Cyano control

[Jesusthe1]

Hey guys! I'm new to this forum and I was wondering what I can do about cyano bacteria. At least I think it's cyano, it's a really dark maroon color and it is growing on everything!! I was curious if there was something I can buy or do in order to control this stuff. My starry blenny has been tearing it up from my live rock. To be honest, I don't mind a little bit on my LR. But I want it off of my live sand. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks & God Bless,
Stephen

 

[user 26995]

Hey Stephen, Welcome to Reef Frontiers and welcome to the hobby.
Okay,cyano is a bacterial issue. There are too many nutrients in your system that is settling in the substrate and on the rocks. This is telling us that you are possibly feeding too much, do not have enough flow in the tank and you will need to do more water changes for a while.
You want a lot of flow to keep detritus and food in suspension and going to the filter or sump for removal.

So to get rid of it, you will want to get, if you dont already have one, a turkey baster. use it to loosen and blow everything off the rocks. siphon it out out and siphon the substrate real good. you wil probably have to scoop the stuff out of the substrate. it sticks to the sand and doesnt siphon real easy. Remove as much as possible daily. Blow off the rocks, siphon and do a good water change every few days and you will get it under control. take a look at how much you are feeding. you may want to cut back on that a little. fish have little tummies. two small feedings a day is better than one big one, but I know its hard to do that sometimes. I feed once a day and a little more than I should too. We all do. Anyway when you do get it under control or hopefully gone, keep up on blowing off the rocks. Get more flow in your tank. you dont want detritus and stuff settling. it wil cause a lot of algae problems and cyano.

 

[user 26995]

Oh and tell us more about your system. what size tank do you have? running a sump or HOB equipment? What do you have for livestock? And when you reach the required post count and time served, we will be expecting pictures.
Happy reefing!

 

[pinkfloydfan]

I wrote this brief little response just for these occasions.
I will suggest that when you post and are asking for help or for ideas, please include all basic information. Basic information should include; all water parameters (Calcium,Magnesium,Alkalinity, Ph and Nitrate and Phosphate levels) along with Temp. of your tank and Sg (specific gravity). Size of tank and complete set up meaning, filter type (sump, canister etc.), if you use a skimmer, lighting (what type and total output)plus what type of lighting are you using and what is your lighting schedule (how long a period are your actinic and daylights on) and if you have fish only with live rock and if you keep corals. Also how long the tank has been up. I know some of this is in your bio but many bios don't contain this info. How many times has someone posted and then there is this list of postings addressing the above. If you give the most info you can to give us a good profile, it will cut down on response time and misdiagnosis or answers that don't fit and we will all benefit.

 

[Jesusthe1]

I'm sorry guys, I meant to give that information. My aquarium has been set up for over 3 years but I have never joined a forum until now. I probably wouldn't have made so many mistakes over the years if I had joined a forum sooner.lol But, you live and learn. I've uploaded some pictures on my profile.
Tank size: 75 gallon
Fish: Female Naso Tang about 6", 2 - 3" Oc. Clownfish (mated pair), 2 - 1" Pajama Cardinals, 4" Sleeper Goldenhead Goby, 4" Zebra Barred Goby, 2" Starry Blenny, Feather Duster, Condy Anemone, Colony polyp coral, 2 Nass. Snails, Fighting Conch, 3 very small blue legged crab, 2 small bumble snails, 5 margarite snails, and I also have a mangrove plant.
Live Rock: 70 lbs
Live Sand: about 80 lbs. About a 3" sand bed.
Current: 1600 gph
Emperor 400 canister filter
Nitrate are a little high at 30 today but they are usually below 20.
Nitrite: 0
Alkalinity: 300+
PH: 8.0
Temp: 78
Lighting:

 

[HUNTER01975]

I would suggest getting a skimmer this weekend.. you may also want to look at running some carbon and gfo or some chem pure in the canister filter.. I would add a 2 more small power heads to get the water moving more as well. You have a very heavy bio load on the tank.. so doing weekly water changes of a t least 20 gallons would help a ton. and the skimmer skimmer skimmer skimmer.. if no sump there are some hang on the back skimmers out there.. run your light for about 6 hours a day.. if bulbs are over 1 year old replace bulbs as well..
sorry to give you a big list of shopping items. But you are sort of in need of them..
dont forget there are many ways to keep a very nice tank and if you don't want to go buy a bunch of equipmet start with doing the water changes and maybe buy a extra power head for more current..

