Cyno Gone but Why

tnias

Member
Most people don't complain about when things clear up in their tank but I am trying to understand things better. A little history.

I had a 150 gallon tank in the wall that had been running for 4 years. The chemistry was in decent balance but I had a little cyno that was always there. If I kept my Alk between 11-12dKh and the cal at 450-500 it seemed to go away. However, it was always difficult to keep that balance because the more I put in the tank the more my corals would grow and need more, so a constant adjustment. I use BRS cal and alk with some grain alcohol to keep everything in check.

During a regular cleaning, I noticed the top brace frame had broken and the glass was bowing about 1/4". The tank is setup in my office and below our suite is a doctor's office with a very expensive machine and no floor drain to alleviate the potential water, if I had a catastrophic failure. I immediately switched to my old 75 gallon tank while we wait for our new office renovation to be complete; which we are getting a new 225 gallon drop off tank from Miracles anyways. The fish can handle their original tank for a few months. There are only 7 fish at the moment anyways.

I added the 75 gallon and reconnected all the plumbing. I have been too lazy to reconnect the alk, cal, and alcohol. I am not even running my skimmer. What has surprised me is that my tank has never been this pristine and everything is growing well, although in a much more crowded environment. The only difference I can tell is that now when I do my water change, every other week, I am replacing approx. 15% of the water versus 7%.

Here is my question. Is the greater amount of water change alone keeping the chemicals in better balance or the fact the the return pump is cycle the system more because it is probably oversized for the 75 gallon tank. Or both? When I setup up the new tank if it is as simple as increasing the water change % or more flow that is a lot easier to maintain than dealing with the constant adjustment to the doser pumps.
 
No one knows..Cyano comes and goes and very little concrete facts are known about it..
Lots of theories/assumptions/wives tales,etc...

It comes and goes and often for no known reason.. Its just life..

Increased water changes may help...same with increased flow...same with a proper balance of nutrients..or many other reasons...
 
I agree that microbes are unpredictable. I don't know what's happening, and tanks seem to respond very differently to reasonably similar treatment. Sigh!
 
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