Cyano and nutrients

[griss]

18 months is still a very, very young tank IMO. I’d be interested in you PO4 levels. When I had the worst case of Cyano I’ve ever had, it turned out it was because my NO3 and PO4 levels were out of whack.

Go slow, don’t make drastic changes and keep doing what you’re doing…regular water changes, maintain parameters.

 

[wvned]

These
Hanna Ultra Low Range Phosphate Checker reagents

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Oddly things are worse than usual and kind of came out of nowhere. The stuff looks red under blue light but complete brown under white light. Looks like instead of guessing, just gonna have to get a microscope to determine wtf it is lol

 

[Radicalrob1982]

I believe due to the outstanding issues and the longevity of it, I was assuming the worst as this has been an issue for quite a long time.

I was able over the last few weeks, change salt to fritz rpm from seachem vibrant sea, which literally mixes like dog poop lol.

Finally got a decent sized clean up crew of about 5 astrea and 2 star astrea, a small conch, and a few nassarius snails. I also recently picked up some rowaphos for po4 and silicate removal, mainly silicate removal. I understand I still require some patience and good husbandry skills, but wanted to share a picture of my tank since it finally looks like I'm on the road to a better healthier system

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Rowaphos has been kicking ass. Since adding it, it's seemed to really knock back the po4. My Hanna ulr reagents should have been here today but will likely see them in the morning and can finally test po4. My corals are all happier since adding this stuff as well. Musta had a crap ton of po4 in the water that wasn't readable due to the diatoms. Since adding the rowaphos, that brown cinnamon stuff is barely able to make a presence. But still little bits in areas with low flow

 

[griss]

Rowaphos has been kicking ass. Since adding it, it's seemed to really knock back the po4. My Hanna ulr reagents should have been here today but will likely see them in the morning and can finally test po4. My corals are all happier since adding this stuff as well. Musta had a crap ton of po4 in the water that wasn't readable due to the diatoms. Since adding the rowaphos, that brown cinnamon stuff is barely able to make a presence. But still little bits in areas with low flow

Sounds like great progress.

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Finally got my Hanna reagents. Po4 last two tests was 0.03 and 0.05. this is great that I'm able to measure it and the diatoms not being much present, have allowed some detectable po4 in the water. No3 is about 12 ppm

Sand hasn't looked this good in a long time.

I think the end of this lately has been a majority of diatoms, but still find it extremely strange that this stuff appears red under blue light.

Will continue with weekly 25% water changes and will monitor my no3 and po4 weekly. Mag seems to have dropped but am slowly bringing it back up to 1300 to 1400. Alk seems a bit low at 7.5 but have been dosing 2 part to slowly bring that up as well.

Maybe now that the nutrients aren't being absorbed by dinos, my corals are able to now use some which is also absorbing alk consistently.

 

[griss]

Sounds like good progress.

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Hi all, just providing an update

I can see now a clear relationship with this diatoms/cyano type stuff and high phosphates.

Been able to keep a consistent reading of 10ppm no3. However, my po4 is staying practically steady at 0.1.

Only seem to have the majority of this stuff in dead zones, but it does accumulate throughout the week on my sand, but very light.

I think due to my rocks being old from my previous tank , it's very likely they are leaching po4 as for the first week of more that I used rowaphos, the diatoms/cyano stuff was almost non-existent, but still managed to keep po4 at about 0.5.

Think I need to run rowaphos on a monthly basis, then monitor to remove this excess po4.

 

[griss]

Sounds like a good plan. Yes, the old rocks are likely leaching phosphate.