 

[pinkfloydfan]

I'm sorry guys, I meant to give that information. My aquarium has been set up for over 3 years but I have never joined a forum until now. I probably wouldn't have made so many mistakes over the years if I had joined a forum sooner.lol But, you live and learn. I've uploaded some pictures on my profile.
Tank size: 75 gallon
Fish: Female Naso Tang about 6", 2 - 3" Oc. Clownfish (mated pair), 2 - 1" Pajama Cardinals, 4" Sleeper Goldenhead Goby, 4" Zebra Barred Goby, 2" Starry Blenny, Feather Duster, Condy Anemone, Colony polyp coral, 2 Nass. Snails, Fighting Conch, 3 very small blue legged crab, 2 small bumble snails, 5 margarite snails, and I also have a mangrove plant.
Live Rock: 70 lbs
Live Sand: about 80 lbs. About a 3" sand bed.
Current: 1600 gph
Emperor 400 canister filter
Nitrate are a little high at 30 today but they are usually below 20.
Nitrite: 0
Alkalinity: 300+
PH: 8.0
Temp: 78
Lighting:

After looking over your response I don't see Mag or Cal, they are important. Also, you left out lighting. How often and how much are you feeding. The canister filter needs to kept really clean. once a week is normal protocol for a canister with a once a month mega clean doing the hoses as well. Are you siphoning what sand you can get to? At three years the sand is probably loaded up with phosphate. It is a good idea to add a phosphate reactor. Replacing the sand a little at a time over time is a good suggestion.

 

[Jesusthe1]

Please forgive me, I wasn't specific enough. About 8 months ago I changed my substrate from a crushed coral/rock substrate to the live sand. I also added about 50 pounds of live rock. I didn't have this problem until I made these changes to my aquarium. The lighting is 96 watt 450nm blue with 10k white. It is only about 2 months old. I will have to get back to you on the mag and cal. I usually feed once a day. Probably a little more than the need to be honest. I clean my filters or replace them every other week and I clean the canister about every other month max. Sometimes sooner. Question, obviously I can't siphon the sand the same way I would the crushed coral b/c the sand gets sucked up as well. So my question is, how do you guys do it? At least twice a week, I move the sand around by trying to bring the sand on bottom to the top as much as possible. Also, how much current is too much? The wavemaker that I have is 1600 gph, should I get another one? Should I place it higher in the tank b/c I have it kind-of low blowing upwards? I will upload pictures tonight. I meant to last night but something came up. [FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=&quot]96Watt[/FONT][/FONT]

 

[Jesusthe1]

I have tried and tried to upload a freakin picture but I can't reduce it's size small enough for this website. I mean 19kb, really?? You can't see the image hardly at all reducing it this much!!:frusty:

 

[HUNTER01975]

I usually feed once a day. Probably a little more than the need to be The wavemaker that I have is 1600 gph, should I get another one? Should I place it higher in the tank b/c I have it kind-of low blowing upwards? I will upload pictures tonight. I meant to last night but something came up. 96Watt[/QUOTE]


try feeding every other day..

just as a example not saying I am right or wrong.. I have 3 hydor 1050's pushing water around in my tank. So thats 3150gph moving in my tank and I have some spots that need more flow still..

getting a skimmer will do wonders for you..When picking a skimmer spend the extra and buy one way bigger for your tank than it is rated for.. you will be much happier in the long run.

your lights are prob just fine I would not worry about them at this time. other than setting to only run for about 8hrs a day till you get things under control.

Most importantly water changes...
No tap water get ro/di water.. if no rodi water get distilled water from the store.
you should start doing weekly water changes of at least 20 gallons... go buy a tote to premix your water change water in and make sure it is the same temp as the tank to not shock the fish and coral. Idealy you want it to mix for at least 24hrs before doing the water change.

 

[senji]

increase flow too infected areas and blow it off with a turkey baster daily. will go away in a couple weeks.

 

[Jesusthe1]

What if my starry blenny is eating some of it? He just can't keep up with it.

 

[NC2WA]

Jesus, I would read the following article: Description, Causes and Cures for Red Slime Algae (Cyanobacteria) all above are good suggestions. Just start your troubleshooting with the basics. For **any** algae or bacteria to grow they need nutrients which is in the form of lighting and/or food that is fed to the tank.......you just need to find out where the **source** of the nutrient is. Take that away and your cyano problem is solved.

 

[Jesusthe1]

NC2WA, after reading the website that you suggested, I did a little more research and I think I know where I went wrong. I bought some live rock from craigslist. He had it sitting in buckets with water in it, but the water was old and the rock had a small rotten egg smell. I rinsed it off but I didn't know anything about curing it or anything like that. I'm not sure but according to a couple of websites, not curing live rock will cause nitrates to go crazy. This has to be my problem because I didn't have this problem before I added this live rock. What should I do now, take it out and cure it properly? If I do that, what will happen to my fish that use the rock to hide? Or if I just do everything that you guys suggested solve my problems? All I know is, I feel sick just thinking about all the work that I have to do to my tank. I can't even think about turning my halide light on. It makes that stuff grow so fast that you can almost watch it grow!!lol!!!

 

[NC2WA]

Yes THIS is your problem...going thru a cycle of die off from the rock..how long has the rock been added to the tank?

 

[Jesusthe1]

Some where around 6 to 8 months. It started getting bad about 4 months ago.

 

[Jesusthe1]

About 6 to 8 months ago. It started getting bad about 4 to 5 months ago.

 

[NC2WA]

If u pick up that rock out of the tank does it smell like rotten eggs or fresh seawater..my guess is it should smell like seawater..perform lots of medium water changes til u get nitrates under control ...say once a week...if it smells like rotten eggs, remove from tank and let cure in a brute container...in any event, u r looking at lots of water changes