Is this Cyano

[badfish]

The following pictures are of my buddies tank, he wanted me to post them and see if you guys think its cyano. He has a 35 gallon hex, with 40lbs liverock, 4 inch sandbed, 50/50 flourecent light, no skimmer, and 2 MJ 900's.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d825b3127cce91a976adc92700000016108AaOGjdi4Ztq

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d825b3127cce91a976a8481200000016108AaOGjdi4Ztq

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d825b3127cce91a976a9c92300000016108AaOGjdi4Ztq

What do you guys think.

- Jeff

 

[Acraman]

Yep! Looks like cyno to me

 

[badfish]

do you think a skimmer would help? He used all RO water, any ideas on what he should do? Is it caused by phosphates?

 

[badfish]

maybe a decent clean up crew?

 

[zacdl]

Yea you shouldve gotten a cleanup crew early in your tank that way it wont get as bad and they can keep up with it...

 

[Acraman]

It can be caused by a number of things. phophates being one of them. A cleaner crew, frequent small water changes may help, but it wont go away overnight. Remove as much as you can physically if possible. Last resort use Chemi-Clean.
Old or brand new lighting is another cause or even something that may have died. Also do a water check on the R/O water
Tell him not to be discouraged this can be eradicated

 

[badfish]

I just talked to him, he is going to get his phosphates checked. He does have a clean up crew, but not a very big one, i think 10 blue legs, and 10 margareta snails. Its a new 50/50 bulb. He uses RO water from walmart, so i dont think its from the water. I myself am about to upgrade my lighting to power compact, my tank has been up for 3 months and never had any alage problems, but im afraid i might if upgrade my lighting, is it normal to have an alage bloom when you upgrade lighting?

Thanks again,

Jeff

 

[GoodFish]

as you know, I did...but nothing a HUGE clean up crew cant fix...lol

 

[Acraman]

What?

 

[GoodFish]

i had a big algea bloom with the adding of my lights.

 

[SeriousDude5]

You betcha its cyno. That or some type of hair algea both nusancies (hard word to spell)

 

[badfish]

what should i tell him to do? He said he is gonna scoop as much as he can off the top and do a bucn of water changes, but what will keep it from coming back? Protein skimmer?

 

[moejoephd]

Protein skimmer is "Gods gift to Aquarists". I just got a Remora C pro and it owns, most people of this forum would recommend a skimmer.

 

[SeriousDude5]

Is he using RO water? Becuase if not buying an RO unit is a good investment. As for the cyno now I would suggest Chemi-Clean for a quick cure it gets rid of it but remember it will come back.

 

[seaham358]

Is that red growing on the sand or down in the sand bed? Its hard to tell. Pic 1 looks like there is a small amount of cyno on the sand but most of the red/pink is down in the sand bed. Pic 3 looks more like hair algae again hard to tell from the pic a closer pic would help.
Like others have said he needs to test for phosphates... Also low flow areas can develope cyno if there is PO4 in the water. Again if he tests 0 on the PO4 it does not mean there is none in the water, its just that the cyno is using it and keeping the levels very low.
IMO a clean up crew is not the answer. In my reef club there have been several of us dealing with cyno for several months now and we all have good clean up crews and I added more thinking this may help.. Nothing except the Astraea snails touched it. And they only ate the green type cyno and did not tough the red.
only after doing water changes and sucking the cyno out of the tank and getting a bigger return pump for more flow did my cyno go away. I also have a phosban reactor on the tank.
A good skimmer is a mush have IMO I run one of my 125 reef and 55 fowlr and pulls all kinds of crap out of the water. Does he know he can pick up a ro/di for around $100? I was doing the lugging of water from the LFS and walmart for about a year then I said thats enough of this crap and bought a ro/di unit. Best $200 i have spent on the tank at that time.

 

[badfish]

thanks guys, thats what i keep telling him, i think hes gonna finally get a skimmer. I am myself a "Lugger of the Water from WalMart", but im getting married in september, after that i will def. be buying an ro/di unit. But thats my whole point, he did use RO water, which is why i can only think it would be caused by not having a skimmer. Thanks again guys.