Cyano in ulns

[1979fishgeek]

Ive been all over the internet looking for ways to beat Cyano in my reef and I’m finding it a bit confusing. 99% of advise lower your nutrients, increase flow etc. But I have high flow and low nutrients.
I struggled with nitrates over 40ppm and phosphates about .5ppm for best part of two years, it took me well over a year to get them down. I’m dosing NoPox and started dosing amino acids the corals, especially acros are thriving and finally turning shades of green from brown, but I got a Cyano issue now. Red and green slime on wavemakers, few rocks and back glass. I syphon it out but it keeps coming back.

What should I do next and why is Cyano even a issue?



Salifert test kit, the phosphate looks kinda blue but was clear.


Corals appear happy enough.

 

[Sallstrom]

In the tanks I work with it usually only takes to lower or stop the dosing of carbon source(like NoPox) and allow the NO3 get up to 1 or 2 ppm. If NO3 doesn't increase by itself I would add a little KNO3 every day until there is some color change on the test. I'd try to keep it stable(find a daily dose of KNO3) at 1-2 ppm and I think the cyano will go away in a couple of weeks.

/ David

 

[1979fishgeek]

In the tanks I work with it usually only takes to lower or stop the dosing of carbon source(like NoPox) and allow the NO3 get up to 1 or 2 ppm. If NO3 doesn't increase by itself I would add a little KNO3 every day until there is some color change on the test. I'd try to keep it stable(find a daily dose of KNO3) at 1-2 ppm and I think the cyano will go away in a couple of weeks.

/ David

Thank you! Im dosing NoPox at a medium high rate so you might of hit the nail on the head. Nitrates dropped so low for weeks now that I can barely detect it, I still have some macro algae in the Refugium so assumed it was absorbing it before the test picked it up, but there is also a load of Cyano in the algae!

 

[brandon429]

show the sandbed if applic. the only ULNS sandbeds in a reef tank are the ones I just talked someone into fully rinsing out with tap water.

 

[1979fishgeek]

those are the pics we need to see

show the sandbed if applic. the only ULNS sandbeds in a reef tank are the ones I just talked someone into fully rinsing out with tap water.

I don’t have a sand bed, it bare bottom.

Full tank shots don’t show the Cyano as it’s only localised spots... but is this what you wanted?
Patch of red Cyano on the lowest rock on the left hand side.


Patches on back wall...


Green Cyano on base of glass and under jecod cross flow. Really high flow areas!


Small match of green Cyano between Monti....


System shot. Two tanks feeding single sump. About 1200l in total.

 

[brandon429]

that's shockingly nice setup. Brainstorms on your cyano that pic gives me:
it may not be cyano, it could be a cousin spirulina but that doesn't really matter here as I wouldn't medicate or dose anything for your issue given the totality of that shot and no obvious nutrient storage areas.
I don't see coral issues I see advanced growth

I see your duncans bending down in good flow

there is no detritus accumulation in the corners, nor areas that go uncleaned for a long time indicated by dark catch all spots etc

no massive fish bioloading at all, ideal it seems in fact.

In my opinion you should UV this thing and be done with it. after hand siphoning out all the light areas of detritus which a natural reef would produce because its balanced, not imbalanced, any UV of decent oversize/power would knock it back the rest of the way I bet. if you already have UV, then its animals as grazers brainstorm time because Id never medicate any tank for cyano or for spirulina, Id directly kill it in some way.

Its presence here is a sign of balance, not imbalance, we need better grazing even if its done cheated by a bulb of some type. just my take, nice nice tank a might jealous in fact ha

 

[1979fishgeek]

that's shockingly nice setup. Brainstorms on your cyano that pic gives me:
it may not be cyano, it could be a cousin spirulina but that doesn't really matter here as I wouldn't medicate or dose anything for your issue given the totality of that shot and no obvious nutrient storage areas.
I don't see coral issues I see advanced growth

I see your duncans bending down in good flow

there is no detritus accumulation in the corners, nor areas that go uncleaned for a long time indicated by dark catch all spots etc

no massive fish bioloading at all, ideal it seems in fact.

In my opinion you should UV this thing and be done with it. after hand siphoning out all the light areas of detritus which a natural reef would produce because its balanced, not imbalanced, any UV of decent oversize/power would knock it back the rest of the way I bet. if you already have UV, then its animals as grazers brainstorm time because Id never medicate any tank for cyano or for spirulina, Id directly kill it in some way.

Its presence here is a sign of balance, not imbalance, we need better grazing even if its done cheated by a bulb of some type. just my take, nice nice tank a might jealous in fact ha

Thank you! Not so nice close up though at the moment, lol! Asterina issue that’s destroyed my Coralline but making a Harlequin obese, seriously dude needs a diet, lol!
I think you might have solved my mystery of what that green ‘Cyano is on the glass’ I though Cyano but it’s not quite the same, slighty lighter green and tougher to remove, like Cyano mixed with acrylic vanish, it practically peels off in sheets, so it might be spirulina?! But def have classic red and blue/green Cyano as well. It’s really bad on my wavemaker in the back which is insanely fast flow.

