Cyano?

[drillsar]

I think of starting to get cyano, its looks really dark red in some spots in my sand bed, I have a mag7 running on a 55gal. I just added some live sand but I dont think this would cause a problem or would it? I do water changes every week, I think a mag 7 is enough flow correct? My phosphates are a little high which I dont understand its 1.5. I use RO/di water and my tds meter shows a 6 which im thinking i may have to change the DI resin.

[sdellin]

Could you be overfeeding the fish? I had that habit and phosphates were high, I got cyano. It's better now with less feeding.

Do you have a pic of the sand and cyano? When I had it, it had a habit of collecting tiny air bubbles all over it, so I knew it was cyano. If your tank is new, it could be diatoms, "new tank algae", but with that phosphate level and the deep red, sounds like cyano and the high phosphates are likely the contributor.

As for the Mag 7, I don't know how much flow that is, but I have two Maxi-jet 1200s in my tank and my lfs says I need at least one more. I have a 55G also. You might want to get anoter powerhead and put them one on each side of the tank, pointing upwards towards the middle, that way you'll get flow in both directions and hopefully eliminate any dead spots.

[drillsar]

I beleive mag 7 is 700gph, but maybe i need a maxijet is there a such thing to much flow?

[sdellin]

Well, when your fish are swimming and swimming and not getting anywhere and all your corals and anemones are leaning the same direction, that might be too much flow...lol.

I think you could have too much, some corals don't like much flow, but you just want enough to get the water moving in around the rocks through most of the tank so you don't get detritis collecting in dead spaces.

IMO, at least two powerheads, one on either side of the tank is good. I have them pointed up at an angle towards the center, the powerheads don't cross streams, but the effect is water going in both directions. They point up to break the surface of the water, thereby causing the gas exchange necessary to oxygenate the water, and move the water in two directions, so I don't just have a big loop of current in the tank.

[drillsar]

Well I was told to get 10x to 20x flow of your main tank. So right Now im like 13%, I also have a mag 5 sitting here. Maybe I should get a powerhead and change my mag 7 to the mag 5.

[sdellin]

The mag 5 if still 500 gph. That would probably be okay. I'll ask an advisor to step in.

The maxijets I have are only 295 gph and my lfs thinks three would be good for my tank. I'd probably try the Mag 5 (500 gph) with a powerhead before the Mag 7 (700 gph), but that's my humble opinion. Let me ask someone else to look at this who can give another opinion. I

[sdellin]

Sent an e-mail to one of the advisors. Check back later for another opinion.
I've been told over and over (here and at lfs) that flow from more than one direction is better than just one source.

So we have the same size tank. I'm assuming you have a reef tank?

[Fluff]

If you have dead spots, cyano can get a foothold. I don't know anything about the mag pumps but in my opinion, it's better to have two small pumps than one large one. This gives you more control on where the flow is going and you can cause a more chaotic flow which is really what is desired. I have a 55g as well and use four ph's for flow. Two behind my liverock and two out front. Pointing them toward the glass or each other will help as well. As for the cyano, if you have any phosphates in your water at all, it will fuel it. The only way to get rid of it is to continue to do pwc and lots of them to get the numbers down. I wrote an article on cyano if you'd like to read it, maybe that will help. I tried to make it easy to read and follow but if you have any questions, I'll do my best to help.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showqu...q=2&fldAuto=48