Algae Never to Cease?b

[Brock Fluharty]

Hey all! Well. I got my seahorses into their new 20 gallon tall tank about 2 months ago, and ever since then, I have been fighting with cyano, and nothing works. I am going to beef up the flow a little around the sand, probably with a small powerhead. I feed them one large meal, once a day. Their are only two capensis seahorses in their, and they are only about 3-4 inches each. Male and female. Not a very high bioload, IMO. They never transfer eggs either. I cannot seem to get rid of the algae. I am thinking of getting some live rock in there (base rock ATM). It is already cured, so I would take the base rock out. I am hoping if I can get enough live rock, it will help in biological filtration. Is there any way I can get rid of the cyano short of cooking everything in the tank? It is also all over the sand bed. It forms long strands, and waves around in the current. Very unnattractive IMHO.


Brock Fluharty

 

[ReefNutPA]

Hi Brock,

Sorry to hear you're having a problem with the tank. IMO, I wouldn't add any LR until the cyano problem is resolved. The cyano would cover the rock pretty quickly and make cleaning more of a chore.

In a relatively newly setup tank cyano outbreaks are pretty normal. It usually dies out on it's own with time. Barring that, just keep your water changes up and siphon out what you can as often as you can.

You don't want to only clean/siphon once a week or every other week. You need to do it a few times a week as the cyano comes back. Additionally, keeping the tank in the dark for 48 hours will help eliminate the cyano.

As far as your capensis go, I think they would fare much better on two smaller meals instead of one large meal once a day. Feeding once a day means they are going almost 24 hours without food until you feed them again....which could be making them less than happy = not in the mood to breed

Hope things improve for you!

Tom

 

[Sk8r]

There's Chemi-clean, and it's safe with corals and fish, but I don't know about seahorses and the microfauna they may need. I'd sure ask around with people who know them before using it. It does work within 24 hours to clear the stuff out. The fact that your tank is 2-3 months old---it's not uncommon, I'm told (my own is that age) to have a cyano outbreak. And again a year later---so I hear.

 

[hawkfish21]

I've used chemi-clean on my tank without a problem. Just make sure to do a large water change following treatment.

 

[luvabunny]

Chemi clean is seahorse safe. Used it numerous times with no problems.

 

[pledosophy]

Chemi clean does not kill all of the bacteria, hence all the people who will tell you they have used it many times. Why would you need to use a product many times if it works so well?

If you want to kill the cyano turn off your lights for 48 hours. The bacteria is photosynthetic and will die in 48 hours if it receives no light.

 

[Brock Fluharty]

They probably meant that they used it in many different tanks.

Thanks for all of the replies. I posted on SH.org, and they told me to get live rock, because the base rock could be leeching phosphates into the tank.

 

[pledosophy]

Brock, my internet love seeking friend.

IME with chemi clean I had to use it once a month on the same tank for about 6 months. It was the same system. After I did the "lights out" method the problem went away.

I believe the problem is that the chemi clean kills the weakest cells of the bacteria, leaving the strongest to reproduce. This means that the severity of the outbreaks would increase, as was my experience.

Base Rock, Dried Live Rock, and liverock, all have there advantages and disadvantages.

If it was base rock then it is likely that it would leach phosphates as well as certain metals into the system.

Dried LR tends to attract nuissance algaes until it becomes fully established with the surface bacteria's. IME dried liverock will not regenerate the anerobic de nitrifying bacteria's. They are slower growing and once the surface of the rock is covered in bacteria it is diffucult to immpossible for the anerobes to recolonize the interior of the rock. JMO

 

[Brock Fluharty]

Thanks Kev, lol. I didn't realize that was you.

It was actual base rock. Not dried LR. I took it out, and added about 40 pounds or so of live rock. I also added a powerhead, and I manually removed all of the algae in the tank. I am hoping that by all of these, I won't even need to do the lights out attempt, but I probably will anyway.

Reefnut,

I am going to start feeding smaller amount 2 (maybe 3, if I think I can consistently) times a day. With all of the above changes in the tank, they seem to be more flirtacious, and my male is really wanting some babies, so I am hoping that the smaller feedings will give them that one last shove towards breeding. Thanks again for all of the replies!

 

[pledosophy]

I wondered if you'd catch that or just think I was a some freak. Having different sn's is part of what we talked about before.

You won't be able to remove all the cells of the bacteria, best just to cut the lights IMO.

40lbs in a 20g is alot for sure. It is going to be hard to eliminate deadspots and still keep a low flow. I'd keep an eye, but you'll probably want to take some of that out.