Cyano

[Teemingtank]

cyano is kicking my butt... I’ve tried to pull as much info off the forum that I could the past month and implement it. I’ve been doing 5g water changes every other day, sometimes 20g on the weekends (125g tank). I’ve been turkey basting and netting almost every night. And running two 9watt Uv sterilizers at night. I get my tank spotless before I go to bed, and it lightly appears back in the morning. When I arrive home from work it looks like someone has neglected the tank for a month. I’m not saying I’m giving up, but I’m getting a bit exhausted and discouraged.
My tank is still fairly young, roughly 3-4 months. I don’t have a hannah checker or tds meter. I only use ro water though. My nitrate/ nitrite/ ammonia all barely detectable. I have maybe 67x flow rate if I ran my powerheads full blast, so I don’t think flow is necessarily an issue. I have 3 165 watt Dsuny Led lights. With one 15ft 460nm actinic led strip. My feedings are very controlled, I doubt any food goes uneaten. I am guilty of occasionally sticking an unwashed hand in the tank.
I have three windows within close proximity of my tank that I believe could be attributing. I plan on getting blinds tomorrow (should’ve done it a long time ago). Just got my light for my refugium and chaeto today and I plan on implementing that ASAP.
I need to get this out of my tank. It isn’t harming anything yet... just my ego lol. Would really like some honest opinions, anything I could be doing/do differently.

 

[Teemingtank]

cyano is kicking my ***... I’ve tried to pull as much info off the forum that I could the past month and implement it. I’ve been doing 5g water changes every other day, sometimes 20g on the weekends (125g tank). I’ve been turkey basting and netting almost every night. And running two 9watt Uv sterilizers at night. I get my tank spotless before I go to bed, and it lightly appears back in the morning. When I arrive home from work it looks like someone has neglected the tank for a month. I’m not saying I’m giving up, but I’m getting a bit exhausted and discouraged.
My tank is still fairly young, roughly 3-4 months. I don’t have a hannah checker or tds meter. I only use ro water though. My nitrate/ nitrite/ ammonia all barely detectable. I have maybe 67x flow rate if I ran my powerheads full blast, so I don’t think flow is necessarily an issue. I have 3 165 watt Dsuny Led lights. With one 15ft 460nm actinic led strip. My feedings are very controlled, I doubt any food goes uneaten. I am guilty of occasionally sticking an unwashed hand in the tank.
I have three windows within close proximity of my tank that I believe could be attributing. I plan on getting blinds tomorrow (should’ve done it a long time ago). Just got my light for my refugium and chaeto today and I plan on implementing that ASAP.
I need to get this out of my tank. It isn’t harming anything yet... just my ego lol. Would really like some honest opinions, anything I could be doing/do differently.

My lights are on a timer, I kicked back my lighting schedule to roughly 8 hours. They kick on at 5am, hit full blast around 10:30am, ramp down at around 1:30pm, full actinics at 3:30pm- 7:30pm, after that the lunar setting takes over( either no light or blue spectrum between 5-15%)

 

[Florida Sunshine]

If possible, do larger water changes. You mention RO water but do you have it running through DI canisters as well?
What do you have in the tank and what are you feeding?

 

[Teemingtank]

If possible, do larger water changes. You mention RO water but do you have it running through DI canisters as well?
What do you have in the tank and what are you feeding?

I buy about 40 gallons from the local grocery store, I always make sure that the machine that dispenses it is recently serviced before I buy. I would do larger water changes but I thought that’d be a bit excessive considering I’m doing about 30%, give or take, a week. Fish stock: 2 Ocellaris clowns, 1 six line, 1 Scopas, 1 yellow, 1 sailfin, 1 scooter blenny.
Inverts: between 8-15 hermits, 1 sand sifting star(trading in soon), 2 nassarius snail, 2 walnut sized turbos, 5 grape sized margaritas( I account for daily because they are a temperate, ticking time bomb, but they do such a good job), 2 serpent stars, 6 btas, 1 lta
Corals: 1 dragon eye zoa frag

