Cyno

qstorm · Oct 30, 2018

so I have been fighting algae for a while. seeing my tank is only 5 months old I have followed the advice that was given. I have turned off my carbon reactor , change my light schedule and added more CUC. Tank is in fallow at the moment so I only feed once every other day (corals and verts)
I did a water change and I didn't test the water SG before I did. Turned out that the water change was only RO water. I only did around 15% WC.
Now I have cyno on one part of the tank. My entire tank started being covered with brown algae on the glass etc.

Only two things I know changed in the chemistry. before the water change I left an aluminum bracket on the DT and it was submerged about 1" for about 3 days and then WC I did which drop my sg from 1.025 to 1.021.
What would be the cause. My parameters are in check.

Thanks

reeferfoxx · Oct 30, 2018

qstorm said:
so I have been fighting algae for a while. seeing my tank is only 5 months old I have followed the advice that was given. I have turned off my carbon reactor , change my light schedule and added more CUC. Tank is in fallow at the moment so I only feed once every other day (corals and verts)
I did a water change and I didn't test the water SG before I did. Turned out that the water change was only RO water. I only did around 15% WC.
Now I have cyno on one part of the tank. My entire tank started being covered with brown algae on the glass etc.

Only two things I know changed in the chemistry. before the water change I left an aluminum bracket on the DT and it was submerged about 1" for about 3 days and then WC I did which drop my sg from 1.025 to 1.021.
What would be the cause. My parameters are in check.

Thanks

I think since your tank is fallow, you probably don't need to feed it. My "expirimental" 10g was fed twice about a year ago and my 4 snails are doing excellent.
Here is a picture. The water level was down so I could see any impact on organisms with a salinity of 1.029. Also, the tank has been fed dinoflagellates and cyano to see if i could spur growth with high and low temps and with high low salinity. So far nothing.

qstorm · Oct 30, 2018

reeferfoxx said:
I think since your tank is fallow, you probably don't need to feed it. My "expirimental" 10g was fed twice about a year ago and my 4 snails are doing excellent.
Here is a picture. The water level was down so I could see any impact on organisms with a salinity of 1.029. Also, the tank has been fed dinoflagellates and cyano to see if i could spur growth with high and low temps and with high low salinity. So far nothing.

So what do I do to get rid of it

NS Mike D · Oct 30, 2018

parameters? especially NO3 and PO4 (but not to get too hung up on that)

Cyano is ever present in the water column. No one know for sure why it it precipitates out and starts to mat up, but it often will happen in high NO3 and PO4. Also, cyano can use other forms of N in the water when NO3 is absent and very low and PO4 is present when corals cannot, This is a common side affect for people who carbon dose and initially take NO3 out of the water way faster that PO4

Cyano takes time to rid and tank maturity is a big part of the process. Be diligent about siphoning the sand bed to remove it. Blow it off the rock work withe a turkey baster. Lost of flow to keep it from matting and most importantly, focus on keeping corals healthy as they will grow and thus outcompete the cyano for nutrients and space.

Super Fly · Oct 31, 2018

This is from another thread that I had responded to: I also battled cyano for quite some time and my tactic was to increase flow and keep the water very clean (reduce light, reduce feeding, more frequent water change, use GFO, siphon sand etc). No matter what I did cyano kept returning. Until when I stumbled onto a thread that said Ultra Low Nutrient tanks can lead to cyano and other problems, one should aim for 1-5ppm NO3 and 0.01-0.06ppm PO4. I did a chemiclean treatment back in Aug, stopped using GFO, reduced flow, removed carbon and have been feeding a lot more to keep tank "dirty" and cyano has been gone since. I monitor PO4 and NO3 and only use GFO when PO4 starts showing up.

qstorm · Nov 8, 2018

Super Fly said:
This is from another thread that I had responded to: I also battled cyano for quite some time and my tactic was to increase flow and keep the water very clean (reduce light, reduce feeding, more frequent water change, use GFO, siphon sand etc). No matter what I did cyano kept returning. Until when I stumbled onto a thread that said Ultra Low Nutrient tanks can lead to cyano and other problems, one should aim for 1-5ppm NO3 and 0.01-0.06ppm PO4. I did a chemiclean treatment back in Aug, stopped using GFO, reduced flow, removed carbon and have been feeding a lot more to keep tank "dirty" and cyano has been gone since. I monitor PO4 and NO3 and only use GFO when PO4 starts showing up.

Will try that. I did stop my carbon and gfo. I only filter feed the corals...I just read something that suggested only target feed the shrimp and leave just enough for the inverts ...I will shoot for a dirtier tank.