Cyano, Aiptasia and no PE.

A

anilme

New member
Hi Members,
This is my first post in this forum, I have been a silent listener/ learner for a long time to this wonderful forum.
Have learned a lot from all and have always admired the wonderful tanks of RC members from all across the world.

I am from India, started my 110 gallon tank as a FOWLR in Jan 2010, initially had few softies and mostly fishes.
Lighting was 6x24W T5HO. Had a bad time controlling nitrates, due to lack of good skimmer and of course knowledge.
Skimmers cost a fortune here in India, especially the likes of Reef Octopus, Marine Sources etc.
Was using a weipro 2014 skimmer with a 3500 l/h pump, but it was just for namesake.
Had to pull down the setup due to excessive growth of GHA.

Started afresh later by July,2010 with less fishes, upgraded lighting to 2x150W MH, Boyu skimmer and 130 pounds of LR.
Later on added a reef octopus NWB110 skimmer also to the setup, nitrates were under control.

By Jan 2011, added my first SPS, an acro (dont know the species, cos here we get only corals collected from wild).
Wild SPS were hard to survive, most of it won't even get past the acclimatization, but managed few frags.
I did not notice any growth until I upgraded the lighting to LED's by Sep 2011, SPS started encrusting well but I started losing zoas, anthelias, mushrooms, GSP also stopped growing.

What is happening with my softies ? 

2 weeks back I got a consignment of yellow milli, blue acropora, purple acro and cluster acro (don't know the actual names, will post pics).
Drip acclimated all.

Tank parameters

Ca "“ 480
Alk "“ 9.5
No3 "“ 0
Salinity "“ 1.025
Ph "“ 8.2
Lighting "“ 60x3 W LED's (DIY) running at 450ma.
Mg "“ don't have a test kit but do add MgSO4 once a week.

Inhabitants "“ yellow tang, powder blue, maroon clown, 3 green chromis, 1 mandarin, 1 anthias

Supplements for Ca and Alk "“ Randy's two part ( Recipe 2)

Now my concerns "“
I do not have a PO4 test kit, have been getting cyano in few parts of the tank. Weekly suck them as part of water change but it's still not going off completely. This started after I introduced a powder blue tang, had to feed him lots 2-3 times a day.
Now I have reduced feeding , but Cyano and Aiptasia has started growing and spreading. I have Chaeto in my refugium lit 8 hours a day in the night and I am dosing 10ml of vinegar daily.
I'm nuking aiptasia with kalk paste but they are too strong in numbers to be defeated.

My blue acro hasn't shown any polyps so far :uhoh2: , while the purple acro has got cyano on the dead branches and one or two polyps turning white (hope it's not STN).
Is this something which I should be worried of?

Milli was white when I got it, now slowly turning to yellow with good PE.

Also, anything I need to do to get rid of Phosphates ? No chemicals or GFO is available here :uhoh2: I am feeding only once in 2 days and 5 gallon water change every week.

Please suggest.

Thanks,
Anil
 
I know there are plenty of suggestions to get from other similar threads, but some soothening advice would reduce my tension :fun2:
 
Acros like a LOT of flow... If you dont have enough that Cyno has a place to settle you dont have enough... Secondly .... Test.. Get the kits do the test, make sure you have the correct things along with pictures... Its hard to help with little information on here. I dont like LED b/c each are different. If you dont know the par value of what you have then well.... You just have a light in my opinion.... I have nothing but tangs and I too feed at least three times a day ususally but you dont have to dump it in... just sit there with them and watch them pic it off, if they eat it all and none hits the bottom then keep putting in little bits at a time..

There is no Blareing "the problem is here" sign other than you need to know ever parameter.

Do the Acros show any PE at night?
 
Thanks Mock. LED's were exported from fd-led after reading few threads from RC. Flow is around 10000 l/h using 3 pumps, I will post the pics tonight. The Blue acro does not have PE even during night.When i received it, it was totally white but now slowly turning dark,I guess its the blue tip acro.
I would have tested PO4 but I couldnt find one anywhere in India, here corals as pets are banned as per wildlife act; so most ppl keep a low profile.
 
Cyno is formed from a stran of bad bacteria that can come from new frag being introduce to the tank. From you constantly putting your hands in the tank not doing weekly water changes. Alot of things.
The only way to ride your cyno problem is to us ozone or UV or dose red slime Remover.
Your best bet is to dose Red Slime Remover for 48h turn off all skimmers gfo and carbon . After 48h do a 40% water change and turn on all equipment.
 
Thanks batt600, I will try UV. Red slime remover is not an option for me though due to its unavailability.
 
