Cyano outbreak

[jparadise]

Here is my problem. I have a 110 gallon tank 48x24x30. It has been set up for 9 months. I have been growing multiple SPS corals over the last few months without any problems. I have a 7 in blue hippo tang, 4 in sailfin tang, 3 in orange shoulder tang, lawnmower blenny, scooter blenny and 2 blue green chromis. I do weekly tests and try to do bi weekly water changes. Over the holidays I have slacked off quite a bit. I havent done a water change in about a month. I moved the tank to my new house in November. Right before the move I had a small patch of cyano break out on my sand bed. Now over the past month the cyano has grown. I noticed today that it was on a few SPS corals. It is all over the sand bed and on some of the rocks. So far this is what I have done to help eliminate this.

I have 1 Koralia 4, 1 Koralia 3 and 1 Koralia 1 for water movement. I have tried moving them around to get the best water flow to cover any dead spaces.

I changed my lighting schedule and cut 1 hour off my MH time.

I run carbon but no phosphate remover. I am waiting on some to be delivered.

I run a Reef Octopus NW110.

With my bioload is this skimmer sufficient to remove nutrients and waste?
How can I get a better nutrient export?
Would 1 MP40W be better for flow than the 3 Koralias?

[newnanoman]

I had a SWC NW-200 skimmer I believe they are made by the same company but it didn't work very well in my 90 gallon with a light bio-load. I'm in the same boat as you except my tank has been setup for about 2 years. I didn't do any water changes for about six months because I was remodeling my house.

[jparadise]

http://i1000.photobucket.com/albums/af125/jparadise05/colten12006.jpg
http://i1000.photobucket.com/albums/af125/jparadise05/colten12007.jpg
http://i1000.photobucket.com/albums/af125/jparadise05/colten12004.jpg

[sedor]

An mp40 will provide a broader, more random flow. It will definitely help get flow throughout the tank. What I would do to get started is cut your lights off completely for 3 days. This will not hurt the corals and should give you a kick start in helping the cyano die off a bit. After that get in there and manually remove as much as you can.

On the topic of mp40's, I just put one in my 48" tank and its definitely got some power. I really like the flow, but I will probably add another to the other side of the tank eventually. So far I don't feel like the far side away from the pump is getting as much flow as it should.

[Sk8r]

Partly it's just about time for this to happen--nine months. Or 3. Seems to go that way.

Turn your lights out for 3 days a month, 4th day on actinic only to let the corals wake up naturally.

Shield your tank from stray sunbeams at ALL hours of the day...
And skim, once you get dieoff: skim passionately.

Also google this stuff: you've got some interesting reading ahead.

[jparadise]

What about the skimmer? Do you think that size is sufficient for this bioload. I do not plan on putting anymore fish in the tank.

[bertoni]

I know nothing about that skimmer, but if the bloom persists, I'd look into reducing feeding, adding a phosphate reactor, or upgrading the skimmer. People in the equipment forum might know more about how well that skimmer works, although there's no objective data on the subject.

[jparadise]

THX for the advice

[jparadise]

Bump. Anyone else want to put there 2 cents in on this problem.

[dawaterboy]

Something is feeding the cyano, and it probably isn't just your light, and lack of flow. It looks like your rockwork is pretty open so your flow might not even be an issue. Another k4 may give you enough flow, and it wouldn't even cost you a quarter of what an mp40 would. Do you have somewhere to put macro algea? You didn't really say how big your sump is, if it has multiple chambers, or if you use tap water for that matter. I would read as much as you can, and not just on this site. CHEMICLEAN makes a real good redslime remover, but most people will tell you not to use chemicals. Regardless of how you remove the stuff, if you don't find out what is feeding it, it will be back before you know it.

It also looks like that skimmer is only rated for 100 gallons so you may want to look into a bigger skimmer before you spend all that coin on an mp40!

[jparadise]

I have a 36 gallon sump with a refugium full of cheato. I only run RODI water. It always reads zero. I have checked it with 2 different TDS meters. I am waiting on some rowaphos. My plan is to do a large water change and try to siphon out as much as possible. Then run GFO and carbon and see what happens.

[gtfourmn]

Turning off the light didn't work for me when I had my initial cyano bloom, but religiously siphoning and increase flow did the trick for me.