cyano spots

[princesuhaib]

I have noticed a few spots of cyano on my sand bed? what is it? how did it occur? what can i do to get rid of it?
any info would be great!
Thank You

 

[aznnutty]

if it's a new setup, it's bound to happen. high phosphates, over feeding, lack of flow.. a few of the things that can cause cyno

 

[princesuhaib]

It is new just a tad over 2 months, its a 75g and i got a K4 and K3 on either side and a return line directly in the middle, so it can create really awkward current movement. Will it go away with more water changes? or what will make it go away? or not come back?

 

[aznnutty]

have you tested your phos levels? if it's high, run some gfo, or a phosphate pad. if it's a little, it's not too much to be concerned with. it use to come and go when i had my 75g up.

 

[osu133lbs]

Do you have, are you using RO/DI?

 

[mshrmhd]

I don't know if I had cyano or red slime (or maybe they are the same?) but when I read about the causes there was 2 things I was doing that could have caused it, lights on too long and poor water flow... didn't have timers so my lights were on when I got up at 730 AM till about 9 PM.... and only had a small HOB filter moving water...

I added a small power head and it stopped appearing.. so my problem was waterflow.

the algae was kind of a brownish red if I remember correctly... it grew on sand and rock.. pulling it off sand was easiest but it took some sand with it... air bubbles kept growing under it.. if that is the same as your situation.. pulled off in sheets real easily..

 

[laskopyre]

Red algae and cyano are the same thing. It's a bacteria that grows in sheets. Mostly due to excess nutrients in the water. This would be phosphates and nitrates. Even with a phosphate test, you would get false readings. Cyano holds phospates, and the reading would be lower then it truly is. First thing is to attempt to remove as much of it as possible from the sand and rocks. Second, lower the amount of food fed or cut back the number of times fed. This will help lower nutrient levels. You should also cut back the amount of time the lights are on. Nutrients is the cause of cyano/red algae. There are tons of threads about cyano, cause and possible cures.

 

[princesuhaib]

Yes I do have an ro/di unit

 

[princesuhaib]

I have my blue lights on for 12 hrs daily and my white ones on for 10 hrs daily.

I have just upgraded to 48" 6x54 Nova T5's

 

[d-maz]

Cut them back to 10 and 8.

How much are you feeding? How many fish are in there?

 

[princesuhaib]

I have cut them back just now to 10 and 8!

 

[sohal1025]

I had the same thing happen when I added more live rock and rearranged some of the old ones around. Think it just stirred up some bad stuff pulling the rocks up from the substrate...... just keep doing H20 changes before adding any kind of supplement, IMO!!!!!!!