Help How can I get rid of red cyno in my 120 l reef tank

not too bad, i am thinking its the rocks leaching absorbed nutrients back

Wat u think jus do a weekly water change an keep my parameters in check an run lights for 5 hours for another week ?
 
not too bad, i am thinking its the rocks leaching absorbed nutrients back

Wat u think jus do a weekly water change an keep my parameters in check an run lights for 5 hours for another week ?
 
agree with Dallas

If possible, siphon the cayno from the rock when you do the water change.

Another option, if you can remove those rocks temporary, is to just siphon the water from the top of the tank, so that it is relatively clean. Then take the rocks out and swirl them around in the bucket with the old tank water. Rinse them out and see what comes out. Bounded phosphates will take longer to naturally release, but all loose detritus etc should wash out. At least that is a lot of rubbish removed.
 
@ riaanp have done that on sunday today I will b doin the final 4th water change in this week an with lights running at 5 hours let hope this helps with a reducation in cynco growth think I shud reduce the lights to less than 5 hrs
 
i had the same problem, my solution was two blue legged hermits and siphon 10% daily. worked like a bomb in a week
 
So guys wat u think after 1 week if water change at 25 litres every second day day shud I now run my tank lights at 5 hours or less wat u think @RIAAN p thanks
 
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as long as there are nutrients, the cayno will grow.

Better to fix the problem. In the long run.

What filtration are you running.

You did upgrade your tank flow rate? And not using old T5 tubes.

too lazy to reread 3 pages of info. Sorry.

But if the cayno is now less, yes you can start to increase your light schedule. An hour per day every couple of days. If you got corals, they will not like the short days eventually.
 
as long as there are nutrients, the cayno will grow.

Better to fix the problem. In the long run.

What filtration are you running.

You did upgrade your tank flow rate? And not using old T5 tubes.

too lazy to reread 3 pages of info. Sorry.

But if the cayno is now less, yes you can start to increase your light schedule. An hour per day every couple of days. If you got corals, they will not like the short days eventually.
Yes I did replace ny T 5 got 2 new blue an 2 new white
have hard an soft corals 2 anenones an sps corals
got a skinmer filter sponge a refuguim with cheato an ceramic rings an the return pump I did upgrade my flow added a seio waver maker ......
@ Carl will post pic of my substrate later bro thanks
 
Hi guys I think I found the issue thats causing my red cynco I have a skimmer filter sponge refugium with live rock an a ball of cheato an I have ceramic rings . I am taking out half of my cermaic rings today an the rest during the weekend hopefull the nitrates wud go to 0 or less than 3 then where the ceramic rimgs where in thats chamber I put 1 kg live rock or shud I leave it empty my tanks runing for 2 yrs this year 9 march
Wat u guys think
 
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@RIAAN p wat u think bud of my above method
 
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just switch off your return pump before you disturb the ceramic rings.

and siphon the chamber under the rings clean.

Do you siphon the gravel in the display tank? No point in removing detritus in one place, if your gravel have more within.

What is the total L/h of all your powerheads? Your system is 120L
And return pump size?
Reason asking this is that you might not have enough circulation in the display to be able to wash fish poo over the overflow into the sump. Resulting in detritus build up in your substrate and rocks.

Post a picture of your sump please.
 
@ riaan p heres the pic u can c the skimmer then filter sponge then refugium with LR and a ball of cheato then the ceramic rings which are now half tgen the std return pump I added a seio waver maker its 1200 LPH yes I do siphon out tge gravel every time I do a water change every 2 weeks

20140129_173312.jpg


20140129_173327.jpg


20140129_173339.jpg
 
@RiaanP the std return pump is 1300LPH
so total with waver maker I have 2500 LPH
 
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Ok before embarking on some miracle cure and blaming everything and changing your complete filtration consider the following facts.

Cyanobacteria is a bacteria and requires certain conditions to thrive. Note the word "THRIVE".
Cyanobacteria will always be present within your tank.
Cyanobacteria requires food to survive.

So what is that "food". Let's look at the "food" issue first and what it could be. I am talking about the Cyanobacteria's food. Nutrients come to mind as does phosphorus and carbon...?? Without any one of the pre mentioned Cyanobacteria cannot thrive. So it makes sense, that to control Cyanobacteria, one way is to eliminate one of the pre mentioned. Nutrients, phosphate or carbon. Achieve this and your Cyanobacteria issues are over. Are they???

Well we dose carbon in some source to promote bacteria nitrification which will also feed Cyanobacteria, right. So if we reduce the carbon source to eliminate the Cyanobacteria we also reduce the carbon available to the nitrification bacteria that reduces nutrients. Some might say but I don't dose carbon. Well whatever filtration system you employ you dose carbon. So eliminating carbon is very difficult. But a consideration in the web.

Phosphorus is often considered as the easiest to eliminate and control. Hmmm.... Depends if we are talking P or PO4. This is a complex subject all on it's own, so to simplify we will talk about organic and inorganic phosphorus. Your test kit will measure inorganic phosphate and not organic phosphorus. So by adding whatever phosphate sponge/chemical and getting the PO4 down to "0" you still have P, organic phosphorus bound to.... Algae's, corals, substrate, rocks and any crustacean's ... This is the P that is the most difficult to remove and eliminate. It is the major cause of Cyanobacteria and hair algae IMO.

I am not going to harp on about nutrient control as there are many methods but from a Cyanobacteria and algae point of view they will grow where there is an abundance of nutrients.


