Is this Cyano?

[Fishel]

~18 month old tank. 20 gallon Waterbox cube. I don't run a skimmer just a UV sterilizer. I do 20% water changes every couple weeks. I feed sparingly, once a day. Couple Clowns, a Watchman Goby and a Pistol Shrimp. A few Zoa’s, a few Acans. All the critters do fine. No cleanup crew yet. Had a cleaner shrimp until recently (died after a year). I don’t dose anything, just water changes.

This brownish algae wont go away. My nitrates are at 2, 0 ammonia or nitrites. I’ll need to test my phosphates again but last time it was pretty low but not zero.

My sand bed is kinda deep, ~2 inches, 3 inches in some places where the shrimp have worked.

I’ll scrap it off the glass then about 3 days later it starts to come back on the glass. I’m debating whether to do Chemiclean. I might do a good clean and rock scrub with the old Vortex Diatom filter running?

An ID and any suggestions would be appreciated. LFS said to try Vibrant but I’m hesitant after reading issues with it here on the forums.

 

[Santervas]

it is diatom and you have to have very high silicates

 

[MnFish1]

It does not look like cyano. It looks like diatoms (on the sand) - and the other picture is kind of blurry to see what it is.

My guess is that though your nitrates and phosphate are 'low' - there is a lot of 'bare area' with light hitting it - and something is going to grow. My guess is that you have other dissolved organics (that aren't being measured). Chemiclean will not help this.

I would suggest carbon (activated) to try to remove some of those compounds. Also do you use RODI water - 0 TDS? Do you siphon your sand/rock when you do your water changes?

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is far from diatoms and is actually dino. Many things can cause dine such as underrated skimmer or skimmer overflowing, heavy feeding leading to higher Phosphate and nitrate, inadequate water flow and other factors. This is a remedy I often recommend and is successful. Its easy but requires patience.

Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15%) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

 

[Fishel]

It does not look like cyano. It looks like diatoms (on the sand) - and the other picture is kind of blurry to see what it is.

My guess is that though your nitrates and phosphate are 'low' - there is a lot of 'bare area' with light hitting it - and something is going to grow. My guess is that you have other dissolved organics (that aren't being measured). Chemiclean will not help this.

I would suggest carbon (activated) to try to remove some of those compounds. Also do you use RODI water - 0 TDS? Do you siphon your sand/rock when you do your water changes?

Thank you for the reply. I use a Chemipure bag and change it out every couple months.

I use RODI water and have a 3-way inline TDS meter plumbed in. The final sensor is still showing 0 TDS. The 2nd to last sensor usually shows 2-3ppm.

I typically don’t brush the rock every water change but when I do I do it before the water change then siphon the crud out that floats in the water column.

 

[Fishel]

This is far from diatoms and is actually dino. Many things can cause dine such as underrated skimmer or skimmer overflowing, heavy feeding leading to higher Phosphate and nitrate, inadequate water flow and other factors. This is a remedy I often recommend and is successful. Its easy but requires patience.

Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15%) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

Thank you for the response.

Do I need to remove all Carbon from the tank beforehand?

I’ve reduced My lighting schedule today from 11 hours to 6 hours. I’m using an AI Prime and I use Saxby’s schedule (hours reduced now).

Right now the only thing in the tank are a few Acans, Zoa’s and a Pistol shrimp. I’ll be taking the Goby out to go into quarantine with the 2 clowns. The clowns had beginning stages of brook. So this display tank will go fallow for 45 days starting today. But I can remove all the corals if needed? I have a quarantine coral tank already running.

This ok to use for hydro? 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (USP grade, Walmart/Walgreens)?

Do you think it’ll help if I run the VorTex diatom sand filter at least while I’m brushing and cleaning?

 

[MnFish1]

Thank you for the reply. I use a Chemipure bag and change it out every couple months.

I use RODI water and have a 3-way inline TDS meter plumbed in. The final sensor is still showing 0 TDS. The 2nd to last sensor usually shows 2-3ppm.

I typically don’t brush the rock every water change but when I do I do it before the water change then siphon the crud out that floats in the water column.

As a matter of fact - I believe that @vetteguy53081 is correct that at least part of the issue is Dinos - after blowing up the pictures.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you for the response.

Do I need to remove all Carbon from the tank beforehand?

I’ve reduced My lighting schedule today from 11 hours to 6 hours. I’m using a AI Prime and I use Saxby’s schedule (hours reduced now).

Right now the only thing in the tank are a few Acans, Zoa’s and a Pistol shrimp. I’ll be taking the Goby out to go into quarantine with the 2 clowns. The clowns had beginning stages of brook. So this display tank will go fallow for 45 days starting today. But I can remove all the corals if needed? I have a quarantine coral tank already running.

