the great battle against cyano

Martin Upchurch · Jan 11, 2018

So my tank is over a year old and still fighting Cyano. I have a reefer 350, two maxspec gyro 150s, reef octopus classic 150, I am running carbon and gfo, and dosing n0pox and acropower. I use 0 tds water, I am not over feeding, nitrates are always 0. I am doing weekly water changes (15 gallons). Cyano grows and I can keep acro's and that is About it. I am scrubbing rocks weekly ..... any advice would be helpful.

I am sure all my nutrients are just feeding the cyano, and i have to dose acropower just to keep corals living (I have tried not dosing anything, but if i don;t dose something my acro is just staved out).

MaiReef · Jan 11, 2018

following

Greybeard · Jan 11, 2018

Don't feel lonely

There is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence of NOPO4x causing cyano blooms. (google nopox causing cyano)

I'm not running NOPO4x, but using macro algae and GFO to control nutrients, with similar success. Unmeasurably low nitrate, reasonably low phosphate, and still some spotty cyano.

hubble · Jan 11, 2018

I fought cyano for six months (scrubbing rocks, weekly w/c, manual removal, chemicals), nothing helped. Then one day after a good tank cleaning and a large water change it just disappeared. My parameters were always good and my phos and nitrate were always 0 or close to that. Don't give up, I know thats not the answer your looking for...........

Martin Upchurch · Jan 11, 2018

I am not going to give up it is just painful. I had a beautiful tank when i lived in SoCal and when i moved to phoenix AZ I gave myself an upgrade. now seems I am just fighting cyano all the time. I have to wonder is there something my RO filter is not catching? I have an external TDS meter, I run Dual Di cans. only thing I think I may need to run is a separate sediment filter before my 5 stage system. I am considering not running the nopox given that revelation . . . at this point just want to make one change at a time.

William Norman · Jan 11, 2018

Martin - I was fighting cyano until recently.... I found that "food safe" plastic container that I store my ATO water was leeching. I put 0 TDS water in. I added way more than usual because I was going on vacation. When I returned my RO tested at 75 TDS. I changed to a glass container. No more cyano. Could be a coincidence, but I think not.

LuizW13 · Jan 11, 2018

Greybeard said:
Don't feel lonely

There is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence of NOPO4x causing cyano blooms. (google nopox causing cyano)

I was using the Aquaforest version of NoPox and i think i was experiencing the same thing- could be that i don't have a skimmer?

Greybeard · Jan 11, 2018

William Norman said:
Martin - I was fighting cyano until recently.... I found that "food safe" plastic container that I store my ATO water was leeching. I put 0 TDS water in. I added way more than usual because I was going on vacation. When I returned my RO tested at 75 TDS. I changed to a glass container. No more cyano. Could be a coincidence, but I think not.

Ugh. I'm using an acrylic ATO reservoir from Eshopps... but I have never tested the water in that reservoir. My TDS meter is an in-line design, on my RO/DI filter, but I may well borrow a TDS pen from a local reefer and check it. Nice catch!

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 11, 2018

Stop the nopox , it’s bacteria food. Stop the acro power , it’s eaisly eaten by bacteria.

hubble · Jan 12, 2018

William Norman said:
Martin - I was fighting cyano until recently.... I found that "food safe" plastic container that I store my ATO water was leeching. I put 0 TDS water in. I added way more than usual because I was going on vacation. When I returned my RO tested at 75 TDS. I changed to a glass container. No more cyano. Could be a coincidence, but I think not.

Never thought about that, think I'll check mine now..........

hubble · Jan 12, 2018

I store my ato water in a 12 gallon recycle bin

Ruckus16 · Jan 12, 2018

There has been some discussion about an imbalance between po4 and no3 that causes Cyano to thrive. When I had cyano my po4 and no3 were undetectable.
I began dosing nitrates and feeding heavier to raise phosphates. I also discontinued the use of GFO. When my no3 was testing anywhere from 2-10 and I had detectable po4 the cyano disappeared. My corals were much happier as well.
I think we spend so much time trying to keep our tanks pristine that at times we do more harm than good.

hubble · Jan 12, 2018

You could be right, but I don't try to keep 0 levels. That's just were my tank is at, I don't use any carbon, gfo, nxo, or anything. Just filter socks and a skimmer and thats all. Although I recently setup a ATS.............

trido · Jan 12, 2018

Why not just use chemiclean? I use it about once a year now days. I dont care why it gets there (likely too much acro power) but I do care that it goes away in a couple days and then the skimmer freak out is like a WC. Problem solved. Simple as that.

hubble · Jan 12, 2018

I've used chemiclean and it worked for a short while but the cyano came right back in a few days

Brew12 · Jan 12, 2018

Ruckus16 said:
There has been some discussion about an imbalance between po4 and no3 that causes Cyano to thrive. When I had cyano my po4 and no3 were undetectable.
I began dosing nitrates and feeding heavier to raise phosphates. I also discontinued the use of GFO. When my no3 was testing anywhere from 2-10 and I had detectable po4 the cyano disappeared. My corals were much happier as well.
I think we spend so much time trying to keep our tanks pristine that at times we do more harm than good.

this +1

Take your GFO offline and stop the Nopox. Get your NO3 over 3ppm and stir your sand bed daily if it is building up on there. If the cyano is forming mats on your rocks, take a small pump and blow the crud out of them. This is the pump I like to use. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/cobalt-mj600-powerhead.html but anything with a directed flow will work.

Luno · Jan 12, 2018

I've had cyano form on nearly every tank I've started and I've gotten it down to a fine art of what works for me. This may not work for you but I've beaten it within 3 months 3 consecutive times now.

1 - cyano is a bacteria, I am always a big fan of uv filter for many reasons. Cyano simply doesn't make it through my uv filter. Once my displays are cyano free I end up with some in my fuge for a bit longer but it doesn't make it back to the display.

2 - refugium, the best way to get rid of an unwanted algae is to have another that you want out compete it. Have a fuge and light it strong!

3 - even though your nutrients are reading low there is uptake from the cyano or something else which is causing the low readings. Increase nutrient export or decrease feeding.

4 - right before lights out use a turkey Baster every single day blow off and suck up and remove as much cyano as possible. Try to literally remove everything you see.

5 - with this removing and blowing it off perform daily water changes only small to remove any cyano you have free floating. It may only be a 5% water change daily but it will help and mainly to remove what you've stirred up.