Yet...another...cyano battle.

[bh750]

Ive been battling cyano for months and months now, has to be over 6 months! It was concurrent with my battle with Large celled Amph Dinos, which I seem to have beaten. And also came after I used Vibrant. I beat Dino's by increasing my Phosphates and Nitrates. And by adding lots and lots of biodiversity in the form of pods, live rock from other tanks, garf grunge, CUC, live sand from IPSF. But not the cyano. Ive been taking the patient approach and vacuuming it out of my 220g display weekly and sometimes daily. I havent dont a WC in months and was about to do a series of them to drop NO3 and PO4 them and risk getting dinos back.

But now reading it can have to do with "imbalance" (like dinos) and maybe NO3 needs to be higher?

Just tested tonight and got this:

NO3: 0 to 1ppm

PO4: 0.10 ppm (using Hanna low range checker)

Should I dose to increase NO3 instead of trying to get PO4 down?

So frustrating!!!

 

[mcarroll]

Should I dose to increase NO3 instead of trying to get PO4 down?

So frustrating!!!

Chill out man! ;Headphone

You already knew the answer, you just needed some encouragement!

Bump up those nitrates to get other things growing.....hopefully green algae and corals!

There's no reason to shy away from the ≥5-10 ppm recommendation you used to keep until you have something better than cyano growing.

And remember one of the big lessons from the dino thread:
You're done with nutrient limitation on this tank until you forget you ever had dino's – zero's are to be avoided. By then it won't matter anymore as the tank will have matured.

 

[bh750]

Chill out man! ;Headphone

You already knew the answer, you just needed some encouragement!

Bump up those nitrates to get other things growing.....hopefully green algae and corals!

There's no reason to shy away from the ≥5-10 ppm recommendation you used to keep until you have something better than cyano growing.

And remember one of the big lessons from the dino thread:
You're done with nutrient limitation on this tank until you forget you ever had dino's – zero's are to be avoided. By then it won't matter anymore as the tank will have matured.

Thanks Matt. Ok I feel better. I have a dose of Stump Remover all set to put in my system. I do have plenty of algae on the glass each day and have chaeto and ulva growing pretty well in my simp and fuge. Lots and lots of pods and snails reproducing.

I'm thinking I'll need to get back to daily testing of both NO3 and PO4.

Don't care. If I can beat the cyano and keep Dino's at bay I'll be the happiest reefer!!!