Cyano on my sand bed is gone!

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi y'all,

Some of you might remember that I was battling cyano ever since the re-aquascaping I did back in October.

After exhausting just about all the tricks to get rid of cyano except for chemicals, I replaced my sand bed in the front of the tank with new aragonite sand last Sunday.

I am very happy to report my sand bed has stayed clean for the past few days. I still see a tiny patch or two on the old sand bed which I could not get to easily, but the patches are not spreading so far, knock on wood. Before the sand bed replacement, even if I removed cyano by suctioning and scooping out, I could count on it to be all over the sand bed by the next afternoon.

It's very strange that 3 years old sand bed of my 120 suffered from the bad cyano outbreak while my much older sand bed in 15 gallon nano never does any length of time - goes away very quickly if I happened to induce it by overfeeding Golden Pearls.

Tomoko

 

[NicoleC]

Perhaps the 15g has a better sandbed residents that do a better job?

Glad to hear the cyano is gone, although you may be jumping the gun a little on declaring a cure. I have my fingers crossed for you.

My tank is doing MUCH better but it's still very cloudy and greenish-brown. I think I will have to break down and treat with a flocculating agent and plenty of fiberfill. At least then if it is a nutrient problem feeding the algae I'll be exporting it much faster than the 50% daily water changes I have been doing to fight it.

It that doesn't work... well, I'll stop doing water changes, I guess. That's usually the fastest way to crash a culture.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I don't know what strain of phytoplankton you have, but larger ones can be cleaned up for good usually with a diatom filter. It's a common trick for getting rid of a fresh water phyto bloom.

I don't know why my 15 gallon reef is so durable. It's been a joy for the past 6 years. I've done major re-aquascaping there, too, but without any issue. I suspect that 120 had more quantity and variety of sand bed critters, but I am afraid that cyano managed to chock quite a bit out of the bed in the front of the tank. Hopefully it can recover quickly now.

Tomoko

 

[timrandlerv10]

Tomoko,
Our cyano outbreak in the old sump (in a new stand, so completely covered) was cleaned up in about 6 days after i turned the sump light off--thanks!
My new 10g nano still has tons of green algae, but i caught the rainfordi eating some today I'm going to scrub a good deal off, hoping that newer/younger algae is softer and more appealing to him. I have had the red macro in there get VERY washed out and almost translucent though.
The nanno and rots are doing fine, and I've started harvesting rots every other day to try to make the population a little younger.

Thanks for all the info!
tim

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I am glad that your phytoplankton and rotifers are doing well.
If your red macro is botryocladia, your temp or light may be too high. It seems to like relatively low to medium light and a temp below 78 degrees F.

Tomoko

 

[timrandlerv10]

100w on a 10g is too high then

 

[NicoleC]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11726613#post11726613 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tomoko Schum
I don't know what strain of phytoplankton you have, but larger ones can be cleaned up for good usually with a diatom filter. It's a common trick for getting rid of a fresh water phyto bloom.

Know a quick and easy DIY diatom filter? I currently run a HOB filter on that tank, but just with a bag of carbon in the back. I don't think running a bag of DE in that back would be as effective as you'd hope.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Someone was making one with a powerhead and a DI cartridge sometime ago. I really don't know any plan, though, although I don't mind finding one to polish my display tank water periodically. I understand that a Magnum filter was produced to replace a diatom filter. I wonder if we can get one used cheaply somewhere....

Tomoko

 

[NicoleC]

Hagen has powerhead attachments for the AquaClear powerheads.

The flocculating agent is working great. It's still murky in there, but I can actually see the back of the tank! And the amount of goop on the filter media is pretty impressive after only a couple of hours. I dosed a little light, too, because I wanted to watch for any reactions. My lobophyllia corals opened up for supper -- which makes sense -- but other than that, nothing.

