bettababy
New Member
Hi everyone!
I want to start out by saying, I am not new to reefing. My husband and I have been keeping reef tanks (among many others) for about 30 yrs now (each). Right now I am facing a dilemma that has us both baffled so I decided to come here to see if anyone has any other ideas for us to try. Here are the details:
We upgraded our 75 gallon reef back in March, now have a new custom 120 gallon tank set up with sump, skimmer, calcium reactor, wave maker with 4 pumps/powerheads. Coralife LED light fixture. Calcium is at 450. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and nitrate reading 10 or under on API liquid test kits. Phosphate tests 0. Salinity is at 1.026. I use only RO water in my reef tanks, (have unit hooked up to the house) and it's testing out pure, TDS of 0, clear of everything. Salt mix is Oceanic, same as I have always used and never had a problem. Substrate is aragonite sand. 150 - 175 lbs approx. of live rock, most was cured before going into the tank (was in the 75 gallon before the upgrade and that was running for 3 yrs).
Animals: 1 pair of 1/2 grown ocellaris clowns, 1 adult orchid dottyback, 6 juvenile (under 2 inches) yellow tail damsels, 1 full grown (3+ yrs old) coral banded shrimp, 1 brittle starfish, disc about silver dollar size, 2 turbo snails, 6 nassarius snails, 6 astrea snails, 35 - 40 blue leg hermits, small (baseball size) open brain coral, 2 small clusters of pulsing xenia polyps (about 10 polyps in each cluster), 1 branching hammer coral (2 small heads), 1 frogspawn (1 small head), oodles of mushrooms, and some invasive clove polyps that are working their way through the tank and slowly beginning to cover most of the bare rock, and 1 lg umbrella leather coral.
I have planned to put a diamond goby and more hermits & snails into the tank as soon as I can find them for a reasonable price.
The cyano bloom started about 2 wks after set up, (2nd week of April) and was minor. We let it run it's course considering it was a new set up with about 2/3 of the water being new and some of the live rock being new. We used most of the sand from the 75 and then added another 50 lb bag of aragonite sand. The cyano died back and all was good for about a week, and then the cyano came back again by the end of April. The tank gets weekly water changes, about 25 - 30% for standard maintenance.
When the cyano came back the 2nd time it came back thick and fast, coating the entire tank within 48 hrs. I increased water changes to twice/wk, 20% each time, and siphoned out all of the cyano each time. Within 24 hrs 1/2 the tank was coated in cyano again, and within 48 hrs the entire tank was covered. I have used a toothbrush and gone in there daily to scrub the cyano away, then done a 15% water change daily for 10 days, but that showed no improvement. End result was the same. Reduced lighting (both intensity and hours down to 8 hrs/day of light with 2 hrs of moonlight at night), no change. Changed direction of powerheads to improve circulation, no change. Dosed tank with chemiclean (have used this in the past on some of the tanks we maintained at various businesses, always worked like a charm), did the water change, and it had no effect at all. Did a 2nd dose of chemiclean, still no effect at all. Hubby had socks in the sump so I removed those about 4 wks ago, no change. We're planning to replace the pump this weekend because we noticed the one we are currently using is warming the tank water to mid 80's. I added air stone 3 days ago to increase oxygen and to cool water temp, but still no change in the cyano growth.
In all my years of reef keeping I have NEVER run into a cyano problem like this. I have a 29 gallon biocube running in another room with my spotted mandarin, a 2 inch yellow watchman goby, a few scarlet hermits, 2 nassarius snails, 2 small turbo snails, and some mushrooms and zoanthids in there, and am not having an issue in that tank. The biocube gets a 30 - 40% water change every 2 wks and is thriving.
I'm at a loss, no idea what else to do. I can't black out the tank without killing my corals, so that option isn't possible. Quarantine for the corals would mean taking out most of the rock in the tank, so that's not possible either. My beautiful new tank looks like hell and it's making me crazy to look at it. I can't stock any new corals without putting them at risk of being smothered by the cyano. I lost a large capnella frag recently for that reason. My umbrella leather is shedding at least twice/wk because of the cyano and the cyano has also completely covered all parts of the hammer and frogspawn frags except for the small heads that appear to be thriving in spite of the issues.
Not sure if this is relevant or not, but 1 of my 7 freshwater tanks has recently started experiencing bacteria blooms after every water change. That tank has been up and running for almost 5 yrs now, never had a bacterial bloom before, nothing new going on with it. That is the only tank being affected and it only happens right after a water change (within a few hrs) and lasts 2 days and then is gone again. It's a planted tank, under stocked for fish (215 gallons), heavy filtration. I live in a high agricultural area and am wondering if this could be related to the cyano issues in the reef... something bacterial coming in with the water and the tank conditions are just right to trigger a problem. I'm prepping for my daughter's graduation this coming weekend, but once we get through the chaos I plan to run some of the tap and RO water under the scope to see if anything shows up, but considering these are the only 2 tanks in the house out of 9 that are having issues, that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If it were something in the water I would expect it to be affecting other tanks too. The water chemistry stats for my biocube match that of the 120, so if it's environmentally triggered I would expect a problem there at very least, and there is nothing.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance for any/all help that is offered! I'm attaching 2 pics of the 120 to this thread so you can all see what I'm dealing with. Sorry the quality isn't good, I took them after lights out and had to use an older camera. I can get better pics tomorrow after the lights come on.
