will move if flow hits it. Having alot of flow, doesn't necessarily mean its all in the right spots.

 

[bct15]

Run gfo, add a little microbacter7 each week, dose some vodka, and have a ton of flow. That takes care of it. A couple issues that I have experienced that might increase cyano,

Vodka dosing - to eliminate cyano from carbon dosing add some bacterial additive like microbacter7 once a week. Just use the recommended maintenance dose, one cap per 50 gallons. Takes about two - three weeks to eliminate it, but it works.

Eggcrate - I'm not sure if the egg crate is leaching phosphates or if it is a reduction of flow along the grates and between the frag plugs, but cyano grows a little bit around eggcrate frag racks. Combat it with gfo.

 

[Djannel]

Chemi-clean worked very well for me but you still need to find the source of the problem. Could be flow, dirty ro/DI, etc.

 

[turbo21]

I use ro/di water showing 0tds. the membrane was replaced about 6 months ago and i change the carbon and prefilters pretty often. i also have an added catalytic carbon chamber to help with chloramines

this tank is plumbed into my main display and i have no cyano there.

i do not have any eggcrate in the frag tank.

i have 2 maxi jet 900's + the flow from the retun in the tank. dimensions are 24x24 x12 flow is getting to everywhere since i added the second powerhead probably too much flow

i also run gfo and if you missed it above my p04 on a hanna checker is .04

 

[tuna_bullet]

Turbo i have the same problem...i have found out the the frag tanks because there shallower than the others end up getting to much light even thou i use the same lights its stronger in the shallow tanks i reduced my light in the flats by two hours a day and it went away....good luck....

 

[bct15]

Phosphates of 0.04 is enough to grow cyano, I noticed cyano will start to recede at a phosphate level of about 0.02. I think you would greatly benefit from an addition of microbacter and a tiny amount of vodka at the same time. Microbacter is cheap and will eventually out compete the cyano for the extra bit of phosphates, and will make your water crystal clear.

What I'm about to say next is my observation I haven't read it anywhere but I do feel it is quite valid. What makes cyano particularly difficult to get rid of, is that it forms a layer trapping detritus and other unwanted waste like particulates underneath it. This, IMO, creates a localized higher level of nutrients needed for cyano growth right under the cyano (kind of fertilizing itself). Blasting it off with a turkey baster will clear all the crap caught underneath it, eliminating its ability to fertilize itself and slowing its growth. If you do that regularly and add another bacteria source the cyano will slowly die off. If you go in a mass turkey basting spree, you'll see all the stuff the cyano catches underneath.

I've also noticed cyano is photosynthetic, so lights out for a while will help. I also noticed when I lowered the temp of my tank from 79, to 78 cyano growth slowed a little.

 

[turbo21]

Turbo i have the same problem...i have found out the the frag tanks because there shallower than the others end up getting to much light even thou i use the same lights its stronger in the shallow tanks i reduced my light in the flats by two hours a day and it went away....good luck....

good idea

a friend is stopping by sometime this week with a par meter. i am trying to use one frag tank for sps and one for alll the zoas so i want to get the lights height set accordingly but i will reduce the light cycle a little bit and see if that helps

bob

 

[turbo21]

its a double edged sword though. when my p04 is lower around .02 i can physically see zoas and palys not liking it and also see sps colors starting to fade out some

bob

Phosphates of 0.04 is enough to grow cyano, I noticed cyano will start to recede at a phosphate level of about 0.02. I think you would greatly benefit from an addition of microbacter and a tiny amount of vodka at the same time. Microbacter is cheap and will eventually out compete the cyano for the extra bit of phosphates, and will make your water crystal clear.

What I'm about to say next is my observation I haven't read it anywhere but I do feel it is quite valid. What makes cyano particularly difficult to get rid of, is that it forms a layer trapping detritus and other unwanted waste like particulates underneath it. This, IMO, creates a localized higher level of nutrients needed for cyano growth right under the cyano (kind of fertilizing itself). Blasting it off with a turkey baster will clear all the crap caught underneath it, eliminating its ability to fertilize itself and slowing its growth. If you do that regularly and add another bacteria source the cyano will slowly die off. If you go in a mass turkey basting spree, you'll see all the stuff the cyano catches underneath.

I've also noticed cyano is photosynthetic, so lights out for a while will help. I also noticed when I lowered the temp of my tank from 79, to 78 cyano growth slowed a little.

 

[bct15]

its a double edged sword though. when my p04 is lower around .02 i can physically see zoas and palys not liking it and also see sps colors starting to fade out some

bob

Yes it is, keeping nitrates and phosphates down requires lower parameters and ALOT more monitoring. Cleaner water, IMO, does cause eveything to be more sensitive. First things I'd consider are the lowering temp, and repeated blasting with the turkey baster that I tried explains my reasoning for on my previous post.

Also, I know alot of people local to me swear by chemiclean. It is not something I would use personally, I prefer the more natural methods like introducing competing bacteria, but I haven't spoken with one person who had a complaint about chemiclean. I couldn't tell you how to use or it anything like that, but I gather you just follow the bottle instructions. My personal view on something like that is if you eliminate the cyano and don't introduce something else to eliminate what it is feeding on you will eventually get a different problem. Like my brother inlaw killed off his hair algae in his old tank only to get a massive outbreak in fern caulerpa...from not properly treating his dead rock he got from a buddy that was stored in a garage over a year.

 

[seancc317]

Red slime remover will get rid of it pretty quickly. However it's just a temporary fix. I'd say put that in to get rid of the Cyano to buy you time to find the real problem.

 

[turbo21]

I used chemiclean last night as a temporary fix. I think the next step is to pull the sand bed from that tank
It's very shallow and just for aesthetics anyways. Because the tank next to it does not have a sand bed and does not have cyano

As far as temp. My sytem runs on lower side at about 77.6 via reefkeeper because it is in my finished game room that gets nice in cold in the fall and winter

It's almost like my frag tank is turning I to a fuge. I also have a 30 long that I may add into the system and run it as a fuge. Then hopefully the cyano will
Migrate to there

 

[Dowtish]

Cyano is a bacteria. Beat it with better bacteria!

Microbe Lift 'Special Blend', Microbacter7, Zeostart etc. will all beat the cyano at the source. Start dosing as many different good strain s of bacteria and watch it balance out the system and beat the cyano.

 

[TarHeelReefer22]

Be careful using the chems to get rid of the cyanobateria I tried this once when i couldn't get the problem under control the name is not on the top of my head but it was a tiny container with white powder and a small i mean small scoop. I only used one tiny scoop and it knocked the cyano out with in 24 hours but I also lost about 60% of my SPS over the next 48 hours. When I saw the RTN starting I dipped all the corals affected and put my carbon back in filtration to start taking meds out. Still lost a lot of coral! I would stick with natural remedies!

 

[turbo21]

Be careful using the chems to get rid of the cyanobateria I tried this once when i couldn't get the problem under control the name is not on the top of my head but it was a tiny container with white powder and a small i mean small scoop. I only used one tiny scoop and it knocked the cyano out with in 24 hours but I also lost about 60% of my SPS over the next 48 hours. When I saw the RTN starting I dipped all the corals affected and put my carbon back in filtration to start taking meds out. Still lost a lot of coral! I would stick with natural remedies!

Same stuff I have used in the past
With no issues

My system is 430 gallons. So it's a little more forgiving

But thank you got the heads up