Utterly frustated and totally miffed

[pipermurphy]

Okay all I am at my wits end. I can't seem to get rid of my cyano cursed problem. I have a 75 gal SW with 2 175MH lights on for 8 hours with 2 actinics, 4" DSB, 120 lbs LR and 1 water flow. My bio-load is 2 clowns, 1 juvy tang, scooter, 3 cleaner shrimps, doz snails, 2 tiny crabs, 1 troc clam, 2 dusters, xenia, toadstool, hammer & polyps spreading around. I protein skim constantly and empty the cup daily. I only feed a pinch of dry flake every 4 days. I've tried the Red Slime Remover No-Cya-no by ecolibrium from the LFS for 2 weeks and things were a little better but not any more. I also get a green 'dust' like on my glass and do need to clean the glass every 3 days.
My readings are as they should be 0 for amm,nitrite & nitrate; CA, Magnes are good PH is 7.9 off, 8.2 lites on. Temp is steady 80*. I am also using water from a 5 stage RO/DI system from Mr Aqua with <5 TDS.

What the *#%@ should I do?? It has been a rough few months with this tank and I am losing patience. Any thoughts?

 

[Hara]

1. quit buying cyano remover
2. siphon every bit of cyano up
3. run carbon, clean all skimmers
4. do a big water change
5. turn ALL lights off for 5 days
6. add more crabs and turbo snails
7. Do not feed for one week

Do all of this on the same day...keep lights off

That is my remedy

 

[pipermurphy]

1. I am not using cyano remover constantly, tried one bottle.
2. How can you siphon a very live DSB? without sucking up all the sand.
3. How can I run carbon in a sump? I clean my skimmer every day.
4. I did a 60% water change last week. Usually do 25% per week anyway.
5. Tried that when I went on a long weekend last month.
6. Will try that but the snails I have don't go on the DSB just the glass.
7. Tried that too.

Very unhappy now

 

[snapcrackler]

Guys can't ya diatom the crap out of this tank?

Esp with the green dust..

Start the diatom, storm the substrate with a turkey baster, scrape the glass, turn off diatiom when full, repeat.

Obviously you won't get all the spores but you could really put a serious dent in it. As long as the water quality is correct then maybe it would help to get things back to normal.

 

[pipermurphy]

Okay what do you mean by diatom? Have not heard that term in that way before.

 

[Guest]

Essentially Snap is talking about this..

Diatom Magnum 350

Sounds to me that you have a PO4 problem or a Silicate problem...

 

[e-cat]

fighting conch will eat cyano, i think you can one for every foot of tank, so depending on your rocks mabey you could get 2 of them after you do haras method so the conch will clean up all the scraps, dont give up and good luck

 

[e-cat]

you could also try some purigen by seachem, as it is suposed too work just as good as a diatom filter

 

[Hara]

1. I am not using cyano remover constantly, tried one bottle.
2. How can you siphon a very live DSB? without sucking up all the sand.
3. How can I run carbon in a sump? I clean my skimmer every day.
4. I did a 60% water change last week. Usually do 25% per week anyway.
5. Tried that when I went on a long weekend last month.
6. Will try that but the snails I have don't go on the DSB just the glass.
7. Tried that too.

Very unhappy now

2. cyano stays on the surface, you siphon it with an airline tubing. I do it quite often and you should be siphoning the detritus up as part of your maintenance anyway. I have very expensive black sand as my DSB, I would not want to lose large amounts as it is costly to replace. Just be careful and skim the surface of the sand.

3. run the carbon on the discharge side of your skimmer possibly?

The key to winning the battle is not doing these things one at a time, but doing them all at once.

 

[fishfreek]

physical removal as hara mentioned ias one of the easest ways to get ahead of the cyano. Another thing is to attack it at its food source. Do you have a way of testing for phosphates? Using a small 1/2" diamater hose you should be able to syphon out the cyano fairly easily and not remove but maybe a very small amount of your sand. hover the hose above the substrate and only lower it till the cyano is taken up.

 

[fishtender]

I agree with Timbo. When I was fighting cyano, I did al of the above mentioned treatments and they did help to keep it more controlled, but I never really won the battle until I switched to RO water. Over the period of many waterchanges, It subsided and now I have no problem with it. Test your PO4, or ask your LFS to test for you. I suspect maybe the filters in your ro\di system need replacing.

Don't give up. What appears to be an unbeatable foe, is merely a visual eyesore. You can win.

Howard

 

[pipermurphy]

Going back to Haras original reply, if I was to shut off the lights, do I shut off both MH and actinics or just MH. Also, will this have a negative effect on my tank inhabitants? will look around the net for a mag 350 setup.

 

[Hara]

reducing to just actinics did not help my situation at all. It was not until I shut off all light source did I get a grip on a very frustrating case of cyano.

 

[pipermurphy]

But by shutting off all lighting would that harm my clam, fish, dusters,corals, etc? I am willing to try anything at this point, but I don't want anything to die.