I have a 90w UV steriliser but it’s not connected! **Face palm** I never considered using it for Cyano as it was my back for disease outbreak. I put that straight back on!

Thank you!

 

[brandon429]

That's great luck I do believe it will help, and not hurt anything just in case it didn't work. That pre removal is important, the uv catches/burns circulating leftovers before they aggregate again. Can't wait to see this week and then updates in a couple mos, you might can take it offline and sustain anyway after initial mass is removed.

As we get updates I'll link this to our large sand rinse thread even though it's no sandbed, since it's a form of direct action even still. Large tankers wouldn't have much other choice for direct attacks that aren't meds. I like uv because if it didn't work, no harm, move onward. Massive predicted chance it'll work, zoos use them for this reason and others

 

[1979fishgeek]

That's great luck I do believe it will help, and not hurt anything just in case it didn't work. That pre removal is important, the uv catches/burns circulating leftovers before they aggregate again. Can't wait to see this week and then updates in a couple mos, you might can take it offline and sustain anyway after initial mass is removed.

As we get updates I'll link this to our large sand rinse thread even though it's no sandbed, since it's a form of direct action even still. Large tankers wouldn't have much other choice for direct attacks that aren't meds. I like uv because if it didn't work, no harm, move onward. Massive predicted chance it'll work, zoos use them for this reason and others

I’ll keep you updated, uv is on the tank now, I’ve reduced NoPox slightly. So let’s hope it does the trick!
Thank you for all your help.

 

[brandon429]

If you have to guide it out with repeated removal while the UV is a suppressant that would line up with our stronger invasion challenges collected

rarely does Murphy's law allow a large tanker the luxury of a one off correction from an invader given a little time to adapt well into an already supportive niche

I haven't checked to see what the actual wattage ideal is, ninety sounds strong. We always recommend overdo as much as possible on the war gear, the fact you had one is sharp prep. Not that I have coins for a large tank anytime soon but the day I'm over fifty gallons I'll be a UV buyer again. Doesn't mean constant run, but a pond sterilizer in the closet should dinos try and front. If someone forced me to choose between no skimmer on a large tank or no UV id ditch the skimmer and do something different with organics. given no ultimatum for sure both would be on board

 

[DFR]

Just wondering if there’s an update on your outbreak? I recently had a cyano issue myself that lasted about 2 months. I made a number of changes that seemed to drastically reduce it to a point I feel nature will normalize things
I run an ULNS system also. Currently got back in the hobby 2 years ago and decided to make things easier on myself and keep lighter fish stocking so I only have 2 clowns and a damsel in a 60g. My filtration was only filter socks, skimmer, rocks, sand, and marine pure plate. Nitrates hold at <0.2ppm and phosphates 0.00ppm. Everything was good until cyano popped up.
Eventually what I did was removed filter socks from system to try to increase nutrients, continue only monthly water changes, daily brushing of rocks and sand, and lastly I changed the spectrum on my Kessil to blue (as opposed to ramping to white).
I hate using chemicals as usually other problems creep up. These seemed to have done the trick for me. Hope you had success too!

 

[marlinmon]

I don’t have a sand bed, it bare bottom.

Full tank shots don’t show the Cyano as it’s only localised spots... but is this what you wanted?
Patch of red Cyano on the lowest rock on the left hand side.


Patches on back wall...


Green Cyano on base of glass and under jecod cross flow. Really high flow areas!


Small match of green Cyano between Monti....


System shot. Two tanks feeding single sump. About 1200l in total.

Nice tank!

 

[1979fishgeek]

Just wondering if there’s an update on your outbreak? I recently had a cyano issue myself that lasted about 2 months. I made a number of changes that seemed to drastically reduce it to a point I feel nature will normalize things
I run an ULNS system also. Currently got back in the hobby 2 years ago and decided to make things easier on myself and keep lighter fish stocking so I only have 2 clowns and a damsel in a 60g. My filtration was only filter socks, skimmer, rocks, sand, and marine pure plate. Nitrates hold at <0.2ppm and phosphates 0.00ppm. Everything was good until cyano popped up.
Eventually what I did was removed filter socks from system to try to increase nutrients, continue only monthly water changes, daily brushing of rocks and sand, and lastly I changed the spectrum on my Kessil to blue (as opposed to ramping to white).
I hate using chemicals as usually other problems creep up. These seemed to have done the trick for me. Hope you had success too!

I’ve got a couple of patches, but it be lucky to cover a few square inches in 1200l of water so not noticeable unless I’m lookimg for it. But it’s still there!

I bought a Hanna phosphorus checker and my phosphate is actually 0.08 so migh the the cause as it not undetectable like I thought. Nitrates about o.02 so could also be caused by the unbalance in no3 PO4 ratio?

Thanks looking good, corals growing strong but I’m always to improve it. Lol

 

[DFR]

Yea, definitely good looking tank. Happy to hear it is controllable! I wouldn’t worry too much about the lingering spots either, your algae and other bacteria will most likely outcompete what is left in tank.