Hi RC friends,
I've had my reef tank for almost a year now. It's a great Reefer 350 system. I went big from the beginning, getting mostly top notch equipment.
LEDs: 2 Radion Pro XR30s
Skimmer: Vertex Omega 150
Return Pump: Sicce Silent 4.0
Propellers: 1 MP40WQD and 1 MP10WQD
Controller: Neptune Apex (2016 Model)
Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
RODI: BRS 6 stage system
Reactor: 1 reactor (combo of Carbon and GFO)
I've basically gone through all the ups and downs imaginable (at least I think) throughout the first year. I got bit with ich in my display tank, adjusted my quarantine procedures, and things have been stable since from a livestock point of view. Sand is a different story...Even though i have virtually no algae on the rocks, stupid cyano continuously pops up, on my sand only. It is a very thin layer and cannot be scooped up. Once I stir the sand it goes away, but eventually comes back within 24 hours.
I am using high quality salt and water, along with a rigorous change schedule. Water measurements are consistently good. Here are my numbers from Sunday.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.014 ppm
Nitrate: 2 ppm
Phosphate: 0
I understand that a 0 phosphate reading may mean that its getting sucked up by the algae, but like I said before, there is barely any visible algae anywhere except the sand. Here are some steps I have taken to get rid of the cyano.
Chemi-Clean (good results at first)
Dose for 3 days with zero lights. Works great at first (though annoyingly screws up my skimmer for a while), but the red coating on the sand eventually comes back.
Reduced Light Intensity (doesn't do much)
My radions are pretty powerful. I reduced the percentages throughout the entire day. For example, my current setting only goes over 50% intensity for 2 hours per day. The rest are between 5% and 15%. Total of 8 hours of light. No green or red lights used.
Adjusted propeller water flow (doesn't do much)
I've changed the placement of my power heads and messed with different type of currents to enable a "cleaning" period each day.
Clean-Up Crew
I've got plenty of snails and crabs, a Fire Red Shrimp, and even tried a sand sifting star before it died. They don't really eat the red coating on the sand.
Water Changes
As a standard, I do a 30% water change every other week. For a period of time, I was doing 20% changes every few days. I cannot keep up with any more water changes, and it doesn't seem to be working.
Supplements
I originally did not have any reactor installed, but added a Carbon/GFO mixture. I change this out every two weeks. The water is really clear and I get good PO4 readings, but theres still a red/brown coating on the sand.
I am at a loss on where to go from here, which is why I am asking the experts...I love the fish, corals, and aquascape in my system, and I even have some cool coralline algae growing. The hideous sand is the only thing preventing it from popping.
Here is an example pic from today.
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I've had my reef tank for almost a year now. It's a great Reefer 350 system. I went big from the beginning, getting mostly top notch equipment.
LEDs: 2 Radion Pro XR30s
Skimmer: Vertex Omega 150
Return Pump: Sicce Silent 4.0
Propellers: 1 MP40WQD and 1 MP10WQD
Controller: Neptune Apex (2016 Model)
Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
RODI: BRS 6 stage system
Reactor: 1 reactor (combo of Carbon and GFO)
I've basically gone through all the ups and downs imaginable (at least I think) throughout the first year. I got bit with ich in my display tank, adjusted my quarantine procedures, and things have been stable since from a livestock point of view. Sand is a different story...Even though i have virtually no algae on the rocks, stupid cyano continuously pops up, on my sand only. It is a very thin layer and cannot be scooped up. Once I stir the sand it goes away, but eventually comes back within 24 hours.
I am using high quality salt and water, along with a rigorous change schedule. Water measurements are consistently good. Here are my numbers from Sunday.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.014 ppm
Nitrate: 2 ppm
Phosphate: 0
I understand that a 0 phosphate reading may mean that its getting sucked up by the algae, but like I said before, there is barely any visible algae anywhere except the sand. Here are some steps I have taken to get rid of the cyano.
Chemi-Clean (good results at first)
Dose for 3 days with zero lights. Works great at first (though annoyingly screws up my skimmer for a while), but the red coating on the sand eventually comes back.
Reduced Light Intensity (doesn't do much)
My radions are pretty powerful. I reduced the percentages throughout the entire day. For example, my current setting only goes over 50% intensity for 2 hours per day. The rest are between 5% and 15%. Total of 8 hours of light. No green or red lights used.
Adjusted propeller water flow (doesn't do much)
I've changed the placement of my power heads and messed with different type of currents to enable a "cleaning" period each day.
Clean-Up Crew
I've got plenty of snails and crabs, a Fire Red Shrimp, and even tried a sand sifting star before it died. They don't really eat the red coating on the sand.
Water Changes
As a standard, I do a 30% water change every other week. For a period of time, I was doing 20% changes every few days. I cannot keep up with any more water changes, and it doesn't seem to be working.
Supplements
I originally did not have any reactor installed, but added a Carbon/GFO mixture. I change this out every two weeks. The water is really clear and I get good PO4 readings, but theres still a red/brown coating on the sand.
I am at a loss on where to go from here, which is why I am asking the experts...I love the fish, corals, and aquascape in my system, and I even have some cool coralline algae growing. The hideous sand is the only thing preventing it from popping.
Here is an example pic from today.
