Need help with cyano/ spirulina / or something else

[hardcorn77]

The tank might appreciate having all three pumps – the mp10's are *very* small. See how it goes – you'll have all three to play with!


I would put those on pause at least for the moment. It's not a great idea to keep doing water changes once nutrient levels get as low as yours. Some systems tolerate it, but not new ones that are post-dino.


Maybe make other concessions first if you really like the macroalgae for other reasons....but it seems like your system may not really need it.


A smarter supplement could kalk+vinegar....you can ramp up the concentration far higher, and you get the same bacterial kick as other similar programs like AFR. Lots ways to skin that dosing cat though. Definitely read up on the options and select what's best for you and your budget. 2-part (DIY or ESV if I have my druthers) is still my favorite, but I also did 2-part + kalk and vinegar for a long time.


If your old RODI wasn't delivering good water at the end of its life, then that could even be the root cause of your cyano.

Since your corals seem happy, IMO just work toward more and more stability....and take some of these suggestions as they make sense to take. Go slow, and listen to your gut!

I’m definitely gonna take a lot of what you said and put it to use. My Dino experience with this tank was in the very beginning around a year ago so it’s not really recovering. My older ro unit was showing around 5 tds and the di filter looked good so disconnected it and bought new one. I’m going to stop using the reactor but I have to do a water change to get that chemiclean out and I’ll let it ride next week to watch my nutrients. Would you recommend removing the stuff on the sand through a filter sock and then putting the water back in the tank to avoid a water change? Thanks again for the help I do appreciate it.

 

[Subsea]

I’m at a loss right now with what’s growing on my sand bed. I’ve been battling this stuff for a few weeks now and I just can’t get on top of it. I really believed it was cyano but now I just don’t know. It’s a burgundy color and does Matt on my sand bed but when I try to suck it out to test it it disintegrates. I did a blackout recently and it worked for the first day but then it was back. I’ve got my reds running at 2% and whites below 10% with a hydra 32. My parameters are alk- 9, calcium- 440, magnesium- 1350, salinity 1.026 , ph- 8, nitrates- 11.01, phosphates .04 . I know my nitrates are a tad high but I wouldn’t consider that bad. I’m running an algae reactor for 7 hours a night and I dose Kalkwasser over night and 4 ml of All for Reef when lights go on. I run an oversized skimmer rated for twice my tanks size. My flow is nuts in a 30 gallon with a mp10 running lagoon at 90% with a smaller jebao wave maker cross flowing in the back. The tank is heavy stocked with fish and coral but when I feed daily food is gone with in minutes. I’ve got tons of snails a few hermits, peppermint shrimp, emerald crab, urchin and conch so my clean up crew is stacked. Tanks been as it is since August due to a hydroids break out that I reset the tank so I guess you can consider it new but it was originally set up in July of last year. Same water and sand since the beginning but the rock was reset in August. I’ve also introduced 5lbs of live Marco rock from saltwater aquarium to seed it with good bacteria. I’m at the end of a 48 hour chemiclean treatment and stuff didn’t budge. What’s my next step?

“Tanks been as it is since August due to a hydroids break out that I reset the tank so“

How did you deal with the hydroids?

What does “reset the tank” mean?

Is this the same tank with November 7 post about white worms on sand bed?

 

[hardcorn77]

“Tanks been as it is since August due to a hydroids break out that I reset the tank so“

How did you deal with the hydroids?

What does “reset the tank” mean?

Is this the same tank with November 7 post about white worms on sand bed?

I removed all the rock and replaced it with new rock to eradicate the hydroids so it was kinda like starting over. I did keep my sand bed and water so I was hoping to keep all that bacteria to help the new rock seed plus I added some live Marco rock too. The worms turned out to be spaghetti worms because after I turned the lights back on I got to see them on the glass.

 

[Subsea]

I am not familiar/experienced with hydroids, so excuse my ignorance.
Why is substrate free of hydroids and wouldn’t water in tank have free swimming hydroids larvae?

And do spaghetti worms eat hydroids?

