Cyano! What can I do?

Increase flow. Increase ph. Reduce any coral foods and aminos. Strain frozen foods. Reduce dissolved organics. Re evaluate your return pump turnover. Get more snails and pods. Dose dr Tims one and only. Look to see if the cyano is worse after water changes.

The green slimy stuff on the back of the glass along with the cyano indicate to me a bit more ammoina/nitrate in the wc that is not being processed, or it’s beng directly fed by an additive or food source.
 
1 clean it up one last time . I recommend using a small diameter hose to suck it away. Because you don’t want to empty the tank.
2 turn off all white and red light , atinic only ( for now ) also look at your blue light spectrum chart if it has red = no good ( yes Coralife atinic bulbs have red ) .
3 get some clean up crew in there . ( Mexican turbos, cerith snails, truch snails) these guys are magical. From what I seen at least 20-30 and see from there .
4 during the clean up in step 1 you must remove all ditritis AND use a power head to blast all rocks ( ditritis hides in the holes of the rock ) cyano LOVES ditritis and anything rotting.
5 I almost forgot as salty said increase water flow through out the aquarium.
You got some work to do . It’s worth it, and once you figure this cyano out as I had it’s not the buggyman it’s rep makes it to be .
Happy reefing .
 
Increase flow. Increase ph. Reduce any coral foods and aminos. Strain frozen foods. Reduce dissolved organics. Re evaluate your return pump turnover. Get more snails and pods. Dose dr Tims one and only. Look to see if the cyano is worse after water changes.

The green slimy stuff on the back of the glass along with the cyano indicate to me a bit more ammoina/nitrate in the wc that is not being processed, or it’s beng directly fed by an additive or food source.
My PH is consistently 8.2 - 8.4
I just bought a protein skimmer
I took my cannisters filter off about 2 months ago. I figure my rock will process ammonia...

My nitrates are 40 last check
IMG_20190323_125955.jpeg
 
I have found no value in increasing ph to treat cyano
Once I increased ph so high it killed all my mushrooms and cyano was as bad as ever following saltys advice and mine we been through it.
 
Could it be my light? MH bulbs.

Will just running blue hurt my coral?

What about my CFL in my fuge?
 
I would say - be patient - and wait - siphon off the algae part every day and put fresh (salt) water in to replace it - use a python or something like that It. Or you can use chemiclean. How long has it been since you cleaned the side glass - if thats a couple days - look at the organics - if its a couple weeks or longer - it could just be normal.

Your organics could be high - do you supplement? Overfeed? Feed the coral/anemones?

Do you clean your filter socks (if any) regularly etc etc - On the other hand - if you dont like it and want it fixed immediately - do all of the above - and what the other posters have suggested and get some chemiclean...
 
It’s a multi pronged approach. Look at each and determine where it can be improved.

It’s also a young tank I belive.
 
I would say - be patient - and wait - siphon off the algae part every day and put fresh (salt) water in to replace it - use a python or something like that It. Or you can use chemiclean. How long has it been since you cleaned the side glass - if thats a couple days - look at the organics - if its a couple weeks or longer - it could just be normal.

Your organics could be high - do you supplement? Overfeed? Feed the coral/anemones?

Do you clean your filter socks (if any) regularly etc etc - On the other hand - if you dont like it and want it fixed immediately - do all of the above - and what the other posters have suggested and get some chemiclean...
I feed reefroids once or twice a week and only give my clowns and pajama what they eat in a few seconds. I put seaweed in for the blue hippo on a clip.

I dose brs 2 step as needed for alk and calcium. I dose red Sea ABCD trace minerals.

I switch my filter sock out once a week and wash them in bleach and let them dry completely. I have 4 I rotate thru.
 
It’s a multi pronged approach. Look at each and determine where it can be improved.

It’s also a young tank I belive.
Going on 11 months.

I just spent the last 3 hours doing a 15 g water change, vacuuming gravel, blowing off rocks.

