CYANO Problem. Please help

[Simon_Goffen]

Hi Guys,

I have 50 gallon reef tank. Its a mature tank but my nitrates are bit high now after doing a recent aqua scape update with new dry rocks..currently my nitrates are above 40 and phosphates are pretty much low(.05). I am running GFO (two little fishes - PhosBan). My lfs suggested me to use Red sea NoPox to lower nitrates, after starting it 1ml a day i got cyano all over my tank including on rocks, corals and sand bed in a week, after 2 weeks its getting worse its got huge bubbles trapped inside it all over my rock. I am not sure what to do. Shall i continue using NoPox or switch to using GFO back and try dosing vinegar. Please Help Guys. My elegance, star polyp and duncan corals are looking good but zoas are not opening.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Manually remove what you can see during a water change. Discontinue using GFO at this time to keep from bottoming out your P04. I would personally stop Nopox and any carbon dosing.

After some water changes, if the cyanobacteria continues to increase, consider using chemiclean to remove the cyanobacteria. Follow it's instructions to the letter.

 

[Simon_Goffen]

Manually remove what you can see during a water change. Discontinue using GFO at this time to keep from bottoming out your P04. I would personally stop Nopox and any carbon dosing.

After some water changes, if the cyanobacteria continues to increase, consider using chemiclean to remove the cyanobacteria. Follow it's instructions to the letter.

Thank you for your reply. I will stop using GFO and also stop the carbon dosing...but chemi clean would be a temporary solution right?

 

[brandon429]

drain off your top water into a brute/catch the 50 gallons

hold fish and corals to the side

take the tank apart and clean it, that addresses the feed (waste in sand and rocks we'd clean) plus it removes the invader fully without meds and you can put your taken water back without having to make all new


try to use at least half new water if willing, for best outcome

its not harmful this is what we have people do when they move homes or move their tank to a reef convention. using correct cleaning approach is never harmful or disruptive, its life-extending.

you want to fix that tank the right way>? if so Ill show you a 30 page thread where we have been doing it five years

any meds you add or nutrients you up or downregulate still leave the current detritus levels in the sand if applicable, and certainly in the live rock. we could prove that by you swishing live rock midtank at night after lights off; shine a flashlight through the tank and a huge cloud of waste will be casted off.

we'd clean all that, in one pass, and use skip cycle reassembly like moving homes or upgrading tanks etc. in this case, the use would be to beat dino or cyano whichever it is, ID not required. action required lol

this amount of work is displeasing to some; they'd rather keep all as is. thats ok too

merely offering the best fix if wanted, treating the tank as a whole vs a cyano part is the right move to consider based on logged results...the work + mode will beat the work - mode in all reefs right about that size. much larger, and actual cleaning becomes a nightmare.

it seems any other method leaves detritus waste in place, to fuel the next successor. we try and intercept all that.

 

[Simon_Goffen]

drain off your top water into a brute/catch the 50 gallons

hold fish and corals to the side

take the tank apart and clean it, that addresses the feed (waste in sand and rocks we'd clean) plus it removes the invader fully without meds and you can put your taken water back without having to make all new


try to use at least half new water if willing, for best outcome

its not harmful this is what we have people do when they move homes or move their tank to a reef convention. using correct cleaning approach is never harmful or disruptive, its life-extending.

you want to fix that tank the right way>? if so Ill show you a 30 page thread where we have been doing it five years

any meds you add or nutrients you up or downregulate still leave the current detritus levels in the sand if applicable, and certainly in the live rock. we could prove that by you swishing live rock midtank at night after lights off; shine a flashlight through the tank and a huge cloud of waste will be casted off.

we'd clean all that, in one pass, and use skip cycle reassembly like moving homes or upgrading tanks etc. in this case, the use would be to beat dino or cyano whichever it is, ID not required. action required lol

this amount of work is displeasing to some; they'd rather keep all as is. thats ok too

merely offering the best fix if wanted, treating the tank as a whole vs a cyano part is the right move to consider based on logged results...the work + mode will beat the work - mode in all reefs right about that size. much larger, and actual cleaning becomes a nightmare.

it seems any other method leaves detritus waste in place, to fuel the next successor. we try and intercept all that.

Thank you for such a brief explanation..sounds as a good plan..by cleaning sand and live rock won't i have the tank going through cycle again? I have plenty of pods in sand..what's the best way to clean all of it..rinse them, scrub it with brush or any other way to do it right?

