Diatoms, Dinos or cyano?

[fishybizzness]

My tank is a little over a year old. Dry caribsea liferock and a few pieces of liferock for diversity. This brown coating on the sand is driving me nuts! I tried a three day blackout. A few days later, it came back. I've cut back on my feeding. I do weekly 10-12 gallon water changes, it a 120. I vacuum the sand regularly. Any suggestions?

 

[fishybizzness]

Live rock for diversity.

 

[Pistondog]

Get some flow on it.

 

[fishybizzness]

I am currently running a 330 gyre on one end and a 350 on the other. I originally had a pair of 330s but I'm trying out a 350 to see if it makes a difference. Do you think I should add more powerheads?

 

[fishybizzness]

Bump.

 

[PeterC99]

Three things got rid of my cyano:

1) Strong UV light
2) Started an Oxydator (look for threads on this site)
3) Phytoplankton every other day

Before and after pics (also have since increased the light intensity by 5% on my Radions)

 

[fishybizzness]

I have a 40 watt pentair uv running 24-7. I have been running an oxydator w model for a few months with 2 catalyst and 12% peroxide. Only thing I don't do is dose phyto. How long was it before you saw results? Were you doing regular water changes and vacuuming your sand? Thanks

 

[fishybizzness]

Sunday bump! Still dealing with this. Any other suggestions? I currently have 2 gyre 350s which seems to give pretty good flow. I've been dosing mb7 off and on for a few weeks now with no visible improvement. Thanks for the help!

 

[mexi757]

I’ve had the same problem in the past. I used slime away. Turned off protean skimmer let tank run two days and split water changes of 50% water column within a week then ran skimmer. Haven’t seen it back yet and it’s been over 6 months. It is reef and invert safe.

 

[BAMatter]

What are your PO4 and NO3 levels? An imbalance or bottomed out nutrient level can cause issues like this. My tank was too efficient in processing nutrients and I ended up with cyano. Had 0 PO4 and 0 NO3 for too long. I now dose 1ml of ESV Nitrate and started to heavily feed to bring my PO4 to 0.08 and NO3 to 20. Cyano is gone.

 

[fishybizzness]

My po4 is usually around 0.03- 0.05. My no3 is usually around 3-5. I am running a lifereef protein skimmer, a filter pad and a bucket refugium with chaeto running on a opposite tank light schedule. I usually feed twice a day. Homemade frozen, grindal worms and occasionally pellets. I alternate between food types.

 

[BAMatter]

My po4 is usually around 0.03- 0.05. My no3 is usually around 3-5. I am running a lifereef protein skimmer, a filter pad and a bucket refugium with chaeto running on a opposite tank light schedule. I usually feed twice a day. Homemade frozen, grindal worms and occasionally pellets. I alternate between food types.

Have you sent an ICP test out? My test kits were reading .08 for PO4 and the test came back as .4, this was after I was zeroed out and starting dosing and feeding excessively

 

[fishybizzness]

I actually have 2 that I purchased but I haven't sent any out yet. I've been busy at home doing renovations and haven't had the time

 

[BAMatter]

I actually have 2 that I purchased but I haven't sent any out yet. I've been busy at home doing renovations and haven't had the time

Would be a good place to start…

 

[fishybizzness]

I agree