GHA and Cyano problems.

Ok so I haven't been dosing vodka for a couple weeks now. I picked up the Nyos nitrate test kit and both that one, and API clearly read 0. Phosphate was at .046 on Sunday. Still having Cyano issues. So do I need to start putting my skimmer on a timer to get nitrates to come up a little?

While I have been skimmerless for > 30yrs, all of my systems are designed to maximize gas exchange with robust circulation at water surface. During lights out, oxygen is consumed by photosynthetic organisms and carbon dioxide is given off. When you turn your skimmer off, do it during lights on, in that manner you will be adding oxygen with skimmer when display tank lights are off. As a generalization, when oxygen is low, carbon dioxide is high which will cause pH to drop.
 
A couple of weeks is no time at all in a tank.

It took me three months plus to rehab a tank from a cyano prob once.
 
A couple of weeks is no time at all in a tank.

It took me three months plus to rehab a tank from a cyano prob once.
I understand that. But at the very least I was hoping to see Cyano growth slowing. It's still spreading. It's my understanding that a lack of nitrates, and the presence of phosphates is prime breeding ground for Cyano. So that's why I asked if I should be cutting back use of the skimmer ,in an effort to slightly raise my nitrate and hopefully correct what's fueling it.
 
I understand that. But at the very least I was hoping to see Cyano growth slowing. It's still spreading. It's my understanding that a lack of nitrates, and the presence of phosphates is prime breeding ground for Cyano. So that's why I asked if I should be cutting back use of the skimmer ,in an effort to slightly raise my nitrate and hopefully correct what's fueling it.
It’s my understanding that cyano prefers no3 per the ratios and Po4 is just a needed element.
 
Okay, so do you think the reason my no3 reads 0 is because the Cyano is consuming it all then?
Everything is eating it basically.
But you do have low no3.
Cyano is billions of years old and had a lot of ways to survive is the easy explanation.
The simple method is to keep disturbing the mats , avoid amino foods, introduce nutrient completion , and double check the flow and look at the ph.

Cyano will form mats on rotting food.
Absorb some nutrients directly from the WC
Easily starved
Likes co2 and will use it as a carbon source Esp if it only has to absorb it from the gasses in the water.
 
I understand that. But at the very least I was hoping to see Cyano growth slowing. It's still spreading. It's my understanding that a lack of nitrates, and the presence of phosphates is prime breeding ground for Cyano. So that's why I asked if I should be cutting back use of the skimmer ,in an effort to slightly raise my nitrate and hopefully correct what's fueling it.

@saltyfilmfolks has given you accurate information about Cynobacteria. Four and half billion years ago, Cyno converted earths early atmosphere fron Sulphur & Methane to the oxygen we breath today. It is a survivor. I am looking at it in my 25 year old tank after being gone for two weeks.

I think you should feed your tank a lot of food. Perhaps get more fish at the same time.

A note about cyno mats that consume organics like coral and macro. It happens, so vacume the cyno out.

With respect to cyno mats consuming organic nitrates & organic phosphates, cyno can also process inorganic phosphate from calcium phosphate, which is often caused in the immediate area of kalk drip. In an article written by @Randy Holmes-Farley, he discribes a biofeedback loop in which cyno converts inorganic calcium phosphate into organic phosphate to be assimilated into cyno biomass.
 
With respect to cyno mats consuming organic nitrates & organic phosphates, cyno can also process inorganic phosphate from calcium phosphate, which is often caused in the immediate area of kalk drip. In an article written by @Randy Holmes-Farley, he discribes a biofeedback loop in which cyno converts inorganic calcium phosphate into organic phosphate to be assimilated into cyno biomass.
Also why tanks may also get cyano with new sand.
 
I understand that. But at the very least I was hoping to see Cyano growth slowing. It's still spreading. It's my understanding that a lack of nitrates, and the presence of phosphates is prime breeding ground for Cyano. So that's why I asked if I should be cutting back use of the skimmer ,in an effort to slightly raise my nitrate and hopefully correct what's fueling it.

Your two good options for raising nitrates would be to feed your tank more or skim less. Considering your skimmate will be 95% bacteria with an assumed N:P ratio of 30:1, that gives you an idea as to what you will be leaving in the tank. This is the beginning of the food web which uses bacteria & bacterioplankton along with micro inverts to form complex food webs that feed corals and fish.

