Is this coraline?

[ss95003]

You could also cut your lights for 6-7 days. Your corals will be fine you just need to reduce light schedule for a 3-4 days before resuming normal light schedule. There are many red cyano chemicals that work great too. In the end all that just solves the end result not the cause. The cause is likely high nutrients. So proper water changes proper skimmer not over feeding all a factor. If the nutrients aren't there even in a low flow area you won't have it.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Check the calculators on your return rate. And try not to guess. (Unless it's a highly calculated guess like mine, realized how that sounded)
IMO and from research large water changes can sometimes be not so good. By removing large water volumes your actually pulling good bacteria out of the water column allowing competing bacteria to take hold. Plus you've probably read stability is key. By not adding livestock too quickly, not dosing minerals too quickly. Large water changes make the parameters change very rapidly, ph being the most noticeable usually.
Again IMO I would set your return rate correctly and maybe add some bacteria. Many like mb7. I prefer prime and stability. (Melevs from Melevs reefs recommends prime highly)
Then let it be. Clean up the cyano by siphoning and blowing it off the rock.
10% weekly water changes seems the recommended norm. Depending on your livestock and the amount you skim you can reduce the water changes frequency. I can point to many VERY successful reef tanks SPS included who change water only once a month or two. (He's a REAL expert though)
More is not always better. Skimming water changes dosing.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

btw your nutrients are a bit high for the SPS you have in the pic, that's why they are brown. Not to high for the shrooms and hammers though. And the SPS aren't getting enough light and flow. One or the other until you get the hang of it. There are many high nutrient lower flow n light SPS out there.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

btw your nutrients are a bit high for the SPS you have in the pic, that's why they are brown. Not to high for the shrooms and hammers though. And the SPS aren't getting enough light and flow. One or the other until you get the hang of it. There are many high nutrient lower flow n light SPS out there.

 

[Oceansize]

Man, all this advice about flow return rates & whatnot. Just turn your UV back on, LOL.

 

[Oceansize]

To be fair, I say this because I have encountered no more profound and effective method of eliminating cyano than UV. I had thick mats like yours (although more reddish brown than purple) and they were completely gone within 48 hours of replacing my UV bulb. Didn't even have to scrape old cyano off of anything...absolutely all of it just melted away.

 

[Oceansize]

With all this emphasis on reducing nitrates & phosphates in reef tanks, it seems like it has created the assumption that nitrates & phosphates are toxic to coral, when in fact they are beneficial. The problem arises because these beneficial "nutrients" also benefit algae, and algae has an easier time outcompeting the coral for resources/real estate. So to me, it seems like limiting algae is a more important goal than limiting nitrates & phosphates. But how to do so when the best way to limit algae is to limit nitrates & phosphates?

Well, it helps to keep in mind that there is a third "nutrient" that is beneficial to both coral and algae, but one that we can't test for. That third substance is carbon. Carbon comes in a lot of forms, both short-chain and long-chain. People smarter than me have noted that algae have an easier time utilizing long chain carbons than coral do, suggesting that what type of carbon you have in your tank DOES make a difference. I'm no scientist, but if I had to guess which of our many gadgets would be best at breaking down carbon chains, a UV lamp would be near the top of the list.

So how do you limit carbon, especially when you can't test for it? Besides running GAC and UV, the best way I can think of is aggressive detritus removal. Personally I achieve this by frequently stirring my sand while using mechanical filtration.

I guess my point is, if you're good about detritus removal (through the use of CUC, GAC, UV, skimming, & sand stirring) then you won't need to keep nitrates & phosphates in that dangerous ULNS zone; the ideal parameters for your tank will widen, meaning more room for error and fewer swings/blooms like you're experiencing now.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Well said sir.
I have a deep sand bed to help the cycle along and reduce detritus, my worms take care of all that. I never stir my sand. Don't have to.

Finding the method that suits you best is key.

 

[Oceansize]

Well said sir.
I have a deep sand bed to help the cycle along and reduce detritus, my worms take care of all that. I never stir my sand. Don't have to.

