Waste away.
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jsker
Reefing is all about the adventure
Cyano thrives on phosphates and silica. Control those two and the cyano will starve out and dye off. The cyano cleaners work well but if your P04 remain high and RO/DI filter I not filtering the silica the cyano will come back.
When testing phosphates during a cyano out break the phosphates will test lower then they really are. I used a Hanna UTL phosphorus checker to get a true reading, dropped my Po4's and cleaned my skimmer cup daily, and change my filter socks daily and starved the cyano out.
When testing phosphates during a cyano out break the phosphates will test lower then they really are. I used a Hanna UTL phosphorus checker to get a true reading, dropped my Po4's and cleaned my skimmer cup daily, and change my filter socks daily and starved the cyano out.
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madcanary
Active Member
I read 0.00 on the Hannah ULR, I’ve used Chemiclean twice before and it works everytime. My TDS are 0 coming from the RODI.
It’s either silica from my sand or it’s a bacterial imbalance due to using chemiclean. My tank is 8 months old new sand rock is from a year old system which was cleaned I’m sure it’s ‘new tank’ cycle. How ever when I use chemiclean it forms a thick dead crust on my sandbed which is difficult to remove I believe this is what restarts the cycle.
I was think adding a good bacteria would be more beneficial than chemically cleaning the tank.
It’s either silica from my sand or it’s a bacterial imbalance due to using chemiclean. My tank is 8 months old new sand rock is from a year old system which was cleaned I’m sure it’s ‘new tank’ cycle. How ever when I use chemiclean it forms a thick dead crust on my sandbed which is difficult to remove I believe this is what restarts the cycle.
I was think adding a good bacteria would be more beneficial than chemically cleaning the tank.
nautical_nathaniel
Indecision may or may not be my problem.
I ran SeaChem seagel (supposedly removes silica), Phosphate pads, and reduced feedings to the point where my fish definitely hated me. That reduced the growth of cyano significantly and I cleaned up the rest with manual removal. After some time and doing a lot of removal and making sure my filter media was fresh, the cyano was almost entirely gone. I then left on a 8 day vacation during which my aquarium received zero food. When I came back from vacation, I had some very upset fish but no cyano left and it hasn't come back in any capacity since.
Each tank is different but with most cases you have to remove the food source to get rid of the nuisance algae, or bacterial mats in this case. Even if you're getting zero on test results there is still phosphate entering the system through food and the cyano is most certainly eating every bit of it up the moment it is available. I would try to reduce feedings as much as possible, remove as much cyano as you can almost daily, and maybe try something like chemiclean some more. You're not going to kill it all, you just have to beat it into submission!
Each tank is different but with most cases you have to remove the food source to get rid of the nuisance algae, or bacterial mats in this case. Even if you're getting zero on test results there is still phosphate entering the system through food and the cyano is most certainly eating every bit of it up the moment it is available. I would try to reduce feedings as much as possible, remove as much cyano as you can almost daily, and maybe try something like chemiclean some more. You're not going to kill it all, you just have to beat it into submission!
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madcanary
Active Member
It’s that dead mat that keeps coming back. My skimmer is rated for well over twice my system volume I run GFO and carbon. I’m aware there’s plenty of food in the system. This stuff I just finished with bryopsis, guy can’t catch a break.
You can see the dead brown/green crust that’s my issue.
I had it beat then I read the post on cleaning your sand bed I think I cleaned too much and brought all the funk up.
nautical_nathaniel
Indecision may or may not be my problem.
How often do you siphon your sand bed? I do it every other water change, so around twice a month. I also have a troop of nassarius snails, cerith snails, a sand sifting starfish, and a jawfish that all help stir it up.
if that's a nano, we can fix you easily w no chemicals. you just do a rip cleaning and skip cycle rebuild. on top of pristine sand, not any fix will beat that because it fells the invader and all its food in one step.
if this isn't a nano, we should still do it and add to the 200 others we have documented, just more work. if not possible to fix it from the bottom up the right way, agreed CC is one of many dosers that works mostly.
Pico reefs are literally immune to cyano invasions due to simple accessibility of the entire sandbed and water column, using no chems at all.
if this isn't a nano, we should still do it and add to the 200 others we have documented, just more work. if not possible to fix it from the bottom up the right way, agreed CC is one of many dosers that works mostly.
Pico reefs are literally immune to cyano invasions due to simple accessibility of the entire sandbed and water column, using no chems at all.
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madcanary
Active Member
It’s a 150 Triton tank. I generally leave the sand bed. I have snails and a sand sifter 4 mp40’s For flow.
I did try to clean the top of the sand bed that’s when that cyano came back, I can kill it it’s just getting it out is the issue.
I’m interested in the rip clean.
I did try to clean the top of the sand bed that’s when that cyano came back, I can kill it it’s just getting it out is the issue.
I’m interested in the rip clean.
it sure is down and dirty work heh but fun science! here's a too long thread on the matter. the gold is the documentation in links from others doing rip cleanings, one of em is in a big tank like yours. handy to see before n afters where others took the dive first
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445
other offsets we do to dissuade cyano and/or spirulina (which look similar upon initial ID Twilliard's thread shows us)
-tank lighting towards visual blue. we get lots of cyano off white bright tanks for sure
-UV sterilizers are massively powerful against UV since its not anchored, if one has one handy lying around. Sometimes people had pond sterilizers they can use to temp burn if needed etc
waste away and similar dosers are legit options for battling w competing strains. Google the use of mb7 and cyano, looks strong.
Regardless of the method used the basic amplifier for cyano battling is to hand remove it all first before and enacting the treatment
This positions the doser as a grow back preventative vs mass remover which is a huge amplifier for any plan of action
In my opinion the whole point of that thread is to show that your sand bacteria are incidental you don't need them to support your bioload in any normal tank. allows for deep workins, flips, replacings, rinsings, etc. all at once, not as a ramp up
other offsets we do to dissuade cyano and/or spirulina (which look similar upon initial ID Twilliard's thread shows us)
-tank lighting towards visual blue. we get lots of cyano off white bright tanks for sure
-UV sterilizers are massively powerful against UV since its not anchored, if one has one handy lying around. Sometimes people had pond sterilizers they can use to temp burn if needed etc
waste away and similar dosers are legit options for battling w competing strains. Google the use of mb7 and cyano, looks strong.
Regardless of the method used the basic amplifier for cyano battling is to hand remove it all first before and enacting the treatment
This positions the doser as a grow back preventative vs mass remover which is a huge amplifier for any plan of action
In my opinion the whole point of that thread is to show that your sand bacteria are incidental you don't need them to support your bioload in any normal tank. allows for deep workins, flips, replacings, rinsings, etc. all at once, not as a ramp up
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