My Cyano has returned...

[Brew12]

I'm dealing with a 33 long, so I think if I ordered that many, my tank would look infested.

I like to get crabs and snails from the shoreline down by my house. I usually keep them stocked up in a 10 gallon and replenish as needed. It's a cheap way to keep a CUC and quarantine them before adding them to the display. Unfortunately, coming out of the winter months, my supply has dwindled down to almost nothing.

My strategy moving forward...

I am thinking this may be a blessing is disguise. With the changes I have made, I am hoping to see an improvement in the next few days. If not, I plan to do a manual cleaning which will allow me to make some plumbing changes to my overflows. Here is the plan:

1. I have a 20 long that I will leave bare bottom and drop a Danner Mag 5 return pump in for flow and add water.
   
2. I will place all of my corals, fish and Nem in the 20 long with proper heating and lighting.
3. I will remove all remaining water and place it in to a 20 Gallon Brute for later use.
4. I will remove all sand for a thorough rinsing.
5. I will then make my plumbing changes: raise my overflows and lower my return outlet so it isn't so close to the surface.
6. I will return the sand and water, and power up the tank so that heating, lighting and flow are restored.
7. I will return all fish, coral and Nems to the tank.

Thoughts?

Dom

If you want to do that to change your plumbing I think it looks fine. As for rinsing the sand, that is an effective method but it is one that needs to be regularly repeated imo. I see it a lot like using Chemiclean on cyano. It doesn't solve the underlying symptoms and needs to be performed regularly. In your case, it may make things better until you can restock your CuC. Not sure what snails you have available, but hopefully you have nassarius and cerith's in your area. I like nerites but they don't do much for the sand bed. Conchs are good for dealing with surface cyano and algae on the sand bed.

 

[Dom]

If you want to do that to change your plumbing I think it looks fine.

I want to raise the water line so you can't see it through the glass. Also, I was thinking that by lowering the return deeper in the water, I would get more circulation as currently, most of the circulation and agitation is on the water surface.

 

[Potatohead]

I have a feeling that when my coral colonies become more mature I will have less problems with cyano because they also compete for organic nutrients.

I believe this is a big part of it. Most tanks a year or two old are still working on building a big coral load yet they are being blasted with light. There is a lot of extra energy there.

 

[Dom]

Does Cyanobacteria consume nitrates?

 

[Chris Villalobos]

Does Cyanobacteria consume nitrates?

Looks like some can thrive by consuming organics in otherwise low nutrient systems.

https://aem.asm.org/content/69/2/1299

 

[simpleman]

imo i would run the skimmer 24/7 so when the cyano starts dying off you will get the toxin out had the same problem about 8 months ago good luck

 

[Super Fly]

what are your No3 & PO4 levels?

 

[Dom]

imo i would run the skimmer 24/7 so when the cyano starts dying off you will get the toxin out had the same problem about 8 months ago good luck

Makes sense. But it's a catch - 22.

 

[Dom]

what are your No3 & PO4 levels?

My last NO3 was 1.5ppt. Last PO4 was 0.08. But those are old tests.

I broke things down and removed the sand from the tank. It's been back to gather and running about 8 hours now.

New tests tomorrow. I'll post them when done.

 

[Dom]

Ok... so here is an update:

I broke down the tank, as I described in an earlier post, removing all substrate on Monday, March 18th and reassembled it, bare bottom on the 19th. I took advantage of the down time by doing my annual my sump (actually 2 months early).

As of now, no sign of Cyano. I still have no real nitrates (1ppm) so I am still running the tank with the skimmer off and the refugium dark. I expect the nitrates will climb with no visible Cyano.

Here are some pictures:

Hows this for a mess??? LOL

This is my temporary holding tank.

Ugh!

And of course no post would be complete without a picture of the finished product...

Note: No skimmer. Refugium chamber is empty.

So, now we wait. But I don't expect much as the Cyano in this instance was very aggressive and would be back by now. I know it looks like there is sand in the tank, but it is only a dusting which I will vacuum out during the next water change. You can tell by all the light coming through the tank bottom and lighting the sump area.

I've also dropped the return outlet about 2 inches deeper into the tank so that more circulation was under the water line, but not so deep that there isn't any surface agitation.

I've also raised my overflows by an inch to that the water line is up behind the tank frame, making for a less chaotic look when viewing the tank.

Dom

 

[badams.one]

Ok... so here is an update:

I broke down the tank, as I described in an earlier post, removing all substrate on Monday, March 18th and reassembled it, bare bottom on the 19th. I took advantage of the down time by doing my annual my sump (actually 2 months early).

As of now, no sign of Cyano. I still have no real nitrates (1ppm) so I am still running the tank with the skimmer off and the refugium dark. I expect the nitrates will climb with no visible Cyano.

Here are some pictures:

Hows this for a mess??? LOL

This is my temporary holding tank.

Ugh!

And of course no post would be complete without a picture of the finished product...

Note: No skimmer. Refugium chamber is empty.

So, now we wait. But I don't expect much as the Cyano in this instance was very aggressive and would be back by now. I know it looks like there is sand in the tank, but it is only a dusting which I will vacuum out during the next water change. You can tell by all the light coming through the tank bottom and lighting the sump area.

I've also dropped the return outlet about 2 inches deeper into the tank so that more circulation was under the water line, but not so deep that there isn't any surface agitation.

I've also raised my overflows by an inch to that the water line is up behind the tank frame, making for a less chaotic look when viewing the tank.

Dom

Hey Dom, I wanted to follow up to see if this worked for you. I assume it did being there are no follow up messages, but am curious as I've been battling cyano for months. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Dom]

Hey Dom, I wanted to follow up to see if this worked for you. I assume it did being there are no follow up messages, but am curious as I've been battling cyano for months. Thanks for sharing your experience.

@badams.one

Hey man... thanks for checking in!

Yes, going bare bottom was a huge help. But I think it was the cleaning that did more for the problem than anything else. In the end, I still had some traces of Cyano. I've turned on my UV full time and it appears to have resolved the issue entirely.

Since that posting, I have added new, thoroughly rinsed substrate and the Cyano hasn't returned.

Dom