Need help........cyanoooooo!

[RichardC]

Hey guys, I have a problem and I need some help.
I have a 60 gallon saltwater reef tank and it's been up and running for about 2 1/2 months now. I have a 150W HQI with 2 T5 actinics.
I've been going through a diatom bloom for past 2 weeks and I found the source. It was from my RO/DI filter, so I changed my filters.

But I'm still going through the diatom bloom. I also have a cyano in my sump, but I wasnt too worried till now. I noticed that the cyano is starting to grow over my diatoms in the DT.

I just added a TLF-150 phosphate reactor with 250ml of RowaPhos media yesterday. I'm hoping it'll help. I'm also doing 10 gallon water changes every weekend.

I had a chromis die about a month ago but I never found him. Do you think the dead fish might be the problem?


My parameters are:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Phosphate: undetectable with API Test Kit

My skimmer is on 24/7 and I change my filter sock every 3-4 days.
I feed twice a day but smaller in small portions. I'm feeding mysis at the moment and I always rinse it before I feed it.


Is there anything else I can do guys?
I dont want cyano going crazy in my DT.

 

[Ssullivan]

i would try bigger water changes and feed like every other day, and also try changing the filter sock every day instead of every 3 or 4 days because they can become nitrate factories i know that your water is testing zero on them but the cyano is eating all of the nitrates it can get to grow hope this helps

 

[TylerHaworth]

What skimmer are you running? Are you running a refugium with macroalgae? How much flow do you have?

You need to start siphoning out the cyano/diatoms and doing water changes daily until it all is gone... Beat it back hard and fast! If it still comes back then you are definitely having a major excess nutrient issue...

Also, leave your lights off for a week or so while you are doing the daily water changes.

 

[RichardC]

i would try bigger water changes and feed like every other day, and also try changing the filter sock every day instead of every 3 or 4 days because they can become nitrate factories i know that your water is testing zero on them but the cyano is eating all of the nitrates it can get to grow hope this helps

I'll give that a try. I might not even run a filter sock for awhile.
Do you think 15 gallon WC a week would be better?

What skimmer are you running? Are you running a refugium with macroalgae? How much flow do you have?

You need to start siphoning out the cyano/diatoms and doing water changes daily until it all is gone... Beat it back hard and fast! If it still comes back then you are definitely having a major excess nutrient issue...

Also, leave your lights off for a week or so while you are doing the daily water changes.

I have a Mag 9.5 pump as my return on a 60 gallon cube and a Korallia 1050gph powerhead.
I have a AquaC EV120 overdriven buy a Mag 7 pump.
I do have a refugium with a DSB, cheato, and Live rock. I just added a Two Little Fishies 150 phosphate reactor with 250ml of RowaPhos media about 2 days ago.
How many gallons should I change everyday?

I'm going to my LFS to buy a gravel siphon right now so I can start battling this bastard.

I have 3 corals inside my tank now. Wont a week of darkness hurt them?

 

[TylerHaworth]

I have a Mag 9.5 pump as my return on a 60 gallon cube and a Korallia 1050gph powerhead.
I have a AquaC EV120 overdriven buy a Mag 7 pump.
I do have a refugium with a DSB, cheato, and Live rock. I just added a Two Little Fishies 150 phosphate reactor with 250ml of RowaPhos media about 2 days ago.
How many gallons should I change everyday?

I have 3 corals inside my tank now. Wont a week of darkness hurt them?

I would recommend not removing the filter sock entirely since you are going to be messing around in the tank a lot (likely stirring a lot up)

Flow seems -OK- should be higher IMO* (Especially to eliminate dead spots)
Skimmer should be sufficient
Glad to see you're running Chaeto/Phosban

I would say siphon maybe 8 or so gallons per day, with heavy focus on sucking out the cyano - remember, if you pull out sand on accident (which tends to happen when siphoning it off of the sandbed) you can rinse it and put it back in the tank.

Lights off - If your coral are healthy, a few days without light won't hurt - But since you do have coral, I would say three days off and one day on while you're battling the cyano and any other algae - I proactively leave my lights off 3 straight days twice per month and have seen no ill effects

 

[Uslanja]

Hi RichardC! Diatoms and cyano in a 2 1/2 month old tank is not unusual. All of the advice above is good. I would make some additional suggestions that you increase the flow in the areas where the cyano is. With only three corals in the tank you should be able to do that without affecting them. We run three power heads and a return from our fuge for a 50X turn over rate in our 37 gallon tank and we have plenty of low flow mushrooms and ricordeas in there. The increased flow has been a real help in keeping unwanted algae down. Significantly reducing or even eliminating the light for a while will cause the cyano to die back quickly. Here is where our advice will receive criticism from some; we feed our tank 1 drip per gallon of phyto every other day and our fish once per week. The phyto feedings do cause a slight green haze the next day on the glass that we easily wipe off in a few minutes with a mag brush and we consider the wiping off of the algae and it going into suspension in the water column to be a feeding for the small animals and filter feeders. Shut down your sump, siphon out the water and wipe the cyano up. Do not disturb the cyano in the sump and let it travel up into the display, it will spread that way. Once the sump is looking clean and cyano free, refill it with fresh change water. If you are running a light on your sump, leave it off for a while. Stay on top of the siphoning of diatoms and cyano, feed allot less, keep your display lighting to 6 hours or so and you will get this under control fairly quickly. Create an environment that discourages micro alga and unwanted bacteria and don't reach for the quick fix in a bottle or impregnated filter media, those just cause a rebound problem.

 

[RichardC]

Thanks for all the help guys.

I just ordered another 1050gph Korallia powerhead.

Just did a 10 gallon water change while siphoning the sand and blasting off the rocks.
I will do another 10 gallon water change on Saturday.
I'm keeping the light off and will keep it off till Sunday morning.

Thanks again guys. I'll give an update in a week or so to let you know if it's working.