What is this, and please help me with it

ArmyReefer · Jul 10, 2019

Okay, so about three weeks ago I came home to a tank that had a ton of what I believe was cyano. I was leaving town for a week, so I did a quick chemi clean treatment, but it was only there for 24 hours. I did a quick 20% water change and left town for a week. (In the military so no choice) when I got back it had taken over the tank. Killed off about half of my acros, all of my euphilia, and was covering everything. It looked like red hair algea. After three treatments of chemiclean, I still have issues but I don’t think it is cyano. Still some on the rocks, and have to blow off the corals three times a day, but it is mainly on the sandbed.

Now I believe I did this to my self by running down my phosphate and nitrate to zero. I don’t know what happened, for weeks by numbers were great with phosphate at .02 and nitrate at 3-5. I was running bio pellets and rowa that are now completely offf line.

So what is this and how do I get rid of it. I have been feeding like crazy and my skimmer has been offline for the entire three weeks.

Measurements as of right now

Salinity - 1.026
Nitrate - 2 (nyos)
Phosphate - .009 (Hanna)
ALK 8.7 (Hanna)
Calcium - 455 (Red Sea)
Magnesium - 1400 (Red Sea)

Ranjib · Jul 10, 2019

Cyano. How old is your tank ? You have to fight it slowly and steadily by improving water chemistry and it’s microbiology. I’ll start with recommending more flow at the bottom , followed by some bacterial additive while you do scheduled water changes and siphon that ugly during wc. This is one of the most common nuisance that most reefers go through in the first two years of the tank . But trust me you can deal with it , it just take time . Some folks also prefer bare bottom for this exact reason . So make sure your sand bed is not trapping detritus

ArmyReefer · Jul 10, 2019

Ranjib said:
Cyano. How old is your tank ? You have to fight it slowly and steadily by improving water chemistry and it’s microbiology. I’ll start with recommending more flow at the bottom , followed by some bacterial additive while you do scheduled water changes and siphon that ugly during wc. This is one of the most common nuisance that most reefers go through in the first two years of the tank . But trust me you can deal with it , it just take time . Some folks also prefer bare bottom for this exact reason . So make sure your sand bed is not trapping detritus

So you think this is still cyano? Tank was upgraded about 6 weeks ago from a 2 year tank. (65 -120). When you say water chemistry what are you referring to? When I look at my numbers I think they are pretty darn good. What bacteria do your recommend? I starting dosing nitrates .5 a day but they don’t seem to be raising. I am thinking about dosing phosphate as well

rolyguy7 · Jul 10, 2019

Check your RODI water. If you’re buying water you may have dissolved organics (high TDS). I run my own RODI and keep water at 0ppm TDS. I wouldn’t use water over 7ppm TDS as you start getting cyanno and other nuisance.

sfin52 · Jul 10, 2019

Ranjib said:
Cyano. How old is your tank ? You have to fight it slowly and steadily by improving water chemistry and it’s microbiology. I’ll start with recommending more flow at the bottom , followed by some bacterial additive while you do scheduled water changes and siphon that ugly during wc. This is one of the most common nuisance that most reefers go through in the first two years of the tank . But trust me you can deal with it , it just take time . Some folks also prefer bare bottom for this exact reason . So make sure your sand bed is not trapping detritus

I did just that and used refresh. Cleared it up in about a week and a half.

ArmyReefer · Jul 10, 2019

sfin52 said:
I did just that and used refresh. Cleared it up in about a week and a half.

SFIN, sorry... what did you do to clear it up?

sfin52 · Jul 10, 2019

ArmyReefer said:
SFIN, sorry... what did you do to clear it up?

i changed my water. I went from ro to rodi. I used waste away by Dr Tims according to the label. I upped my maintenance routine. I have a shallow sand bed. I used a turkey baster and puffed the sand bed and blew off the rocks as well. After doing all of that I added waste away and that was the straw that did the cyano in.

The first one was taken in 10 Feb 19
The second was taken tonight.
After adding the waste away it took about a week and half for cyano to go away. The increased maintenance helped but the bacteria so the straw that broke the camels back.

MnFish1 · Jul 10, 2019

I have not seen cyano 'attack' and grow onto a coral like that - unless something killed the coral first. The picture from your tank does not look like the flat mats that I have seen when I have had cyano - but rather something else.

sfin52 · Jul 10, 2019

ive got a second tank with just use of tap water. Its a fowlr tank. Just the use of waste away has helped but done it in. I dont use rodi just tap. I also haven't blow off the rocks or puffed the sand bed. In my opinion it takes better husbandry and bacteria to get rid of it. Just my two cents.

my 55g fowlr. It does help bring out the fish color. Before the use of waste away it covered the sand as well

sfin52 · Jul 10, 2019

MnFish1 said:
I have not seen cyano 'attack' and grow onto a coral like that - unless something killed the coral first. The picture from your tank does not look like the flat mats that I have seen when I have had cyano - but rather something else.

Oh mine did and formed the lines like that. Mine even grew in high flow areas