 

[mcarroll]

I’m definitely gonna take a lot of what you said and put it to use. My Dino experience with this tank was in the very beginning around a year ago so it’s not really recovering. My older ro unit was showing around 5 tds and the di filter looked good so disconnected it and bought new one. I’m going to stop using the reactor but I have to do a water change to get that chemiclean out and I’ll let it ride next week to watch my nutrients. Would you recommend removing the stuff on the sand through a filter sock and then putting the water back in the tank to avoid a water change? Thanks again for the help I do appreciate it.

If you have a fine micron sock, but most are 100µ+...will only catch the big glops, not the stuff in the water, so you'll end up putting a lot back into the tank.

Consider dosing your new water change water with NO3 and PO4 up to those target levels: PO4 ≥ 0.10 and NO3 ≥ 5

Then the water changes has a net-zero effect on N and P at least.

 

[Luckki]

I was getting TDS of zero but every time I did a water change I would get a diatom outbreak, I added a cation and anion resin to my rodi to help pull out silicates. This helped me a ton with similar issues. I was having a diatom/ dino outbreak for a while. When this happened to me I was still going through an ugly phase and I switched salts to check my salt ( it was not, I went out and bought some distilled water and did two water changes and my symptoms changed. I had an idea that the issue was in the water. Your new rock could also be leeching or holding nitrates and phosphates. Are you getting hair algae growth on the rocks by chance?

 

[hardcorn77]

If you have a fine micron sock, but most are 100µ+...will only catch the big glops, not the stuff in the water, so you'll end up putting a lot back into the tank.

Consider dosing your new water change water with NO3 and PO4 up to those target levels: PO4 ≥ 0.10 and NO3 ≥ 5

Then the water changes has a net-zero effect on N and P at least.

Will do… I have a bottle of Tropic Marin NP plus that I can use. I keep it stoked since dealing with dinos in the beginning.

 

[wranodj]

CyanoClean from KZ and patience

 

[hardcorn77]

CyanoClean from KZ and patience

Thanks… I’ll look into that

 

[dzolot]

Is it on your rock too or just Sam’s bed? Hard to tell from the pics you posted but looks like there’s a doesn’t amount of algae on your rocks too. Much of this looked like serious uglies from you tank reset.

Anyway, i dealt with uglies for like 18 months when i set up my 230g tank. At the end i just resorted to chemicals and i eventually got there. Algaefix worked really well for me and also dosed microbacter clean i believe.

Good luck - i know it’s sucks but stick with it and you will get through it (eventually)!!

 

[Sneep]

I’m at a loss right now with what’s growing on my sand bed. I’ve been battling this stuff for a few weeks now and I just can’t get on top of it. I really believed it was cyano but now I just don’t know. It’s a burgundy color and does Matt on my sand bed but when I try to suck it out to test it it disintegrates. I did a blackout recently and it worked for the first day but then it was back. I’ve got my reds running at 2% and whites below 10% with a hydra 32. My parameters are alk- 9, calcium- 440, magnesium- 1350, salinity 1.026 , ph- 8, nitrates- 11.01, phosphates .04 . I know my nitrates are a tad high but I wouldn’t consider that bad. I’m running an algae reactor for 7 hours a night and I dose Kalkwasser over night and 4 ml of All for Reef when lights go on. I run an oversized skimmer rated for twice my tanks size. My flow is nuts in a 30 gallon with a mp10 running lagoon at 90% with a smaller jebao wave maker cross flowing in the back. The tank is heavy stocked with fish and coral but when I feed daily food is gone with in minutes. I’ve got tons of snails a few hermits, peppermint shrimp, emerald crab, urchin and conch so my clean up crew is stacked. Tanks been as it is since August due to a hydroids break out that I reset the tank so I guess you can consider it new but it was originally set up in July of last year. Same water and sand since the beginning but the rock was reset in August. I’ve also introduced 5lbs of live Marco rock from saltwater aquarium to seed it with good bacteria. I’m at the end of a 48 hour chemiclean treatment and stuff didn’t budge. What’s my next step?

