Leave it alone?

[Ab_Bot]

Hello-

My tank is being taken over by cyno. Its been up 10 weeks now. I cycled with live pukani I have done tons of water changes, 40 last week. I don't want to put chemicals into it. I have no fish yet just cuc. Would it be a bad idea to remove the rock, clean it all, vacuum the sand really well and then do a 30 gallon water change?

I always hear leave it alone and ride it out but my lfs advised me to do this. What do you guys think?

 

[Ab_Bot]

last parameters before my last 40 gallon water change was

phosphates .03
alk- 7.8
salinity 1.024
caclium 330
nitrates around 5
mag 1515

i know some of those are off and im working on those as well. tank is 90 gallon. im getting an ATO this week and i think it will help with some parameter swings ive been having

 

[Flippers4pups]

What's your source water?

 

[Ab_Bot]

What's your source water?

RODI water. I just purchased all new filters yesterday in preparation for this. But when I originally started I had him check my TDS with my first batch of water and it was at 1. He said was it was a professional meter and most meters would read 0

 

[Ab_Bot]

Also cleaned all my buckets out today because I may have put new water in buckets I had used old water in before.

 

[sticksreef]

Since you have no fish or corals, a 3 day blackout would make it go. You can go longer than 3 days since no corals in it.

 

[Ab_Bot]

Since you have no fish or corals, a 3 day blackout would make it go. You can go longer than 3 days since no corals in it.

alright ill try it out thanks

 

[Pntbll687]

3 day black out is a good start. Then slowly ramp the lights up to a full daylight period, like adding 30min of light every other day or so. You don't have to, but I would manually remove as much as possible. You can use a hose to siphon it out, run the house down to the sump and into a filter sock, this way you can clean for as long as it takes.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Okay. I wouldn't rule out using a cyanobacteria remover, but increasing flow in your tank, manual removal and depending on your lights, replacing your bulbs if you are running T5's.

Speaking of lights, what lights are you using and how long do you leave them on?

 

[sprinklerdudes]

Hmm. I wouldn't panic too much, a lot of things you can do to help, but patience will go a long way to avoid the stress of a new build. My tank has been red with cyano, brown, green and every thing in between. the more you fight it the worse it is. you need to let your tank find a good balance, the more you add or the more quickly you add can throw off the balance, and it just takes a little time to balance out again. Its is a living thing. and it needs to "cycle" if you keep poking at it and throwing chemicals in it ..... it can do all kinds of weird things. Good lighting, good flow, good filtration, don't overstock, don't overfeed. time.= good results.

 

[Ab_Bot]

Okay. I wouldn't rule out using a cyanobacteria remover, but increasing flow in your tank, manual removal and depending on your lights, replacing your bulbs if you are running T5's.

Speaking of lights, what lights are you using and how long do you leave them on?

Im using zetlight UFO leds. I am guilty of not having a lighting schedule down. My lights were running bright for awhile. They are only 10 weeks old though so bulbs shouldnt be an issue. I have trouble with my lighting schedule. if anyone uses these and has advice id appreciate. I also have 2 jabeo 25's and my return pump I think its putting out like 360 gallons per hour. cant keep my sand even which is also frustrating lol. keep getting huge bare spots

 

[Ab_Bot]

Hmm. I wouldn't panic too much, a lot of things you can do to help, but patience will go a long way to avoid the stress of a new build. My tank has been red with cyano, brown, green and every thing in between. the more you fight it the worse it is. you need to let your tank find a good balance, the more you add or the more quickly you add can throw off the balance, and it just takes a little time to balance out again. Its is a living thing. and it needs to "cycle" if you keep poking at it and throwing chemicals in it ..... it can do all kinds of weird things. Good lighting, good flow, good filtration, don't overstock, don't overfeed. time.= good results.

I think i have plenty of flow and filtration. not even feeding right now and only have 10 snails and one shrimp so hopefully overstocking isnt my issue either loll

 

[Pntbll687]

You can just wait it out. Just adding top of water.

The good thing is that you don't have fish or coral to worry about. You can take your time and take care of this the correct way by identifying the source of the problem and correcting it.

I see people on here that have some algae problem and they literally try give different remedies all at once. They'll add a new skimmer, use chemiclean, reduce the lights, add chaeto, and run gfo. The problem goes away, but they never know what took care of it.

Take your time with this. And remember that just because there may be a small patch of cyano or hair algae doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong, or that the tank isn't healthy.