I want to start out by saying, I am not new to reefing. My husband and I have been keeping reef tanks (among many others) for about 30 yrs now (each). Right now I am facing a dilemma that has us both baffled so I decided to come here to see if anyone has any other ideas for us to try. Here are the details:
We upgraded our 75 gallon reef back in March, now have a new custom 120 gallon tank set up with sump, skimmer, calcium reactor, wave maker with 4 pumps/powerheads. Coralife LED light fixture. Calcium is at 450. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and nitrate reading 10 or under on API liquid test kits. Phosphate tests 0. Salinity is at 1.026. I use only RO water in my reef tanks, (have unit hooked up to the house) and it's testing out pure, TDS of 0, clear of everything. Salt mix is Oceanic, same as I have always used and never had a problem. Substrate is aragonite sand. 150 - 175 lbs approx. of live rock, most was cured before going into the tank (was in the 75 gallon before the upgrade and that was running for 3 yrs).
Animals: 1 pair of 1/2 grown ocellaris clowns, 1 adult orchid dottyback, 6 juvenile (under 2 inches) yellow tail damsels, 1 full grown (3+ yrs old) coral banded shrimp, 1 brittle starfish, disc about silver dollar size, 2 turbo snails, 6 nassarius snails, 6 astrea snails, 35 - 40 blue leg hermits, small (baseball size) open brain coral, 2 small clusters of pulsing xenia polyps (about 10 polyps in each cluster), 1 branching hammer coral (2 small heads), 1 frogspawn (1 small head), oodles of mushrooms, and some invasive clove polyps that are working their way through the tank and slowly beginning to cover most of the bare rock, and 1 lg umbrella leather coral.
I have planned to put a diamond goby and more hermits & snails into the tank as soon as I can find them for a reasonable price.
The cyano bloom started about 2 wks after set up, (2nd week of April) and was minor. We let it run it's course considering it was a new set up with about 2/3 of the water being new and some of the live rock being new. We used most of the sand from the 75 and then added another 50 lb bag of aragonite sand. The cyano died back and all was good for about a week, and then the cyano came back again by the end of April. The tank gets weekly water changes, about 25 - 30% for standard maintenance.
When the cyano came back the 2nd time it came back thick and fast, coating the entire tank within 48 hrs. I increased water changes to twice/wk, 20% each time, and siphoned out all of the cyano each time. Within 24 hrs 1/2 the tank was coated in cyano again, and within 48 hrs the entire tank was covered. I have used a toothbrush and gone in there daily to scrub the cyano away, then done a 15% water change daily for 10 days, but that showed no improvement. End result was the same. Reduced lighting (both intensity and hours down to 8 hrs/day of light with 2 hrs of moonlight at night), no change. Changed direction of powerheads to improve circulation, no change. Dosed tank with chemiclean (have used this in the past on some of the tanks we maintained at various businesses, always worked like a charm), did the water change, and it had no effect at all. Did a 2nd dose of chemiclean, still no effect at all. Hubby had socks in the sump so I removed those about 4 wks ago, no change. We're planning to replace the pump this weekend because we noticed the one we are currently using is warming the tank water to mid 80's. I added air stone 3 days ago to increase oxygen and to cool water temp, but still no change in the cyano growth.
In all my years of reef keeping I have NEVER run into a cyano problem like this. I have a 29 gallon biocube running in another room with my spotted mandarin, a 2 inch yellow watchman goby, a few scarlet hermits, 2 nassarius snails, 2 small turbo snails, and some mushrooms and zoanthids in there, and am not having an issue in that tank. The biocube gets a 30 - 40% water change every 2 wks and is thriving.
I'm at a loss, no idea what else to do. I can't black out the tank without killing my corals, so that option isn't possible. Quarantine for the corals would mean taking out most of the rock in the tank, so that's not possible either. My beautiful new tank looks like hell and it's making me crazy to look at it. I can't stock any new corals without putting them at risk of being smothered by the cyano. I lost a large capnella frag recently for that reason. My umbrella leather is shedding at least twice/wk because of the cyano and the cyano has also completely covered all parts of the hammer and frogspawn frags except for the small heads that appear to be thriving in spite of the issues.
Not sure if this is relevant or not, but 1 of my 7 freshwater tanks has recently started experiencing bacteria blooms after every water change. That tank has been up and running for almost 5 yrs now, never had a bacterial bloom before, nothing new going on with it. That is the only tank being affected and it only happens right after a water change (within a few hrs) and lasts 2 days and then is gone again. It's a planted tank, under stocked for fish (215 gallons), heavy filtration. I live in a high agricultural area and am wondering if this could be related to the cyano issues in the reef... something bacterial coming in with the water and the tank conditions are just right to trigger a problem. I'm prepping for my daughter's graduation this coming weekend, but once we get through the chaos I plan to run some of the tap and RO water under the scope to see if anything shows up, but considering these are the only 2 tanks in the house out of 9 that are having issues, that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If it were something in the water I would expect it to be affecting other tanks too. The water chemistry stats for my biocube match that of the 120, so if it's environmentally triggered I would expect a problem there at very least, and there is nothing.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance for any/all help that is offered! I'm attaching 2 pics of the 120 to this thread so you can all see what I'm dealing with. Sorry the quality isn't good, I took them after lights out and had to use an older camera. I can get better pics tomorrow after the lights come on.
