So,bummed

[Spectorman]

I am so,bummed. Once again,there's cyano in my tank.
The tank is fed a pretty healthy meal once a day.
I have a reef octopus skimmer that's over rated for my system, an ATS......I use a biopellet reactor that has either biopellet,carbon,and denitrator pellets. There's a lot of pumps to stop dead spots.
Of course,I do pretty regular water changes too. 10 to 15% of my volume.
Last year when I started this new tank I told myself I'd never put a chemical in the tank and took every precaution necessary. I just put chemiclean in the tank.
My phosphates are almost undetectable and my nitrates are 5-10ppm. I'm blown away.
I've used it many times. I know its reef safe but, I'd still rather not use it at all. It's only a little but,still.

 

[fearyaks]

Question - is your tank near(ish) to a window? Sometimes as the seasons change so does light hitting the tank.

 

[Jade5051]

The biopellets could be causing the cyano.

...I use a biopellet reactor that has either biopellet,carbon,and denitrator pellets...

When you say this it sounds like you are switching between the 3 types of media in one reactor. If I were going to do biopellets I would run them all the time. I wouldn't change the biopellets out for anything else because I would lose the bacterial colony and have to rebuild it which could be problematic.

I'm sure you are skimming all the effluent from the reactor if you aren't then you will want to start doing that. Make sure the amount of pellets you have matches the bioload as too many can also cause problems.

Also, many hobbyist have reported much better results with biopellets when they are using a recirculating reactor and a recirculating skimmer.

I hope this helps.

 

[Spectorman]

Question - is your tank near(ish) to a window? Sometimes as the seasons change so does light hitting the tank.

Nope,not near a window.

 

[Spectorman]

I have run the biopellets in the reactor for roughly 6 months. According to the biopellet pkging I am running the correct amount. I've yet to see "0" cyano. Maybe I stated incorrectly.... I'm not switching out media like every couple of weeks or days. It's months. If I don't get the desired results I switch.

 

[insane]

You have to leave the biopellets in there for them to work.

Switching them out for something else is like taking the live rock out of your tank every so many months. You are removing the biological filtration that they are doing. The biopellets don't exhaust like carbon does.

 

[Spectorman]

I understand that. After 6 months of continual use ,I've seen no,change in the tank. That was the point. If there is no change .....why use it? I've never had a problem persist very long let alone 6 months.

 

[insane]

Try GFO.

 

[Mike Ordner]

If ATS is an algae turf scrubber, I had an outbreak of cyanobacteria in my tank when using one so I took it off-line.

 

[jbm421]

I would try switching up your foods or draining the fluid off your frozen foods. Obviously you know about phosphates being a problem but really they just feed it so you don't have to have high levels of phosphates to have it but it will help keep it around. You just have to find the source of the problem so I usually start with my RODI, then food draining flood and feeding as little flake food as possible as they are usually high in phosphates, trying to lower the light schedule and less feeding. You should be feeding little amounts of food a few times a day instead of one healthy feeding. The fish are only going to eat so much so you probably have a bunch of food not being eatin and it's just sitting in the tank somewhere. Just my .02 but this method has usually worked for me. Good luck

 

[cb684]

It's a second hand information but I've read (in a long thread from another forum) that imbalance between NO3 and PO4 (16:1 proportion) could add to cyano outbreaks. People fixed that dosing Seachem Flourish Phosphorus or nitrogen.

 

[cb684]

https://www.researchgate.net/public...inance_and_N2_fixation_in_some_Estonian_lakes

 

[Jade5051]

So,bummed

I think I was reading in the algae scrubber basic thread that ATS can cause cyano if it doesn't have proper flow and lighting. Are you getting lots of green algae from the ATS or is it black and slimy?