cyano trouble

[adamatic]

Hey guys - the dreaded red beast has struck my tank. I have a cyano outbreak it appears. I'm not freaking out but I am asking for some good advice.

I don't have the water params - more out of laziness than anything else. The interesting thing is that I did a 20%WC last week. I have a 72gal tank and I use RO water so it seems kinda strange. Could the RO filters need replacement? Most of the cyano appears near where the highest flow is...

My current plan is to reduce the lights by an hour, reduce feeding to every other day, buy new RO filters and then do a manual gravel vac when I have enough new water to replace it. Any other suggestions?

 

[pk1]

I ran into the same problem, strange that mine happened right after a WC also. What salt if I may ask? Here is my thread. FWIW-not sure what got rid of to be honest. It went away after it had covered basically every surface in the tank that was made of calcium.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=903080

 

[nmprisons]

maybe it believed in the "grow or die" theory popular in the 80s?

 

[stewymaroon]

Try emerald crabs?

 

[TheGent]

Huh.. Thats funny that it's digging the high flow areas. Can you 'turkey baster' any of it, or is it in there good? Is it on the sand bed too?

 

[sugartooth]

Do you know of anything going on in your town as far as water treatment goes? Sometimes the village does some change 2X a year and it seems that cyano trends w/ it. But it also depends on what town.
Dunno if that's a possibility here...

 

[adamatic]

Funny you should mention the city's water - there was a notice on the door when i went out earlier. It said they would be working on the main next week. Maybe there was a problem in the last few weeks and now they are finally getting around to fixing it.

I even called the water department's water quality surveillance desk and they said they'd get back to me...

I'll be so ****ed if it was me polluting the tank with crappy city water even tho I'm running an RO unit. Do I need a better unit? I heard that all the filters are made by the same manufacturer anyway....

 

[sugartooth]

Yep, it would be nice if they could tell you more so you can be prepared (if it is indeed what's happening)
At least, if you can find out their treatment schedule? Maybe you can correlate when things happen in your tank and when the treatments happen? At least that way you have the option of buying water elsewhere just during those times.
You may not need a better unit, but when these "treatments" happen, it may be that you need to change your membrane or filter parts because it gets dirty fast, then some of your water is not getting filtered properly.
It's just a guess, I don't want to get you upset unless there is more evidence.

 

[pk1]

Probably an RO/DI unit would be better than just an RO, do you have a TDS meter so you can test your water? Also, what salt where you using???

PK