where is my cyano coming from?

[boosst]

My tank is less than 3 months old. It is a JBJ 28 with PC's, 22lbs of live rock, 15lbs of live sand. I have 6 turbo snails, 2 nassarius snails, a cleaner shrimp and a couple of corals that i got for free. I do weekly 5 gallon water changes with ro/di (0 TDS).
phosphates=0
nitrites=0
nitrates=5
temp=78-79
alkalinity=3.5
total amonia=0
free amonia=0
salinity 1.025
PH=7.95 to 8.17

i have a hydor nano 425 and a MP10 for flow along with the 2 stock overflow pumps. i have chemipure elite, phosban, purigen, and filter floss in the back chambers. lights are on for 6.5 hours a day. i siphon out all cyano everyweek if not sooner. i use to have 2 clowns that died of ich and i fed frozen mysis(about 1/4 cube a day). now i feed about a tiny amount of mysis to my shrimp about 2 times a week. everything seems to be doing fine except for the cyano. i have now noticed it starting on 2 places on the rock. what can i do to help rid of this problem? thanks

[webbstock]

The cyano is part of a tank aging to some extent...it sounds like you don't have a huge problem with it. Since your tank is just 3 months old it may just be a "phase" as the tank matures. If i were you I would just wait it out a bit and hope whatever the nutrient source will be eliminated and the cyano will disappear.

Since you have only cleaner shrimp and a few corals in the tank, I would decrease the water changes significantly. (maybe once every 2 weeks - month) IMO people tend to change the water too often.. while your RO/DI reads 0 TDS, there are still dissolved nutrients/minerals in there (unless you have a $5K water purification system) and you weekly water changes may be adding the trace nutrients that the cyano is using to grow

If you get desperate, there are chemicals available..I have used UltraLife Red Slime Remover and it worked well with out major harm to my corals.

[boosst]

i have been siphoning out all the cyano every 3-5 days along with quite a bit of sand. it take me atleast 2-3 gallons before i get everything. should i not be doing this and adding new water? if there is a posibility that it is coming from my water, would adding prime to my ro/di water help any?

[fstar25]

red slime remover may be one of the best chemical products in the reef world. However, It is just a natural part of your cycle and you might want to try and let it run it's course (without letting it get out of control). I ended up using 1 treatment of red slime remover and mine went away and has not come back. That was 3 months ago.

HTH

[Sinful Aquatics]

+1 on the red slime remover... Takes less then two days to work

[boosst]

I will wait it out a little longer. What brand name is that red slime remover? I see chemi-clean and ultralife

[philipchan]

since your tank is not huge...a few (2~3) turbo snail should get things done in 2~3days.
If your NO3,PO4 are 0, once all the cayno is totally gone, they will not be back easily

[NanoReefWanabe]

cyano is not an algea...it is a bacteria...it is not living off the nutrients in your tank..i dont think it "eats" anything just lives and grows...your parameters and flow look to be good..what setting do you have the MP10 on...cyano is generally attributed to low flow, point a pump in direct contact with the cyano and the good bacteria in the tank will do the rest..FWIW, i dont think you need to go the chemical root of RSR...

did you buy the clowns with ICH? i would think animals dying in the tank would contribute to the cyano problem..

[boosst]

The mp10 is on reefcrest mode at about 65%. I lowered it in the tank a little...any lower moves sand. I will readjust my nano425 to the sandbed. I already have 6 fairly large turbos in a 28...isn't that plenty?
The clowns did fine for a few weeks and then icy happened. I did a freshwater dip after the first one died and then about a week later I lost the second. They were both removed from the tank within a few hours of dying.

[fstar25]

My Turbo snails never touched cyano. My LFS set up a tank full of cyano an experimented with different snails and they were the least...or 2nd least effective.

Flow first then red slime remover if that fails. Good luck.

~Frank

[brandon429]

cyanobacteria are mostly hitchhikers of one life stage or another and can also arrive as airborne spores, they are considered a ubiquitous life form like various green algaes, able to seed any habitable body of water both fresh and salt. I haven't seen any red varieties in freshwater tanks but if there are thats not a suprise.

their presence doesn't indicate problems as you've described it. like many other growths is an alternation of generations, each trying to gain a foothold based on your available nutrients in the tank. they can use atmospheric nitrogen in biological processes that can give them a temporary run even with clean tank params, just keep pruning it, dont alter anything. make sure your lights are not old bulbs. keep removing them, don't let them gain a foothold, and it'll stop eventually.

Id recommend a UV sterilizer any day over chemiclean or any other red slime remover if you want to cheat natural time=balance processes. my lfs has a $20,000 reef tank running high power UV for about ten years, its a great tank (UV may kill plankton but no ones tank lives on plankton so who cares, we have to feed our tanks) there are natural methods that work and are free, but I could see using UV as insurance especially with all that investment, I am not anti UV by any means Id keep one on a large tank or use one even if temporarily for your exact post reason.

you can buy an $80 turbo twist for the occasional bout of algae in all its wonderful forms. nice ich preventative as well.