Tried everything. Still cyano!!

RVANANO

SWAGON
I have been fighting this problem for months. I thought several things contributed to it but seems nothing will fix it.

First of all, I replaced my MH's about 6 months ago. My skimmer pump died 3 months ago and that's when it seemed to start. It took me a while to get a new bubble blaster pump but I have had the skimmer working again for the last month and it keeps coming back. When hurricane Irene hit, I re-arranged my 1 year old rock work and probably stirred up a lot of the sand etc. And most recently, I realized my T5's hadn't been replaced in a long time so last week, I replaced two and then yesterday I replaced the other two. I also siphoned out all the stuff off the sand and today it's all back.

So to recap, all new lights, new skimmer pump and I have been using nothing but 0 TDS top off for the last 7 months as well as LFS bought salt for water changes. I do 10 gallons a week.

It's dark burgundy in color and forms thin sheets all over the sand and lower rock. Nothing is getting rid of it. Even with the lights off it comes back.

Any other ideas before I go Chem-clean? it's driving me nuts and the tank looks amazing except for this.

My levels are consistent at 450 Ca, 1250 Mag, 10 Alk, and 8.1 and 8.35 for PH. Nitrates are usually low b/t 5-10. Not sure about Phosphates though. But I am running carbon in a small reactor and I also have a 20L fuge with Cheato.
 
My tank was pretty bad Horrible Cyanno!
What i did was..... when I had to do water changes I sucked what I could with a hose from the sand and rocks...... I washed the sand after and put it back in the tank. Belived or not didnt come back.....
 
IMO, you had a lot of nutrient build up when the skimmer was off for 3 months. These have settled and will take a while to remove. I would suggest patience. Vacuum and turkey baste the cyano as much as you can and remove as much as you can with the water change. It may take as long as the same amount of time your skimmer was off, 3 months.

LFS saltwater? I don't trust LFS saltwater. Maybe part of the issue.

How is your flow? If you stir the cyano that's on the substrate, does it just hang in the water in the same spot? If it does, you need to get more flow in there.

Not really knowing your tank, that's about what I can offer. HTH!
 
ryeguyy,

When you had the sunlight on the tank, did the cyano form only in the areas where it hit or everywhere?

I'm slowly winning my battle, I seem to have gotten it off the sand but now it likes to form on the rocks in some spots. There is sun hitting the tank in some spots during sundown, but no cyano in that spot really, just green algae under the sand line on the front glass.
 
red slime algae remover did the trick for me. I put it in the night, by the following night all cyano was gone.

Didnt affect any of the fish.
 
I was starting to get some cyano,I ran some carbon for awhile and it knocked it out.But it is slowly coming back.I am just going to keep my skimmer clean& in tune,keep using carbon and GFO
 
Brandon - here are a couple of my personal notes on the stuff

I use to get it everyonce and a while in my 300 and it was an indicator for me to add to my cleanup crew

In my 110 I don't get any in my display but get it in my fuge and that's fine by me as I just suck it out durring water changes. I do know that it does not do well in light spectrums over 12000k and its why it only grows in my sump where I have 5000-6500k bulbs.

I've used one of the red slime remover products in my 29g tank and never had any issues with it.
 
ryeguyy,

When you had the sunlight on the tank, did the cyano form only in the areas where it hit or everywhere?

I'm slowly winning my battle, I seem to have gotten it off the sand but now it likes to form on the rocks in some spots. There is sun hitting the tank in some spots during sundown, but no cyano in that spot really, just green algae under the sand line on the front glass.

I had cyano everywhere, it turned out that the sun was hitting the left side of the tank and there was more on that side. I think it started in the sun and moved over. I moved my blinds over and poof it was gone.
 
Hi Brandon

:wave:

I thought I've read that cyano feeds on phos. so I would recomend testing your phos levels with a good test kit. Although just like algea the cyano from my understanding can take up the phos quickly and you may still read zero on the test.

If the phos test read 0 if I were you would concider employing a phos media like GFO for a while. Like Palting said there was probably a build up of nutrients while your skimmer was down.

Like Palting , I don't trust LFS salt water either. I would rather mix it up my self and know how long its been sitting there and what TDS is going in it.

Or you can go DIAF, your choice.
 
I have always wondered if there was any issue with getting premixed salt water and have thought what is the problem the water is good. You make a good point with saying that hou long has the water been sitting around! thanks for the idea
 
Hi Brandon

:wave:

Or you can go DIAF, your choice.

:wave: hehe

No sunlight. I keep my blinds closed. My flow seems to be pretty good. I have twin returns drilled in the tank pushing from a 1950 GPH pump. Those alone put a good amount of flow in the tank. I also have an MP40 and a small Tunze. My tank is really open and no rocks are against the glass at all. I have two islands. The cyano forms everywhere even where there is hella flow.

Hopefully as stated it was just nutrient build up. And I absolutely trust my LFS's water with 100% confidence. We have 3 in our area and I only buy water from one.

I may give it some more time before I go chemical warfare. I was thinking that since I have already removed so much of my sandbed, that I might just siphon out the rest and add a new bag of sand.
 
Don't ever trust the LFS water. Esp in a bad economy when the Preventive Maintenance budget goes out the door. The main issue with cyano is excess nutrient. Something is contributing. Trying utilizing a mix of Granular Ferric Oxide and do a massive water change attempting to remove as much of Cyano as possible. I know this is a PINTA but Phos has a way of attaching itself to substrate and slowly bleed off. You may have 0 reading in your water column but if you tested your substrates you will find traces of it. It is going to take a while to get back to normal. Do 30% water changes with water that you make.
 
I can't make my own water. For whatever reason, my well water burns through RODI membranes/DI resin so fast that it's not even worth having one. The LFS I go to is run by a terrific guy and has a terrific staff. Lots of local members go there and also test the water. If there were any issues, it would be all over the local forum. I trust the LFS water far more than I would trust my own..
 
Nasarrius snails might help. They don't actually eat the cyano but they do stir the sand and eat the detritus that could be contributing.
 
Yeah unfortunately my YWMG hasn't been doing much stirring lately. Wonder if a sand sifting star will help as well. But then I still get it on the rocks...
 
Testing for phosphates can give you a false negative because the cyano is eating up the phosphates. You have to be pretty aggressive with manual syphoning on a daily basis and running some GFO to help remove the phosphates. Once you get ahead of it, it should slowly start to receed.

Skip the sand sifting star. They eventually starve to death after depleting your sand bed of microfauna.
 
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