Red Cyano is taking over!!

[ToriLoo]

Our 55 gallon has been set up for about 7 months now and the live rock and sand are covered in red cyano. About 4 months ago we had green cyano and that went away. I've read that around 6 months or so this is a normal occurrence for a new tank, but it is completely taking over. The lights are new, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, 0 phosphates. We take our water into the LFS to be tested weekly and the owner always tells us it is very clean. I've tried to pick it out by hand but all it does is mush into the sand, only to spread again within hours. I just don't know what to do about this. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do? Will it go away on it's own in time? Any help would be greatly appreciated. It's making my reef look horrible and I just want it back to normal.

 

[wrassefan]

prob should post what other equip in your set up you have (equip, fish, etc..) and what the definition of "very clean" means. Usually cyno is result of poor flow, high nutrients, bad skimmer, overfeeding, not enough water changes, not using rodi water or all the above. So let's start there

 

[ToriLoo]

We have two Koralia3 powerheads and 1 Rio 800, a 305 fluval filter, and seaclone skimmer, thinking plenty of flow? We always use ro water and faithfully do a 5 gal water change every week even though our nitrates always read zero. Use Tropic Marin for salt. Only feed every other day never any food left after a few mins, and if the nutrient levels or waste levels were high wouldnt this show up as some kind of nitrate reading? All our readings are zero as stated above and calcium and alkalinity are within acceptable parameters (420 and 8) We began using Marine SAT last week as told by our LFS this would help with the cyano bacteria. Any experience with this product? For livestock we have a hippo tang, pair of clowns, six line wrasse, purple firefish, pair of chromis, anthias and algae blenny. All our fish are small at the moment. Clean up crew nassarius snails, sandsifting star, red footed snail etc. Approx 85lbs live rock, 3" of live sand and many soft corals, leathers, zoos etc. Corals and fish seem healthy and happy, not crowded. Thanks for any insight...

 

[clowninout456]

IME i had a sea clone skimmer on my 29G and i was probably better off without a skimmer at all.....the thing was useless for me and unsightly.....

 

[Bobbofin]

That's not a Sea Clone, it's a Sea Clown Get a real skimmer, perhaps a Octopus hang-on like this one. http://www.aquacave.com/octopus-bh-1000-hang-br-on-back-protein-skimmer-br-by-coralvue-2347.html# I saw B setting one up for a customer at UA. I was very impressed. Stop by to see him at Skipton's, he'll hook you up. Also, are you running phosphate remover in a reactor. Even if you are reading zero on phosphates cyano can live off of undetectable amounts and keep readings at zero. I have a hang on reactor with pump that I'm willing to either sell or lend to you. I am currently dealing with green and red cyano but I use phosphate remover in a filter pad. I took apart my tank about 6 months ago and stirred everything up. Sometimes all you can do is siphon it off weekly and wait. I hate it too

 

[ToriLoo]

I know a lot of people don't like the SeaClone, but the one on my tank pulls out some pretty smelly green gunk, I'm happy

 

[JayM]

you still have a nutrient, flow, or lighting problem...it has to be one of those 3, except on a pretty new tank

 

[deynon09]

I had a seaclone and it didn't do anything, but I don't know if I didn't have it set up right? Anyway, got a CPR refugium w/ built in skimmer and now get lots of nasty crap! i've never seen my tank look so clean. It's a sweet thing! All that to say, a good quality skimmer REALLY does make a difference! (No wonder the SeaClown is only ~$80 or $90.)

 

[theone]

You may still have nutrients in the water but the cyano is feeding off them at a pace where you cant get a reading. It may be coming from your source water. Have you ever tested your source water?

When I had a cyano outbreak, constant removal and water changes worked for me. It came back every day, but with some patience, I finally won. I'm a big fan of scrubbing LR if it can be taken out of the tank. You can turn your lights off for some time, but I don't think this has much of an affect. It seems the cyano comes back just as fast when the lights are turned back on.

