Not Another Cyano thread

[Treefer32]

O.k. I consistently have cyano on my sand bed. It doesn't take over the rocks, it's just in the sand. If I rake it out or blow it off and remove it manually, it's back on the sand bed the next day. I Have 2 gobies that turn over the sand bed and numerous nassarious snails. But the cyano blankets my sand pretty quickly every day.

I have 4 gyres running near max at 4000+ gph each. I have two MP40s position back to front near the sand bed, blowing water through two tunnels of rock work set at max around - 5,000 gph each. My return pump is pushing around 2400 gph through my display.

Added all up - That's roughly 28,000 gph of flow through my 340 gallon display. Adjusted water volume to rock - say 300 gallons of water. That's near the 100:1 ratio at 93.3 gph of flow per gallon of water volume.

I don't believe the Cyano is a lack of flow. It could be, but doubtful. Phosphates tend to cycle around .10 - .2 I use a combination of reefmat 1200, algae turf scrubber, and skimmer for filtration. I also have a denitration factory with matrix rock that keeps nitrates between 10 and 20 ppm.

I'm happy to do a ICP Test if I know what I'm looking for? what drive cyano? I've used Chemiclean once. That removed all of it for about 3 months. And it slowly came back over the last few weeks. Obviously something is wrong with water quality? What is the food source for Cyano? And since it's a bacteria (from my understanding) is there a bacteria component I can use to have other bacteria outcompete this bacteria? I have no hair algae or any algae in my display other than film algae on the glass.

Lots of coraline algae building on the back glass. Tank is 6-7 years in operation.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you do anything for organics? Skimming? GAC? Purigen, etc.?

 

[Reeferbadness]

I get the occasional Cyano in my sand bed - i find that using a turkey baster to break it up then cleaning the sand bed with my syphon right after is a good way to export what you can. Over time - say a couple of weeks, it's usually gone. Also gives my Diamond Goby enough time to get in there and do his thing - he doesn't touch the sand with cyano on it.

 

[Treefer32]

Do you do anything for organics? Skimming? GAC? Purigen, etc.?

Yes, Skimmer, Mostly Dry skimming. I try wet skimming and the cycles my tank goes through at night it tends to skim more at night and less during the day. So, I have to either dry skim during the day so it wet skims at night, but not too much so that I'm not doing a water change with the skimmer.

Plus Reefmat should be removing organics as well. Although this roll has lasted close to 3-4 months. Which is the longest of any roll. Lots of exports, but for organics, just skimmer and Reef mat. No carbon, no purigen. I tried purigen once and for whatever reason it decimated all of my colonies of Stylapora and Birdsnest. Just those, but the Stylophora was close to softball sized and within 3 days of adding Purigen it was completely dead. So, I have the Purigen somewhere, but, not doing that again.

 

[robottaway]

I have the same issue. Like quite literally just as you described down to cleaning it and having it back the next day. Tank is 3 years old and never had cyano up until recently. Have some Dr. Tim’s waste away coming, as well as finally giving in and purchasing a skimmer. Plan to clean the bed well and dose the waste away, in hopes that bacteria will take hold and prevent the cyano. Will report back if I have any luck.

 

[robottaway]

Info that I hope helps others. Turns out after trying cleaning, Tim’s waste away and a few other little things the real solution was so obvious. Turns out my carbon stage was kaput. Swapped that for new, while I was at it changed the di resin. Three weekly water changes later all gone. Only lost a couple acans that already were 50/50 (poorly cut but cheap frags). Don’t sleep on the water can say 0 tds and still be causing issues.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Info that I hope helps others. Turns out after trying cleaning, Tim’s waste away and a few other little things the real solution was so obvious. Turns out my carbon stage was kaput. Swapped that for new, while I was at it changed the di resin. Three weekly water changes later all gone. Only lost a couple acans that already were 50/50 (poorly cut but cheap frags). Don’t sleep on the water can say 0 tds and still be causing issues.

You sure we are talking about cyano?

I can't think of a reason that the possible things in 0 ppm TDS RO/Di water might allow cyano to thrive.

 

[robottaway]

No not sure, I suppose it could have been something else. Was rust red color and came out after the light came on then went away as the lights went into moonlight mode late in the day.

 

[Treefer32]

Well, I found the source of my Cyano. I have had my UV shut off for 3 months. And Cyano died off. However, I also had an issue where I overdosed Calcium chloride and stopped dosing it at the same time to allow calcium to come down over time. And it did, so I resumed dosing calcium chloride. As I resumed Calcium Chloride dosing Cyano came back on my sand bed. It was pristine white and cyano is coming back voraciously. Based on Randy's previous comments, I suspect the calcium chloride I'm using (pharmacy grade CACL) it must have iron impurities in it that feed cyano. My limited understanding of cyano is that iron can feed it.

I don't know if high cacl can cause cyano. My calcium is testing at around 400-450 at dosing 300 ml per day.

Alk is around 8.9 as of yesterday at 300 ml per day. I suppose Higher TDS water could cause this depending what the TDS is made up of.