Long Explanation Follows: Please Bare With. I have questions.

[dicearx]

I had a 20 gallon reef tank and after about 3 months or so I saw some cyano bacteria starting to develop, I wasn't too worried because it's, from what I've heard, new tank syndrome. I am a college kid, so, over Christmas I brought my tank home, my corals, my live rock, my fish, etc. Everything survived. I had my tank at home for one month, in which time my cyano got out of control, I could barely stand to look at my own tank, I didn't know what to do. It had covered rocks, and the sand. (My tank was a 20 gallon, 20 lbs LR, pair black Ocellaris, cleaner shrimp, various corals (big fan a mushrooms so a fair amount of those, other softies, and hammer), and the late edition, over break, of a bicolor blenny, 130W PC, AC70 modded into a fuge). In an attempt to kill the cyano over break I kept my lights off for a day, and my cleaner died...
But, never-the-less I stuck with it, and Christmas break ended, so I moved my tank back to the dorm where I am to live for the next few months. However, my friend had a 40 gallon tank, with a 192W pc setup, that wasn't being used. Thinking that was a shame I decided to upgrade during the move.
I went out and bought a CPR bak-pak, an aquafuge, 50 lb. play sand from home depot, 2x Seio 620s, 55 lb base rock. And when it was time to bring back my tank to the dorm I upgraded. I seeded the play sand with a couple pounds of my current sand. Put all my live rock in the tank (the base rock was ordered on line and had not yet come), used 25 gallons of new water, and I was set. Added my corals, and my fish when the water was clear. Everything was good, for two days. Then my bicolor came up dead and I noticed my clowns breathing funny. So I took my clowns out and put them in my friend's tank, where they are now doing fine. After having my tank up for one week I've done one 6 gallon and one 4 gallon water change, added all my base rock. I am not yet skimming and my fuge is not yet working, bad pumps for both. But my reef is doing fine. I just got my water tested and it came up:

0 ammonia
0 nitrates
0 nitrites
7.9 ph - low I know, I have since used buffer
1.025 sg

But since I have no fish in my tank I am not feeding, but I still have cyano, not nearly as bad as before, but still there. My questions are this:

Should I still have cyano?
Should I test for phosphates and silicates (in the past week I have used Kent Marine phosphate sponge twice)?
Would the cyano be feeding on anything other than phosphates and silicates in my tank, since I am not feeding?
Would it be safe to put my fish back in my tank?
I am also on a 4 hour light cycle, to try and kill off the rest of my cyano, which I know is the reason for my low ph, would this help in my cyano problem, or just create more problems?

Thanks a lot for your responses!!!

***With the above tests I am running a 40 gallon with 192W PC, 2x 620 Seio, AC70 modded fuge, with 75 lbs rock total (base rock has been in for three days now) (within the next few weeks I plan to have my bak-pak, my aquafuge, and another 42 W t5 actinic running in my system as well). I see brittle worms a fair amount, but I have not seen any of my obsoletus snails in a while, but I only had like 8, although one did die a few days ago.***

What of this should I be alarmed about?

 

[outy]

sounds like you set your tank in a cycle , either way a 100% water change would not hurt or keep enough water too keep what you have alive and change out the rest you got some bad water in there now

 

[outy]

sounds like your not using ro/di water and red slime is not new tank S

man you have depleting oxygen right and left poor your tank with all the transporting on a new tank

big water changes my friend now not tommorow

 

[RichConley]

What are yuo using to measure your salinity? You could be running lower than you think, and that will cause the low PH.

 

[Pandora]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6629727#post6629727 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by outy
sounds like you set your tank in a cycle , either way a 100% water change would not hurt or keep enough water too keep what you have alive and change out the rest you got some bad water in there now

I agree that you threw your tank into a new cycle (you should really consider your tank "new" as of the December move), but I absolutely disagree with the 100% water change suggestion. Radical very large percentage water changes are rarely a good idea, and 100% is almost never a good idea. This will just make your re-cycling issue worse, and feed the cyano further. Do a series of 20% water changes (every week or twice a week), and don't add/make radical changes to the tank. Time is sometimes the only remedy.

 

[dicearx]

a refractometer was used to measure my salinity. And you would think I am cycling even though I have no ammonia or nitrates?

 

[Pandora]

dicear: Water straight out of RO (mixed into SW) will also have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates. Very few established tanks will have 0 nitrates once they are cycled. I suspect all your values may be above those, but that the test kit may not be catching all of the spikes, because there have been so many changes in your tank since the move. I would get it retested at the LFS just to make sure your test kits are still ok, too.

 

[dicearx]

umm...it was all tested at my lfs, I don't have any test strips of any kind. Sorry if that was unclear.

 

[Machine is Organic]

Pandora is right: when you added your sand and new water into the tank it basically put it through a mini-cycle. My only suggestion is to keep any livestock in your old tank for a while to let the tank finish its cycle.

Beyond that, the cyano could be caused from a number of things. I had a cyano outbreak in my 75 gallon years ago and found that the water flow in my tank really affected how much cyano I had. When I increased the flow the cyano slowly went away and has not returned in mass quantity.

HTH
Callie

 

[reefshadow]

Probably a mini cycle as suggested, but I think it was probably coupled with a drop in the ph and oxygen, and an increase in co2. In my experience this is why fish/inverts often die at night, as it is then that the ph and o2 become even more depressed. Often fish will live through a mini cycle but they cannot tolerate it coupled with the depressed ph and oxygen.

A skimmer is a big help to keep the water oxygen saturated and blow off co2, but if not possible, water movement should be increased, also helpful to agitate the surface with a powerhead.

Make sure your alkalinity is high enough as well, it will help prevent a radical drop in ph.

Higher alkalinity, ph and flow are also good for eradicating cyano.

 

[180Gallon]

Just an idea. When you said 50 lbs of play sand, was it south down? The wrong play sand from what I remember is full of silicates and other bad stuff that might conribute to your cyano.

 

[demeyer2]

He got the new sand after Cyano was there.

 

[dicearx]

I posted about play sand and the majority said the play sands contain silica, which can break down into silicates over time and through enough pressure.