Should I leave MH off?

I also tested after. Nitrates are down to 20 so protein skimmer is helping. Water changes alone we're not cutting it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...RdChcCXN_XPrurixjkQD8e_pVVA/edit?usp=drivesdk


 
Atinic only won’t hurt your corals at all . and the lights aren’t wrong probably.

Hay bye the way nice aqua scapeing. Good job
It took some work to get those rocks to stay like that. I had to chisel some. They are not glued in the event I need to move it
 
I would say - be patient - and wait - siphon off the algae part every day and put fresh (salt) water in to replace it - use a python or something like that It. Or you can use chemiclean. How long has it been since you cleaned the side glass - if thats a couple days - look at the organics - if its a couple weeks or longer - it could just be normal.

Your organics could be high - do you supplement? Overfeed? Feed the coral/anemones?

Do you clean your filter socks (if any) regularly etc etc - On the other hand - if you dont like it and want it fixed immediately - do all of the above - and what the other posters have suggested and get some chemiclean...


This. Plus you can run gfo and do all the immediate stuff above but let it run it’s course.
 
With the absence of a skimmer, there's a pretty good bet there's a good deal of dissolved organics in the tank water. High nitrates are likely fueling the growth of cyano even more.

I would suggest ditching the filter sock. With it trapping uneaten food for a week, that's likely contributing to the high dissolved organics and nitrates. With it gone, food that goes over the overflow will get recycled back to the tank and eaten - if not by the fish, by the clean-up crew. Your video also suggests very little in the way of coralline algae, which is not quite right for a tank that's going on 11 months, and leads me to think that the alkalinity and calcium haven't been consistently at >7 dKH and >380 ppm, respectively. I'd suggest consistently keeping the alk at 8 - 9 dKH and the calcium at 420 ppm or so, which will encourage coralline algae. To some extent, it will compete with the cyano for nutrients.

Finally, if you want the cyano gone, you can black the tank out for 3 days. That means actually masking off the glass with cardboard, and putting a temporary cover over the top. The cyano will be completely gone after 3 days when you take the cardboard off, but it may come back if the water still has high nutrient levels. However, it may help you get ahead of the curve on cleaning up detritus in the sandbed and rocks and getting the nitrates and dissolved organics down with water changes. The corals and fish will be fine with this, btw.
 
With the absence of a skimmer, there's a pretty good bet there's a good deal of dissolved organics in the tank water. High nitrates are likely fueling the growth of cyano even more.

I would suggest ditching the filter sock. With it trapping uneaten food for a week, that's likely contributing to the high dissolved organics and nitrates. With it gone, food that goes over the overflow will get recycled back to the tank and eaten - if not by the fish, by the clean-up crew. Your video also suggests very little in the way of coralline algae, which is not quite right for a tank that's going on 11 months, and leads me to think that the alkalinity and calcium haven't been consistently at >7 dKH and >380 ppm, respectively. I'd suggest consistently keeping the alk at 8 - 9 dKH and the calcium at 420 ppm or so, which will encourage coralline algae. To some extent, it will compete with the cyano for nutrients.

Finally, if you want the cyano gone, you can black the tank out for 3 days. That means actually masking off the glass with cardboard, and putting a temporary cover over the top. The cyano will be completely gone after 3 days when you take the cardboard off, but it may come back if the water still has high nutrient levels. However, it may help you get ahead of the curve on cleaning up detritus in the sandbed and rocks and getting the nitrates and dissolved organics down with water changes. The corals and fish will be fine with this, btw.
I have a skimmer, and corraline and green Calcareous too. Tank testing log below.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...RdChcCXN_XPrurixjkQD8e_pVVA/edit?usp=drivesdk
IMG_20190404_230900.jpeg
IMG_20190404_230921.jpeg
IMG_20190404_230937.jpeg
IMG_20190404_230953.jpeg
IMG_20190404_231002.jpeg
IMG_20190404_204857.jpeg
 

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