I've been battling cyano for several months, and I think I'm just now getting past it. I'm normally a lot more scientific and change things one at a time, but I did a lot in the past couple weeks that made improvements:
- Cleaning my filter section. There was a ton of build up in there (I think it was a lot of dead sponges), and I scraped and siphoned all that out.
- Disassembled and cleaned my pump (you're probably fine here. you got mad flow)
- Switched to a filter that's supposed to reduce phosphates. My phosphates were low, but my consultant at my LFS recommended it.
- Chemiclean. I see you already used this, but I used it after manually removing a ton of the cyano with a baster.
- Added many snails. I have a 9g tank, so 4 snails is a lot, but they really help get the last bits off your rocks after manually removing it.

Hopefully something in there is useful for your tank. I despise cyano.

 

[hardcorn77]

Is it on your rock too or just Sam’s bed? Hard to tell from the pics you posted but looks like there’s a doesn’t amount of algae on your rocks too. Much of this looked like serious uglies from you tank reset.

Anyway, i dealt with uglies for like 18 months when i set up my 230g tank. At the end i just resorted to chemicals and i eventually got there. Algaefix worked really well for me and also dosed microbacter clean i believe.

Good luck - i know it’s sucks but stick with it and you will get through it (eventually)!!

Awesome… thanks for the response… it’s definitely cyano and will end up on the rock work after a few days of a cleaning. I just finished a chemiclean cleaning treatment to no avail but I’ve read that stuff doesn’t work on all strains. I’ve been dosing microbacter 7 and pns. I’m just going to keep my regular schedule with it and let it run its course. This tank has seen Dinos, hair algae, hydroids and cyano in the past year. I call it my cursed tank lol but I think it’ll come around soon. My corals have never looked better so I feel that’s a good thing.

 

[hardcorn77]

I've been battling cyano for several months, and I think I'm just now getting past it. I'm normally a lot more scientific and change things one at a time, but I did a lot in the past couple weeks that made improvements:
- Cleaning my filter section. There was a ton of build up in there (I think it was a lot of dead sponges), and I scraped and siphoned all that out.
- Disassembled and cleaned my pump (you're probably fine here. you got mad flow)
- Switched to a filter that's supposed to reduce phosphates. My phosphates were low, but my consultant at my LFS recommended it.
- Chemiclean. I see you already used this, but I used it after manually removing a ton of the cyano with a baster.
- Added many snails. I have a 9g tank, so 4 snails is a lot, but they really help get the last bits off your rocks after manually removing it.

Hopefully something in there is useful for your tank. I despise cyano.

2nd part of my reset was I pulled my sump and did a deep cleaning on it. I had overdosed all for reef about 5 months ago and when I cleaned my sump it was loaded with detritus and a crazy amount of precipitation. My nutrients have always read low and I would get excited when I’d read above .o5 for my phosphates lol. I’m going to stay the course with my husbandry until the tank finds its groove. Like I’ve stated my corals have never looked this good. Thanks a million for reaching out I appreciate it

 

[ReefTherapy]

Looks like LCA
Dinoflagellet. Get a microscope out. Confirm with Macks Reef on Facebook. Start dosing waterglass to get diatoms to out compete.

 

[dzolot]

Awesome… thanks for the response… it’s definitely cyano and will end up on the rock work after a few days of a cleaning. I just finished a chemiclean cleaning treatment to no avail but I’ve read that stuff doesn’t work on all strains. I’ve been dosing microbacter 7 and pns. I’m just going to keep my regular schedule with it and let it run its course. This tank has seen Dinos, hair algae, hydroids and cyano in the past year. I call it my cursed tank lol but I think it’ll come around soon. My corals have never looked better so I feel that’s a good thing.

Actually the product i used that helped a lot is Dr Tim’s waste away. Do some research on it to determine if it’s something you think wine help. I would use that or micro7, not both at the same time.

Here’s some current pics of my tank so you know I’m not just making stuff up! Ha

Good luck!

 

[dzolot]