Dorado
Active Member
A couple of months ago my tank was hit hard by a cyano outbreak. I've researched cyano and tried to naturally solve the problem without having to use chemicals by trying to find the cause of the outbreak, but have not had any success. I thought I'd reach out and see if anyone had any ideas before I give in and use chemi-clean.
The tank is 150g mixed reef with dry rock that has been running since April 2021. The outbreak started out of no where in late November and I immediately tested the tank parameters.
Specific gravity- 1.026
calcium- 450ppm
alk- 8dkh
mag-1280ppm
nitrate- 0ppm
phosphate- 0ppm
Prior to the outbreak I had struggled to keep my nitrates and phosphates up to a detectable level but they had bottomed out when the outbreak occurred. I had originally believed that cyano came from high nitrates and phosphates but after some research learned that low nutrient levels could also cause an outbreak because of a bacteria imbalance. I immediately tried feeding the tank more, skimming less and shortening my refugium photoperiod. I also increased my bioload by adding a couple of fish along with adding microbacter for several weeks and continually siphoning the sand(the cyano only seems to grow on the sand, never on the rock).
By the end of December the cyano still hadn't improved. I was able to raise my nitrates up to 10ppm and my phosphates up to .08ppm but it didn't seem that that was the problem. Thinking that it still might be a lack of beneficial bacteria, I added some miracle mud and live sand activator from IPSF. I also added a few a "cyano eating" conchs and sea cucumber all to no avail. To cross every T and dot every I, I also replaced all the filters in my seven stage RO/DI unit a couple of weeks ago. The last thing that I can think of is changing out all of my T5 bulbs. I don't know if old T5 lamps have any affect on cyano but I know that it can influence algae growth.
I really don't know what else it can be, everything else in my tank is doing really well. I don't have any algae problems and my LPS and SPS are all doing great. Any new suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance.
The tank is 150g mixed reef with dry rock that has been running since April 2021. The outbreak started out of no where in late November and I immediately tested the tank parameters.
Specific gravity- 1.026
calcium- 450ppm
alk- 8dkh
mag-1280ppm
nitrate- 0ppm
phosphate- 0ppm
Prior to the outbreak I had struggled to keep my nitrates and phosphates up to a detectable level but they had bottomed out when the outbreak occurred. I had originally believed that cyano came from high nitrates and phosphates but after some research learned that low nutrient levels could also cause an outbreak because of a bacteria imbalance. I immediately tried feeding the tank more, skimming less and shortening my refugium photoperiod. I also increased my bioload by adding a couple of fish along with adding microbacter for several weeks and continually siphoning the sand(the cyano only seems to grow on the sand, never on the rock).
By the end of December the cyano still hadn't improved. I was able to raise my nitrates up to 10ppm and my phosphates up to .08ppm but it didn't seem that that was the problem. Thinking that it still might be a lack of beneficial bacteria, I added some miracle mud and live sand activator from IPSF. I also added a few a "cyano eating" conchs and sea cucumber all to no avail. To cross every T and dot every I, I also replaced all the filters in my seven stage RO/DI unit a couple of weeks ago. The last thing that I can think of is changing out all of my T5 bulbs. I don't know if old T5 lamps have any affect on cyano but I know that it can influence algae growth.
I really don't know what else it can be, everything else in my tank is doing really well. I don't have any algae problems and my LPS and SPS are all doing great. Any new suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance.
