Cyano on Sandbed

[Bryopsis]

BBash, Philosophile, you're bout spot on

I think that's the major problem with carbon dosing, finding that sweet spot.

I totally agree though msderganc, I hate the delays in reactions. lol

 

[msderganc]

In my experience, when I tried vodka dosing, I had huge blooms of cyano, even when I ramped slowly.... So if you were carbon dosing AND running biopellets (which is a form of carbon dosing) I would suspect that would be the cause.

Where is the effluent from the biopellets going? Most success stories with biopellets have the effluent going to a skimmer. You don't have direct all the effluent there, but if you can get the majority there that would help, I would imagine.

On that note, how often are you cleaning your skimmer? if it isn't pulling out all the bacteria, when the bacteria gets back into the display, it could die, and fuel more cyano.

I definitely agree that I was overdoing the carbon dosing, primarily to keep the tank parameters in check as the biopellets got up to speed.

I've got a neck cleaner on the skimmer, and I'm doing a full clean out every ~2-3 months. My effluent output is about 2 inches from my skimmer input. I have had a hard time with the skimmer (SRO XP 3000INT) getting consistent skimmate, but I think I've finally gotten it pretty dialed in.

 

[msderganc]

Update - I've left the sandbed alone for a while, except in one area as a test. The areas with less disturbance have cleared up, but the area which I stirred still has cyano.

It's also in a slightly lower flow area, but I definitely think the stirring was disturbing the beneficial bacteria and allowing the cyano to take hold.

Also - my phosphate has continuously read 0 (no GFO online) with nitrates varying between 2-4ppm by the Salifert test.

 

[sonic]

Any updates?

I've been going through basically the same thing as you but I don't do any biopellets, GFO, carbon dosing etc. It all started happening a couple of weeks after I upgraded my tank using all new sand, except a cup or so to help seed it. That was 3 months ago. Also thinking its the sand leaching phosphates...

 

[msderganc]

Any updates?

I've been going through basically the same thing as you but I don't do any biopellets, GFO, carbon dosing etc. It all started happening a couple of weeks after I upgraded my tank using all new sand, except a cup or so to help seed it. That was 3 months ago. Also thinking its the sand leaching phosphates...

Completely clear of cyano. In the end, I just let it sit until it ate all the phosphates.

 

[sonic]

That's good to hear. Did you keep running GFO? How long did it take to go away?