 

[Teemingtank]

I buy about 40 gallons from the local grocery store, I always make sure that the machine that dispenses it is recently serviced before I buy. I would do larger water changes but I thought that’d be a bit excessive considering I’m doing about 30%, give or take, a week. Fish stock: 2 Ocellaris clowns, 1 six line, 1 Scopas, 1 yellow, 1 sailfin, 1 scooter blenny.
Inverts: between 8-15 hermits, 1 sand sifting star(trading in soon), 2 nassarius snail, 2 walnut sized turbos, 5 grape sized margaritas( I account for daily because they are a temperate, ticking time bomb, but they do such a good job), 2 serpent stars, 6 btas, 1 lta
Corals: 1 dragon eye zoa frag

Water from store is dispensed by a company called primo and they claim that their water is RO/DI

 

[Teemingtank]

Water from store is dispensed by a company called primo and they claim that their water is RO/DI

And feeding is varied. Mostly frozen. Mysis, carnivore cubes, frozen veggie, brine, bloodworms. I rarely do pellet, but I have formula 1&2 mixed together in a little container, and of course purple seaweed for the tangs

 

[Florida Sunshine]

My first investment would be an RO/DI system. I don't think I have ever seen RO/DI water for sale anywhere except a fish store. You are likely buying just purified or maybe RO water.
Everything becomes easier when you have water at home on hand when you need it and knowing that the water went through the final DI stage.

 

[Teemingtank]

My first investment would be an RO/DI system. I don't think I have ever seen RO/DI water for sale anywhere except a fish store. You are likely buying just purified or maybe RO water.
Everything becomes easier when you have water at home on hand when you need it and knowing that the water went through the final DI stage.

I’m from the Midwest so I just get it from the machine at meijer. I’ll take a pic Next time I see the label. It boast a bunch on different filtration the water goes through, I’m not sure I believe it, but it’s better than my well water at home! I haven’t found an ro/di unit I like yet. Either too expensive or the yields are too low. I have a client I train that owns one and it only puts out like 2 gallons a day, he used to fill me up a 5g jug every couple days. Any brand you’d recommend?

 

[Teemingtank]

I’m from the Midwest so I just get it from the machine at meijer. I’ll take a pic Next time I see the label. It boast a bunch on different filtration the water goes through, I’m not sure I believe it, but it’s better than my well water at home! I haven’t found an ro/di unit I like yet. Either too expensive or the yields are too low. I have a client I train that owns one and it only puts out like 2 gallons a day, he used to fill me up a 5g jug every couple days. Any brand you’d recommend?

I have my own personal doubt that water is the issue with my Cyano, but I can’t completely rule it out. Reason being, when I started my first saltwater tank about a year ago, all I used was well water from the tap. I never had Cyano, but I had horrible diatoms! that being said my tap water would probably break a tds meter lol. If you let my well water sit in a glass for a day it has that reddish tint of iron. Regardless, I agree an ro/di system would be a great investment

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I also buy RO water from a grocery store and they are not all created equal. We have a meijer here as well as walmart, pick-n-save, piggly wiggly and sendiks. I bought a TDS meter. All of the above stores have RO water dispensers. Most of them run at over 100 tds. The one I go to averages under 10, on good days I can get it around 3. I have only come across two stores that have TDS under 10. I have seen as high as 280 after a filter change. Usually right after a filter change the TDS tends to be a bit higher. Takes quite a few gallons before the TDS is acceptable for me.

If you don't have a TDS meter I guarantee the water is definitely adding to your problem.

 

[ReeferBean]

Buy a bottle of bacteria... Microbacter7 or Dr. Tims.

 

[Seamore2001]

That's a pretty small clean up crew you have in there. More would help - cerith snails and blue leg hermits are supposed to eat cyano. I bought my crew from reefcleaners.org and have been pleased with the work they do.

