Need some advice on cyano

[Eddie Rogers]

So on 8-14 i came out from Vacation and from what I thought my tank was over run with diatoms, I cleaned my tank, vacuumed the sand and added some carbon and GFO. It seemed to be getting worse, so last Thursday I made a post asking for help and I was informed that it was Cyano.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diatoms.320897/#post-3968216

On Friday I went to my LFS and bought was chemi clean, vacuumed the sand does the proper amount (60 gallon tank + 15 gallon sump = 6 spoon fulls plus a little extra) added a air stone and opened the return on my skimmer. After 48 (Sunday night) hours I did the 20% water change and turned the carbon back on. Its been exactly 4 days and i can barely see any difference in the tank the glass is still covered and a couple of spots on the sand bed have lightened up but, its still looks terrible.

What would be the next step?
redoes chemi clean
try red slime remover
wait longer and see what happen


as always thanks for the help

 

[KJ]

https://www.reef2reef.com/posts/2996139/

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Weird stuff ya got there.

What are your nitrates and phosphates?

What cuc do you have in there?
Are you using rodi?
Aminos? Carbon dosing?

It's also the same stuff growing on the glass?

It appears brownish in the pictures. Is it like that in person?

 

[spiraling]

Weird stuff ya got there.

What are your nitrates and phosphates?

What cuc do you have in there?
Are you using rodi?
Aminos? Carbon dosing?

It's also the same stuff growing on the glass?

It appears brownish in the pictures. Is it like that in person?

Cyano can be brown instead of red. Looks like cyano to me, but I am not an expert. Or even close to an expert. Does it get bubbles in it?
here is a link for identfying if it is really cyano or something else (like spirulina). The article also suggests that chemiclean doesn't work very well on cyano.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/positive-identification-of-cyanobacteria.253287/

this is from you other post:
>>The tank as been up since early April, I had a diatom outbreak in May/June followed by some green hair algae but it cleared up and then about 3 weeks ago this stuff came back with a vengeance. It comes really easy i can stir the sand clean off the rocks and in a matter of hours it back again.

Did you start dry or with cured / establish rock?

My tank was set up in Feb, dry rock, had diatoms for many months, then cyano. Now its receding pretty well and I'm getting other algaes. Cyano tends to follow diatoms in the "tank stabilization" process. My own experience from another tank is if you use chemiclean it will just come back. I've had it with very low nitrates / phosphates, medium levels, in high flow, in low flow. So maybe I'm becoming an expert at having it but not in getting rid of it. It seems to love amino acids, and I have seen no difference with carbon or GFO on it.

Because your tank is new I would blow it off each day with a turkey baster, especially from corals, and wait it out. Keep up on your water changes, skimmer changes, sock changes, etc. What is your light period? Can you shorten it without harming other things? Cyano is photosynthetic so maybe you can slow the growth a bit.

here's some reading while you look at the cyano:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/must-read-for-planning-new-setup-cure-cycling.294017/

 

[Eddie Rogers]

Thanks for the replays ( was reading up on peroxide dosing)

Nitrates and Phospates read undetectable with API test kit ( i'm going to upgrade the test kits)
CUC - 1 Mexican turbo, a bunch of ceriths and nerti snails - 3 hermits ( non of them seem to have any interest in it)
Always use RODI water
NO dosing
And yes it is very brownish, it wipes off super easy and turns the water a brownish color

 

[Eddie Rogers]

I used reef saver dry rock and live sand. For lighting i have SB reef lights, they start to come on around 8am ramp up to 60%white and 65% blue, then ramp back down and off by 10pm

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks for the replays ( was reading up on peroxide dosing)

Nitrates and Phospates read undetectable with API test kit ( i'm going to upgrade the test kits)
CUC - 1 Mexican turbo, a bunch of ceriths and nerti snails - 3 hermits ( non of them seem to have any interest in it)
Always use RODI water
NO dosing
And yes it is very brownish, it wipes off super easy and turns the water a brownish color

I would remove the gfo and build some phosphate in the system.
There may be something to nutrient limitation in the promotion of some organisms.

