cyano 2.5 wolfie .5

[wolfie]

:boo: My tank are starting to get cyano again.

my tank is a stander RR 75gl tank with a 20 gl sump with a mag 9.5 for return . I have a aqua life skimmer running wet + a magnum 350 running 24/7 (mag 9.5 for the cl and 2 maxi jet 1200 that are on when the T5 lights are on)

As for lighting I am using a orbit light that come with 2 T5 running like 12 hours and 2 150 running like 8 hours.

Life stock are
1 powderbrown tang about 3in-4 in
1 Scopes tang about 3in
1 foxface also about 3in
2 false clown( 1 are 2 in and the other are 1in)
3 goby
1 Six line wrasse

a whole lots of snails and some hermit crab
2 tiger tail cucumber( split last week)

I feed them 1 ever other day and spot feed my LPS every Sat.

My T5 buld are new, but my MH are about 6 months now and my RO/DI are about a year( TDS ready are 1) and I do 10-20% WC weekly

The last time I had cyano I did WC every other day and it went a way in about a month.

I am thinking it could be any 1 of these 3 thing
1 MH lights need to be change out
2 RO/DI filter need to be change out
3 30+ dead snails since Feb meeting. ( 20 of which was dead a day after the meeting and I thought the crab could use it as feed and shelter) about 10 more die leater of which I got from saltwaterfish. I still have 30+ snails in the tank.

The reason I am saying cyano 2.5 and wolfie .5 is that cyano are also bulding up in my sump which I was able to take out.


Any thought on how I could fix this cyano problem?

PS I forgot the 3 starfish

 

[showtime305]

What are your phosphate and nitrate readings? Have you considered running a phosban reactor?

 

[glxtrix]

curious, what is your Mg at?

 

[cameron]

Here is the shotgun approach to fixing the problem

Run some GFO for the phosphates, water change for the nitrates short term, clean and check the skimmer, get new bulbs for the lights, cut the light cycle down, suck the algae from the tank while doing a really good cleaning of everything dead, increase the flow in the tank.

I bet your problem is nitrates (which can and often do read zero due to being consumed by the algae) or you have low flow and a build up of CO2 in the tank.

 

[tsciarini]

WOLFIE;32286 wrote: a magnum 350 running 24/7

When's the last time you cleaned it?

 

[budsreef]

I too have started getting a lot of cyano that I thought may have been brought on by the higher temperature problem I started experiencing last week in addition to weak flow. On advice of others, I vacuumed as much of it out as I could including the sand it was stuck on and then tied a toothbrush to a stiff siphon and brushed and siphoned as much of the rock that it was on that I could get to. This morning I added a product called Chemiclean to the water and per the directions I will do a 20% wc in 48 hours.

For the heat problem, I swapped out the stock pump with a lower wattage MJ900 and I added new fans to the hood and opened up the intake vents a little, but I think I will have to do more on the vents. It is hard to tell since the ambient temps in the house dropped right after I did that. I've drilled my bulkhead (24G AP) to add another pump in the second chamber and expect the plumbing pieces and another MJ900 to get here this week to hopefully fix my flow.

I am so new to this that I'm not sure these are the right things to be doing but from what I have read it seems to be a reasonable attempt. The Chemiclean directions say it is safe in reef tanks for fish and invertebrates.

 

[cameron]

I am no expert on chemicals in the tank, but just from horror stories alone I woulndn't go near them unless I had no other choice. I don't think the slime is harmful to the aquarium in the short term, chemicals are only going to solve the problem for the moment and you will likely be fighting the same battle if you don't fix the actual problem and you run the risk that the chemicals will do more harm than good. Just look at that Oregon reef that was wiped out because he used some chemicals to shortcut a larger problem. Sure they were old, but I would guess anything that is harmful to algae probably isn't good for other living things in the tank either.

IMO, I would strongly urge someone to find and address the reason why it is spreading in the tank before using a chemical solution.

Good catch Tony... can't believe I missed the canister.

 

[george]

Which filter are you using in the Magnum 350? If it isn't changed/cleaned regularly, it can easily become a nutrient factory.

Am I reading the description right that you have a Mag 9.5 for a return and another 9.5 for a closed loop + 2 Maxi 1200's? You may not be getting the kind of flow that a flow pump like a Tunze/Hydor/Seio would provide.

 

[showtime305]

I don't think the issue is flow. I've seen and have heard of cyno growing in places where it is being blasted from the current. The problem is most likely phosphates and/or nitrates. The filter could definately be a major cause for the nitrates.

