Why cyano? Thought I was doing everything right..

[Aquaman101]

I've got some cyano growing on my sandbed and a tad bit on some rock.

I can't figure out why it's showing up. The tank is 5 months old and it consists of 100 pounds of marco rock and a 1" sandbed.

I seem to have plenty of flow as the strands of cyano coming off the sandbed are whipping all over the place.

I use premixed saltwater from my LFS.

I have an in-sump Precision Marine Red-Line skimmer.

The sump is pretty new. I do have a good sized fuge section in it, but the one caveat is that I don't have any cheato yet.

I do a 10 gallon water change every week and blow the LR off with a powerhead prior to changing the water.

I feed frozen mysis shrimp sparingly on M, W, F every week. I do rinse it off with RO water before it goes in the tank.

What gives? Is it still new tank syndrome?

[Ranchero]

5 months is still a bit early and you can still have some cy outbreaks. Im curious about that water you are using from your lps. Have you considered getting your own ro/di unit?
Blowing the rocks could also be causing it maybe
Try and siphon as much of that as you possibly can to get it out of your tank

[Blown76mav]

I thought Cyano was a bacteria problem, I think I even read somewhere that some cyano will even thrive more with more constant water changes.

What are you using for top off? I would assume you don't have an RO/DI unit due to getting your saltwater from a lfs. If your using tap water for top off this could lead to all sorts of issues.

Turn the lights off for 3 days, it should go away.

[Aquaman101]

5 months is still a bit early and you can still have some cy outbreaks. Im curious about that water you are using from your lps. Have you considered getting your own ro/di unit?
Blowing the rocks could also be causing it maybe
Try and siphon as much of that as you possibly can to get it out of your tank

I've wondered if my LFS water is to blame.

I plan on getting a BRS 5 stage RO/DI unit as a Christmas present to myself :)

[Nomad37]

Are you sure it's cyano? Sounds like it might also be dino's?

[Aquaman101]

Are you sure it's cyano? Sounds like it might also be dino's?

It's definitely cyano. It's dark red and covers the sand like a matt.

It's easy to suck out, but I don't have an umlimited supply of saltwater to replace what I pull out since I have to go to my LFS 10 miles away for water.

[Aquaman101]

I thought Cyano was a bacteria problem, I think I even read somewhere that some cyano will even thrive more with more constant water changes.

What are you using for top off? I would assume you don't have an RO/DI unit due to getting your saltwater from a lfs. If your using tap water for top off this could lead to all sorts of issues.

Turn the lights off for 3 days, it should go away.

I use RO/DI water from my LFS to top-off as well.

I've heard that dino's thrive with water changes, but haven't heard the same for cyano.

I do sometimes turn out the lights, but the cyano just comes right back after a few days of the lights being on.

As for my light cycle it's 1 hour actinic, 6 hour full light, 1 hour actinic then lights out.

[plyle02]

cyano has to do with excess nutrients in the tank, rock, or sandbed... It is true that it can survive through low nutrient conditions, most likely in those tanks driven with a carbon source/bak system. IME where nutrient depletion of N&P were not balanced. Cyano nearly drove me out of the hobby a few months back, lost nearly all my corals, as more issues came about while running zeovit system. I later found an issue with my refractometer and this is what killed many of my sps, low s.g., not tolerated in zeovit system. The problem with cyano is that as the corals exposed their skeleton, the cyano took grip and posed as the culprit to corals dying, I am sure it did not help... Point of my experience is that cyano is nasty, and quite hard to get rid of. Sure you can just use slime remover every time you get an outbreak, but I was unable to skim for a couple of weeks with major water changes and carbon changes, this ultimately leads to higher nutrients which cause new nuissance algaes to come about. Alright to your issue.

1. 5 months, still early and expect cyano and hair. tank maturation takes usually a year, sometimes longer. When you see coraline algae everywhere on your rock, overflows, and back wall of tank, this is a good sign, as are sponges, tube worms, critters, etc... a sign of total tank health.

2. check the lfs water, what type, po4, no3, alk, ca, mag, s.g.(don't trust their water, I would mix my own)

3. syphon out all cyano you can during water changes. I personally run a sock, so I would siphon right down into the sock in the return section of sump all pumps running. It collects their, does not interfere with skimming, I simply siphoned, removed sock, did water change, replace sock... This really helps...

4. Clean up crew. I love serpent stars, hermits, nassarius, conchs, etc for leftovers, I also think bristle worms are very effective at cleanup.

5. Test NO3 and PO4 at least once per week, once you get used to your corals and your tank, you will know if you have issues through observation.