Yeah you really need to take care of that cyno it sends out spores in the tank that will attach themselves to the sps causeing a bacterial infection in the sps and cause stn from the base
 
My advise would be to get a Hanna PO4 checker, and find out what your PO4 actually is. Heavy feeding of tangs will certainly raise your PO4 level, making SPS keeping difficult to impossible. Also a TDS meter to test your incoming RO water. It should also read 0. How about flow in your tank? Cyano loves low flow, so additional power heads would help keep it off the rock/corals/sand. I would also recommend a Mag test kit. I rarely have to add magnesium, but know that others do.
It's too bad that you cannot get GFO as that would greatly help your cause. I would increase your water changes to 10 gallons per week, as long as the TDS is 0. Skim wet and keep the skimmer cleaned and tuned up. I like to use a turkey baster and blow off the rocks while using filter socks for mechanical removal, and change them every day.
I have tried many methods of aiptasia removal-berghia, copper bands, peppermint shrimp, but the best way I found is to cover them with kalk paste. Just do several a day, and you will be rid of them before you know it. Good Luck. I hope this helps...
 
Thanks Ghostman, I need to concentrate on water quality much more seriously as I dont have access to GFO.
I will tune the skimmer to skim wet, use UV.
Probably once nutrients are reduced Aiptasia should die on its own.
I do have a refugium with chaeto, its lit by a PLL (36W) but dont see much growth.
Also, my softies dont show much of a spurt in growth, I have a branching hammer with 4 main heads since almost an year and it has never split.
 
Do you run carbon? That may help sps from the toxins that some softies put out. If only aiptasia would go away on its own, but that is wishful thinking. They will typically overrun everything!!!!
 
I do run Carbon, Changed around 10 gallons of water and put in a UV, reduced the photoperiod to 6 hours, vacuumed the sand and rocks of Cyano, seeing a little improvement in Cyano growth ; it seems to have reduced or my brain is making me think positive :-) . Blue acro has started showing polyps here n there, no fully extended but slightly out.
 
I guarantee that You Cyano is coming from Phosphates in your RO/DI water and the High Feeding you are doing. Cyano and thrive on very little Phosphate in the system, and even when your water levels are reading 0 Phosphates but has Cyano, that just means your Cyano is fixing the Phosphate within itself.

Also your regular dosing of Carbon (vinegar) is providing even more food for the cyano to thrive. You might want to cut back on your carbon dosing until you get your cyano under control through control of your phosphates.

As for your Apstasia, get a Coral Banded Angel and they will all be gone within 3 days.

Her is my suggestion to fix your Cyano Problem, when if followed, will eliminate it from your system forever inside of two weeks:

1. Get this test kit and get an ACCURATE reading of your No3 & Po4:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store...sea-algae-control-multi-test-kit-no3-po4.html

Oh, and UV will not work.

2. Then order 2 of these:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/phosban-reactor-150.html

Inside those two seperate reactors run:
A) Bio Pellets: http://www.marinedepot.com/Two_Litt..._-Two_Little_Fishies-TL42240-FIFMBOBC-vi.html
B) GFO: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/1-75-pound-794-grams-bulk-gfo-high-capacity-ferric-oxide.html

3. Do daily 20% water changes for a week. and then continue with 20% water changes weekly.

The Bio pellets will create a more controlled release of carbon dosing for your system and the bacteria will simply exit through your protein skimmer. Best to have the effluent from that going as close to your skimmer as possible. The GFO will drop your phosphates to 0 no matter how much you feed, and it will keep it at zero. The water changes will help regain stability in your system faster without shocking the inhabitants or the bacteria your trying to foster.

Unbalanced water parameters and excess nutrients are whats causing your cyano break out. This solution will fix it for you in 2 weeks, maybe less.

OH, and UV has some benefits in the reef aquarium but it will not get rid of Cyanobacteria.

And OH! only 5 gallon water change on a 110 tank with I am assuming maybe a 40gal refugium? thats 150 gallons. You should be doing 20% water changes per week if you have water quality issues which is 30 gallons a week! once everything is under control you can maintain with 15 gallon water changes a week :)
 
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No prob, I've got a majano problem I'm working on and was looking for a natural predator and thought there was another option. Copper band wouldn't make it a week with my agressive tangs.
 
Water change and less photoperiod seems to be doing good as of now. Patches of them are still there, vacumming those parts during water change.
But have a small concern regarding the purple acro, few polyps have turned white, doesn't look like tissue loss, basically this is happening with polyps not directly under the light. Could it be STN ?
 
Just to chime in...the Copperband is a butterfly fish....not an angelfish. Unless there's an angelfish I've yet to hear of.
 
Congratulations to everyone in correcting the name of the copper banded butterfly, you win the internet.

As for aggressive tangs, well maybe you can remove them and reintroduce them all at the same time? Worked for me and mine.
 
Update : Not much improvement in reducing cyano.

Need advise : Can i do a 3 days night out, I have few freshly introduced frags (3 weeks old) which are trying to get used to the system. Will no lights for 3 days cause any problems ?

Please advise.
 
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