Peroxide dosing may be a good idea in your case, combined with water changes and manual removal.

IMO it may not be a cyano. Rarely have I seen cyano build like that on glass. It possible it's a bacteria, but in that case I'd look at amino or carbon sources.

 

[Eddie Rogers]

There are bubbles in it and when the lights go out it kind disappears.

I pulled out a cup of tank water with brown stuff in it and added a 1ml of peroxide. I'll post what happens....

 

[reeferfoxx]

In my year run with cyano, one thing i've noticed is cyano won't disappear over night. Only if you remove/disturb cyano will only regrow after lights turn back on. I would remove any GFO or phosphate removers. Skimmer is ok. Are you running any pond matrix or seachem matrix media?

 

[reeferfoxx]

And does it look like this?

 

[Eddie Rogers]

YES, Thats exactly what it looks like

No pond matrix or seachem matrix media and a very small amount of GFO mixed with carbon

 

[reeferfoxx]

YES, Thats exactly what it looks like

Chances are you have depleted all available nutrients and allowed Dinoflagellets to thrive. No worries. It can be fixed.

This is your new thread of choice. The people there can help as they helped me.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

Again, are you running any matrix media? I ask because that will reduce nitrates to zero. Tanks running on dry rock have a bio diversity issue. All available nutrients are needed to maintain proper micro fauna and flora. You don't need to remove the matrix but you need to start supplementing phosphates and nitrates via Seachem Phosphorus and KNO3(stump remover) or Seachem nitrogen.

 

[Eddie Rogers]

@reeferfoxx

Thanks for the help no pond matrix or seachem matrix media, im going get rid of the GFO.

 

[reeferfoxx]

No problem.

im going get rid of the GFO

Unfortunately, this won't solve the problem. Dinos rely on any available phosphates to thrive. So, even after removal they could get worse. However, if you saturate nutrients with PO4 at 0.10ppm and NO3 between 5-10ppm after a few weeks of maintaining those numbers, your bacteria will begin flourishing again. The copepods that are now in limited numbers will begin to populate and the dinos will start disappearing. The only draw back is you may experience hair algae and cyano post dino eradication. Again, don't worry. Once that happens and you succeeded with removing dinos, stop dosing phosphates and keep dosing nitrates. Eventually, hair algae will disappear and cyano will slowly start going away.

You have a long road to recovery but in the end will have won the battle and can enjoy the tank again.

 

[Eddie Rogers]

i took a picture through my microscope

 

[Eddie Rogers]

better pic

 

[reeferfoxx]

100% Dinos!

 

[spiraling]

better pic

Jelly of the microscope! awesome pict!

 

[spiraling]

No problem.


Unfortunately, this won't solve the problem. Dinos rely on any available phosphates to thrive. So, even after removal they could get worse. However, if you saturate nutrients with PO4 at 0.10ppm and NO3 between 5-10ppm after a few weeks of maintaining those numbers, your bacteria will begin flourishing again. The copepods that are now in limited numbers will begin to populate and the dinos will start disappearing. The only draw back is you may experience hair algae and cyano post dino eradication. Again, don't worry. Once that happens and you succeeded with removing dinos, stop dosing phosphates and keep dosing nitrates. Eventually, hair algae will disappear and cyano will slowly start going away.

You have a long road to recovery but in the end will have won the battle and can enjoy the tank again.

Thanks reeferfoxx, I might have the same thing in my system. i have been dosing seachem nitrogen and phosphorous, and its good to know I'm on the right path!

 

[Ty Hamatake]

I'd 100% take @reeferfoxx's advice. I was dealing with something that seemed very similar whenever I tried bringing nutrients up in my system. I kept roller coastering, up and down, up and down, but when I finally left it for a bit and let everything stabilize the tank cleared right up