Lights out didn't rid Cyano?

Spar

New member
2 weeks ago I did a 3-day lights-out period to get rid of Cyano. In certain spots in my tank it is taking over pretty bad. Last time I did lights-out it fixed the problem and didn't see Cyano again for almost a year.

My parameters seem OK, so not sure why I am getting the Cyano.
Salinity 1.0245
KH 8.5 dKH
Calc 485
Mg 1350
NO3 0
PO4 .02 (Hanna)

What other stats are necessary to figure out why this is continuing even after the lights-out period?
 
I have found keeping the lights off singularly useless in battling algae/cyano - treats the symptoms, not the cause. Best approach to cyano is to siphon as much of it out as possible and reduce phosphates. Run GFO.
 
I would have thought .02ppm is ok for po4 but it is nearing time to replace my gfo. The effluent reads 0ppm still though.
 
Several points: 1) how is your sump? If you've been having a buildup of detritus and have a sump sandbed, it might be worth it to close down the sump for a few hours and give it a good cleaning. Trust the DT sandbed to 'carry' the system as it recovers.
2) are the drapes letting autumn sunlight to the tank? Slanted sunlight can be a problem.
3) how's the skimming? As your tank matures and gets a big bioload, remember that part of the lights-out treatment is removal of the 'stuff' from the dieoff. If your skimmer is underpowered for your current situation, it could be part of the problem.
I'm using a new stuff recommended by my lps, and the jury's still out, but it looks encouraging: it's in a Phosban reactor, it's NPX Bio Beads, and it advertises it removes both Phosphate and Nitrate over time: slower than Phosban, but more broad spectrum: you set it to tumbling in the reactor (there's an adapter screen that keeps it from going through the holes) and theoretically it forms a bacterial biobed that uptakes both and processes them for the skimmer. I CAN definitively say that since I started this stuff, my underpowered skimmer is producing a wealth of dark skimmate, so it's getting something.
The jury is still out on the product, but I'm encouraged.
 
I would have thought .02ppm is ok for po4 but it is nearing time to replace my gfo. The effluent reads 0ppm still though.

Problem with phosphate and nitrate, there is always some there :(

Best thing I have done recently is to add an algal turf scrubber to my tank. Both PO4 and NH3 are below measurement threshold of my test kits. Side benefit is that the ATO grows pods like I have never seen in any of my tanks; though it out competes my chaeto which has died out. Can't have everything I suppose.
 
Sk8r . I also added a bio pellet reactor purchased from Jeff at Reef Dynamics. What he explaned to me is that most of the reactors have no controll of flow through reactor. I have one running for one month now and the phosphated went down first the nitrate's are comming down slower . The pellets work like a machine not knowing when or how much to removing , they have a valve to flow through reactor.
 
how old are your radium bulbs if old and everything else thats the first thing i would consider, next change your ro membrane, are you diligent about changing the carbon prefilter in the ro? figure out where the phosphates are coming from. to get it out of the tank siphon and water changes, tooth brush your rocks, it could take months but you can beat it just gotta get the phosphates out... gfo will work as a band aid but it makes a mess and rusts all you piping.
 
Thanks all. I will spend some time to figure out the PO4 issue. I had been getting ~2-4 TDS out of my RO/DI unit for the past couple months, but fixed that up a week ago, and am back at 0 TDS. I will test that water to see if PO4 is in it somehow.

Re: Circulation - the worst area of Cyano is in one of the most turbulent spots in the tank. I have 2 MP60's and my returns (2 Dart Pump's) for circulation, estimate it gives me ~40x turnover. There are some areas with minor Cyano in the back that gets low flow though.

Re: Sump - The sump is only 1 year old and looks fairly clean, but are a couple areas that I could give some attention to (cleaning).

Re: Sun - there is about an hour a day that a slant hits the tank - hadn't considered that - possible that is why the lights-out wasn't effective?

Re: Skimmer - has been going crazy for the past week, hard to keep a handle of. It is a 500g rated cone skimmer (Super Octopus), so shouldn't be undersized, especially given I have very low bioload for my volume.
 
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