cyano...

[rafal07013]

For the last 3 weeks I have been dealing with mild case of cyano outbreak. I cant figure it out causes of it and not sure where to look next.

a) RODI reading - 0
b) bulbs - ATI T5 6 months - is it possible??
c) phosphate reading - 0
d) no more frozed food and less feeding - I feed less than I was feeding 2 months ago and there were no problems than.
e) major water change
f) extra flow

where to look next? I am leaning towards changing bulbs, filters on RODI - but it seems highly unlikely as the cause. i have done major water change (50% or more) and still at night something appears on the sand. am I missing something?

 

[Patriot76]

how old is the tank? i swear every tank will go thru a phase of cyano regardless of water quality and lighting. i think it is just part of a maturing process. i just try to syphon as much of it as i can and keep up with consistent water changes. eventually it will pass. good luck!

 

[JRWOHLER]

I believe and this is just my opinion that it comes with the summer water temp rise. As soon as my temp hits 80 I tend to get my share. I too am going to rotate out some bulbs. But again my feeling is temp is to blame...perhaps a lower O2 level due to the higher temp? No corals look bad and nothing else changed.

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

I believe and this is just my opinion that it comes with the summer water temp rise. As soon as my temp hits 80 I tend to get my share. I too am going to rotate out some bulbs. But again my feeling is temp is to blame...perhaps a lower O2 level due to the higher temp? No corals look bad and nothing else changed.

I too believe it is a season change. all 3 tanks in the family in seperate houses get it around the same time

Taz

 

[rafal07013]

it kind of makes sense - last 2-3 weeks - never had the problem with it when the temp was below 80. does it go away once the temp goes lower around Sept?

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

I siphon and do water changes and get rid of it as soon as I can, so It is not around in Sept. My father doses chemi-clean so I can't really answer that question from experience.

Taz

 

[ken6217]

Hate to burst your bubble. No nutrients = no cyno. Don't blame the temp or lighting. Those two things could exacerbate the situation but will not cause it.
Zero phosphate reading does mean no phosphate either as whatever is in the water column could be used up by the algae and to some extent the corals and therefore not showing up on your test kits.

I have had my 90 gal SPS tank setup for three years and ran into a cyno problem about 6 months ago. This was with zero nitrate and zero phosphate using Salifert test kits. For a couple months I did 15-20% water changes every two weeks. No change. Added a HOB refugium with cheato. No change. Changed my Rowaphos. No change. Then I started to siphon out the sand under the rocks in the back and gravel siphoning the sand elsewhere in the tank as well as blowing off all the liverock with a Maxijet 1200 and BING0, WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

Probably all of the above combined to beat the problem but it seemed like the gravel siphoning was the key.
Ken

 

[rafal07013]

I will have to do that in this case. I have cut back on feeding, increased flow and water changes but didnt think about gravel siphoning. how do you do that without taking sand out of the tank?

 

[ken6217]

Just use one of the gravel siphoners (I think Marineland makes it) and stick it in the sand let the crap come out and shake it to let the sand come back out. A very very minimal of sand may go into the bucket. I could not believe the cloudy water that came out of the tubing into the bucket.

I do not have a deep sand bed. I have sand in the tank just so the tank wasn't a bare bottom. If you happen to have a deep sand bed that you set up for NNR etc, I do not think you can siphon that as you will let out hydrogen sulfide and then cyno will be the least of your problems.
Ken