cyano issue

[pweezy42]

ok so i have cut down down on my feeding alot still once a day but about 3/4 less than i was, added some chaeto, and also i switched to ro/di and distilled water when i cant get to my lfs for the ro/di, i also did a 5 gallon water change on sat but the cyano seems to get worse in my sand. also what i thought was green hair algae actually looks more like Dinoflagellates. ph 8.0, ammonia .25ppm, nitrite & nitrate 0ppm. all taken by an api test kit

[Captmrbles]

How old is your tank? There should be no amonia in your tank unless you are still cycling. If you are still cycling dont worry about the diatoms.

[baby1-]

chemiclean follow directions the stuff works.... then stop over feeding
thats what worked for me

[pweezy42]

tank is about 7 weeks in. 75 pounds of cured live rock and 50 pounds live sand but was told by my lfs that my levels were good by week 2 so i starting addind fish and some hardy corals just about every week since

[baby1-]

are you sure its cyano ?if so it could of came from the rock. could of been mabey inside the rock

[tkeracer619]

Stop adding livestock.
Do as large of a water change as you can up to 50% and then a 10% weekly change.
Postpone the water change if you can't make it to the store. If it causes you to skip water changes then get an RODI.
Get a media reactor for some GFO if you don't already use it.
Time.

Don't add any chemicals to your tank. They are last resort and do not attack the cause.

[baby1-]

you dont run with a sump?

[pweezy42]

yes i run a sump baby1 it has a built in skimmer its a pro life aquatics 75 sump. tkeracer i dont have the resources to do a 50% water change i did 5 gallons on sat. and was thinking about doing 10 more this sat. 10 gals at a time is all i can do its a 55 gal tank so 10 gal is about 20%

[philosophile]

Are you sure its cyano? It might be diatoms in a new tank...

[pweezy42]

i will get some new pics up 2mrw. there are deff diatoms in there as well adding to the ugly-ness but there is redish purpleish looking snot on rocks and sand, also greenish looking snot on rocks w/airbubbles which to me looks likeDinoflagellates

[pweezy42]

i want to add that i started the tank off with tap water and was using my pur water from my tap as top off b4 i switched over to ro/di and distilled. here are some pics of what im talking about...

[SPotter]

Whoa that's ugly!!!! +1 on not adding any more livestock....way too soon. how much flow is in your tank? what kind of pumps are you using for the return and powerheads? how long are your lights on for? give as much info about your system as you can.

Steve

[Mandosh]

Combo of cyano and dinoflagellates with some HA and diatoms just for fun...ugly.

+1 on what everyone else said about the reduced feeding, no more additions and siphon out everything you can on water changes. Black-outs are usually fairly effective at knocking back dinos, but bottom line is you have to get the nutrient cause under control.

[pweezy42]

ok i have an aqueon 1250 powerhead on the left side of the tank and a koralia 400 on the right side where my return comes up from my sump (not sure on flow of the return). i have a nova extreme 4 lighting which has 4 t5 bulbs (2 blue, 2 white) blue comes on at 11:30 am till 9:30-10 ish(i have started turning the blue on around 12 and off at 9 for the time being), and the white lights come on from 12-8:30. my sump is a pro life aquatics 75 we/dry w/prefilter and built in skimmer

[SPotter]

Shorten your photo period on the whites to about 6 hrs. get yourself a 22g brute garbage can from hd so you will Habe the ability to do large water changes when needed.

Steve

[reeftivo]

ouch!

dinos and cyano!

you've got a bit of a bacterial imbalance going on there.

Test kits are off because the bloom is taking up the trates and po4 in the column. Most likely the ammonia is coming from die off.

My guess would be die off from the rock. The tap water didn't help at all either since the stuff loves TDS, silicates and Po4 in the tap.

I'd do a 40% WC with R/O and then continue weekly WC's and let the autotrophs build back up.

A slightly higher pH (around 8.3) wouldn't hurt either since heterotrophic bacteria are reported to be sensitive to elevated pH.

I won't clear up over night but good husbandry is a must

weekly WC's while siphoning the top layer of substrate

basting the rocks & sump bottom

good flow

reduced photo period (3 day lights out helps)

proper spectrum (not old) lighting

routine media change outs.

good skimming

reduced feedings,

All should go well to getting a handle on things





Tivo

[Gandolfe]

try turning off your lights in the display for 3 days straight, just moonlights if you have them, I have done that wiith mine and after just one day the cyano i had(blackish purple) is gone, i'm on second day right now, still feed as usual but turn off lights in display. I left the lights on in my sumps so my ATS keeps working. My nitrates this morning were at 20 and my PO4 was between 0 and .25(APi test kit only reads o then .25 as next level)

[franklypre]

Agree with gandolfe, just turn the lights off for a couple of days, you can try dosing with hydrogen peroxide during this time if you want. 1 ml for every 10g once a day while the lights are off. Do some research on the peroxide before you do it so you can make an educated decision.

[pweezy42]

Originally Posted by SPotter

Shorten your photo period on the whites to about 6 hrs. get yourself a 22g brute garbage can from hd so you will Habe the ability to do large water changes when needed.

Steve

SPotter i live in an apt and dont have room for a 22g garbage can at this moment. currently i use 2 5 gall buckets to do my water changes. also should i leave the blues on the rest of the time?


tivo thanks alot of info there. so will lights out for 3 days hurt any of the coral frags i have? im going to pick up new blue lights 2mrw as when i bought this stuff it was used. will 20% water change this week and 20% more next sat be ok or do i need to buy more buckets and do 40% at once? im a lil short on funds this week so trying to do this right since i got some bad info first and dont want my money to have gone to waste. thanks again guys

[Gandolfe]

it kind of resembles a storm in real life in the ocean, once a month won't hurt if the cyano comes back..I got this from another thread on here! besides you really shouldn't be adding any coral frags if you're only on week 7 of your cycle... you should wait at least a couple of months for your system to stabalize! IMO anyway

[baby1-]

a tooh brush is a good way to get the green algae off of your rocks .....i get the green **** and the cyano from time to time..chemicleen for the cyano 20%water change then run carbon

[alanbates12]

Originally Posted by captmrbles

how old is your tank? There should be no amonia in your tank unless you are still cycling. If you are still cycling dont worry about the diatoms.

+1

[reeftivo]

Originally Posted by pweezy42

SPotter i live in an apt and dont have room for a 22g garbage can at this moment. currently i use 2 5 gall buckets to do my water changes. also should i leave the blues on the rest of the time?


tivo thanks alot of info there. so will lights out for 3 days hurt any of the coral frags i have? im going to pick up new blue lights 2mrw as when i bought this stuff it was used. will 20% water change this week and 20% more next sat be ok or do i need to buy more buckets and do 40% at once? im a lil short on funds this week so trying to do this right since i got some bad info first and dont want my money to have gone to waste. thanks again guys

three day lights out won't hurt anything. It will just **** them off a bit-LOl
actinics 24/7 during that time is fine.

keep in mind that you'll have less biological activity with lights out so your O2 will drop a bit. Best to run a small airstone while doing it just to be safe.

[pweezy42]

does the air stone need to be in the tank or is sump ok?