Unending cyano

[smacrophylia]

I had a minor cyano outbreak treated with chemiclean followed instructions and it seemed to disintegrate. Did the 20% water change and problem solved. Months later had a more aggressive outbreak treated, water changed, next morning it’s back. Added second dose, 48hrs, water change of 20% AGAIN. Next day it’s back. After the third consecutive treatment it’s back again should I just keep going until the problem is resolved or give it a rest to get my carbon gfo reactor back up and running maybe that will help if I keep siphoning the sandbed to get the obvious slime. How many doses have other had to do to solve this obnoxious slime issue

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

How old is your tank and what are your parameters. Without Nitrate and phosphate numbers really hard to help.

 

[smacrophylia]

How old is your tank and what are your parameters. Without Nitrate and phosphate numbers really hard to help.

Phosphate is anywhere from 0.05-0.15 if I go out of town for the weekend it may 0 out but feeding frozen mysis daily so it rarely goes to 0. Nitrate consistently 0-0.1. I tested yesterday and nitrate was 0.1 phosphate was unreadable it was so high… I imagine from algae die off? Which is the main reason I want to get that gfo back up and running

 

[smacrophylia]

I should say gfo IS back running

 

[JoshO]

Just from that one picture I could probably assume your flow in and around the base of the rocks will be pretty much flat buddy.
If I were in your shoes I'd make sure I've got at much better flow around the base of the rocks, then clean as much cyano out as possible before trying another treatment.
When I increased the flow in my system I never saw cyano again

 

[vpierce3]

Looks like it might be dinos to me. Look at it under a microscope to ID.
Check your no3 and po4. Make sure they are not bottomed out.

 

[vpierce3]

Prorocentrum dinoflagellates looks a lot like that.

 

[smacrophylia]

Just tested phosphate it’s at 0.04 nitrate is 0.1 definitely have dino on rocks but the sand is cyano for sure. Going to adjust wavemakers and siphon more off the sand bed and see if the flow helps to slow or stop growth…what do you think is best cuc for Dino?

 

[Lavey29]

You bottomed out your nutrients with multiple chemiclean treatments and opened the door nice and wide for dinos and cyano to take over. Do a thread search here and you can find various treatments that can help but avoid putting any more harsh chemicals in your system you are killing off your biome.

 

[JM302]

I agree that your recent pictures look like dinos. As having had a recent 4+ month battle with coolia dinos, I'd recommend you get a microscope and identify them. The type of dino you have will determine the treatment. It can be a long, hard, battle. There is no CUC that will rid you of a dino outbreak. Mine took a crap ton of UV and dosing NO3 and PO4 to get the levels up.

 

[vpierce3]

Just tested phosphate it’s at 0.04 nitrate is 0.1 definitely have dino on rocks but the sand is cyano for sure. Going to adjust wavemakers and siphon more off the sand bed and see if the flow helps to slow or stop growth…what do you think is best cuc for Dino?

As far as I know there is no CUC for dino. I did read that tisbe pods and some phytoplankton eat it.
Any snail or crabs that eat it usually get sick and die. Also, some dinos are more toxic than others.
I would work on getting your nutrients back into balance and concentrate on biodiversity. At least that’s what has always worked for me.
You can also lower your lighting intensity. Turn off the whites, red and green. Some people have had success dosing 3% hydrogen peroxide…..be careful doing this tho.