Finding the method that suits you best is key.

Yes sir, I did not mean to imply that sand stirring is the only method of detritus removal. Personally I love gobies so a DSB isn't in the cards for me.

I am curious though: I can see how worms would help with detritus removal, but would they not also aerate your DSB?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No apologies needed.

Yep they do exactly that. You need aeration in the sand bed. Deep sand without it creates pockets of crap and gas.
Spaghetti worms and bristle worms copepod and other micro fauna more channels for water to flow through and allow the nitrogen to off gas. Also The spaghetti worms reach out and grab food off the sand.
I would think gobies would prefer a DSB. It's not kryptonite you can dig in it when you need to. My talbot after a few months dug under on of my big decoration clamshells and now lives in a cave.
I steer clear of oolitic sand (superfine cloud maker) except for the very bottom layers and that's mixed to.
I highly recommend reading how sandbeds work by Ron Shimek. And other articles on deep sand beds.
Sorry to hijack the thread but good biological filtration will cure soooooo much.
And I hate hate hate cleaning shallow sand. I lost a dendro once that way. I'm pretty sure.

 

[Oceansize]

For what purpose are you implementing your DSB? I've always been under the impression that the main purpose of a DSB is biological denitrification, which can only happen in an anaerobic environment (and hence why the sandbed needs to be DEEP). If you're aerating your DSB, there is no anaerobic bacteria available for the nitrate-to-nitrogen conversion. Without an anaerobic environment within your sand bed, it would seem to me the nitrogen cycle would stop at nitrates rather than continue on to nitrogen gas, turning the DSB into the proverbial nitrate factory.

If your DSB truly is achieving denitrification in your tank, I wonder if it's because your worms are only aerating the top layers?

My goby does enjoy deep sand of course, but even though I give him plenty of sand, the depth is nowhere near enough to qualify as a proper DSB.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

First question yes as a bio filter.
I highly recommend reading scientific papers on the subject.
Not boards. Unless it's RH Farley.
Aeration is going to happen. The worms won't listen to me and there's is flow throuout the bed, gravity takes care of that for us.
My assumption, and best recollection is it happens in pockets throughout the bed. Occasional worm holes likely don't produce enough disturbance for us to notice a change, although that may be the cause of the extra green on the glass some weeks and minor cyano blooms. Who knows.
On misconception I see is the idea that (bad analogy here sorry), you poke you finger in one end of the tank and it pops the anaerobic bubble under the sand all the way to the other side.
Again sorry but there's another one. I would assume it's more like mold on a slice of bread. For whatever magical mystery of nature it appears in spots across the slice and spreads from there.

As far as the depth goes it's easy to google pics and video of sandbeds with worms all the way to the bottom even on very deep beds.
In my past experiences early on in several tanks. The nitrate factory was always the shallow sand bed. Yes maybe I did something wrong in those tanks,
But the end result was copious research into sand beds and becoming a DSB proponent.
I have never since then had any trouble with my sand being gunky, it's never been gross when I decided to rescape, etc like the tanks that were shallow.

FYI recently I used a shallow black live sand in a build and wound up with a Massive cyano prob. Massive carpets. Again I could have blown it. But I added 2 Inches of live sand and it's gone. True it hasn't had time to mature yet and grow the anaerobic areas and the worm population isn't up to sniff yet but to do hav an incredible amount of surface area for bacteria to grow on the grains of sand.

 

[Oceansize]

Trust me, I know better than to believe everything I read on a forum, lol, and that's precisely why I wanted you to clarify. Your approach is both contradictory to what I've read AND seemingly well researched, which intrigued me to know more. You'll notice I was very careful to say that things "seemed" to me or I was "under the impression" as opposed to "they are" or "I know" because I acknowledge the limits of what I know as opposed to what I've heard.

And like you, I grant a special exemption when what I've heard is coming from Randy. Ha!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

http://www.ronshimek.com/deep_sand_beds.html


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-method-worked-for-you-the-best.224011/