cyano wont go away.

[pufferman]

Hello,
As some you know, i have been combating cyano in my tank for about the whole summer now. I have succeded in reducing my nitrates to about 10. i got new lr, but the cyano just spread to those rocks and my tank looks like hell. There is cyano everywhere possible. I m seriously thinking about tearing the tank down. Anybody have any suggestions. i also reduced the daylight period from 14 hours to about 9 hours. Good flow is prominent in the tank as well due to the addition of a closed loop.

P.S. What removes phospates, as i was told cyano feeds off of P04

[haus]

I've heard of some people using phos ban or phosphate sponges. I used chemi-clean to clear mine up.

[djmpj2]

Where are your phosphates coming from?

We found out early on that the pre made salt water our LFS was selling us had phosphates in it. (Tested the water before adding it). If you are in a similar situation where you are adding something that has phosphates in it, you will be fighting a losing battle.

In addition to finding out source, we put phosphate sponges in our canister filter and run a diatom filter every other week or so. Also use ChemiPure in our filter. I don't know which one of these (if any) work, but thats what we did. I'm assuming you had a decent clean up crew as well? A sand sifter golby helps keep the substrate tidy too.

D

[Hara]

Try doing ALL of the following at the same time.

Clean out the media in the cannister filters every few days.

Leave lights off completely (you have no corals listed so I am assuming this is so) for a week or so.

Siphon out visible cyano daily.

Feed the fish very small amounts every other day.

Do a 25% water change twice during the week using ro/di water.

[pufferman]

ok , thanks hara

I leave the lights off, but dont the fish get stressed when there is no light for a week. And when the lights are off, they go into sleep mode, when they cant get food. Maybe they can nip off of the rock for the time being? I have gotten phosphates from flake foods which i feed as a staple diet.

[JG]

My musings - purely from observation :

My first tank - a 30 gallon - aragonite gravel substrate - never any cyano problem.
My daughters first tank a ten gallon nano - also aragonite gravel - never any cyano.

Upgraded my tank to a 90 - used live sand instead - huge cyano problem.
Upgraded my daughter's tank to a 20 - used live sand instead - unbelievable cyano problem.

After a tank crash while on vacation, I came home and completely broke the 90 tank down and reset the system, this time with crushed aragonite gravel and crushed coral. No sign of the cyano.

Nothing else has changed. As stated - purely observational data, but I am really wondering if there is a connection.

I have read a few articles and almost always there is the mention of cyanobacteria growth with smaller sediments such as sand , silts, and muds. I suspect that the cyano rides in with the live sand.

Perhaps there is a connection between the amount of water flow between particles and the ability of the cyano to gain a foothold. Perhaps the sand particles do not get moved around as much as they would in the ocean environment allowing the cyano to "cement" the topmost layer of sand in place as it forms mats, thereby reducing the flow of water even more. Without the water flow between particles, the food and waste that support cyano would not be broken down as quickly, thereby fueling the cyano growth. This leaves us with the task of finding ways to reduce the amount of fuel as well as finding a way to keep the flow between particles as high as possible.

The chemi - pure type products are oxidizing agents which help break down the organic compounds that fuel the growth. This is why they are considered temporary fixes, rather than cures. If flow rate is indeed a factor , the chemi-pure does little to help that problem.

Again - only my musings.......

Best of Luck

JG

[Hara]

Originally Posted by pufferman

I leave the lights off, but dont the fish get stressed when there is no light for a week. And when the lights are off, they go into sleep mode, when they cant get food.

no, they won't get stressed out. They will have plenty of ambient lighting from the room during the day.

[pufferman]

ok,
when you mean by cleaning out the canister filter, do i change out the carbon and phospate sponge?

[Hara]

yes, change out the carbon, any floss you might have, as far as the sponge goes, I do not use the products like that so I do not know what the manufacturer recommends. If it has been in there awhile, you might want to consider taking it out. I do know that those types of things can turn into nitrate factories if they are left in after they are exhausted.

[i have crabs]

once the phosphate sponge gets a dark colour you should change it about 3 weeks probably how many wats of lighting do you have? if you have the choice tund half of them off and start feeding every 2 days do you use tap water?

i turkey baster the areas i cant get to good or suck it up with the baster when i can if alot is floating around in the tank i use a small net and go back and forth catching the bits

or use magic

p.s. magic does not exsist

[pufferman]

yeah too bad magic doesnt exits, neither wishes for that matter. I have a home RO unit that only has a 4 gallon holding tank so i have to fill water in a bucket periodically throughout the day. i am just going to switch the lights off and leave the blinds open a little bit. Its going to be hard to do all this maintenance as school is starting on monday. tomorrow i m going to get the reef carbon as i little left.