Cyanobacteria Help

[Pacmann84]

Good morning All,

I know this topic has been beaten over and over again, but for the sake of time and my sanity I'm going to ask the question that is specific to my existing tank conditions. As I understand cyano happens when there is an imbalance of NO3 and NO4. So here begins my story.

My tank - 65 Gallon DT w/ Eshopps RS-200 Sump
Total Water Volume 73 Gallons
I only run skimmer for mechanical filtration
I have an air pump/stone inside of my system to help with PH levels
Current System Parameters
NO3- 5-10PPM - Nyos Test Kit
NO4- .04PPM - Hannah Test Kit
Alk - 8.5
CA- 440-450
Mg - 1290-1300
Ph - 8.1-8.2

I had a long battle with Dino's due to my nutrients bottoming out. It took months for me to get rid of them, but I finally did.

After the battle with Dinos I had the ugly stage of GHA etc etc. Got all that under control and my NO3 & NO4 seemed to stay stable and really never rose. Although I've always had issues with just a little cyano, never really out of control.

In the last few weeks I noticed that cyano started to show up more and more. So I started testing every other day. My NO3 would stay somewhere between the 5-10PPM range but my NO4 kept creeping up, eventually it got to almost .2

So I purchased some GFO and installed the reactor in my system. I test nearly every other day; and cruise somewhere between .04 and .08 PPM of NO4. NO3 seems to be stable.

My question is; what am I doing wrong? The cyano seems to keep growing, I have an ATF and only feed once a day, occasionally I'll feed heavy by feeding frozen or something else, but thats not everyday.

Any help or input would be great; I have had my tank setup for almost 3 years. My corals seems to thrive, I have a mixed reef. But the tank looks ugly with the cyano.

Sorry to be so long winded, but I'm so tired of the constant struggle!

 

[EvanDeVita]

I can't say what you're doing wrong at the moment. It is possible that the cyano came around at the same time as the GHA, but didn 't die out. The best thing to do is to just remove the Cyano manually with a siphon or turkey baster. Keep your nutrients steady and the cyano will dissappear

 

[Deep]

or you can try chemiclean

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

After fighting it for 2 months, I used chemiclean last week, and now I'm so happy. I've heard only good things about chemiclean and its well deserved, excellent product.

 

[Bfragale]

Chemiclean has worked for me. But honestly I think it’s still in the tank as I occasionally see a small patch here and there. One thing that I think helped me was to increase the flow.

if it was me I would do a round or two of chemi clean, to knock it back a bit. If increasing flow is an option maybe give it a shot.

 

[AcanthurusRex]

Chemiclean works but in my case the cyano was replaced by turf algae which was exponentially worse. Chemiclean is an anti-biotic.
Something has to take up the nutrients the cyano needs, which is not much since it does fine with zero measurable NO3/PO4. For me it was coraline algae outbreak, corals would be preferable. Bacteria/carbon dosing helped but never solved the problem.
Crashed the tank fighting cyano, would not go down that path again. I was very hesitant to use Chemiclean but after seeing the glowing recommendations I eventually tried it. Yes it was stupid and very costly.

 

[Pacmann84]

Chemiclean works but in my case the cyano was replaced by turf algae which was exponentially worse. Chemiclean is an anti-biotic.
Something has to take up the nutrients the cyano needs, which is not much since it does fine with zero measurable NO3/PO4. For me it was coraline algae outbreak, corals would be preferable. Bacteria/carbon dosing helped but never solved the problem.
Crashed the tank fighting cyano, would not go down that path again. I was very hesitant to use Chemiclean but after seeing the glowing recommendations I eventually tried it. Yes it was stupid and very costly.

So did your tank crash after using Chemiclean or while you were trying other methods like carbon dosing etc? I really want to use chemiclean, but i'm also hesitant at the same time. I really want to get to the core root of the issue and not just band-aid it.

If that makes sense?

 

[AcanthurusRex]

Dealing with the turf algae caused the crash. The cyano was annoying but the turf algae overgrew everything within a couple days and required many hours pulling it every few days.
Your tank is unlikely to respond like mine. Something is going to grow in the place of the cyano. You could go back to dinos. You might be clean. In my case it was turf algae.

 

[Dan_P]

Good morning All,

I know this topic has been beaten over and over again, but for the sake of time and my sanity I'm going to ask the question that is specific to my existing tank conditions. As I understand cyano happens when there is an imbalance of NO3 and NO4. So here begins my story.

My tank - 65 Gallon DT w/ Eshopps RS-200 Sump
Total Water Volume 73 Gallons
I only run skimmer for mechanical filtration
I have an air pump/stone inside of my system to help with PH levels
Current System Parameters
NO3- 5-10PPM - Nyos Test Kit
NO4- .04PPM - Hannah Test Kit
Alk - 8.5
CA- 440-450
Mg - 1290-1300
Ph - 8.1-8.2

I had a long battle with Dino's due to my nutrients bottoming out. It took months for me to get rid of them, but I finally did.

After the battle with Dinos I had the ugly stage of GHA etc etc. Got all that under control and my NO3 & NO4 seemed to stay stable and really never rose. Although I've always had issues with just a little cyano, never really out of control.

In the last few weeks I noticed that cyano started to show up more and more. So I started testing every other day. My NO3 would stay somewhere between the 5-10PPM range but my NO4 kept creeping up, eventually it got to almost .2

So I purchased some GFO and installed the reactor in my system. I test nearly every other day; and cruise somewhere between .04 and .08 PPM of NO4. NO3 seems to be stable.

My question is; what am I doing wrong? The cyano seems to keep growing, I have an ATF and only feed once a day, occasionally I'll feed heavy by feeding frozen or something else, but thats not everyday.

Any help or input would be great; I have had my tank setup for almost 3 years. My corals seems to thrive, I have a mixed reef. But the tank looks ugly with the cyano.

Sorry to be so long winded, but I'm so tired of the constant struggle!

Are vacuuming up the cyanobacteria?

 

[Pacmann84]

Are vacuuming up the cyanobacteria?

No I haven’t been