Hey guys, I've tried a lot of stuff to keep my cyano at bay. I'll tell you what I'm currently doing and maybe you can suggest a few things to help me further.
Firstly, I do 25-30% PWC's religiously every week. I never skip one! Have been on this schedule for about 5 months now. Before my PWC's I wipe down the glass on the inside with an algae scrubber and blast my rocks with a powerhead (i do this a few times a week to get the cyano off!). I let a lot go through the overflow box and into my filter sock. Then I shut everything down. Drain some water, clean the filter sock, and refill.
I shortened my lighting cycle. But, it's still 12 hours (i know, but hear me). The actinics are on from 9am-9pm. Whites are on 11am-7pm. So that's 8 hours of the bright light. Moonlight leds (8x1watt blue leds) are on 9pm-9am.
In the nighttime while the moonlights are on, the fuge in my sump has the 6500k 10 watt light on from 9pm till 9am. This fuge houses some macro algae I'm growing (I think it's chaeto but I am not sure, it looks like a big ball of grass).
I got a skimmer. It's not the best one, but it is skimming and pulling some DARK junk out of the water. I have a sand bed in the fuge (not deep, really, about 2-3").
I use a filter sock. I understand this could be harboring some nitrates that feed cyano, but, without it I won't have any mechanical filtration.
I got rid of the decor in the tank, so now it's only rocks.
I just threw a mesh bag of carbon in the sump today to maybe pull out something that's in the tank that I'm not aware of.
I have high flow! No dead spots that I'm aware of (since the cyano seems to be everywhere, and the stringy stuff seems to flow in every which direction). I have a koralia 750 and a koralia 240 and 300gph flow from my sump return lines. So that's 1290gph in a 55g.
I've cut my feeding down to once per day, and I make sure the fishies eat it all.
Anyways, I did some research, and I know that cyano feeds off of nitrates and phosphates.
So, what in the good name can I further do to keep my nitrates low (they're at 10 right now, 0 would be good!)? I don't have anything to measure phosphates.
A few things I feel may be contributing, but am not sure of:
The tank receives what I perceive to be a negligible amount of sunlight. It's not direct, but there is a window 10 feet from it. While the sunlight could possibly get to the tank though the bright white lights are on. And this is probably only an hour or two a day when the sun is setting in the evening.
I buy Instant Ocean Reef Crystals salt mix. Are there extra nutrients in there that could cause the cyano to keep coming back since I'm running a FOWLR at the moment.
I never bought live rock. I bought all dry rock and it became live during the process of my cycling. This is no different, right? Is there something magical about buying live rock rather than making live base rock?
Clean up crew. Right now I only have 5 astrea snails and a large hermit crab. Should I buy more? I don't really know what to get, maybe some sand sifters?
I know I've given a lot of information and asked a ton of questions. Addressing any of it or adding any of your own input would really be appreciated.
p.l.e.a.s.e.h.e.l.p
Firstly, I do 25-30% PWC's religiously every week. I never skip one! Have been on this schedule for about 5 months now. Before my PWC's I wipe down the glass on the inside with an algae scrubber and blast my rocks with a powerhead (i do this a few times a week to get the cyano off!). I let a lot go through the overflow box and into my filter sock. Then I shut everything down. Drain some water, clean the filter sock, and refill.
I shortened my lighting cycle. But, it's still 12 hours (i know, but hear me). The actinics are on from 9am-9pm. Whites are on 11am-7pm. So that's 8 hours of the bright light. Moonlight leds (8x1watt blue leds) are on 9pm-9am.
In the nighttime while the moonlights are on, the fuge in my sump has the 6500k 10 watt light on from 9pm till 9am. This fuge houses some macro algae I'm growing (I think it's chaeto but I am not sure, it looks like a big ball of grass).
I got a skimmer. It's not the best one, but it is skimming and pulling some DARK junk out of the water. I have a sand bed in the fuge (not deep, really, about 2-3").
I use a filter sock. I understand this could be harboring some nitrates that feed cyano, but, without it I won't have any mechanical filtration.
I got rid of the decor in the tank, so now it's only rocks.
I just threw a mesh bag of carbon in the sump today to maybe pull out something that's in the tank that I'm not aware of.
I have high flow! No dead spots that I'm aware of (since the cyano seems to be everywhere, and the stringy stuff seems to flow in every which direction). I have a koralia 750 and a koralia 240 and 300gph flow from my sump return lines. So that's 1290gph in a 55g.
I've cut my feeding down to once per day, and I make sure the fishies eat it all.
Anyways, I did some research, and I know that cyano feeds off of nitrates and phosphates.
So, what in the good name can I further do to keep my nitrates low (they're at 10 right now, 0 would be good!)? I don't have anything to measure phosphates.
A few things I feel may be contributing, but am not sure of:
The tank receives what I perceive to be a negligible amount of sunlight. It's not direct, but there is a window 10 feet from it. While the sunlight could possibly get to the tank though the bright white lights are on. And this is probably only an hour or two a day when the sun is setting in the evening.
I buy Instant Ocean Reef Crystals salt mix. Are there extra nutrients in there that could cause the cyano to keep coming back since I'm running a FOWLR at the moment.
I never bought live rock. I bought all dry rock and it became live during the process of my cycling. This is no different, right? Is there something magical about buying live rock rather than making live base rock?
Clean up crew. Right now I only have 5 astrea snails and a large hermit crab. Should I buy more? I don't really know what to get, maybe some sand sifters?
I know I've given a lot of information and asked a ton of questions. Addressing any of it or adding any of your own input would really be appreciated.
p.l.e.a.s.e.h.e.l.p