Need some help

[Murphdog]

So had a big breakout of red cyano this week. Here are my test.

ph 8.2
Nitrate 40ppm
Nitrite 0
Phos 0
Kh/alk 10.9

40 gal breeder

Aquamaxx hob skimmer added in Jan

2 Nero 3

Tidal 75 with chemipure filter floss and o added live filter media ceramic rings in there about a month ago

2 k7 mini lights set on ab kinda schedule

Ato

8 fish

9 lps amd soft coral

I only feed frozen food have three types brine/ reef plankton/ spirulina

Tank almost a year. Until recently I was just feeding one cube a day. Then reef roids every 3 days.

Last month as I was adding more stock I started going to two cubes a day then was until 2 weeks ago 3
So I think I was def over feeding and still not sure how much to feed.

So any thoughts or suggestions to work on fixing this. Syphon cyano out do water changes more frequently add something remove something. I do have a clean up crew mostly snails a conch and some hermits.

 

[CoralB]

Never let your phosphates or nitrates go to zero . And you need to get your nitrates down .
Phosphates need to be 0.5 - 1.0
Nitrates need to be around 10 to 15

 

[Murphdog]

So what do we think caused this and what is best way to fix.

 

[mmorrison55]

Are you doing regular water changes?

 

[code4]

So what do we think caused this and what is best way to fix.

Mostly your phosphates and nitrates bottomed out. As @CoralB said. Get them up slowly by adding phosphate and nitrates. Suction off the cyano daily. Many ways to add them. Test often at first until you get them up. Then weekly. You could end up with dinos otherwise possibly. No fun in that club.

 

[Murphdog]

I’ve been inconsistent with the water changes. I need to get on a better schedule. Besides water changes and cleaning how should I go about getting this in check. Also any recommendations on a feeding schedule. I’m not a pro so need to learn and fix. Would overfeeding have caused this.

 

[mmorrison55]

His nitrates are reported at 40ppm and phos 0.

So definitely an imbalance. Im dealing with some cyano myself due to I got lax on doing water changes and maintenance like I used to.

Regular water changes. Suction the cyano of rock and sand, lower nitrate some and raise phosphate by more feeding or neo phos type product.

After cleaning dose some bacteria. It was suggested to me to use microbe lift special blend.

 

[19Mateo83]

Take out the Chemipure, that is stripping your phosphate. Set your skimmer to skin a little wet to help nitrates and feed one cube a day. Nothing wrong with nitrates as long as it’s not over 50ppm. LPs like a little more nutrients. Phos is ok at higher levels .3-.4 if you can get them up, reef roids or neophos works well. Key is not to chase numbers and keep things as STABLE as you can. Just my $.02

 

[Murphdog]

Thanks for the help. I’ll give it a shot. I’ll update. But any and all recommendations are welcome. Just learning as much as I can.

 

[NCsalt]

5 gallon bucket water change a week is good for a 40 breeder.