Raising nutrients without cyano.

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I’ve been reefing for over 10 years I have beautiful sps. One thing I always seem to struggle with is cyano. I dose about 5ml of neonitro a day. I will feed lrs about .5-1” cube every other day and between those days I rotate between nori, reef roids, and Red Sea ab+. My nitrates will be about 5 and phos around .05. Alk is pretty steady at 7.5
I run a protein skimmer. Water changes once every 2-3 months at 10%. I dose trace elements weekly and I use kalkwaser for all and ph. I used to never use a filter sock although I just added one about a week ago to see if that would help.
The only time I can get cyano to go away is if I cut back on feeding amount. When I do this I will notice acros start to pale and I will have to just switch back to what I was doing to raise nutrients again and cyano just comes back.
I’m trying to keep nutrients high without the cyano. Any suggestions would be great.
Also I have lots of lives stock. 3 tangs 2 clowns. 6 chromis and a wrasse in a 117g system.
Thanks!!

 

[ti_lavender]

Anecdotal but I’ve been manually dosing Purple non-sulfur bacteria and noticed when I forget to I have more cyano in the tank. This is in my coral QT tank.

 

[Spare time]

Stop dosing aminos and put the skimmer on a timer to only be on during night.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Stop dosing aminos and put the skimmer on a timer to only be on during night.

I think I’ll give this a try and see how it works and affects my ph. I do run my line outside to help ph, however I do use kalkwasser so I should be fine

 

[jackson6745]

I would add more fish instead of dosing nitrate. Your stock isn’t too high or anything. Also keep in mind your po4 will vary through the day. Saying it’s .05 and testing weekly is no different than saying your alk is X and testing weekly. Nothing is more effective for raising po4 than reef roids imo. I would use some more. Assuming your tank is very established, raising your po4 .1 sustained should stop the cyano right away.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Assuming your tank is very established, raising your po4 .1 sustained should stop the cyano right away.

I've not really seen evidence that high nutrients prevents cyano.

 

[jackson6745]

I've not really seen evidence that high nutrients prevents cyano.

On established reefs, friends tanks and my own, raising po4 levels up to .1 and higher seemed to knock it out right away. Whatever phosphate we test for (organic/inorganic) I don’t know. Getting that testable level up does something fast to cyano from what I have seen in tanks that are established. Dry rock, newer reef, Dino/cyano/diatom tanks are something completely different that I choose to avoid all together lol.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

On established reefs, friends tanks and my own, raising po4 levels up to .1 and higher seemed to knock it out right away. Whatever phosphate we test for (organic/inorganic) I don’t know. Getting that testable level up does something fast to cyano from what I have seen in tanks that are established. Dry rock, newer reef, Dino/cyano/diatom tanks are something completely different that I choose to avoid all together lol.

OK, I just do not think that's a general result as there are many tanks with elevated phosphate and cyano.

I certainly agree it is a useful action to boost N and P to detectable levels when dinos are the issue. I don't think either cyano or diatoms respond in that way.

 

[jackson6745]

OK, I just do not think that's a general result as there are many tanks with elevated phosphate and cyano.

I certainly agree it is a useful action to boost N and P to detectable levels when dinos are the issue. I don't think either cyano or diatoms respond in that way.

Do you think it could be that magical nitrate to phosphate ratio that did it? Not that I really try for it, but it always ends up being 100:1 ish

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you think it could be that magical nitrate to phosphate ratio that did it? Not that I really try for it, but it always ends up being 100:1 ish

I've never believed such claims. Nutrients individually are either low enough to limit growth of an organism, or not. Once above that limitation, I don't see any rationale for an effect, regardless of ratios or anything else.

 

[jda]

Cyano disappears for me with no3 under 2 or 3. I get a small little patch every now and again, but it leaves as fast as it comes.

I think that people have confused cyano with some types of dinos which you can poison a bit with higher residual building blocks.