Cyano outbreak

[nycman]

I have been battling a Cyano outbreak - the red/purple slime is covering at least half of my substrate and lower half of my rocks. It has been thick. I used Chemiclean a couple of times and siphoned as much as possible out of the tank with no real progress. I went dark for three days this week and it substantially reduced it, but it seems to be coming back. Nitrates, Phosphate all zero, all the time.

Here is what else I am doing...

1) Changed out all media on my 6 stage RO/DI unit from BRS. The TDS meter on the unit was showing 0 TDS on the DI output. I purchased an independent handheld tester and it was showing 2 to 5 TDS. Wow! So now I am producing 0 TDS water for salt mixes and ATO. Hopefully this will be the grandslam.

2) Went completely blue, deep blue and UV on the Mitras LEDS - no whites or other colors. 21000K. Reduced illumination to 8 hours.

3) Stopped fine or liquid feeding of fish or corals.

4) Increased flow - four WAV powerheads in a 180G tank. Returns pointed at front glass center.

5) Rinsing filter pads every day. Was only doing it once a week during water changes. They are really filthy by then.

6) Added a 100 micron filter pad just before the return inlet. Do a 50 micron when I am home and can monitor if it clogs. I am throwing these away after use, not rinsing them. Figuring that that fine a filter pad cannot be recovered?

7) Changing GAC weekly. Also running Purigen and ChemiPure Blue.

8) Increased GFO from 2 cups to 6 cups on a larger fluidizer.

9) Decreased water temp from 77 to 75F.

10) Emptied and cleaned ATO container - got rid of previously bad RO/DI water with Kalkswasser. Running 0 TDS ATO now - no Kalkswasser. Two part dosing only.

11) Aiming to change all water in system, using my new cleaner RO/DI water. Did 100 gallons today, probably will take a month to get rid of all bad salt water with previously bad RO/DI water.

12) Increased Skimming - was doing dry, now wet (1 to 2 inches of skimate per day).

Does this seem tangentially correct?

 

[RobZilla04]

I'm a little surprised to hear that Chemiclean was not successful. The list of aggressive moves, especially the large GFO increase could cause undesired results to coral health.

Increasing the frequency and volume of WC's with manual removal should put a big dent in the amount of Cyano. Once you have it roughly cut in half, perhaps try another rough of Chemiclean. Remember to follow the instructions exactly.

 

[mcgyvr]

How old is the tank?
depending on tank age I may just answer that cyano is serving a purpose and to let it do its thing..

I highly recommend not running GFO unless you have a phosphate problem which you absolutely do not.. You can do more harm than good by stripping the water of beneficial phosphates..

Also I'll comment that it looks like you set out to throw all the bells and whistles at a tank and nature has proven thats not always good.. All that equipment/media/filtration/uv/ats,etc... and you still have the same problems as everyone else or someone with a bare bones setup..

Just continue to siphon it out as you do water changes and it will go away in time..

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

Cyano fits a niche i the eco system of the tank, if you are experiencing a really excessive bloom it means the niche isn't being filled elsewhere,, I notice you are also looking at your refugium in another thread, perhaps reworking your fuge to create competition for the cyano may not be a bad idea.

Manual removal is one of the best ways to combat cyano as well because it is removing all the nutrients that things like chemiclean will allow to be re-released into the tank through simply killing the cyano.

 

[cedwards04]

I have been battling it as well and seem to have finally beaten it. Time will tell, but I've been nearly a month now with no sign of it so I think it's gone. I tried several 3 day black outs and they did not work.

Here is what worked for me. I siphoned out as much as I could manually, and then did a 5 day black out. When I unwrapped the tank, it was all completely gone. I then did a 30% water change every day for 4 days. That's it. No chemicals. I did turn my whites down as well, but I honestly don't think that affected the cyano. I'm running 40% blue and 5% white with sb reef lights.

 

[nycman]

Great feedback ppl...thanks.

Yes, I am probably trying too much stuff, too aggressively, too fast. The tanks is 7 months old and may be running a natural course.

Am thinking and hoping that the bad RO/DI water may be the culprit and that now that I am producing 0 TDS water, the water changes and 0 TDS ATO will help in the next month or so. Will likely not do any more chemical remedies nor blackouts.

Interesting re. the GFO. I have taken away from my readings on the subject that zero phosphates is the goal, and that you can't overdo the GFO. I can easily go back to 2 cups of GFO running 24x7 on a 180G tank. I am also running a 56 watt UV sterilizer at a relatively low <800 gph flow rate. I did notice a week ago that the casing tube was entirely calcified - I restored it to crystal clear using ESV and a razor blade. Finally, rinsing the filter pads more frequently has resulted in much less crap being squeezed out of them - this can only help.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[mcgyvr]

Interesting re. the GFO. I have taken away from my readings on the subject that zero phosphates is the goal, and that you can't overdo the GFO.

Totally wrong.. :thumbsup:

both nitrates and phosphates are essential nutrients required by all marine organisms..
An excess can be an issue but a true zero nitrates/zero phosphates (not gonna happen likely) would mean that nothing is living in the tank.. They all require it..
The real goal is both in measurable amounts but still low..
2ppm of nitrate and .03ppm of phosphate or something around there is a good starting target but even higher than that may be better..

I would back way off that GFO and let your readings creep up to the .03ppm level and maintain it there..

Some have even resorted to dosing both phosphates and nitrates as the found that ULN (ultra low nutrient) systems aren't ideal and their corals were better off after letting the nutrients creep up..

 

[JohnnyHildo]

agreed with above.
one thing I always pay attention to when reading about those regarded as the "master" reefers is the fact that none of them claim to use any chemical intervention and even things like carbon and gfo are only occasionally used.
from this I basically get that the goal is achieving chemical and biological stability and all adding chemical does is delay that or force the system to react in another way, many of which are worse off than the original issue. you see this often with impatience with gha where the hobbiest runs straight to fluccanozole and ends up a couple months later with dinoflaggelletes.
most times things just need to run their course!

 

[LQT]

Be very careful with stripping out all your nutrients like PO4and NO3. While cyano may be a pain, you don’t want to create too sterile of an environment where dinoflagellates rear their ugly head. Cyano is a cakewalk compared to a dino infestation.

 

[mborn]

13) Siphon/vacuum/remove as much detritus as you can from your substrate and rocks.