Cyano help or maybe not...

[Customride0105]

I been fighting cyano now for about 6 mths. If not longer. Showed up out of no where.

Little back ground tank has been up and running for 7 years. We moved 3 years ago to new house. All went great. Had my ups downs. But at the new house I have noticed I can not grow any alage in the sump. All my lps don't do well. But my sps love it. Figured water was just too clean. Then cyano came...


Tank is a 450 gallon set up.
About 600lbs of live rock.

Alk 9.3
Cal 420
Mag 1450
Phoenix. 03
Nitrate .05
Sal 26

1lb of gfo.
Calcium reactor
Kalk maxed out

Nothing else gets added to the tank
Ro unit
0 tds.
Well water tested
Before and after ro unit.

Nothing will grow in the sump alage wise. Tried several different types from different people.


I do water changes every Sunday I do around 50 gallon.

I do have a dsb but it's there where cyano is forming it's actually on the rocks and my frag racks.

I have 3 mp40s 2 rw20s 1 mp40 and a very large return pump.

Proline skimmer is a diablo 250 ext with varios 6 pump

Now here's the kicker I notice way better growth when there is more cayno than when there's only a little.

I'm guessing the cayno is eatting up something the corals don't like. But all sps has great pe with or without out cayno. But even larger extension with more cayno. Will leaving it hurt anything other than the ugliness of the cayno. What's the worst that would happen if I let it grow. Since I can't get any alage to grow in the sump. Buy cayno will grow there.

I take week to week photos so I notice the growth more with cayno than with out. I did up my gfo to 1.5 lb and that's when I noticed more cayno growth.

 

[Customride0105]

Forgot lights

3 400 watt Hamilton select ballast running 400 watts.
20 radium bulbs

4 led black boxes for supplemental light

 

[bertoni]

I am not sure what's causing the changes in polyp extension. Do you have a phosphate reading? Is that what the "03" is? How much food is going into the system per day?

 

[Customride0105]

Damn auto correct.

Phos. Is .03

Food is feed every other day
Around 2 cubes thawed washed in ro.
Once gone 2 pinches around 60 pellets total.
30 at a time only when all are gone the 2nd pinch is added..

Mind you this is 14 Fish. And some times they go 3 days with out food. Everything is healthy not fat but not skinny.



Bulbs are 3 mths Old.



Pe is insane when cayno is in full bloom lol

 

[bertoni]

Well, this is going to take some thought. I'll try to post back in a bit.

 

[nolanrob123]

Cyano is a real beast. Thrives on the smallest amount of nutrients. When was the last time you changed your RO filter?

 

[Customride0105]

2 weeks ago.

I think I figured out the problem.

I'm running a external skimmer.
So my overflow goes to my skimmer. SKimmel then goes to my sump. So gravity fed skimmer. My gfo is after the skimmer so it has to go threw the sump the back to the dt. When it drains from there it finally makes its way to the skimmer.

So I'm trying new gfo back to 1 lb. Now my gfo actually goes to my overflow box to go directly to the skimmer. I'm hoping that will have some effect on it. Il report back.



Any one know the actual side effects of cyano are? Let's say I don't fix the problem. Yes it maybe ugly but if I syphon it out weekly when I do water changes to keep it to a minimum. Would any thing bad actually happen.

 

[bertoni]

The tank might be fine with the bloom. Some cyanobacteria might release toxins, but as long as the corals are doing well enough, you could ignore it. I'd keep GAC on hand, and water for changes. The cyanobacteria might be a sign that the filtration is at the edge, and it might not take much to cause problems. On the other hand, the tank might never have a problem.