Cyno outbreak... ready to quit. Zeovit system.

[majorstare]

2x2x2 cube with sump, approx. 220ltrs.
Roughly 18months old and started Zeovit roughly 4 months ago.

Everything has done really well, SPS has really coloured up and great growth.

All reading are spot on, phosphate is 0.02 and No3 at zero.
Plenty of circulation.

Dosing....
ZeoBak - 2 drops twice a week.
Zeostart2 - 0.4ml daily
Spongepower - 2 drops every other daily
ZeoFood7 - 2 drops once a month
Coralsnow - 2ml twice a week
Deltec reactor, 200ltrs per hour.


I have a cyno outbreak for the last 3 weeks.
Sand is clear with lights off but by the time I get home from work after 5hrs of light (hydra 52 @ 13000k) the sand and glass is covered.

Have turned red channel off the lights.
Skimming wet.
Stopped using Zeofood and amino acids.
Feed fish every other day.
Started 10 days ago a nightly mix of;- CoralSnow, 2 drops of Bak, 0.2ml of Start, Zeozym.

As yet, no improvement.

Local fish shop has suggested dosing 0.2ml Start every 2-3 days and water changes ever two weeks (nil on TDS)

Absolutely at my wits end with this

 

[daelie]

I've always found that cyano outbreaks happened with an imbalance of phosphate and nitrate, generally when nitrate is 0 and phosphate is reading a little non-zero. The zeovit system is very good at keeping both quite low, but I found that if my bioload was too small, like when I first started zeovit, then my nitrates would always be limiting. What ended up working for me at first was dosing nitrate and within a week or less it had significantly dialed back the cyano, and after that as my fish load went up, I never had the need to dose nitrates as the poop took care of the nitrates itself. Just my experience.

 

[brandon429]

also, I have never seen a bare bottom tank have your issues, I wonder if we can infer sandbed from whats listed so far. I know there are some cyano/bb tanks out there, but its typically on the rock surface where detritus could exist and leak fuel right up under the cyano while the water tests clean due to export once liberated into the water. during that transition from substrate to solution, cyano can make use

if you have a sb im curious how cloudy would it be if you stirred up a couple handfuls in the tank with pumps on

 

[cb684]

I've used Chemi Clean Red Cyano Remover with good results. Cyano disappeared in 2 days. My corals (mostly SPS) did not suffer with the treatment.

 

[majorstare]

Sand bed is about 20mm deep and gets siphon cleaned once a month. Its never particularly dirty.

 

[mcarroll]

If it's dirty when you clean, that's where I'd point the finger.

More or better flow might be part of your solution.

That and keeping no3 non-zero so other forms of algae can better compete.

 

[cginter]

I've always found that cyano outbreaks happened with an imbalance of phosphate and nitrate, generally when nitrate is 0 and phosphate is reading a little non-zero. The zeovit system is very good at keeping both quite low, but I found that if my bioload was too small, like when I first started zeovit, then my nitrates would always be limiting. What ended up working for me at first was dosing nitrate and within a week or less it had significantly dialed back the cyano, and after that as my fish load went up, I never had the need to dose nitrates as the poop took care of the nitrates itself. Just my experience.

I definitely agree this. I started a thread about a month or so ago with same problem. I increased my nitrates and ran my skimmer intake line outside and everything is coming back.

 

[majorstare]

Since posting the above I have stopped all Zeo products except Bac and started to feed the fish daily.
I can see a slight improvement, so will continue until the end of the week before testing Po4 and No3 again.

 

[Diesel]

How do you know for sure it's Cyano?
Did you do the cyano test to see if it came out positive?

 

[Kswish74]

I definitely agree this. I started a thread about a month or so ago with same problem. I increased my nitrates and ran my skimmer intake line outside and everything is coming back.

How do you increase nitrates

 

[Diesel]

How do you increase nitrates

You can dose stump remover
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/

 

[cowboy]

Looking at your description I'm inclined to say it's not Cyano, if it's going away at night and coming back during the day I'm strongly leaning towards spirulina. A quick check would be to remove a small sample with approximately 100 MLS tank water add about 3 MLS 3% H2O2 and wait. If the sample is not affected it's spirulina.

 

[Diesel]

Looking at your description I'm inclined to say it's not Cyano, if it's going away at night and coming back during the day I'm strongly leaning towards spirulina. A quick check would be to remove a small sample with approximately 100 MLS tank water add about 3 MLS 3% H2O2 and wait. If the sample is not affected it's spirulina.

Exactly what I was asking for.
8 out of 10 it's spirulina.

 

[cowboy]

Exactly what I was asking for.
8 out of 10 it's spirulina.

Another thing that's really pushing me towards spirulina is the dosing thanks to @twilliard works. We know that spirulina feeds and reproduces rapidly off amino's.

 

[Kswish74]

You can dose stump remover
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/

Thank you!

 

[.AcroKiller.]

I just had a cyano outbreak and within a week it's almost all gone using A-Balance and cyano clean.