Danielsj
Community Member
Hello everyone!
My tank is a 80 gallon with a 13 gallon sump, its been running since March and most things have generally been going good. I started the tank up with a Maxspect R420 putting out about 220 par at the surface. My nutrition values have been pretty stable from the beginning, sitting at about 2-5ppm nitrate and 0.02-0.05ppm po4.
In august i switched from the maxspect to a ATI 6 bulb 54w T5 fixture because i wanted to start getting into keeping acros and other pretty sticks. I run it with 4 blue plus bulbs and 2 actinic, at about 65% intensity from 10-18, and then with ramp up from 9-10 and down from 18-20. I also run the pure actinics a little before rampup and rampdown just for the color pop. from 10-18 i have about 350 par at the surface along the middle of the tank, and about 220 at the sides. The tank was slowly introduced to this higher par level over the course of two weeks back in august. All my corals have been quite satisfied with this new lighting and they are still looking very happy, so the cyano is not directly bothering them.
After i made the switch to T5 the green cyano outbreak soon started... so since late august i have been trying to get rid of this stuff again. I initially tried balancing nitrate and phospate hoping other less intrusive algaes would outcompete the cyano, kept at this for 3 weeks with no results. I then switched to trying to starve out the cyano by cutting back significantly on feedings and by running the lights on my refugium for 12 hours a day, this pretty much bottomed out my nutrients but again after 3 weeks there was still no change in the amount of cyano or how fast it would come back after being removed. During both of these periods i would weekly vacuum my sandbed and blow off my rocks to remove cyano and build up detritus. i have now goon back to keeping nutrients balanced at around 2-5ppm nitrate and 0.03 p04, i have also started dosing fauna marin bacto care pr their instructions, this has been going for about a week now, and currently there is still no change in the cyano problem.
I dose all for reef to keep my calcium at a stable 440, and mag around 1410. I send in monthly icp tests so i can dose the trace elements that get used up quicker than my all for reef can replenish them manually.
I have also tried doing a 3 days light out, but with no luck. The cyano that was present did not die, and it still came back after removal.
The result from my last icp test can be seen in the attached pdf, the missing trace elements where dosed last week, so all values should be fairly close to perfect currently.
At last heres a picture of my tank this morning, with the green cyano covering most of my sand.
Any input on what i could be missing would be very much appreciated. I have red about different chemical cures, but have also read that they are usually just a bandaid, and that if the underlying problem isent fixed it will just come back. So im trying to fix whatever problem that might be.
Kind regards
Daniel.
My tank is a 80 gallon with a 13 gallon sump, its been running since March and most things have generally been going good. I started the tank up with a Maxspect R420 putting out about 220 par at the surface. My nutrition values have been pretty stable from the beginning, sitting at about 2-5ppm nitrate and 0.02-0.05ppm po4.
In august i switched from the maxspect to a ATI 6 bulb 54w T5 fixture because i wanted to start getting into keeping acros and other pretty sticks. I run it with 4 blue plus bulbs and 2 actinic, at about 65% intensity from 10-18, and then with ramp up from 9-10 and down from 18-20. I also run the pure actinics a little before rampup and rampdown just for the color pop. from 10-18 i have about 350 par at the surface along the middle of the tank, and about 220 at the sides. The tank was slowly introduced to this higher par level over the course of two weeks back in august. All my corals have been quite satisfied with this new lighting and they are still looking very happy, so the cyano is not directly bothering them.
After i made the switch to T5 the green cyano outbreak soon started... so since late august i have been trying to get rid of this stuff again. I initially tried balancing nitrate and phospate hoping other less intrusive algaes would outcompete the cyano, kept at this for 3 weeks with no results. I then switched to trying to starve out the cyano by cutting back significantly on feedings and by running the lights on my refugium for 12 hours a day, this pretty much bottomed out my nutrients but again after 3 weeks there was still no change in the amount of cyano or how fast it would come back after being removed. During both of these periods i would weekly vacuum my sandbed and blow off my rocks to remove cyano and build up detritus. i have now goon back to keeping nutrients balanced at around 2-5ppm nitrate and 0.03 p04, i have also started dosing fauna marin bacto care pr their instructions, this has been going for about a week now, and currently there is still no change in the cyano problem.
I dose all for reef to keep my calcium at a stable 440, and mag around 1410. I send in monthly icp tests so i can dose the trace elements that get used up quicker than my all for reef can replenish them manually.
I have also tried doing a 3 days light out, but with no luck. The cyano that was present did not die, and it still came back after removal.
The result from my last icp test can be seen in the attached pdf, the missing trace elements where dosed last week, so all values should be fairly close to perfect currently.
At last heres a picture of my tank this morning, with the green cyano covering most of my sand.
Any input on what i could be missing would be very much appreciated. I have red about different chemical cures, but have also read that they are usually just a bandaid, and that if the underlying problem isent fixed it will just come back. So im trying to fix whatever problem that might be.
Kind regards
Daniel.
