Green Cyano

[Aquamaniak]

Hi all,

I've been battling cyano since I started reefing 3 years ago and I'm quite desperate to finish it. It doesn't really hurt anything but it looks so messy, I've never had clean looking sand or rocks!
First I had red cyano, mostly from what I believe was overfeeding the corals. After reducing the feeding and bringing down phosphate levels (I've always had more phosphate than nitrates) the red cyano disappeared and green cyano took its place. It's less agressive but still looks like a mess.

My main parameters:

Nitrates fluctuating around 1-2 (I dose quite a lot, without dosing it's always 0)
Phosphates 0,06
Calcium 450
KH around 7 DKH (I'm slowly trying to increase it, my SPS seem to have problems when I raise it too much)
Magnesium 1300

I did a triton test a long time ago which revealed copper, maybe that's hurting the beneficial bacteria populations? I'm still waiting for some cuprisorb but I doubt it will make much difference, I did use triton detox in the past which did not remove much at all.
I should mention I'm not running activated carbon, which may remove copper as well?

Any ideas? I don't want to use chemicals.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hi all,

I've been battling cyano since I started reefing 3 years ago and I'm quite desperate to finish it. It doesn't really hurt anything but it looks so messy, I've never had clean looking sand or rocks!
First I had red cyano, mostly from what I believe was overfeeding the corals. After reducing the feeding and bringing down phosphate levels (I've always had more phosphate than nitrates) the red cyano disappeared and green cyano took its place. It's less agressive but still looks like a mess.

My main parameters:

Nitrates fluctuating around 1-2 (I dose quite a lot, without dosing it's always 0)
Phosphates 0,06
Calcium 450
KH around 7 DKH (I'm slowly trying to increase it, my SPS seem to have problems when I raise it too much)
Magnesium 1300

I did a triton test a long time ago which revealed copper, maybe that's hurting the beneficial bacteria populations? I'm still waiting for some cuprisorb but I doubt it will make much difference, I did use triton detox in the past which did not remove much at all.
I should mention I'm not running activated carbon, which may remove copper as well?

Any ideas? I don't want to use chemicals.

Thanks in advance!

Do you know how the copper entered the system? Are you using RO/DI water for water changes or are you on the full triton method of no water changes? If you have copper in the system and want to remove it check out this thread by @4FordFamily
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-remove-copper-from-dt.326316/

Hope this helps !

 

[Aquamaniak]

Do you know how the copper entered the system? Are you using RO/DI water for water changes or are you on the full triton method of no water changes? If you have copper in the system and want to remove it check out this thread by @4FordFamily
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-remove-copper-from-dt.326316/

Hope this helps !

I started another thread about the copper some time ago, see this link https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-in-reef-tanks.345407/#post-4299424
If only I knew how it could enter the system! I barely do water changes as I'm using DSR which is based on adding supplements, but I did some during the past months.
That thread is quite a good read, thanks! I'm a bit afraid to change too much, like 80% water changes, because corals are doing pretty well I think, despite the cyano.
I'll soon have some cuprisorb to try out, but logic tells me most of the copper is probably organic, so maybe I should also run activated carbon for a while?
So many hard decisions!

 

[Aquamaniak]

Small update, it looked like the situation improved a bit but after dosing some amino acids it has come back in full force. So I've identified amino-acids as one of the causes. On the bright side my zoanthids reacted really well.
I did a new triton test which looks pretty good, most of the copper is gone. I think I'm seeing more pod activity and strombid snail eggs, could be the result of lower copper.

On the german forums people reported a solution for green cyano after raising salinity and/or alkalinity, does anyone have experience with this? Unfortunately there's way too little information available about this cyano strain.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Im having the same Green cyano issue. for 4 months I find myself constantly blowing it off and siphoning out what i can during waterchanges, including removing most of the sand where it like to hide (behind the rockworks).
Now it just finding other areas to encrust including underside of rockwork. I am starting to consider it a nuisance since my tank is pretty established now at 11 months and coraline algae is covering most of the rockwork. Initally I let it grow since I had some dinos show up and wanted as much competeing bacteria and algae as possible. It worked but now i am stuck with this green carpet mess.

I was dosing acropower daily but now do it every other day. I am going to put the acropower on doser this way I can more easily adjust the dosing per day and see if this helps. honestly, not sure if its even worth dosing now that I have nutrients present. Nutrients I have is Phosphates 0.03 to 0.07 (used to be <.03 but always found its way to 0 with minor adjustment in feeding or skimming so now try keeping it higher), Nitrates are 5ppm

I may have to consider red slime remover. Trying my best to avoid any chemicals but if it persist I have to knock it out and give other organism chance to outcompete the cyano.