You mentioned nitrate, nitrite and ammonia are fine. What about phosphates? If it tests high, than it could come from nutrients from feeding (you apparently have that under control), your water, which Florida Sunshine addressed, or something else in your tank. Did you use dry rock or ocean live rock?

 

[Teemingtank]

That's a pretty small clean up crew you have in there. More would help - cerith snails and blue leg hermits are supposed to eat cyano. I bought my crew from reefcleaners.org and have been pleased with the work they do.

You mentioned nitrate, nitrite and ammonia are fine. What about phosphates? If it tests high, than it could come from nutrients from feeding (you apparently have that under control), your water, which Florida Sunshine addressed, or something else in your tank. Did you use dry rock or ocean live rock?

I forgot to mention my banded coral, peppermint, and skunk shrimp.. I want to add more but I’m a little unsure on what my CUC needs more of( algae eaters, scavengers, etc), I don’t want to starve anybody out. I don’t have a means of accurately testing phosphate , I will add that to list with the Ro/di system!
As far as rock goes, last week I added one plate coral skeleton maybe 5-7 pounds. And 2 weeks ago I put about 10 pounds of finely crushed argonite in spots where the sand was being upheaved by the flow. I did notice a slight diatom our break on the sand and new rock, nothing my snails and water changes won’t solve... one thing I’ve noticed about my system is I don’t have any real striking purple coralline growth and all my snails shells are coated heavy with it. I recently started dosing purple tech now that I have a means of testing it. Hopefully between the chaeto and maybe some coralline I can try to out compete these pest!

 

[Teemingtank]

I also buy RO water from a grocery store and they are not all created equal. We have a meijer here as well as walmart, pick-n-save, piggly wiggly and sendiks. I bought a TDS meter. All of the above stores have RO water dispensers. Most of them run at over 100 tds. The one I go to averages under 10, on good days I can get it around 3. I have only come across two stores that have TDS under 10. I have seen as high as 280 after a filter change. Usually right after a filter change the TDS tends to be a bit higher. Takes quite a few gallons before the TDS is acceptable for me.

If you don't have a TDS meter I guarantee the water is definitely adding to your problem.

Thank you , I knew I was getting a little something with the store water. However, with my given situation Meijer was the lesser of two evils... ;Blackeye

 

[Gareth elliott]

Some pointers.

-Phosphate binds very well to rock and sand. Wc alone its very hard to get it back under control.

-Pick up some form of phosphate test the hanna ulr is the best red sea, salifert are useable.

-clean your sand bed and rocks, theres detritus stuck in there, if can reduce it at least some, less to break down into phosphate to feed the cyano.

-test your alkalinity and calcium regularly with purple tech. I think this stuff is glorified soda ash.

-clean your wavemakers often the flow is needed for when this stuff starts dying.

 

[Teemingtank]

Little visual of what’s going on. Last Saturday 20g water change. Yesterday, 10g water change/ sand and rock turkey basting, had it spotless and came home to this.

 

[Teemingtank]

Some pointers.

-Phosphate binds very well to rock and sand. Wc alone its very hard to get it back under control.

-Pick up some form of phosphate test the hanna ulr is the best red sea, salifert are useable.

-clean your sand bed and rocks, theres detritus stuck in there, if can reduce it at least some, less to break down into phosphate to feed the cyano.

-test your alkalinity and calcium regularly with purple tech. I think this stuff is glorified soda ash.

-clean your wavemakers often the flow is needed for when this stuff starts dying.

Noted, thank you!

 

[ReeferBean]

I would just add the bacteria and see where that gets you. Cyano doesn't need much nutrients to survive. Your tank just needs more time I'd say.

 

[Teemingtank]

I would just add the bacteria and see where that gets you. Cyano doesn't need much nutrients to survive. Your tank just needs more time I'd say.

Thank you, I will definitely do that this weekend!

 

[KIRBLIT]

Definitely stop buying that water. They may use ro/di water but then they add a bunch of things back into it because it ro/di water tastes horrible and it's not good for you either. If you are going to buy water get jugs of distilled only.