 

[timrandlerv10]

i bought one of those magnum filters, ($15 @ lfs?) and mounted it on the end of my first return pipe before the sump. works great...i siliconed a pvc endcap on the other end to close it. no DE, just the filter so far.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Sorry, I meant to say a Magnum 350 canister filter with micron filter cartridge (more like $90 to $100). It supposedly polishes water down to a few microns level. A regular diatom filter polishes down to 1 micron, but it's a bit cumbersome to use it.

As for the DIY diatom filter, a powerhead is connected to a whole house filter type container fitted with a 1 micron prefilter instead of DI cartridge container.

Tomoko

 

[timrandlerv10]

Tomoko-
That's how much the canister filter cost when I went--but I only bought the 4 micron paper filter part. It could be down to one if I used the DE stuff. It really did make a difference--but I need to stir more 'stuff' up in the display to get it to overflow...I really wish I would have had it on a 'suction' method so I could vacuum it instead of waiting...

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I suppose that you are using their micron cartridge.
I know of a System One's Diatomaceous Earth/media cartridge, but I was not aware that Magum filter has a D.E. cartridge. Is their "DE stuff" a type of media case with diatomeceous earth in it?

Tomoko

 

[timrandlerv10]

its a paper-looking round filter with pleats. they have a packet that you can buy seperately to add that is the diatomaceous earth in it. no DE, 4 microns. DE, 1 micron.

a) does that make sense?
b) does that answer your question?
c) do i get points for attempting to spell diatomaceous?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thank you, Tim. Yes, that answered my question. I may consider using a HOT Magnum in the future.

I was using a pair of 200 micron filter socks during the cyano problem. This seem to reasonably polish the appearance of the water, but I found a number of micro stars, amphipods and tiggerpods when I rinsed the filter socks in a bucket. The fear of catching them was the reason why I had never used the socks before.

I am considering a Enkamat-needle wheel mod on my ASM skimmer. I have not found any critters in my skimmate so far to my surprise (I find a lot of pods in my phos media reactor.) I hope that the mod will not get them sucked in since it is designed to increase the air/foam volume and not the flow rate through the pump.

Tomoko

 

[jrthomas40]

i keep getting some under the sand bed around the front of the glass

 

[mltmtascp]

Tomoko,
Is your cyano still gone? We have this problem but I think I have determine what is causing it. We have a window that is up high in our aquarium room that lets in some afternoon sun that shines on two of our aquariums. These both have a problem where the sun hits them. I am going to try to put up some kind of sun blocker. The window is triangular shape and will be hard to cover. Hopefully this will help. I don't want to replace our sand bed. That had to be a JOB!

Monica

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi Monica,

Yes, cyano is gone

My 120 is by the west window and the sun sometimes hits the tank, but it never had any cyano issue until I did the reaquascape scattering tons of old detritus everywhere. My 15G also gets sun light in the morning in winter, but it never has a cyano issue.

Cyano in my 120 was covering everything that the MH light hits. Although I believe cyano is usually caused by the nutrient issue (N and P), CO2 and light is also a part of their nutrient/energy equation. So blocking the sunlight may help you.

As for replacing your sand bed, I suspect that your sand bed may not be old enough to be the cause unless you feed your tank too heavily and you don't have enough sand bed clean-up crew. The sand bed in my 15G is approximately 6 years old.

If an excessive amount of light is the cause, whether it's from MH bulb, too long of a photo period or the sun light, turning off the light for 3 to 4 days should solve the problem without harming the corals. It's worth a shot once you get your sun light blocked.

Tomoko

 

[kg4izw]

I have been following this thread quite closely as I have been battling turf-like hair algae for 2 months now, present only in areas of direct light via the Halide.

On a side note, is it true that green algae/phyto/etc. in the water column can be neutralized with a UV sterilizer?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I have not used a UV sterilizer myself, but I have read many reports that phytoplankton can be eradicated with a use of a UV sterilizer or a diatom filter. It does not have any effect on filamentous algae, though.

Have you tried a few Mexican turbo snails? They are supposedly short lived in our reef tank, but they are probably the best algae eaters.

Tomoko