Do I restart my tank?

[Chris_Noles]

Your mixed salt water is going to show TDS somewhere between 300 and ERROR in most TDS meters... Salt is a dissolved solid after all.


And green cyano too! Kinda neat. Usually that stuff is red.


There's lots of good advice in this thread but, you really can't starve out cyano. Even after you've fixed all the problems causing it to grow in the first place, it can be near impossible to kill it. A blackout won't work if you've got coral - the coral will die first; and ambient light from the room is enough to grow this stuff. It's a very resilient and efficient organism. So that said, you really needn't be afraid of a chemical solution. You still need to do the right things to keep it gone but something like Chemiclean will kill it (but will take multiple treatments) and you don't seem to have anything that would be sensitive to it. Peroxide doesn't seem to do anything to cyano. High flow will stop it from attaching to the substrate and forming mats, which in theory lets something like a UV sterilizer kill it - but I've got a ton of the red variety in my little tank and it has survived all attempts to kill it save chemical; the tank is all zoas and anemones and thus is kept incredibly dirty and I'm not willing to risk the BTAs with chemiclean so I live with it.

Yeah so I have basically no coral and might give Chemiclean a try, I haven't used it yet. I also put in a UV a while ago and it did nothing.

 

[Chris_Noles]

Good photos!

Yes, I think weekly 20% water changes will go a long way.

Good luck!
Dom

Yup, I am going to do water changes each week religiously and see if that helps. Might nuke the substrate with Chemiclean since there is a lot of cyano on the substrate.

 

[Dom]

Yup, I am going to do water changes each week religiously and see if that helps. Might nuke the substrate with Chemiclean since there is a lot of cyano on the substrate.

I don't recommend doing anything other than water changes to start.

If after 6-8 weeks, there is no improvement, then you can try Chemiclean.

Make one change at a time otherwise, you won't know which of the changes were effective.

Please be careful with Chemiclean; it depletes oxygen in the tank. Supplementing oxygen via airstone is important.

 

[blecki]

Yeah so I have basically no coral and might give Chemiclean a try, I haven't used it yet. I also put in a UV a while ago and it did nothing.

UV won't do anything for Cyano if it's on the rocks and substrate. It can only kill what passes through it. The UV might help with dinos (IIRC they become free floating at night and would go through the filter) but can only help with cyano if you have enough flow to keep it from settling and forming mats.

Might nuke the substrate with Chemiclean since there is a lot of cyano on the substrate.

Okay, so, the easiest way to 'nuke your substrate' is to suck it all out into a bucket and just - rinse it in rodi water. Seriously. It's why the cyano in my nano tank is all on the back wall and the sand is sparkling clean.

 

[Chris_Noles]

I don't recommend doing anything other than water changes to start.

If after 6-8 weeks, there is no improvement, then you can try Chemiclean.

Make one change at a time otherwise, you won't know which of the changes were effective.

Please be careful with Chemiclean; it depletes oxygen in the tank. Supplementing oxygen via ayirstone is important.

Agreed, I will give the water changes a try (even though I should be doing this anyways...)

 

[Chris_Noles]

UV won't do anything for Cyano if it's on the rocks and substrate. It can only kill what passes through it. The UV might help with dinos (IIRC they become free floating at night and would go through the filter) but can only help with cyano if you have enough flow to keep it from settling and forming mats.

Okay, so, the easiest way to 'nuke your substrate' is to suck it all out into a bucket and just - rinse it in rodi water. Seriously. It's why the cyano in my nano tank is all on the back wall and the sand is sparkling clean.

I've done that with my substrate before and I might do it again. Only reason I hate doing this is my royal gramma decides to jump out of the tank anything is moved....

 

[Chris_Noles]

If anyone cares the tank is looking a bit better after weekly water changes of 5 gallons. I stir up the sand and blast my rocks with a turkey baster before the water change. Skimmer running 24/7 which has made the water crystal clear again.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

You know what I think really helped my tank was getting into a rhythm of doing changes and my buddy hooked me up with a large bag of dark ruble rock he had in his system that’s 4-5 years old. With in 3-4 months algae was gone and now it rarely shows up and this has been over a year.

This!
I added 5lbs of ocean rock to a 75g display that was having dino issues nonstop. Within a week they cleared up and while I still am going through ugly phases, its way better than before adding the rock.

 

[Chris_Noles]

Now we have brown hair algae. What can be the cause of this? Can’t seem to get this tank stable…

 

[NickSmall]

Hi sorry to hear youre struggling with hair algae and cyano,

i have also suffered with hair algae and cyano, it can absolutely ruin the hobby.

I would suggest doing a real deep clean - sumps are terrible for building up for detritus and filter floss is the same, i would make sure you are regularly taking it out and replacing it with fresh floss as floss leaks nitrate at a scary rate if it gets clogged with gunk.

If you have a sump i would seriously suggest starting a refugium, get a half decent grow light (there are many options on ebay) and chuck a decent sized ball of chaeto algae in, there is no better form of nutrient export imo, keep your main display lights off and consider covering the main display with a sheet while keeping your refugium light on for a long period. if you keep the lights off the algae will not be able to grow - it is a plant and just like plants in your garden without light they will not survive and the cyano generally speaking is fairly easy to siphon out. i would also consider popping some phosphate remover in a filter bag and replace every week because if your nitrates are high your phosphate levels are probably also high.

when you are able to get your nitrate levels to less than 20ppm (ideally lower) pop some snails in and keep the tank dark.

an important thing to remember with nutrient issues is that water changes are effective to a point but eventually they become less effective, doing a 50% water change when your nitrate ppm is at 40 will remove theoretically remove 50% of the nutrients but the nutrients will come back, which means you need to find whats leaking them and/or find a way of removing them effectively, and the best way would be a refugium and a deep clean of the tank in my opinion.