Yay! Today I will begin my journal of how I will battle a self induced Cyanobacteria outbreak in my reef tank.
First I'd like to say that i would not recommend attempting this without prior reefing skills. It can easily become more than one might want to handle.
So to induce this nasty slime I began to over feed and I left the lights on a couple extra hours a day, at 14 hours.
This quickly made the sand and rock grow red slime, thus the battle begins.
Today I began to take my first action.
My sump is in the basement and the display is on a cast iron stand capable of holding 2 90g tanks, so I have room to work with under the tank.
I cut the drain that ran from the 90 to the basement and stuck it to a drilled 20 gallon tall. I then added a new drain from the 90 to the 20, thus completing the water's route.
In the 20 there are no pumps and 30LBs of live rock. I lit the aquarium with a 150w metal halide that is 10,000k and probably old, is it was used. The good thing is old bulbs are a recipe for odd algaes. My goal is to essentially transform this "presump" into a cesspool of diatoms, hair algae, and Cyanobacteria. It is merely another form of Algae Turf Scrubbing.
Once I had the tank full and running I began to siphon all the nasty i possibly could into the 20 gallon and seed the stink so to speak. Or convenience I zip tied one end to the 20 and I just hang the hose on the stand for quick access during the battle.
Here is the beginning of my progress. The light is now on for 24 hours until it gets a good biofilm and I will move to 16hrs.
Here is how my tank looks right after I siphoned it clean:
This may or not work. Only time will tell. I am going to not take the display lights off of their normal schedule. I am going to rely solely on siphoning growth into the 20 until it establishes enough of a grasp to contain itself without maintenance.
Stay tuned for updates. This could get ugly!
"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon." And a link to my tanks https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123851
First I'd like to say that i would not recommend attempting this without prior reefing skills. It can easily become more than one might want to handle.
So to induce this nasty slime I began to over feed and I left the lights on a couple extra hours a day, at 14 hours.
This quickly made the sand and rock grow red slime, thus the battle begins.
Today I began to take my first action.
My sump is in the basement and the display is on a cast iron stand capable of holding 2 90g tanks, so I have room to work with under the tank.
I cut the drain that ran from the 90 to the basement and stuck it to a drilled 20 gallon tall. I then added a new drain from the 90 to the 20, thus completing the water's route.
In the 20 there are no pumps and 30LBs of live rock. I lit the aquarium with a 150w metal halide that is 10,000k and probably old, is it was used. The good thing is old bulbs are a recipe for odd algaes. My goal is to essentially transform this "presump" into a cesspool of diatoms, hair algae, and Cyanobacteria. It is merely another form of Algae Turf Scrubbing.
Once I had the tank full and running I began to siphon all the nasty i possibly could into the 20 gallon and seed the stink so to speak. Or convenience I zip tied one end to the 20 and I just hang the hose on the stand for quick access during the battle.
Here is the beginning of my progress. The light is now on for 24 hours until it gets a good biofilm and I will move to 16hrs.
Here is how my tank looks right after I siphoned it clean:
This may or not work. Only time will tell. I am going to not take the display lights off of their normal schedule. I am going to rely solely on siphoning growth into the 20 until it establishes enough of a grasp to contain itself without maintenance.
Stay tuned for updates. This could get ugly!
"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon." And a link to my tanks https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123851