BRS TV & World Wide Corals have produced some videos that advocate N at 20 ppm. Their use of the Triton Method illustrates algae filtration as the primary method of nutrient management and biofiltration that compliments the needs of SPS coral. With large amounts of raw fish, squid and clams feed daily, bacteria produced amino acids acting on raw uneaten protein. Amino acids compliment coral nutritional needs to grow and color up.
 
Thanks you and everyone else who has posted so far. I've been learning a lot from your posts and feel that I'm getting a much better understanding. I'm going to start by feeding more and see what results I get from that. My fish will be thrilled. I know that patience is the key to everything in this addiction, so slight slow changes and monitoring is what I'll work on. First Change was to stop dosing carbon, params all look pretty good, so next step I'll increase feeding a little and see how my no3 responds.
 
So I have a fairly new tank it's been running for almost a year now and I have definitely been through the different stages of the uglys. I am just getting past my battle with GHA and now I have a bad Cyano problem. Why when I finally start to win my battle with one, why do I start with another? I started with dry rock so I know that a lot of people have said that they get some extra phosphate leaking from their rock around the 1 year mark so I don't know if this may be part of the cause or not. I also haven't been able to keep chaeto alive for the life of me and in past tanks this has never been a problem so I'm stumped there as well. All fish, corals and Inverts look good. My parameters are:

Temp- 78.4
PH- 7.8
Ammonia- 0.0
Nitrite- 0.0
Nitrate- 0.0 undetectable...
Phosphate-.18
Salinity- 1.026
Alkalinity- 8.85
Calcium- 399

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Imo I would feed my fish every 3 days if u are. Dosing fuel acro power etc stop and increase flow that work for me
 
Imo I would feed my fish every 3 days if u are. Dosing fuel acro power etc stop and increase flow that work for me

How long have you operated your system? Do you have a current tank thread with a recent full tank shot of your display. Since you are giving contrary advice, please so us the proof of your husbandry. Many techniques work. Some require more work. To each his own.
 
So I have rid my tank of the red slime Cyano just to have it replaced with Calothrix a different type of Cyano. I'm at a loss. My parameters are all within range so I can't for the life of me figure out why I'm losing this battle. And to top it off with the overtaking of this new one, my corals and anemones are pi@#&d and do not look well. They looked great when the red slime was present.
 
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/page-12

Here’s that thread I mentioned be sure and check the examples

16 pages, no testing for nitrate and phosphate even once, yet cures. Requires work on your part, the no work option sometimes works, I personally can’t stand sometimes when it’s my $ on the line so we wrote a take control and quit taking the backseat to the invader option. You would be amazed at the sheer number of people who -want- to be invaded even though they post they don’t want to be. When a cleaning option exists, and isn’t taken, name the excuse, and the invasion persists, then they want to be invaded.

That’s a collection above of opt-outers lol
 
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wish I’d been compiling the UV sterilizer wins collected in update threads lately, for ten yrs I’ve used UV in working other peoples invasions and when done right/ powerful, that needs to be considered here if you are done waiting for tradeoff invasions. Leaving clouding detritus in your system is a big deal, future invasions want that condition, and N and P dosing add to it, not take away, though they might suppress eventually one of the many invaders who make use of cloudy foodstuff in alternating generation invasion cycles.

No cloud, no invasion pretty simple, we show. Uv doesn’t remove clouding either, still a workaround to doing actual work, but it sure is fast if done right and there’s a special way to be done right not just buying one and hooking it up

You might be amazed at how nutrient tuning works -after- you de cloud the tank. Subsea and SFF’s approach is best applied after resetting the clean cloudless condition in my opinion, that way there’s less invader to suppress. Any time you find yourself messing with tank nutrients unrelated to what corals want, it’s a rabbit hole, that’s why I don’t use parameter testing in my threads ever. Reacting to params is a form of hesitation, and the cause for invasions is hesitation not a param issue, although changes in stasis sure might squelch a given invader, might.

I do believe that N and P tuning works. There are recent update threads showing it works but to consider these other fiercer options simply adjusts the time you want to get to a certain ecological standard in your tank, we use physical work to speed things up. Our cleaning runs don’t cause secondary invasion issues as a nice tradeoff when the tank is small enough such that some cleaning work isn’t a big deal. We have some people cleaning 180 gal tanks in there, not that hard to do if you have a couple brute containers to drain the current water off into as you access the clouding areas for cleaning
 
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