cyanobacteria in a established reef tank

[Dilan Patel]

Hey guys so as of lately I have been running into a lot of cyanobacteria in my 180 gallon established reef. Nitrates are at 5 and phosphate at .05 with hannah checker. The lights are using sb reef lights and I just turned off my t-5s. Any ideas on how to remedy this.

 

[Brew12]

Hey guys so as of lately I have been running into a lot of cyanobacteria in my 180 gallon established reef. Nitrates are at 5 and phosphate at .05 with hannah checker. The lights are using sb reef lights and I just turned off my t-5s. Any ideas on how to remedy this.

Is the cyano on your rocks or on your sandbed? Any chance you can post a picture?

 

[Dilan Patel]

Its on my rock and sandbed. I would show a picture but I bastered it off and only a small amount has come back. My flow is really good with two gyre xf250 ramping anywhere from 60-100% all day.

 

[Jason mack]

How long and at what % are you running your whites at ? I run my whites at 30% for 5.5 hrs .. per day
Also check your rodi water make sure it’s 0 tds

 

[Brew12]

Its on my rock and sandbed. I would show a picture but I bastered it off and only a small amount has come back. My flow is really good with two gyre xf250 ramping anywhere from 60-100% all day.

That is pretty odd.

When you say your tank is established, how many years old is it? Do you use RODI? And if so, when did you last change your filters?

 

[Dilan Patel]

its been up for over 2 years as a reef. I use RODi but i do not remember when I last changed the canister filters. The TDS is reading 0-1. I run the blues 100% and whites at 50%. The blues are on for 13hrs and my whites are on for 6hrs

 

[Jason mack]

Personally I think you could turn your whites down a bit , have you done any par readings on your tank ? And I would definitely change your rodi filters out too ..

 

[Dilan Patel]

I have my par at the water surface is around 600 and at my first coral around 450ish and at the sandbed around 100 even

 

[Brew12]

its been up for over 2 years as a reef. I use RODi but i do not remember when I last changed the canister filters. The TDS is reading 0-1. I run the blues 100% and whites at 50%. The blues are on for 13hrs and my whites are on for 6hrs

I think one of the first things I would try would be to change your RODI filters, especially the carbon block.

A TDS meter can only read ionic compounds. It is an electrical conductivity meter. If it doesn't conduct electricity when in water the meter can't see it and the ion resin can't pull it. So you can still have things getting through your system even with zero TDS.

And wow, that is a long photo period! I'm not a lighting guru but you may want to ask around on the lighting thread. I seem to remember reading that corals can only use about 6 hours worth of high PAR in a 24 hour period. But don't quote me on that!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If the corals are fine the light is fine. I’m assuming they are basics on timers. You may see some benifit in some of the lower light corals. (Some , Candy canes , acans , Frogspawn torches etc )

My self I run long too.SB w Timers on one tank SB raming in the other.

Mine is kinda stupid long, and I’ve tweaked intensity and time
a lot over the years with different lights. I dont have cyano much or often.

Def double check the source water etc.
I’d look at some dr Tim’s refresh or even one and only. Manual removal yada yada...
Could be a bit of old tank syndrome , once it clears up you might consider some light carbon dosing. Vitamin c or a touch of vinegar.


Also look at your foods. Some foods cyano really loves. In my small tank it’s LRS, two little fishies Marine snow in both my thanks , a few recent threads I’ve seen oyster feast was a commonality with cyano. .