Cyanobacteria outbreak on new tank

[dabruecker]

I just set up my 29 gallon nano last Friday. Today I notice a breakout of a pink substance all over my sand bed. During my research I believe this to be a Cyanobacteria outbreak. Now I am not sure what to do about it. I am trying to come up with a solution that wont interrupt the cycle of my tank. I sucked up as much as possible this morning - but I am afraid it will return. Obviously my water quality is very poor at this time. Please HELP!!!

 

[subielover]

Are you running any lights at the moment? They are not needed during cycling.

 

[110reef]

More likely its diatoms, which appear in a new tank towards the end of the cycle. If so, it will go away in a few weeks all by itself. Nothing wrong with your water probably.

 

[PrisonCityReef]

Did you use rock from somewhere else? Base rock that you're curing? Is your sand all new? Did you seed it with someone else's sand? Did you use RO or tapwater?

Give us a bit more info on what you've done so far. It's like hopping into a gunfight at the middle of the movie. Give us some character development first so we can identify the bad guy.

 

[dabruecker]

I used bottled distilled water (no RO/DI unit yet but soon!). I purchased the rock from Dr. Foster and Smith. The sand is brand new. I am running with the lights on. I asked a question on the forum a week back and got most of the feed back that I should run with lights on for 4 hours.

 

[wicked demon]

Actually you do need to run the lights during the cycle process, other wise you will have a diotome bloom as soon as you start running the lights, different bacteria grow in the dark that will die when the lights start getting used, this one reason why some people run cryptic refugiums.

Either way diotoms or cyano the cause is the same, non-sufficient nutrient export,--- feed less, use a good skimmer, do more productive water changes, add competing organisms, and runnig carbon/ phos ban are all potential solutions.

 

[110reef]

These are all good suggestions after your tank has been running for a while. But I am thinking that your tank is brand new, with no or few organisms in it. If this is correct, the diatom bloom is normal, has nothing to do with feeding/lighting/skimming/carbon/phosban/critters etc, but is just a stage that the tank always goes through when new. It will go away shortly and you will forget it ever happened. Unless you have been fooling with additives or other things, your water is fine. Tank is just breaking in. Leave it be and you will be fine! One of the worst mistakes new tank owners make is they fool with things way to often. Your tank is meant to be a balanced biosystem, and generally it will take care of itself, you need to simply monitor things and only make adjustments when absolutely necessary, and then always make changes very slowly. Change is your worst enemy, stability is your best friend.