cyano insanity!

[rookiegirl]

Been battling cyano in my tank for a couple of months now. Tank is about 5 months old. Didn't have any probs w/cyano till these past two months. Can't seem to get it to move on. I clean rocks every day and my sump rocks get coated with it even faster than the main tank. I have increased flow, moved flow, added flow to my sump. Even have chunky sand now as there's goops of cyano everywhere.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, i can't clean it up fast enough and am getting really tired of scrubbing everyday.

Ph 8.0
Salinity 1.025
Phosphates - not registering any on kit
calcium 420
alk 9
temp 80

[Aerowen]

maybe you are overfeeding? wrap the tank w/ a blanket and leave the ligths off for 3 days

[sassafrass]

Are you sure it is cyano and not diatoms? they can be difficult to tell apart and are caused by very different things ,Diatoms are caused by silicate in your water which can make it through your RODI filtration system when the DI resin is exhuasted

[rookiegirl]

How do you tell the two apart? I see purple velvet like growth that scrubs off really easy with a tooth brush.

[rookiegirl]

To add to that i did have some trouble with my ro/di unit after a big rain fall we had last month. The filters turned bright orange so i replaced the first two before doing another water change but i didn't replace the third one (the one with the carbon) as i had only had the unit for about 4 months and was told it shouldn't be necessary.

[rookiegirl]

Aerowen...i get the lights out but what is the towel for?

[sassafrass]

Bingo!!! there's your problem ,Who knows what got through your filter? Was that about the time you started having problems?

[sassafrass]

The blanket is to keep the light out.

[rookiegirl]

Ya, that was about the time it started. It kind of makes sense now because the bigger the water change i do the bigger the outbreak. I kept expecting it to improve with each water change but it was actually getting worse and worse...makes sense now.

I'll grab a new filter tomorrow and get a water change together, then i'll darken for a couple of days and see if that kicks it in the butt.

Thanks for all your input guys, most helpful as always!

[Sk8r]

3 day dark followed by 1 day actinic should put a dent in it: repeat once monthly.

[rookiegirl]

Sounds good, tx.

[Everyones Hero]

From what I read in another thread one way to tell Cyano from Diatoms is this:

If bubbles are forming in it when the lights are on it's Cyano. If not it's more likely diatoms.

[rookiegirl]

No, i haven't noticed any bubbles - at least not yet. I am still researching both to try to properly determine what it is. I would have guessed diatoms but it is red-burgundy and velvet like, which seems to be some form of cyano. It hasn't made it to the weird stringy stage yet but diatoms so far in my research are brown, this is definitely not brown. Cyano is apparently powder like and can be blown off the rock, this can't be blown off but is very easy to scrub off.

The research continues...

[Tswifty]

cyano mats and forms a thin layer on the sand bed. You can pull it out in clumps sometimes. Color doesn't really matter.

[rookiegirl]

That i definitely have, there's clumps all over my sand bed and it looks awful. I'm going to have to start pulling it out i suppose, easier said than done as i've found. I tried straining it through a net but that took forever and made a mess with the sand as it sifted...any suggestions? Perhaps a net with larger holes might do it.

[Tswifty]

Here's what I did...

I used a net to pull out all the clumps I could, then did 2 days of darkness.

I'm going to wait a few weeks before declaring victory though.



Before:



After:



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After:



Before:



After:

[Stirfry001]

Nice Aquascape!

[Tswifty]

Thank you

[rookiegirl]

Wow, i feel there is hope!! Lol! Thanks for the pics. Would you recommend a water change after i scrub the rocks a bit and sift the chunks out of the sand? Just wondering if getting some of that water out after stirring everything up would make a difference before i go to dark tomorrow.

Your tank looks so much better!

[cplklegg]

Many, many fellow reefers know much better than I, so take this with a grain of salt and research; but I had major cyano problems and frustrations as yourself until I got a media bag and filled it with Pura-something(sorry I forgot the brand name ), basically like Phos-ban---or any other GFO (granulated ferric oxide), after I put said media bag in a HOB filter to rid my tanks of Phosphates, my cyano disappeared. Just my experience is all, maybe ask around in the Chemistry forum or even look up back articles in the Reefkeeper magazine on the homepage for cyano??? Best of luck to you.

[Stevenx2]

@Tswifty8:
I tried the 3 day lights-off method without a blanket. The water had an excellent quality all the cyanos and dias were gone. Unfortunately though, the little bastards are back after 1 week. Pees me off quite a bit. Silicates are 0, nitrates 30, Phosphates 0. Still gonna experiment with Prodibio bacteria, hope it works!

[rookiegirl]

Tx cplklegg, i'll check into that as well...

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by Stevenx2
@Tswifty8:
I tried the 3 day lights-off method without a blanket. The water had an excellent quality all the cyanos and dias were gone. Unfortunately though, the little bastards are back after 1 week. Pees me off quite a bit. Silicates are 0, nitrates 30, Phosphates 0. Still gonna experiment with Prodibio bacteria, hope it works!

Yep... I won't be declaring victory until it stays away for a few weeks

If it comes back, I as going to try ultra life red slime remover next.

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by rookiegirl
Wow, i feel there is hope!! Lol! Thanks for the pics. Would you recommend a water change after i scrub the rocks a bit and sift the chunks out of the sand? Just wondering if getting some of that water out after stirring everything up would make a difference before i go to dark tomorrow.

Your tank looks so much better!

It couldn't hurt... If you're going to have particles floating everywhere, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try and siphon as much out as you can.

Your skimmer will also more than likely go nuts once everything starts dying, so you'll want to probably empty the collection cup daily, and wipe down the inside neck with a paper towel to keep it performing at its best.

[beccatech]

What if you have something that depends on light like an anemone, can you still cut the lights for 2 days without loosing anything?