I'm still struggling with cyano in my tank. A couple of weeks ago I asked for guidance and the general concensus was to limit phosphates and run GFO. On Tuesday I put 2 units of Chemi Pure Elite in my filter. Additionally I have fed only frozen mysis and Rod's food for the past 2 weeks (no pellets). Still no change. Does it take longer? What else can I do other than manually remove?
Now what?
- Thread starter Foody
- Start date
Conesus_Kid
Premium Member
Frozen mysis and Rod's are some of the most nutrient-rich foods you can put into your aquarium.
I would feed only New Life Spectrum pellets sparingly, keep up with water changes, siphon cyano patches out, run GFO, and use a turkey baster to "puff" detritus off the sand and rocks. If you're not already running a filter sock, it might not be a bad idea to add one. Check the TDS output of your RO/DI system and make sure it's zero.
And it will take a while... :sad1:
I would feed only New Life Spectrum pellets sparingly, keep up with water changes, siphon cyano patches out, run GFO, and use a turkey baster to "puff" detritus off the sand and rocks. If you're not already running a filter sock, it might not be a bad idea to add one. Check the TDS output of your RO/DI system and make sure it's zero.
And it will take a while... :sad1:
saltyscotsman
New member
I had some algae problems and cleared them up with VODKA dosing it worked for me
Conesus_Kid
Premium Member
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Feeding flakes is like fertilizing algae. A quality pellet like NLS that gets consumed quickly is one of the least-polluting ways to feed your fishes.
Feeding flakes is like fertilizing algae. A quality pellet like NLS that gets consumed quickly is one of the least-polluting ways to feed your fishes.
Depends on the pellet. The only pellets I feed are New Life Spectrum. And I feed A LOT of them to my spawning clownfish. I probably feed about 15-20 good sized pinches (thumb, index, and middle fingers) a day to my 90 gallons (12 fish). I have no issues with cyano (or any other algae), but I skim pretty wet, run a filter sock, and have about 75 pounds of rock in the sump. Water changes are done very infrequently (like once every couple months).
The key is to feed only what the fish will eat. I know exactly how much food to feed. They eat a lot, but none of it sits on the bottom of the tank to rot either. The tanks have absolutely no rocks in them, so the fish don't miss anything.
Do you turn off your powerheads when you feed? If not, try that. Less food will end up getting pushed under rocks to rot. You will probably end up feeding a little less because of this.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Lots of good advice and I don't mean to pick, but I woud change this to "the key is to feed only what you are exporting."
Nusiance algae is more or less a symptom of high nutrient levels (coinciding with other favorable conditions, but nutrients are typically the limiting factor since you can't limit the other conditions i.e. availability of light, and so on).
It really doesn't matter if fish are eating the food you're putting in, or even if the food you're putting in is "high" or "low" in nutrients. What matters is the end state of the nutrients you put in the tank. If a bit of food sinks to the bottom of the tank and decomposes, nutrients are available to algae. If, instead, a fish eats the piece of food and then craps it out, nutrients are available to algae (arguably in a more quickly usable form). In either case, it's up to you to remove the nutrient from the tank, or at least bind them in some stable manner (GFO, algae scrubber, etc) until they can be removed. If you want to feed more, or you want to feed foods high in nutrients, you need to scale your export appropriately. IMHO there isn't really a "bad" choice of food from a nutrient loading perspective, there are only mismatches between choice of food and choice of export mechanism.
Nutrients in minus nutrients out equals nutrients accumulated in the tank, which is what algae live on. Balance the equation and the algae go away.
I really don't feed very much. It's hard to quantify it but the vast majority of the food is consumed in a minute or so. Plenty of cleaner-uppers, too, such as hermits, CBS, nassarius snails and turbo snails. Mostly mysis with a small pinch of Rod's for smaller mouths. I'm going with "give it time" at this point. All the rest I do...water changes more frequently than most, blowing ditritus from rocks, etc.
Very true Nate. However, if you can't "keep up" with the nutrients that a fish excretes (after using most of them), you've got major problems. Feeding your fish for 2 minutes, slowly, making sure that everything is actually eaten, is plenty, and you really shouldn't have to worry about how much the fish excretes.
I'm a firm believer that lots, maybe even most, people overfeed their aquariums. Everyone needs a clean up crew, but to have your tank jam packed with snails and hermits doesn't make sense. I'm not saying the OP does, but there are lots of people that do.
I'm a firm believer that lots, maybe even most, people overfeed their aquariums. Everyone needs a clean up crew, but to have your tank jam packed with snails and hermits doesn't make sense. I'm not saying the OP does, but there are lots of people that do.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
all good advice!
all good advice!
except STOP blaming the lights... or sunshine :deadhorse:
all good advice!
except STOP blaming the lights... or sunshine :deadhorse:
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Agree with everything you said. The only amount of food that makes sense is the "right" amount to keep the fish healthy, and the only nutrient export toolset that makes sense is the "right" toolset that balances your inputs.
