cyanobacteria with new tank question

[ks_reeftank]

hello, lately the red stringy cyanobacteria has come about and is getting worse. i have read that some say it is just part of a new tank cycle, so should i be worried? not looking too pretty in the tank right now. tank is roughly 4 months old now.

checked phosphates, none right now but had a small amount when this first started.
doing water changes once a week, about 8 gallons, but since this i have been doing that twice a week.
lights are t5's, 2 actinic and 2 12,000k . on timers running the actinic from 11am to 8pm. and 12k from 11:30am to 7:30pm

feed once, maybe twice a day. clean out pre-filter in skimmer box daily or every other day.
change out filter sock in sump at least once a week.
have a reef octopus skimmer in sump
growing chaeto in refugium as part of sump
have a gfo cansiter running also.
use ro/di water
tank is 75g with 29g sump/refugium . prob a total of 80g to 85g im guessing

im not too worried as inhabitants are doing well, just wanting to know if this will pass or should i treat it?
thought about cutting light back further by an hour or so, or doing larger water changes.
thank you for any input

 

[ks_reeftank]

* correction. clean out pre-filter in overflow box, not skimmer box.

 

[ks_reeftank]

bump

 

[Pappy]

What's the flow? Cut back feedig

 

[robert]

Siphon out the worst of it...if it comes back, siphon again.
If it comes back worse you may want to check your phosphate/nitrates and if they are in line - consider treating with something like chemi-clean. Follow the directions - no shortcuts.

Cyano is an early colonizer in new systems. Keep it in check for a bit and other flora will establish itself and reduce its dominance. Not too worry...

 

[btldreef]

2 things are prime causes for cyano

1 FLOW angle powerheads differently. make the top of the water look like its "boiling". most times this creates turbulence to kick up debris.
2 TOO MUCH NUTRIENTS , uneaten food. get a better clean up crew snails/hermits etc. i use nassarius snails, the dig into the sand and eaten anything left on it.

 

[lpslover]

+1 to what robert said. We've all been there. It does IME tend to be a new tank thing. Get some GFO running if you don't have it already, no more than 10hrs lights on each day till you get a handle on the cyano, lots of flow and aeration. Manual/siphon removal daily. If you're still seeing a bunch in two weeks, chemi-clean works great. But if you haven't addressed issues like PO4 (don't let the 0 test result fool you, the cyano is using it) and low flow, it will be back almost immediately. Good luck!

 

[ks_reeftank]

for flow i have 2 hydor 1050's on a hydor controller. switching back and forth every 15 sec. i dont think im over-feeding and if i see any extra in there i net it out, along with cleaning out the overflow box filter and filter sock in sump very often. i am in need of a better clean up crew, seems like my snails dont do much, i have a couple "turbo snails" the LFS called them, i had better luck before with the "bumble-bee snails" . and i had a dozen blue leg hermits but these days only see maybe half of them,

thanks for the input :smile:, going to clean out as much as possible manually, and focus on flow and clean up crew.

 

[Newb73]

My problem with this was always one of the following
1) not enough flow in bottom of tank
2) Poor quality top off and water change water (sounds like your on top of that)
3) T5 bulbs needing changed
4) Over feeding


if all else fails, kill your lights completely for 3 to 5 days, It wont kill your corals but the red slime will die off fast.

You have to replenish the clean up crew every so often also, although personally i only do snails and the turbo snails live for 2 to 5 years in my tanks while the astra snails can die off in a 12-15 months (odd).

Check your RO/DI unit, maybe its time for new DI unit or a new membrane (do you have a tds meter?) I only ask because when i was where you are...it was the water changes and constant cleaning of the filter material what was CAUSING the problem. The water i had going in was not great and i kept killing off the bacteria in my filters by OVER cleaning them.

 

[Henry C]

I would lenghten the time your power heads switch. Try like 45 seconds to a minute then switch. I dont think 15 seconds is enough time to get the water moving enough to get a good blast of flow. Cut down the feedings to once a day and only feed what the fish will consume in a minute. Also what type of food are you feeding? Some frozen foods should be rinsed throughly as some are very greasy to the touch. Chemi-clean works well but this should only be used as a last resort IMO. You need to figure out what caused the cyano in the first place. Do siphon it out on a daily basis and use a turkey baster to blow it off the rocks. What do you have for a c.u.c? If you do end up using chemi-clean follow the directions to the letter. HTH...

 

[Dog Boy Dave]

If you didnt have Cyno in a new tank you should be worried. Dont change a thing. Let your tank cycle.

 

[ks_reeftank]

ok, thanks. i figured it was all just part of the process. It just looks like its coming on so fast and thick right now. I did check and i do have the controller set at 1 min switching on the pumps, not 15 sec like i thought, but i will be aiming them down a little more.

 

[Newb73]

I guess i should be worried since i didnt get cyano in any of my three tanks until they had been set up for months and got over nutrient rich.

Diatoms on the other hand.....yes, i had lots and lots of that in the early stages on all 3.

 

[YVR]

Cyano problems are usually caused by aquarium water with excess nutrients like phosphate, nitrates etc. You can try and siphon out what you can to remove the algae in the short term. In the long term you may have to examine how you care for your tank. There are some commercial dry foods also contain excess nutrients and other undesirable things like nitrates, phosphates etc so I strain/rinse my fresh/frozen foods before feeding my tank. You may want to consider feeding your fish less often. Also, changing your photo period, light bulbs more flow, using RO/DI water and a high quality salt with little if any NO3, phosphates etc like Tropic Marin may help too. Adding a phosphate remover and increasing flow in your tank may help too.

 

[ks_reeftank]

seeing a little inprovement now, thought id update this thread.

first i have always used RO/DI water, it was a new unit when the tank was started. my last tank had a algae problem so i tried to take it a little farther with steps like installing a water filtering unit to avoid future problems.
For food i use 3 diffent kinds of the Omega One flakes, and once or twice a week i feed frozen shrimp by Mega Marine.
For salt i use Reef Crystals.
I do have a GFO cansiter filter running in my sump.
Running a Reef Octopus skimmer in sump as well.
I feed only once a day, very rarely do i feed twice, if any food is still floating around in there after a min i net it out.

-This will be day 3 on leaving the lights out, only turning them on to feed ( seems the firefish and goby will come out when they come on & i want them to eat ).
-Turned the wave pumps more towards the sand and rocks, only problem is the sand is pushed up near the front of the glass, will be tweaking it a little.
-Still doing water changes twice a week of about 10 gallons at a time.

Overall im not too worried about this, i think it will go away, it was just new to me and am thankful for everyone on here with more knowledge than me to ask the questions to. Would love to start adding more than just fish to the tank, being patient with that.

 

[Bioreefed]

ok, thanks. i figured it was all just part of the process. It just looks like its coming on so fast and thick right now. I did check and i do have the controller set at 1 min switching on the pumps, not 15 sec like i thought, but i will be aiming them down a little more.

How long did that cyano last in your tank? How did you get rid of it? I'm going through the same problem and my tank is exactly 4 months old just like yours when you had the cyano.