Red Cyano Issue - Questions on How to Rid

[agentfive]

Our tank is a biocube 14 gallon and it's been up and running for 1.5 years. In the past 2-3 months we've had red cyano that likes to coat up the rocks and stuff. Shutting the lights off for 2 days and doing a 20% water change seems to rid us of it for a week or two - and then it starts back up. We have lots of corals and stuff - along with 3 fish - everything is doing great except for keeping ahead of the red stuff.

Here's our setup and what we do for care;

1. Weekly water change using R/O water of 1 gallon. Rinse carbon filter, chemi-pure elite - in bioball chamber - clean and rinse sponge near pump.

2. Once every other week we shake rinse in the change water the chemi-pure elite bag just to keep things flowing well.

3. We have the stock pump and a K-Nano fan for flow

4. Every other day we feed - I use a ceramic knife and slice enough washed and rinsed then refrozen mysis shrimp for a few quick eye droppers. The cardinal, firefish, and the striped goby eat it up very fast.

5. We also dose about 8 drops of part a and b Kent Marine Nano reef stuff every other day - the corals are huge and we've grown duncans from 3 heads to 18+ now

6. Our water PH and all others are normal - and we have no high nitrates.

I'm thinking PHOSPHATE buildup - so I even called the company we get the RO water from - they say ZERO phosphates.

I have also used a phosphate pad CHEMI mat - and that does really help.

What are we doing here - and how do we get far ahead of the red cyano? What else could be the source? Just buildup in a small tank after a year or so? Right now things looks perfect - white sand - rocks happy corals - but what do we do? Any help would be great.

 

[DoctaQ]

vac it out when you do your water changes, after a while it should go away as it starves itself.
if youve been doing that for a month+ you can try some other phosphate remover, i use phosar, its big and chunky like the size of rice so you can run it in a filter bag instead of needing a reactor.
what do you have for flow?

 

[agentfive]

I have the stock pump and the koralia nano for flow - should I get the other pump people recommend? Is the pump maybe not as strong as it was 1.5 years ago? It seems very strong still.

 

[stingythingy45]

"I'm thinking PHOSPHATE buildup - so I even called the company we get the RO water from - they say ZERO phosphates."

Have you ever tested the TDS of this water?
Do you have a LFS that can check it for you?
I would start there first.
Also,how much do you feed your fish?
They should consume everything in like 3 minutes time.
Do you have any nassarius snails to eat left overs and help turn over the sand bed?

 

[agentfive]

I have not tested the TDS of the water. How do I do that?

We are currently NASSARIUS snail free - maybe I need to get more cleanup crew?

We have 4-5 astrea snails and 3 hermits - that's about it.

Feeding - they eat it in less than a minute - so I'm not overfeeding.

 

[stingythingy45]

I have not tested the TDS of the water. How do I do that?

We are currently NASSARIUS snail free - maybe I need to get more cleanup crew?

We have 4-5 astrea snails and 3 hermits - that's about it.

Feeding - they eat it in less than a minute - so I'm not overfeeding.

You can buy hand held TDS.Or your LFS could check a sample in some cases.
A couple small nassarius snails would help.

 

[snowmaker]

After a 6 - 7 month battle with cyano, I resorted to using a Boyd product called "Red Slime Remover" and am VERY impressed. I had it BAD and could not rid my tank of it. It was even growing up the stalks of soft corals. Used as directed, the cyano / algae was completely gone in 48 hours with out any manual removal. No fish and inverts were affected at all.

 

[s_kelley]

Ill second the red slime remover! I had a bit of it that just wouldnt go away and used that stuff and boom all gone!
Just make sure to shut off or dial your skimmer way back it makes it go crazy for a few days

 

[American Flyer]

I had a problem with this for a while. The punchline is that there is no "quick fix." Stingy has great advice with the TDS meter. I would not add any chemicals to treat the tank. Ultimately, I ridded myself of the problem by doing the following:

1. Switched to RO/DI water
2. Removed all live rock void of corals and cooked it (kept it in the dark for 3 months in a Brute trash can with a large powerful powerhead) while performing weekely water changes.
3. Adjusted the sandbed depth. I keep a very shallow sand bed, it doesn't really serve a vital function and is essentially just for looks. My understanding is that if you are using a sand bed to remove nitrates, it should be greater than 5 inches deep (I am sure someone can give you better advice on this one).
4. Added water flow to the tank
5. Blow off the rocks with a powerhead before each water change.
6. Do not add any livestock to the tank until you have this under control
7. Reduce feedings to a bare minimum

Essentially, you need to restrict the nutrients that you are putting into your system.