Now you have read or been told that you should increase the flow and Cyanobacteria will go away. Yes it does and no it doesn't. Why you might ask...

Well if the surface the Cyanobacteria is "growing" on is hi in O2 and there is no dye off of algae, diatoms or other organisms, then there is no nutrients for the Cyanobacteria to get hold of. This is very evident in SPS tanks where a SPS colony takes strain and there is some dye off of a branch or two. The Cyanobacteria is often blamed for killing the coral where in fact the dye off of the coral flesh caused "food" for the Cyanobacteria.

There is another consideration, and that is silicate. Silicate is food for diatoms and diatom dye off is food for Cyanobacteria.

I am sure that what I have typed will not fix you Cyanobacteria issue but it will give you some incite on what to look out for and a bit of an understanding how the Cyanobacteria works.
 
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Ok before embarking on some miracle cure and blaming everything and changing your complete filtration consider the following facts.

Cyanobacteria is a bacteria and requires certain conditions to thrive. Note the word "THRIVE".
Cyanobacteria will always be present within your tank.
Cyanobacteria requires food to survive.

So what is that "food". Let's look at the "food" issue first and what it could be. I am talking about the Cyanobacteria's food. Nutrients come to mind as does phosphorus and carbon...?? Without any one of the pre mentioned Cyanobacteria cannot thrive. So it makes sense, that to control Cyanobacteria, one way is to eliminate one of the pre mentioned. Nutrients, phosphate or carbon. Achieve this and your Cyanobacteria issues are over. Are they???

Well we dose carbon in some source to promote bacteria nitrification which will also feed Cyanobacteria, right. So if we reduce the carbon source to eliminate the Cyanobacteria we also reduce the carbon available to the nitrification bacteria that reduces nutrients. Some might say but I don't dose carbon. Well whatever filtration system you employ you dose carbon. So eliminating carbon is very difficult. But a consideration in the web.

Phosphorus is often considered as the easiest to eliminate and control. Hmmm.... Depends if we are talking P or PO4. This is a complex subject all on it's own, so to simplify we will talk about organic and inorganic phosphorus. Your test kit will measure inorganic phosphate and not organic phosphorus. So by adding whatever phosphate sponge/chemical and getting the PO4 down to "0" you still have P, organic phosphorus bound to.... Algae's, corals, substrate, rocks and any crustacean's ... This is the P that is the most difficult to remove and eliminate. It is the major cause of Cyanobacteria and hair algae IMO.

I am not going to harp on about nutrient control as there are many methods but from a Cyanobacteria and algae point of view they will grow where there is an abundance of nutrients.


Now you have read or been told that you should increase the flow and Cyanobacteria will go away. Yes it does and no it doesn't. Why you might ask...

Well if the surface the Cyanobacteria is "growing" on is hi in O2 and there is no dye off of algae, diatoms or other organisms, then there is no nutrients for the Cyanobacteria to get hold of. This is very evident in SPS tanks where a SPS colony takes strain and there is some dye off of a branch or two. The Cyanobacteria is often blamed for killing the coral where in fact the dye off of the coral flesh caused "food" for the Cyanobacteria.

There is another consideration, and that is silicate. Silicate is food for diatoms and diatom dye off is food for Cyanobacteria.

I am sure that what I have typed will not fix you Cyanobacteria issue but it will give you some incite on what to look out for and a bit of an understanding how the Cyanobacteria works.

Thanks for that indept look at cyno
I use sea chem carbon along time ago but that was about 7 months ago an have not used it again I agree on surplus nutrients being in my water column I have been dosing seachem fuel aquavitro I think tge surplus nutrients may have come from there since I seem tge first bloom of red cyno I stoped dosing fuel an trace an plankton
was thinking of using nopox by red sea but its best finding the causes first ....
 
Thanks for that indept look at cyno
I use sea chem carbon along time ago but that was about 7 months ago an have not used it again I agree on surplus nutrients being in my water column I have been dosing seachem fuel aquavitro I think tge surplus nutrients may have come from there since I seem tge first bloom of red cyno I stoped dosing fuel an trace an plankton
was thinking of using nopox by red sea but its best finding the causes first ....

Yes, most of the nutrient "bacteria" enhancing additives contain ethanol (carbon) to feed the bacteria within the bottle when dosed. (Not within the bottle) This ethanol will also feed Cyanobacteria until the bacteria reduces nutrients and Po4.

What I am saying is that the products will/may initially cause Cyanobacteria but as soon as they colonize, they reduce nutrients and out compete Cyanobacteria for the carbon source.
 
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Yes, most of the nutrient "bacteria" enhancing additives contain methanol (carbon) to feed the bacteria within the bottle when dosed. (Not within the bottle) This methanol will also feed Cyanobacteria until the bacteria reduces nutrients and Po4.

What I am saying is that the products will/may initially cause Cyanobacteria but as soon as they colonize, they reduce nutrients and out compete Cyanobacteria for the carbon source.
K
sorry dont mean to sound silly u sayin I should continue dosin fuel an plakton an trace until the colonise an out compete the red cynco .. an I should nit remove my ceramic rings !! Oh I thing I tested ny no3 this evening its sitting around 20 I was shocked ... wat u think of red sea no3po4 algae control
 
As i said. They contain ethanol (a carbon source). They need time to work. Once they get working, they will outcompete cyanobacteria. So you could expect cyanobacteria to initially increase till the bacteria fully colonises.

Don't stop the dosing. Just understand the process and why the cyanobacteria is there. It will go away. And will also most likely reapeare from time to time.
 
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