Cyano= Confusion

[Dave3112]

Ok here it goes......My tank has been set up since April of this year. cycled for 3 months without any fish just LR and sand. July added snails and hermits. Slowly added A few corals in mid July. Added a few more in August along with 5 green chromis and a regal tang. September moved everything from my 65 gallon tank to the new tank (220) over a two week span. Mostly SPS and Chalices along with 70 more LBS of LR and 1 yellow tang, 3 clowns,and a melanarus wrasse.

I had the expected diatoms in the beginning while the tank was cycling. Most of it cleared up as the system matured. Now I have cyano EVERYWHERE! What gives? I've been doing this 20+ years and never had an outbreak this bad! Here is a list of my equiptment and all testing

220 Gal AGA reef ready aquarium
75 Gal custom sump/fuge
3x250 MH 20K Radiums on ARO ballasts
4x54w T5 HO ATI blue+
3 blue powermodule LEDs
ASM G3 skimmer
BRS GFO/Carbon reactor. Carbon changed every two weeks. GFO once a month.
2 koralia magnum 7 on wave timer
3 koralia 750 gpm on constant

Dose Brs 2 part daily and Mg as needed
PH is 8.2 day and 8.07 night
temp 78.5-80
Magnesium 1400 (Elos)
CA 460 (Elos)
Alk 8.5 (Elos)
Ammonia 0 (API)
Nitrate 0 (Elos)

LED's and T5's on from 12pm-10pm
MH on from 2pm-9pm

I do 25 gallon water changes twice a month with a 50/50 mix of reefcrystals and Coralife scientific grade salts.

What am I doing wrong? I only feed flake once a day and seaweed every other day.
I have done a 2 day total blackout twice in the last 3 weeks and its still out of control.

HELP ME PLEASE!!

 

[Dave3112]

Oh yeah! I forgot to add all water changes and ATO is with RO/DI water with a TDS of 0.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

What are your phosphate levels...worth checking. Before/After RODI and before/after adding the salt. Flow and aeration can help a cyano outbreak, as cyano can actually fix nitrogen gasses that get into your water. Aeration would help gas these out. Id still like to see some phosphate levels though.

 

[Dave3112]

I will check those this afternoon when I get home from work and let you know. As far as aeration goes I have the skimmer running non stop and my powerheads move the water at the top of my tank as well as it does the bottom. Sometimes I can hear it "splash" when the timer cycles them on and off. I would be really surprised if I had any excess gasses built up in my system. I'm not saying I don't ,just that I would be surprised if I did.

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Im just saying that cyano can get nitrogen even if it isnt in your tank in an aqueous form.

 

[ronnie]

One thing that jumps out at me is your skimmer.

Seems a bit small for over 250g total volume - IMO

I'm running a G3 on my 120 w/40B sump, and have upgraded the Sedra 5000 to a 9000 recently to try to grab more poop.

So my guess would be that you are underskimming your tank.

 

[ronnie]

Also, moving an established system is going to spike nutrients almost every time. I'd bet you stirred up some pretty nasty stuff moving the rock into the new tank. Couple that with the underrated skimmer, and you might have some issues.

 

[ronnie]

Flow is also a bit low for a 220G tank that has SPS. You are running around 8000gph + return. I'm betting there are some dead spots.

 

[Dave3112]

Just tested the phosphates and it is 0 with both salifert and API kits.

Ronnie- I may be under skimming a bit but with the medium sized bio load I think it is plenty. I'll put a HOB on the fuge for a couple of weeks and see what happens. I have an AquaC remore somewhere. I'm not ready to upgrade my skimmer just yet. As for flow I'm pushing MORE flow than I ever have in any tank I have ever set up. I honestly can't add anymore flow with out creating a sand storm. This I know from trying it already in this tank. I have tons of flow everywhere in my tank. You may not believe that but I promise you it's true.

And when I transferred the rock over I had a fresh batch of saltwater that I rindes all the rock in before adding to current tank. Yes it was NASTY. LOL

Thanks y'all for the help I am almost ready to try the redslime chemical removers. But I am scared to try it. I have too much time and money invested already to risk loseing it over a chemical that says its safe.......

I'm going to start weekly water changes and cut the food down to every other day and seaweed every three days. Also do a 3 day blackout then cut my light cycle down by half and see if that helps. When its gone for a few days then I will gradually increase the light cycle back to where I have it now. Does this sound like a good plan?

 

[beaslbob]

+1 on cyano gets its nitrogen from the nitrogen gas in the water column.


What can happen is you setup a tank and everything is doing really really fine. Initial algae blooms past, fish healthy then several months into operation here comes the cyano. All over the sand, rocks and everything.

What happened is the tank became generally nitrate limited. That in turned slowed down the growth of algae, macros, corals and everything else that gets its nitrogen from ammonia/nitrates. Plus at the surface of the sand, and rocks there is low oxygen, high co2. Further "encouraged" by anaerobic/anoxic bacteria action consuming nitrates and returning nitrogen gas. So you have nitrogen gas, low nitrates, some phosphates, carbon dioxide and high lighting. So here comes the cyano.

As the cyano expands it takes the phosphates from the algae, macros and corals. So the tank rapidily becomes cyano dominated vrs algae/coral dominated.

What to do?

All the stuff everyone recommends.

or




Kill the lights until the cyano dies off.


H@rry had a similiar problem and at first throught "it can't be that simple". He tried it and it worked. He did have to do it a second time, but after the second time the cyano stayed away for good.


So simply kill the lights then resume with less lighting. That will return nitrates to the system and favor the algae, macros, corals and so on. And adjust the lighting to the desirables thrive but cyano does not.


my .02

 

[Dave3112]

Beaslbob,

How long would you recomend killing the lights for? I have already tried 2 day blackouts twice. And by blackouts I mean I have covered the tank completely top included so there is no light at all getting into the tank.

 

[beaslbob]

Beaslbob,

How long would you recomend killing the lights for? I have already tried 2 day blackouts twice. And by blackouts I mean I have covered the tank completely top included so there is no light at all getting into the tank.

Untill the cyano is completely gone.

But if you have thick felt like blankets then manually remove that.

3-5 days should kill off cyano.

then resume 1/2 duration lighting.

You should find some duration of lighting that allows the corals to grow but not the cyano.

h@rry just used his actinics for about a week before firing up the MH for instance.

my .02