Cyano issues even with a ton of flow

[milkit]

I have a 30x30x30 cube (115g). My phosphates are pretty much undectable and my nitrates are appx 15ppm. I have about 3000gph of flow and somehow cyano is still managing to cover my sand bed and many rocks too. You can even see the strings of cyano getting blown all over by the current as it holds on to the rock and sand.

So, I cant really increase the flow... and my nitrates arent THAT bad.. Any other ways to fight this?

[abulgin]

What do you mean by "pretty much undetectable"? If you have any detectable phosphates, you have too much. Phosphate gets taken up by algae very quickly so you can measure no, or minimal, phosphate and still have a problem. A lot is posted/written about flow. While flow is important, it is not the magic elixer that many claim. Rather, cyano is largely a function of excess nutrients. If you have cyano, you have excess nutrients. This can be because you're over feeding, your tank is overstocked, or your substrate is the wrong type, too deep or not deep enough.

I see that you're a noob--note that it takes new tanks a good year or more to stabilize, and it is very common for new tanks to have all sorts of nuisance algae issues, including cyano, while the tank matures. As long as you're using RO/DI water, doing regular water changes, and are careful about feeding (including rinsing frozen foods) and stocking, you really just have to manually remove with each water change and wait it out until the tank matures.

[milkit]

I mean that, with my salifert phosphate test kit, I really cant tell if its 0 or MAYBE slightly above. honestly it looks like 0.

I use ro/di with 0 tdi, have a bunch of chaeto in fuge, rinse all my frozen foods and dont feed much at all really, change 10% weekly water, run a phosban reactor with GFO, and only 5 smaller sized fish.

oh well. I guess ill wait it out and just keep blowing it off my corals!

[droberts]

are you using ro water? i have been fighting with it also so i have been cutting back my lites and keeping up on my water changes i turn off all flow and scrub the rocks with a stiff bristle brush before the water change so i can remove as much cyano as possible during my water change. good luck!!

[evsalty]

Like said about the phosphates being hidden by the algae so can nitrAtes and if you are reading 15ppm then chances are that there is even more that is hidden in the cyno and in your chaeto.

I do also agree with the new tank syndrom statement.

[abulgin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15591230#post15591230 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by milkit
have a bunch of chaeto in fuge . . . run a phosban reactor with GFO . . ...

There is a theory/position held by some of the "professionals" out there (and there was a long thread several months ago) that using GFO is actually detrimental to the fight against cyano, and I tend to side with them. GFO is very effective and can remove much of the phosphate in your water. Cyano is also a very effective phosphate remover (it's one of the oldest living organisms on the planet, for a reason). The theory goes that, when you strip out most of the phosphate, you force cyano to compete with other algae (like chaeto) and other life in general (remember, everything--even your corals--needs some phosphate to thrive, so you don't want a system completely devoid of phosphate) for that phosphate; and cyano will always win. I guess the theory is that your good algae can't effectively compete with the cyano for what little phosphate there is and/or that somehow GFO upsets the status quo. I have read about situations where cyano has actually gotten worse with GFO use.

I stopped using GFO in my reactor and replaced it with a good quality carbon. I rely on my fuge with chaeto to do all the work. The key is pruning the chaeto periodically so you fuel further growth.

[milkit]

I may try turning it off a few days here in a week or so (its getting close to needing to change the media out anyways) and see if that helps.

[milkit]

just did an uncheduled water change of 10g (about 120g overall in tank) and before I did, i used a baster to blow all all the big chunks of cyano and all the other junk off the top. the water had all kinds of stuff floating around. Ill probably go ahead and change the filter sock again here in a few hours.

I have a bigger skimmer coming tomorrow (using a das ex-1 now, getting a pm bullet 2) would this be helpful it getting my water cleaner?

Also have a bunch more snails/hermits coming thursday

[evsalty]

How often do you clean/change that filter sock? Filter socks seem to be a big cause of nutrient problems if not maintained every week at minimum.

As for the skimmer it all depends on how well your current one is doing.

[milkit]

I have about 10 filter socks and change them every 3-4 days or whenever they look frail. never over a week though. Usually anytime Im under the tank ill just go ahead and change it

[fatdaddy]

I started skimming much more aggressively and things are starting to look better. Like you I have near-zero phosphates and nitrates.

w/ Salifert you can look sideways, I think I think I'm about 0.1 ppm or less. it's very low if not zero.

So, I think my problem was dissolved organics. My skimmers are pulling out much more stuff now. I just had them set too dry.

[jahorgos]

Do a good size water change. Leave your lights off for a few days then start dosing microbacter 7.

I'm assuming you can tell that everything is moving when you say you have all that flow? I use 2 mp40ws and I can see everything in my tank that could move, move.

[milkit]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15592818#post15592818 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jahorgos
Do a good size water change. Leave your lights off for a few days then start dosing microbacter 7.

I'm assuming you can tell that everything is moving when you say you have all that flow? I use 2 mp40ws and I can see everything in my tank that could move, move.

yup its all moving. i have 2 koralia 4's and a dart return pump

[milkit]

just ran every test I had, here are the results.

salinity - 1.026 (calibrated refractometer)
ph - 8.1 (salifert)
ammonia - 0 (salifet)
Nitrite - 0 (salifert)
Nitrate - 15 ppm (api)
kh/alk - DKH 12.2 alk 4.34 (salifert)
phosphate - 0 or darn near 0 (api and salifert)
magnesium - 1600 ppm (salifert - dosing kent tech m for bryopsis)
calcium - 340ppm (salifert)

the only thing that really stands out is i'd like my calcium a bit higher. I have both 2-part buffer and just calcium supplement. I guess adding the 2 part would be a bad idea since my kh is high already..