- Joined
- Feb 19, 2017
- Messages
- 466
- Reaction score
- 991
Get some API Erythromycin it will be gone within a week. But definitely do a big water change after 4 to 5 days
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Holy smoke. There is your problem.Here's my fish room. I'm thinking about running the Reefer independent with the sump it came with and just use all my equipment for water changes.
Yep that could well be it.Holy smoke. There is your problem.
The RO/Di is in the grow lights. Move that thing. Your growing bacteria in the canisters than feeding it in your sump.
What is your NO3 and PO4 at currently? Might be worth letting them elevate a little rather than working to strip them so that other algae species are better able to out-compete the cyano... and making sure you're not stripping the tank of some other limiting nutrient that would keep something like diatoms or the like from growing in place of the cyano.
Holy smoke. There is your problem.
The RO/Di is in the grow lights. Move that thing. Your growing bacteria in the canisters than feeding it in your sump.
Whether you have cyano or some species of dinoflagellate, they seem to thrive in environments of declining nutrients that allow them to get a foothold and out-compete other algaes. Before giving up and tearing down the tank, I'd recommend trying to let your phosphate and, especially, nitrate rise a bit. Whether by simply feeding more or by manually dosing something like sodium nitrate, try to get NO3 up closer to 5-10ppm and make sure PO4 stays at least where it is now if not a little higher.
From there, you could also experiment with dosing a potentially limiting nutrient like silica (Brightwell's SpongExcel works well for this) which will allow diatoms to out-compete the cyano. The silica approach is used with a lot of success by some environmental cleanup orgs to remove cyano from eutrophic freshwater lakes. I've used it with a lot of success in my own tank and it doesn't cause any major diatom issues at a regular maintenance dose either.
The key here is out-competing with a "good" algae species and having lots of herbivores in the tank to chow down on that algae rather than working relentlessly to strip the tank of all nutrients -- which just leads to stubborn opportunists taking hold.
Increase nitrates to 2.5 or higher. At lower nutrient levels it’s easy to get dinos or cyano as it’s able to outcompete our macro algaes then. I went through the exact same thing.
I had the same freakout moment when dosing nitrates and then overly carbon dosing in response to get my numbers down. I essentially stripped my tank of nutrients and got hit hard with cyano and dinos until the nitrates crept back up above 1ppm. They very noticeably started disappearing around 2.5ppm. I also had this happen when I initially started a 20 gallon frag tank and kept it too clean, so it seems to be a very consistent cause and effect.
I had a bad outbreak of a type of cyano that chemiclean didn't do a dent on for whatever reason. I did about 5-6 days straight of 30-40% water changes. That worked for me. Best of luck, the uglies suck.
I hear you on the frustration. I am now looking at dinos all over my sandbed. Tested my nitrate, less than 1. So started dosing the LoudWolf sodium nitrate literally two days ago. If I only knew how to get my phosphates up as well. I seem to always run near zero phosphates and nitrates, without trying. And I feed frozen a couple times a day.
Just my 2cents...
I’ve only started 3 tanks (all with sand) and with 2 months always gone thru that phase. I don’t know if it’s the secret but on all my tanks I always have a huge cleaning crew with lots of snails, very good circulation, UV 24x7 and Ozone. By month 3 all those pest are gone.
Good luck!