I can assume you are stirring up the detrus in the tank right before you do a water change. This includes blowing off the LR and sand bed. Just be careful with the sand, cuz if you do it too much you can make it worse.

I was changing my water but I wasn't removing dead and decaying matter from the tank, so it was useless.

good luck

 

[afboundguy]

You may still have nutrients in the water but the cyano is feeding off them at a pace where you cant get a reading. It may be coming from your source water. Have you ever tested your source water?

+1 right here... If you have visible algae problems you have a phosphate problem. The nutrients get sucked up from the algae so you get a false reading...

I might have missed but are you using RO/DI water?

Also suck out as much as you can as mentioned a few times in a week and leave the lights off for 3-4 days (not always sunny on the reef) While keeping the lights off for a few days won't get rid of the underlying problem it can help with removing it and keeping it from growing...

Also I don't know if you mentioned a refugium but since you should upgrade your skimmer anyways you should look at some of the skimmer/fuge combos like the aquafuge...

And the last resort is chemical products but like with the lights it will only solve short term problems not the underlying problem...

 

[wrassefan]

What kind of kit is the store checking your nitrates with? I would check the water for phosphates also. If you are using ro only and not rodi water, there is still tds getting in the tank every week. What kind of lights? How old are the bulbs? I know pc bulbs need changing every 6 mo. and can help cyno grow. I would prob do a 30% water change every other week for a little while since I agree with everyone about your skimmer...not the most efficient. The fact that you are getting skimmate means you prob have alot more still in the water.

 

[American Flyer]

Those Fluval filters are bad news. You basically have to clean it weekly to minimize the risk of polluting your tank. I ran 2 Fluval 405s when I first started and it led to many problems. I recommend that you upgrade to a three chambered sump as soon as you are able. Your first compartment that the tank drains into will hold your skimmer, the second chamber will be your refugium and the third will house the return pump. You don't need a drilled tank to do all this and your tank will really benefit.

 

[ToriLoo]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. Will start with cleaning out the filter and replacing the media, put some phospate remover in, shouldnt we keep some of the bio ball media just so the bio filter in our tank doesnt crash though? Until we can afford a sump system. In regards to a three chambered sump is that something you would have to put together yourself? Or can you buy them set up, what about the small ones that hang on the back of the tank? Good, No good? Since we live in an apartment for the time being that would probably be our best option. We live in Southern Maine so our resources are a little limited, we dont even have a LFS nearby that sells RO water so we have to buy bottled. Well again thanks for all the insight

 

[theone]

what kind of bottled water are you buying/using?

 

[ToriLoo]

We use 'Drinking water' from walmart buy it by the gallon, it says it is purified using reverse osmosis

 

[elaminator]

Try red slime remover, cyano should be gone in 48 hrs.

 

[Leroy]

Try red slime remover, cyano should be gone in 48 hrs.

Add to that, or Chemi Clean works good too. Read, read the directions, remove all carbon and phosgen/chemi pure and UV sterilizer if used. Shut off skimmer. Be ready to do a 20% water change after 48 hrs. Add an airstone since the chemical has the tendency to deplete oxygen from the water. After 48 hrs do your water change, replace carbon and turn on the skimmer which is going to need some tweaking as it foams like mad from some of the chemical left in the water for a few days.

 

[theone]

We use 'Drinking water' from walmart buy it by the gallon, it says it is purified using reverse osmosis

Just because it says that, doesn't mean its any good. If you had a hand held TDS meeter to test it, then you could trust it. I used to used distilled water from water wallmart and never had problems, but I may just have been lucky.

 

[wrassefan]

distilled is more pure than ro water...ro water can have tds readings into the 30s

 

[ToriLoo]

Ok we use to use distilled, then saw that the drinking water was actually ro so switched. We'll try the distilled again. I dont have a tds meter, boy I thought horses were expensive this reef thing can get crazy too haha. Well on a positive note, with the thorough cleaning of the filter, rocks and sand, and the addding of phos remover things are looking much better, but I do want to try to solve the underlying problem so it doesnt come back.