 

[cameron]

It isn't about flow directly but CO2. High flow generally tends to lower CO2 in the tank so it is is good advice (again generally speaking) to increase flow. Nitrates are likely the problem, but not the only food for this algae. You can have great flow and high nitrates or you could have low flow and no nitrates both can lead to cyano.

 

[stroid]

I have used Chemiclean on two different tanks with fantastic results and the Cyano has not come back at all. Granted I don't like putting chemicals in my tnak but I had tried other options and they didnt work. But from my experience chemiclean is great

 

[cameron]

Not sure how the chemical works, but whatever the root cause is it must be fixed or you will see it again. Reading about how the chemical treatment works it only removes the algae it doesn't rid you of the problem that caused it. After reading several posts on reefcentral resurgence is common after using the chemical.

 

[showtime305]

Cameron;32353 wrote: It isn't about flow directly but CO2. High flow generally tends to lower CO2 in the tank so it is is good advice (again generally speaking) to increase flow. Nitrates are likely the problem, but not the only food for this algae. You can have great flow and high nitrates or you could have low flow and no nitrates both can lead to cyano.

I can see where this would help with surface agitation to promote good gas exchange.

 

[cameron]

Dead spots can also lead to pocket areas of high CO2. It is unlikely in a system with a good flow as it is natural for water to normalize so even dead spots while likely higher in CO2 should get "evened out" with a lot of flow. Anyway, raising flow is pretty much always a good thing in a tank with low flow.

 

[wolfie]

Tony I clearn out the filter once every 2 weeks. So the filter are as clearn as it can be.

I do not think my flow is the problem since I have 2 mag 9.5 running and maxi jet 1200 running with a wave maker.

I am thinking I am overstocking.

 

[cameron]

You are well stocked for sure and I wouldn't add anything new, but I wouldn't call it overstocked. I think I am going to try my hand at a max fish calculator for ReefTool.

 

[matttvi]

Cameron;32520 wrote: You are well stocked for sure and I wouldn't add anything new, but I wouldn't call it overstocked. I think I am going to try my hand at a max fish calculator for ReefTool.

Cam,

have a look at what Kdodds over at tropicalresources.net did...

http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/beginners_stocking_guide_sw.php">http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/beginners_stocking_guide_sw.php</a>

[IMG]http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/Stocking.htm">http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/Stocking.htm</a>

 

[cameron]

Big thanks for the links. This is a pretty good system. Best I have seen anyway. Rep Points!

 

[budsreef]

Wolfie, I'm really new to all of this so I'm not recommending anything, I'm just saying what I saw and what I did for my cyano problem. In a book by Calfo and Fenner they say the primary causes are flow, lighting, nitrates, overstocking and overfeeding. I know I have a flow problem that should be fixed this weekend if the parts get here Friday as scheduled. I don't have an overstocking issue but even though I'm trying to be careful, I may still be overfeeding I just am not experienced enough yet to know this. Calfo and Fenner like others on here say you need to address the cause or it will just come back. Of course identifying the true cause for each tank is probably easier said than done. They also say to siphon out as much of it as possible without disturbing it to spread. I was able to vacuum most of mine out with the sand it was attached to and I also used a toothbrush at the end of a stiff siphon to scrub the worst rock. After doing that, I used the Chemiclean per the directions two mornings ago. I noticed a difference by the time the lights went out the first night and each day it got better. This morning I did a 5 gallon WC on my 24G AP and there is just a trace left. I will wait till after I fix the flow this weekend before deciding whether or not to retreat it. Right now I only have 1 yellow-bellied damsel, a dozen dwarf hermits, a couple of emerald crabs, a handful of Astreas and Nassarius Snails, a small pompom xenia, a small waving hands xenia, and two small red mushrooms. None of them showed any detectable signs of stress from the chemical that I can spot.

Again, I'm in no position to make any recommendations, I'm just saying what I did and the results.

What is the current status of your situation?

 

[wolfie]

Thanks everyone who taking a ride in this thread with me.

Well my new ro/do filter arrive today and I had replace them. Turn out that my filter are all <span style="color: Black;">OVER DUE</span> to be change out. My DTS been reading 001 all the time. False reading since the start. So all the WC I did before are really taking out bad 1 to only replace with a little better then TAP water.

I am going to start doing WC every 2-3 days till all this Cryano are out of my system.