 

[brandon429]

select for or against the method based on works here, if I try and capture it here Ill leave out a detail. merely reading the first post and its links, and then skipping to the last 4 pages of work will encapsulate the whole thread nicely = 5 yrs of work all in one place and live time jobs too.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

we absolutely control cycles there, not a single one. how we clean sand is opposite of how we clean rocks; those details and more will stand out in the short crunched read. we truly care about taking care of reefs there, very precise surgery we do. high work but high output of happy reefs. we are opposite of doing things to the water and waiting, just one extra way to consider. we use the same method to move tanks, or upgrade/relocate them etc.

 

[islander84]

Your PO4 / NO3 balance is off and most likely causing the issue. Did you pull some live rock out and replace it with the dry rock or just add dry rock?

 

[Simon_Goffen]

Your PO4 / NO3 balance is off and most likely causing the issue. Did you pull some live rock out and replace it with the dry rock or just add dry rock?

I added dry rock to display and used the live rock from display to sump. But i had this issue from start almost 3 months before i did a rescape and still dealing with cyano. Frustrated, i got chemiclean, thought of giving it a try. My nitrates are getting down. Current Nitrate-20, phosphate .10

Appreciate your help in fixing this

 

[islander84]

It could be the dry rock absorbing the PO4 or it could be the higher NO3 feeding bacteria/microorganisms that are consuming the PO4. You could try slowly dosing some Phosphorus to balance it out. Go very slow with your dosing, if you go that route.

 

[brandon429]

can we see tank pics, full tank shot

it would be neat to have an idea at the genus of the invader

 

[Simon_Goffen]

can we see tank pics, full tank shot

it would be neat to have an idea at the genus of the invader

Thanks for a quick reply. Attached is the full shot and few close up shots(without lights). I am using Razor 420r 160w 16000k

 

[brandon429]

Excellent

see the cross section area of the sandbed, it’s pigments and small spots of accumulation etc

that’s old tank syndrome aging in place, and moderately advanced here

that’s massive fuel for green hair algae, which chemi clean nor adjusting N or P won’t beat, dosing or adjusting those items leaves the waste storage still in the rocks and sand

adjusting water can’t evacuate the built up waste although it certainly might topically kill the cyano that feeds on the accumulation (which dies, adds to mass, feeds gha)
Your tank can go longer in storage process, but to clean it now before corals are packed in is the ideal.

thinking ahead and planning for the next event also matters here. If you compare your before pic to our before and after pics in our sand rinse thread you can see how important it is to clean your tank vs dose it. If you reached deep in that sand and drop some down, a cloud of waste so massive it could recycle your reef would result, we can see from the cross section pics...fixing that liability only comes from disassembly cleaning.

you should clean the tank, then adjust your parameters in the clean condition not the invaded condition. Your tank is easy to fix, above is a thirty page thread of fixing tanks with the same before pics...handy to see the job in place already mapped out.

 

[Simon_Goffen]

Excellent

see the cross section area of the sandbed, it’s pigments and small spots of accumulation etc

that’s old tank syndrome aging in place, and moderately advanced here

that’s massive fuel for green hair algae, which chemi clean nor adjusting N or P won’t beat, dosing or adjusting those items leaves the waste storage still in the rocks and sand

adjusting water can’t evacuate the built up waste although it certainly might topically kill the cyano that feeds on the accumulation (which dies, adds to mass, feeds gha)


thinking ahead and planning for the next event also matters here. If you compare your before pic to our before and after pics in our sand rinse thread you can see how important it is to clean your tank vs dose it. If you reached deep in that sand and drop some down, a cloud of waste so massive it could recycle your reef would result, we can see from the cross section pics...fixing that liability only comes from disassembly cleaning.

you should clean the tank, then adjust your parameters in the clean condition not the invaded condition. Your tank is easy to fix, above is a thirty page thread of fixing tanks with the same before pics...handy to see the job in place already mapped out.

Thank you so much, i will give it a try to rinse the sand and redo everything. But i have plenty of pods in sand bed. Won't that be affected when i do a sand rinse.

 

[brandon429]

No, they come back for sure but in the end aren’t doing anything for the tank to warrant special planning.

cleaning comes first priority, one thing about tank surgery is there isn’t much room for customization. If the rinsing is under done, then upon reassembly the tank can die due to the waste packed in which wasn’t fully cleaned out

But if it’s simply cleaned as we show using those disassembly steps, then it works for years on end. the cleaning isn’t the hard part, tap rinsing the sandbed in the bathtub in buckets or outside with a hose for 45 mins isn’t hard, it’s easy. The hard part is accessing 100% new water for the final tank, which is the best way we show.

if you can not get all new water, then drain off and capture some current water for reuse before you drain, mix up enough new water to complete the final assembly