Not Another Cyano thread

[Treefer32]

O.k. I consistently have cyano on my sand bed. It doesn't take over the rocks, it's just in the sand. If I rake it out or blow it off and remove it manually, it's back on the sand bed the next day. I Have 2 gobies that turn over the sand bed and numerous nassarious snails. But the cyano blankets my sand pretty quickly every day.

I have 4 gyres running near max at 4000+ gph each. I have two MP40s position back to front near the sand bed, blowing water through two tunnels of rock work set at max around - 5,000 gph each. My return pump is pushing around 2400 gph through my display.

Added all up - That's roughly 28,000 gph of flow through my 340 gallon display. Adjusted water volume to rock - say 300 gallons of water. That's near the 100:1 ratio at 93.3 gph of flow per gallon of water volume.

I don't believe the Cyano is a lack of flow. It could be, but doubtful. Phosphates tend to cycle around .10 - .2 I use a combination of reefmat 1200, algae turf scrubber, and skimmer for filtration. I also have a denitration factory with matrix rock that keeps nitrates between 10 and 20 ppm.

I'm happy to do a ICP Test if I know what I'm looking for? what drive cyano? I've used Chemiclean once. That removed all of it for about 3 months. And it slowly came back over the last few weeks. Obviously something is wrong with water quality? What is the food source for Cyano? And since it's a bacteria (from my understanding) is there a bacteria component I can use to have other bacteria outcompete this bacteria? I have no hair algae or any algae in my display other than film algae on the glass.

Lots of coraline algae building on the back glass. Tank is 6-7 years in operation.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you do anything for organics? Skimming? GAC? Purigen, etc.?

 

[Reeferbadness]

I get the occasional Cyano in my sand bed - i find that using a turkey baster to break it up then cleaning the sand bed with my syphon right after is a good way to export what you can. Over time - say a couple of weeks, it's usually gone. Also gives my Diamond Goby enough time to get in there and do his thing - he doesn't touch the sand with cyano on it.

 

[Treefer32]

Do you do anything for organics? Skimming? GAC? Purigen, etc.?

Yes, Skimmer, Mostly Dry skimming. I try wet skimming and the cycles my tank goes through at night it tends to skim more at night and less during the day. So, I have to either dry skim during the day so it wet skims at night, but not too much so that I'm not doing a water change with the skimmer.

Plus Reefmat should be removing organics as well. Although this roll has lasted close to 3-4 months. Which is the longest of any roll. Lots of exports, but for organics, just skimmer and Reef mat. No carbon, no purigen. I tried purigen once and for whatever reason it decimated all of my colonies of Stylapora and Birdsnest. Just those, but the Stylophora was close to softball sized and within 3 days of adding Purigen it was completely dead. So, I have the Purigen somewhere, but, not doing that again.

 

[robottaway]

I have the same issue. Like quite literally just as you described down to cleaning it and having it back the next day. Tank is 3 years old and never had cyano up until recently. Have some Dr. Tim’s waste away coming, as well as finally giving in and purchasing a skimmer. Plan to clean the bed well and dose the waste away, in hopes that bacteria will take hold and prevent the cyano. Will report back if I have any luck.