6. If not running carbon, I would strongly consider running actively in a reactor.

7. You may have a PO4 issue, simply running gfo in a reactor will help to drive those nutrients out, NO3 usually aided through liverock, chaeto(if using), and skimming. What goes in must come out, importation of nutrients should be matched with proper exportation.

8. Lastly, make sure you are as balanced as you can be with alk, ca, and mag... I have experiences where low mag has thrown me out of ionic balance, once fixed, later noticed nuissance algaes on the decline, many speak of running a higher than NSW value for mag to help keep algaes under control.... JME...

Hope all this helps....

[Aquaman101]

cyano has to do with excess nutrients in the tank, rock, or sandbed... It is true that it can survive through low nutrient conditions, most likely in those tanks driven with a carbon source/bak system. IME where nutrient depletion of N&P were not balanced. Cyano nearly drove me out of the hobby a few months back, lost nearly all my corals, as more issues came about while running zeovit system. I later found an issue with my refractometer and this is what killed many of my sps, low s.g., not tolerated in zeovit system. The problem with cyano is that as the corals exposed their skeleton, the cyano took grip and posed as the culprit to corals dying, I am sure it did not help... Point of my experience is that cyano is nasty, and quite hard to get rid of. Sure you can just use slime remover every time you get an outbreak, but I was unable to skim for a couple of weeks with major water changes and carbon changes, this ultimately leads to higher nutrients which cause new nuissance algaes to come about. Alright to your issue.

1. 5 months, still early and expect cyano and hair. tank maturation takes usually a year, sometimes longer. When you see coraline algae everywhere on your rock, overflows, and back wall of tank, this is a good sign, as are sponges, tube worms, critters, etc... a sign of total tank health.

2. check the lfs water, what type, po4, no3, alk, ca, mag, s.g.(don't trust their water, I would mix my own)

3. syphon out all cyano you can during water changes. I personally run a sock, so I would siphon right down into the sock in the return section of sump all pumps running. It collects their, does not interfere with skimming, I simply siphoned, removed sock, did water change, replace sock... This really helps...

4. Clean up crew. I love serpent stars, hermits, nassarius, conchs, etc for leftovers, I also think bristle worms are very effective at cleanup.

5. Test NO3 and PO4 at least once per week, once you get used to your corals and your tank, you will know if you have issues through observation.

6. If not running carbon, I would strongly consider running actively in a reactor.

7. You may have a PO4 issue, simply running gfo in a reactor will help to drive those nutrients out, NO3 usually aided through liverock, chaeto(if using), and skimming. What goes in must come out, importation of nutrients should be matched with proper exportation.

8. Lastly, make sure you are as balanced as you can be with alk, ca, and mag... I have experiences where low mag has thrown me out of ionic balance, once fixed, later noticed nuissance algaes on the decline, many speak of running a higher than NSW value for mag to help keep algaes under control.... JME...

Hope all this helps....

Thanks for the info.

I've had a dual BRS reactor running for a about 3 weeks now. It has 3 cups of GFO and 1/2 cup of Carbon in the other.

Come to think of it, when I do go to the LFS, there are several tanks with diatoms, etc.

I suspect the LFS water and a bit of new tank syndrome. I should have some cheato in my sump next week.

[plyle02]

sounds like you are on the right track, just siphon what you can, and do regular water changes, perhaps increase quantity or frequency of the changes. When time or funds allow, I would strongly recommend getting RODI and topping off with zero TDS and water changes with zero TDS. You could eliminate that as a cause. Continue rinsing foods and perhaps look at quality flake or pellets. You will beat it, just don't get frustrated, stay on top of things and it will go away.

[Aquaman101]

sounds like you are on the right track, just siphon what you can, and do regular water changes, perhaps increase quantity or frequency of the changes. When time or funds allow, I would strongly recommend getting RODI and topping off with zero TDS and water changes with zero TDS. You could eliminate that as a cause. Continue rinsing foods and perhaps look at quality flake or pellets. You will beat it, just don't get frustrated, stay on top of things and it will go away.

This is the RO/DI unit I plan on buying:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/75-gpd-ro-di-5-stage-plus-system.html

Anyone have any opinions about this device?

[Floowid]

That is a fantastic RODI. You will be happy with it.

plyle02 said everything. Follow those recommendations, and learn to roll with these kind of things for about the first year of a tank.

[awdboxer]

This is the RO/DI unit I plan on buying:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/75-gpd-ro-di-5-stage-plus-system.html

Anyone have any opinions about this device?

That's the same RODI setup that I have. It's awesome and I highly recommend it.