This ok to use for hydro? 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (USP grade, Walmart/Walgreens)?

Do you think it’ll help if I run the VorTex diatom sand filter at least while I’m brushing and cleaning?

Yes- for those few days . Important that white light is off- Not reduced. If you have light dependant coral, I mentioned about use of blue light.
3$ peroxide is correct and corals should be fine during blackout.

 

[Fishel]

A couple pics of the tank overall.

 

[attiland]

~18 month old tank. 20 gallon Waterbox cube. I don't run a skimmer just a UV sterilizer. I do 20% water changes every couple weeks. I feed sparingly, once a day. Couple Clowns, a Watchman Goby and a Pistol Shrimp. A few Zoa’s, a few Acans. All the critters do fine. No cleanup crew yet. Had a cleaner shrimp until recently (died after a year). I don’t dose anything, just water changes.

This brownish algae wont go away. My nitrates are at 2, 0 ammonia or nitrites. I’ll need to test my phosphates again but last time it was pretty low but not zero.

My sand bed is kinda deep, ~2 inches, 3 inches in some places where the shrimp have worked.

I’ll scrap it off the glass then about 3 days later it starts to come back on the glass. I’m debating whether to do Chemiclean. I might do a good clean and rock scrub with the old Vortex Diatom filter running?

An ID and any suggestions would be appreciated. LFS said to try Vibrant but I’m hesitant after reading issues with it here on the forums.

I don’t think it is cyano or diatoms. My bet is it is Dinos but if you want to be sure which type it is use a microscope.

 

[Fishel]

Yes- for those few days . Important that white light is off- Not reduced. If you have light dependant coral, I mentioned about use of blue light.
3$ peroxide is correct and corals should be fine during blackout.

LFS only has Turbostart 900. Would that be ok to use instead?

 

[vetteguy53081]

LFS only has Turbostart 900. Would that be ok to use instead?

Yes- also good stuff

 

[Dan_P]

~18 month old tank. 20 gallon Waterbox cube. I don't run a skimmer just a UV sterilizer. I do 20% water changes every couple weeks. I feed sparingly, once a day. Couple Clowns, a Watchman Goby and a Pistol Shrimp. A few Zoa’s, a few Acans. All the critters do fine. No cleanup crew yet. Had a cleaner shrimp until recently (died after a year). I don’t dose anything, just water changes.

This brownish algae wont go away. My nitrates are at 2, 0 ammonia or nitrites. I’ll need to test my phosphates again but last time it was pretty low but not zero.

My sand bed is kinda deep, ~2 inches, 3 inches in some places where the shrimp have worked.

I’ll scrap it off the glass then about 3 days later it starts to come back on the glass. I’m debating whether to do Chemiclean. I might do a good clean and rock scrub with the old Vortex Diatom filter running?

An ID and any suggestions would be appreciated. LFS said to try Vibrant but I’m hesitant after reading issues with it here on the forums.

I was going to say diatoms or dinoflagellates until I saw the closeup picture. I did not expect the fuzzy appearance.

 

[Fishel]

Alright. The tank is fallow, only 1 pistol shrimp in there so no lights will be on.

Brushed everything off, cleaned all sponges etc. did a big water change and siphoned up as much crud as possible.

I took the liberty to reshape the rock a little to free up some more flat space for corals.

I’ll start the Fritz TurboStart 900 tomorrow during the day and the Hydro at night, repeating for 5 days and cleaning/replacing the sponge and filter material daily.

This tank will be fallow for 45 days due to some brook on the 2 clowns so I’ll probably leave the lights off for longer.

 

[Fishel]

The 5 day treatment is done. There’s been a drastic reduction in dinos and a very small amount of new dino growth.

How safe would it be to continue and for how long? The only living thing in the tank right now is a single pistol shrimp.

 

[Fishel]

So. Tank cleared up 100%. It sat fallow for 45 days. Fish went back in but coral remains in quarantine. Lighting schedule back on but now with no white and reduced to 6 hours during the day.

And after probably 3 weeks it looks like the dino’s are starting to come back unfortunately. TDS still reads zero. I do not feed heavily. It’s just once a day and very targeted.

I’m thinking my inline TDS meter may be lying? The RODI unit is 5 stage and it’s pretty old but had zero use up until recently, last 2 years or so. It only feeds a 20 gallon main tank (Waterbox Cube 20) and 2 10 gallon quarantine tanks so I’m not making a ton of water with it.

The sand I’m using is on the finer side but it was the Agra-live Fuji pink stuff so it wasn’t rinsed before use. Someone said excessive silicates may be the problem?

Not real sure what to do now. I can do the peroxide treatment again but I feel like it’ll just come back again.