Cyano: Leave it or clean it

Anthrax15

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Tank is a little under 2 months old and Im getting a carpet of Cyanobacteria as well as on the rocks. Tank is cloudy but fully cycled. Lights are running on normal cycle given that I have coral. 6 fish currently in the tank feeding every other day.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0-5 (Using API, hard to distinguish)
PH - 8.2
Phosphate - 0.01 (Tested with Hanna)
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 76.0-76.5

Tank has been cloudy for 3 days now, not sure if I should leave the tank untouched and continue with 15% water changes every other week or try a black out/water change. I tossed a media bag full of carbon in the tank two days ago but have seen little improvement in clarity. If it's just going to run its course as part of the new tank cycle, I don't mind leaving it. Just want others opinions for peace of mind.
 

Old Fritz

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Nuke it with chemiclean lol. I have read so much mixed stuff on cyanobacteria that I frankly just give up on chasing nutrient levels and just kill it with chemiclean if it ever shows up in one of my tanks. I have never lost a fish or invert while using chemiclean
 

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Tank is a little under 2 months old and Im getting a carpet of Cyanobacteria as well as on the rocks. Tank is cloudy but fully cycled. Lights are running on normal cycle given that I have coral. 6 fish currently in the tank feeding every other day.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0-5 (Using API, hard to distinguish)
PH - 8.2
Phosphate - 0.01 (Tested with Hanna)
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 76.0-76.5

Tank has been cloudy for 3 days now, not sure if I should leave the tank untouched and continue with 15% water changes every other week or try a black out/water change. I tossed a media bag full of carbon in the tank two days ago but have seen little improvement in clarity. If it's just going to run its course as part of the new tank cycle, I don't mind leaving it. Just want others opinions for peace of mind.
I'm concerned about the cloudy water more so than the cyano. Cloudy water isn't a typical part of the new tank uglies. I'd worry you have a bacteria bloom that could potentially cause oxygen deprivation.
 
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Anthrax15

Anthrax15

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I'm concerned about the cloudy water more so than the cyano. Cloudy water isn't a typical part of the new tank uglies. I'd worry you have a bacteria bloom that could potentially cause oxygen deprivation.

Tank seemed to get cloudy after I added some algae pellets the previous day that apparently, none of the CUC or fish touched.
 

Brew12

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Tank seemed to get cloudy after I added some algae pellets the previous day that apparently, none of the CUC or fish touched.
Do you run filter socks on your system?
 
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Anthrax15

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Nah, business as usual. Dirty after about 4-5 days when I swap em out. I am concerned about the cloudiness as well but I would think that one of the tests would show an issue.

Think it would be worth it to do a 10-15% water change? Or just let it run its course?
 

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Nah, business as usual. Dirty after about 4-5 days when I swap em out. I am concerned about the cloudiness as well but I would think that one of the tests would show an issue.

Think it would be worth it to do a 10-15% water change? Or just let it run its course?
I don't think a water change will help with the cloudiness. And, it doesn't sound like a bacterial bloom if it isn't creating a slime to clog your filter socks. I would monitor it for now and make sure it doesn't get any worse.
 
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I don't think a water change will help with the cloudiness. And, it doesn't sound like a bacterial bloom if it isn't creating a slime to clog your filter socks. I would monitor it for now and make sure it doesn't get any worse.

I'v been hesitant to add anything such as Chemiclean or really work at the Cyano in the bed. Last weekend I cleaned it real well and within two days it was back. Is it worth trying to clear it up or should I just leave it as a part of the tank aging?
 

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I'v been hesitant to add anything such as Chemiclean or really work at the Cyano in the bed. Last weekend I cleaned it real well and within two days it was back. Is it worth trying to clear it up or should I just leave it as a part of the tank aging?
If it isn't hurting anything, like smothering coral, I wouldn't use anything other than manual removal. Especially not until you get the cloudy water issue figured out. Too many unknowns for me to recommend anything other than elbow grease.
 
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Would a 2 day blackout be beneficial or would once I turn the lights back on, I'd be back to where I was?
 

Brew12

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Would a 2 day blackout be beneficial or would once I turn the lights back on, I'd be back to where I was?
It would just come right back until you fix the root cause. Routine cleaning of the sand bed sounds like your best option right now imo. And don't worry about over cleaning, you can't do it.
 

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Cloudy water isn't a typical part of the new tank uglies.

That's like saying bad acting isn't part of a Michael Bay movie.

Bacteria blooms along with cyano outbreaks and diatoms are the holy trinity of new tanks. Bacteria blooms can deprive free O2 in water, but it's rare and fish will start to stress and hover near the top of the tank. 99.9% of the time the common white bacteria bloom goes away on it's own in a week with no issues. Note that bacteria blooms can also affect young freshhwater tanks.

Cynao can creep around for awhile. However, it's easy to spot vac and will eventually starve itself out. Or just use chemiclean.
 
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That's like saying bad acting isn't part of a Michael Bay movie.

Bacteria blooms along with cyano outbreaks and diatoms are the holy trinity of new tanks. Bacteria blooms can deprive free O2 in water, but it's rare and fish will start to stress and hover near the top of the tank. 99.9% of the time the common white bacteria bloom goes away on it's own in a week with no issues. Note that bacteria blooms can also affect young freshhwater tanks.

Cynao can creep around for awhile. However, it's easy to spot vac and will eventually starve itself out. Or just use chemiclean.

Awesome, that does put me at ease a little. A bad case of Cyano coupled with lightly cloudy white water had me stressing out.

Ill probably drop some ChemiClean in there next week if I don’t see an improvement on its own. Should I use the ChemiClean regular or ChemiClean Blue?
 

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I like to leave the Cyanobacteria alone and just make sure the nitrate and phsophate are at the levels I want. As long as you won't do any other changes, the Cyanobacteria usually goes away within 2-4 weeks. This is in cases where the nutrients have dropped to very low levels.
I like to aim for above 2ppm nitrate and above 0,04ppm phosphate. I would also skip the water changes in a new tank like this, if you don't have that much coral or nutrients. Better leave the tank a bit and let it mature itself IMO.
That way you can get rid of it without affecting other things, which you might do with chemiclean.

Cleaning the sand from Cyanobacteria is often a Sisyfos work. They often just come back in a day or two.

About the cloudiness. Do you dose anything that might contain a carbon source?
 

Brew12

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That's like saying bad acting isn't part of a Michael Bay movie.

Bacteria blooms along with cyano outbreaks and diatoms are the holy trinity of new tanks.
I'll have to respectfully disagree with this. Well, not the part about bad acting in a Michael Bay movie, completely agree with that.
Cyano and diatoms are a normal part of new tanks because both are fueled by what we expect to have in a new tank. Bacteria blooms normally take some outside source that could be avoided in order to occur.

Now if you want to say that new tanks are more susceptible to a bacterial bloom, I'll agree with that.
 

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