Red cyano, water parameters

[Baxx]

Hey all,

Just looking for advice on my parameters and current cyano battles.

Tank is about 9 months old, however I took over from a friend and moved the tank about a month ago. He was never able to keep No3 and Po4 in tank and was riddled with dino's

Since taking over, the dino's have disappeared and red cyano is now the problem. Seems to die at night, sandbed clean in the morning, cyano starts forming around 3pm and around 6pm is when cyano is at peak. Light peak is at 1:30pm (blue 50%, white 25%). Lights on from 10:30am-8:30pm.

Temp: 24.7
Salinity 1.026
pH 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 4
Phosphate 0.04
kH 8.3
Calcium 470
Magnesium 1440

Years ago when I kept a reef tank I used chemiclean to remove cyano, however from memory my Zoa's and Goni's hated it. Also did blackout which nothing liked. I don't really want to go down that path again so wondering if anyone can help with cause?

I've angled wave makers to sandbed to limit dead spots, reduced light %, feeding less. Fish and corals don't seem really bothered by it but I am removing cyano daily. I'm thinking lighting but not sure? Running redsea reefbeat 90. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Pics below

1. Before cyano outbreak ~1:45pm

After outbreak ~6:45pm

 

[Subsea]

In my experiences, your nitrate is still too low. I normally would just feed more. I use ChemiClean when required. You could also consider dosing 10ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide for every 10G of system water for 10 days. Dose peroxide when lights go out.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

looks and sounds like dinos to Me, cyano doesn't dissappear overnight for me...

 

[Baxx]

In my experiences, your nitrate is still too low. I normally would just feed more. I use ChemiClean when required. You could also consider dosing 10ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide for every 10G of system water for 10 days. Dose peroxide when lights go out

Thank you for your advice We've been struggling to get nitrates up but have finally reached 4ppm which has been an achievement. The cyano bloomed once No3 and Po4 started increasing. I've read cyano absorbs nitrates, so they may be higher than they appear on test? Not sure. But will try get them up and see how we go

 

[Baxx]

looks and sounds like dinos to Me, cyano doesn't dissappear overnight for me...

I agree, however having dinos recently this is definitely different. The dinos we had formed strings with bubbles at the end, No3 and Po4 were also both 0. It was easy to remove from sand. This forms a thick carpet over the sand which comes off in a sheet - taking some sand with it. It also has bubbles but doesn't form the strings, just a few on the surface. This is also much more of a red/purple colour, the dinos were brown
Could this perhaps be something other than cyano and dinos? Or maybe a different form of either? It reminds me a lot of the cyano I had in my previous tank, but do agree it did not disappear and reappear with light..

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I agree, however having dinos recently this is definitely different. The dinos we had formed strings with bubbles at the end, No3 and Po4 were also both 0. It was easy to remove from sand. This forms a thick carpet over the sand which comes off in a sheet - taking some sand with it. It also has bubbles but doesn't form the strings, just a few on the surface. This is also much more of a red/purple colour, the dinos were brown
Could this perhaps be something other than cyano and dinos? Or maybe a different form of either? It reminds me a lot of the cyano I had in my previous tank, but do agree it did not disappear and reappear with light..

do you have acess to a microscope, although this video is 1 out of 10 for quality