Is this cyano? Need help, advice.

[Michael Hull]

Fresh off a water change,
ph 8.2
alk 9.2
salinity 1.026
temp 79.5
phosphates 0 (started running gfo in reactor when I saw this stuff starting)
nitrates 0 (can't say I've ever really been able to detect them recently)

I've noticed some corals retracting/a little bit of die off on sps.
duncan coral seems great, gsp thriving, other ops thriving.

fish are all hungry and seem fine.
maybe need more flow over sand bed? You can see stuff blowing in wind though.

have chaeto in sump
3 hydra 26s on Red Sea s500
Red Sea new skimmer (its awesome)

 

[Terry Mattson]

It does look like cyno. I had a three month battle with the stuff. Manual removal. Tried a few things. Water chemistry was good. Finally broke down and ran Chemiclean. I had a much worse issue then u are showing. After manual removal of some, ran chemiclean and it was 99% gone after 48 hours. Then did a water change. I have a refugium, LPS, mushrooms, and zoas plus 7 fish in a Red Sea 350. No impact to livestock. I did run airstone during treatment [very important]. And left skimmer on without the cup to help o2 levels.

 

[Terry Mattson]

Oh, sand is white as snow.

 

[HotRocks]

It does look like cyano to me. I just recently got through an outbreak. I don't like chemiclean as the one time I used it I had a terrible bout of dinos and fought them for months after using it.

How long has your tank been running?

IME ultra low nutrients or an imbalance are the cause. I had to back down my fuge photoperiod, and get my nitrates north of 5ppm and it went away within 48 hours.

 

[dwest]

Agree cyano. I caution you about gfo however. Very low nutrients might allow dinos to become predominant. You don’t want to go there.

 

[Terry Mattson]

It does look like cyano to me. I just recently got through an outbreak. I don't like chemiclean as the one time I used it I had a terrible bout of dinos and fought them for months after using it.

How long has your tank been running?

IME ultra low nutrients or an imbalance are the cause. I had to back down my fuge photoperiod, and get my nitrates north of 5ppm and it went away within 48 hours.

8 months. Yes, I had very low nitrate < 5 and phosphate went to 0 using red sea test kit. I now am up to .018 after removing GFO. So will monitor. I had replaced my refugium light a month ago with a H380 and the cheto went crazy dark green and growing like nuts. Maybe will not need gfo. Will see. I harvest over a pint a week.

 

[HotRocks]

Agree cyano. I caution you about gfo however. Very low nutrients might allow dinos to become predominant. You don’t want to go there.

Yes I also agree with this^

 

[Terry Mattson]

How long do you run your refugium light?

 

[HotRocks]

How long do you run your refugium light?

I use the Kessil 160 Flora. I run it anywhere from 6-8 hours depending on my nitrate. I am trying to maintain 10ppm nitrate. So if nitrate needs lowered I increase it and vice versa. I have had to lower it all the way to 4 hours before when nutrients were super low.

 

[Terry Mattson]

I use the Kessil 160 Flora. I run it anywhere from 6-8 hours depending on my nitrate. I am trying to maintain 10ppm nitrate. So if nitrate needs lowered I increase it and vice versa. I have had to lower it all the way to 4 hours before when nutrients were super low.

This is very helpful information. I will try and dial in using the refugium instead of adding GFO etc. Do you run carbon?

 

[Michael Hull]

I run my fuge light way too long from the sound of it. And maybe I'll stop the GFO too. I use RO/DI so should be pretty ok on the phosphate levels I'd expect. Maybe its the ultra low nutrient affecting my corals, too.

 

[HotRocks]

I run my fuge light way too long from the sound of it. And maybe I'll stop the GFO too. I use RO/DI so should be pretty ok on the phosphate levels I'd expect. Maybe its the ultra low nutrient affecting my corals, too.

Do you have pale corals?

 

[HotRocks]

This is very helpful information. I will try and dial in using the refugium instead of adding GFO etc. Do you run carbon?

I don't run any GFO, and sometimes I run a little bit of ROX 0.8 carbon in a bag in a filter sock.

 

[Terry Mattson]

I use the Kessil 160 Flora. I run it anywhere from 6-8 hours depending on my nitrate. I am trying to maintain 10ppm nitrate. So if nitrate needs lowered I increase it and vice versa. I have had to lower it all the way to 4 hours before when nutrients were super low.

I run the refugium 14 hours ....

 

[Michael Hull]

Do you have pale corals?

Yes definitely.

 

[HotRocks]

Yes definitely.

IME that is a nutrient issue. I can tell you though I am a fish disease nerd so my expertise is not coral health.

When my nitrate was undetectable and phosphate was .01-.02ppm my SPS looked horrible, added some fish, cut the fuge photoperiod and got some registering nitrate with an increase of phosphate to .05ppm my corals started looking WAY better.

This was all done by feeding a tad heavier as well as the fuge photoperiod. I did trim my chaeto way back too at one point.

@Crabs McJones experienced the same thing as well.

 

[Crabs McJones]

IME that is a nutrient issue. I can tell you though I am a fish disease nerd so my expertise is not coral health.

When my nitrate was undetectable and phosphate was .01-.02ppm my SPS looked horrible, added some fish, cut the fuge photoperiod and got some registering nitrate with an increase of phosphate to .05ppm my corals started looking WAY better.

This was all done by feeding a tad heavier as well as the fuge photoperiod. I did trim my chaeto way back too at one point.

@Crabs McJones experienced the same thing as well.

Agree 100%

 

[Michael Hull]

I might have introduced chaeto too soon (from the start) nearly, and as such have crushed my nutrients. I feed well and have my fuge light on for probably 12-18 hours a day.

Going to cut some chaeto out and drop the light period. Do I need to treat for cyano or just see if nutrients take their course?

 

[HotRocks]

I might have introduced chaeto too soon (from the start) nearly, and as such have crushed my nutrients. I feed well and have my fuge light on for probably 12-18 hours a day.

Going to cut some chaeto out and drop the light period. Do I need to treat for cyano or just see if nutrients take their course?

How old is your tank?

I would say you should definitely cut back on your photoperiod.

 

[Michael Hull]

7 Months.