Dead spots and water flow

[ellisz]

I have been fighting cyano for a month or 2 and I think it is due to dead spots. I have a mag7 return, 2 maxi 1200 and a jbj PH(230gph). My cyano is real bad in the back of the tank, along the sides and along the front. Mostly grows on the sand bed but does grow on my rocks.

Is there a trick to getting flow along the bottom without disturbing my softies? Do you stick a ph down low? My maxi's are at the top on opposing corners shooting at each other and the jbj is on the side shooting across the front. The maxi's come on together and the JBJ fires by itself. The return pump shoots along the back at hit the side.

Do I need more flow or re-aquascape?

Here is a pic.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=28608&highlight=

 

[darb2]

How tightly packed together is the lr? You may need to move some rocks around to improve flow.

 

[ellisz]

The part I wonder about is on the ends. I seem to always end up with a tall structure on the ends which seems like it could act as a wall and keep flow down. I know there is a huge clump of cyano in the back of the tank I keep forgetting to get out when I siphon.

This is why I can't believe people get so much rock in a tank. I only have around 110 lbs in my 75. I hate re doing the rock

 

[seaham358]

Damn thats a lot of rock.... I only have 130 in my 125 and 60 in my FOWLR. I know PH's in the tank suck but is there any way you can fit one in the back till its gone to help with flow?

 

[ellisz]

1 - 2 lbs per gallon is the rule I had heard. I figured I was on the low side. I have another 55lbs in a 72 gal but I have not decided if I want 2 big tanks.

I might try to put one back there. Should be room. I bought 2 conchs today as well. Hopefully they will help. I can see it will be tough to mix SPS, LPS and softies all in the same tank. Getting high flow and low flow without cyano is starting to look impossible.

 

[ambulocetus]

i had great lcuk with a pair of fighting conchs, really went to town eating it, plus they stir up the sand too! I also found phos-x worked nicley to bring my problem under control (but my tank is only 29gal) but it might be worth trying some kind of phosphate remover

 

[ellisz]

I tried using seachem phosguard. Seemed to get worse The conchs are in so we shall see.