Terrible cyanobacteria on sand in 5 month old 75 gallon tank

[EthanHawaii]

Hi, I have had a new 75 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump set up for 5 months and in the last month the sand has exploded with cyano. It's mostly on the sand and a little bit on the rocks that you can't really see.

Water parameters are:

nitrate 0.00
nitrite 0.00
ammonia 0.00
PH 8.2
salinity 1.025
temp 77f

I'm getting my phosphate and nitrate (I think my nitrate test kit is not accurate) possibly measured tomorrow but don't know for sure yet.

I feed half a 1/2 by 1/2'' cube of a mixed frozen food.

I do an 11% water change once every 10 days so maybe this is too little?

Hopefully it's just a normal part of cycling? though it cycled pretty much instantly with the live rock from my other tank I used.

Is there anything you would suggest to get ride of this crap?
I WILL NOT use chemiclean because it is a band-aid and completely messes up my skimmer, and my SPS frags hate it.

Thanks,
Ethan

 

[FishNDip]

So is all the food being consumed? If it's not that's a big contributor of cyano. Also I would look into some clean up crew. What's in your sump? Cheato algae? If your really serious about getting this algae out you could do multiple things at once. Get chaeto, cyano cc, filter media, blackout lights for 4 days, more hand removal. There's lots of ways to wrestle your tank back. Like for my tank I'm having a hair algae problem, yesterday I just picked up a cleaner crew of snails, got a reactor, did a water change, and will do a black out time. I can see my tank coming back to life.

 

[Sa6hir]

Siphon it out on a daily basis. But make sure you turn off wavenakers you don't want it being blown around. Even if you can see it, trust me it's there, so what I would do is 15-20% daily for 5-7 days. This is tried and test method by me. [emoji6]


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[Randy27]

Just make sure all that's being fed is being consumed, that your media is changed regularly, and keep up with the water changes and your tank should be starting to turn the corner on cycling soon. It always looks worse before it looks better

 

[EthanHawaii]

So is all the food being consumed? If it's not that's a big contributor of cyano. Also I would look into some clean up crew. What's in your sump? Cheato algae? If your really serious about getting this algae out you could do multiple things at once. Get chaeto, cyano cc, filter media, blackout lights for 4 days, more hand removal. There's lots of ways to wrestle your tank back. Like for my tank I'm having a hair algae problem, yesterday I just picked up a cleaner crew of snails, got a reactor, did a water change, and will do a black out time. I can see my tank coming back to life.

Yes, all of the food is consumed.

My cleanup crew only consists of a few margarita snails so I'll do more research on what helps with cyano.

I've been thinking about getting chaeto since I got the tank up and running. so will make it a priority now.

I would like to do a blackout but my acros wouldn't like it.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[EthanHawaii]

Siphon it out on a daily basis. But make sure you turn off wavenakers you don't want it being blown around. Even if you can see it, trust me it's there, so what I would do is 15-20% daily for 5-7 days. This is tried and test method by me. [emoji6]


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It basically went away if I stirred the sand up every day, so will start doing that again. I will do bigger water changes but can't really do 15-20% every day.

Thanks for the help!

 

[EthanHawaii]

Just make sure all that's being fed is being consumed, that your media is changed regularly, and keep up with the water changes and your tank should be starting to turn the corner on cycling soon. It always looks worse before it looks better

Ok, thanks!

 

[Sa6hir]

When ur stiring it, it's not going away ur actually aiding to to spread, ur breaking it up and covering it up If u can't do that much water change then every you do a water change make sure u siphon it


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[FishNDip]

Don't worry about your acros. In the wild storms happen, the sky is dark for days on a time. Just make sure you don't leave the lights off to long.

 

[Gladmaker]

I've used Chemiclean with good success. Gone within 2 days. I've read on this forum of others having the same results.

 

[Crusinjimbo]

Your cyano is probably thriving on excess nutrients, specifically PO4. Cleanup of the cyano doesn't deplete the source of it growth. I suggest you invest in an accurate test kit to monitor PO4 levels at the PPB level and figure how to control PO4 levels long term. Keep in mind the cyano is consuming the PO4 so its existence is impacting the test measurement results. Good luck.

 

[Sk8r]

Sunlight reaching the tank is a common cause. It's an archaic organism (animal, actually) that feeds on sunlight and gives off oxygen, so there are worse plagues. It can harm your stuff by cutting off the light, but it's a slow sort of harm.
To kill it, you need a good skimmer, and take away its daylight for 3 days (4th day on blues only) ---once a month, while skimming up the dieoff so it doesn't cycle round again. Takes a few months, but with a decent skimmer, and caution about daylight exposure of the tank, it will work. Just don't use blackout on the tank walls---let ordinary room light reach it to keep snails from eating your sleeping fish.

 

[EthanHawaii]

Your cyano is probably thriving on excess nutrients, specifically PO4. Cleanup of the cyano doesn't deplete the source of it growth. I suggest you invest in an accurate test kit to monitor PO4 levels at the PPB level and figure how to control PO4 levels long term. Keep in mind the cyano is consuming the PO4 so its existence is impacting the test measurement results. Good luck.

I will be getting my phosphate and nitrate levels checked today.
I didn't think about how there might not be phosphates in the tank because the cyano is eating them. so will definitely keep that in mind.

 

[EthanHawaii]

Sunlight reaching the tank is a common cause. It's an archaic organism (animal, actually) that feeds on sunlight and gives off oxygen, so there are worse plagues. It can harm your stuff by cutting off the light, but it's a slow sort of harm.
To kill it, you need a good skimmer, and take away its daylight for 3 days (4th day on blues only) ---once a month, while skimming up the dieoff so it doesn't cycle round again. Takes a few months, but with a decent skimmer, and caution about daylight exposure of the tank, it will work. Just don't use blackout on the tank walls---let ordinary room light reach it to keep snails from eating your sleeping fish.

I do have sunlight that is bouncing off my neighbors window and hits the front right corner of the tank for about 45 mins everyday and now that I think about it, that was the first spot to get cyano! so do you think maybe it's spread from there and will go away if I close the blinds? I only have one Kessil A360 on the right side of the tank and nothing on the left at the moment, and there is no cyano on the left side.