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algae problem.


liquid8540

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Ok guys... so I have been going crazy trying to figure out how to get rid of this algae.

All of my perameters are 0 and my ph is 8.1

All of my corals look great and color is fine but for some reason it wont go away!!!

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Ya it kinda looks like cyano to me too. Does it blow off the rocks and sand easily? If yes then it is cyano.

Remove as much as you can manually by siphoning it out with an airline or something small so you dont get alot of the sand.

Higher flow in the effected areas will help keep it away.

 

What kind of CUC do you have?

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CUC?

 

That is in the vrey front of my tank where the most flow in my tank is. If I add more flow overall will it help?

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Islandoftiki

My lower flow mushroom/soft coral tank gets a bit of cyano. I occasionally have to run a dose or two of ChemiClean. I know a lot of people don't like to use chemicals, but this is one of the rare few that can sometimes be required to get rid of cyano. Cyano can be extremely persistent. Do some research on cyano treatment and see what ends up looking like the best option for you. I've had to run ChemiClean in all of my tanks for cyano at one point or another. If you follow the directions exactly, the risk of screwing anything up is extremely low.

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Just wondering, how deep is your sandbed? Cyano (the red you actually see) is actually the by product of the cyano bacteria in your sand bed. This bacteria thrives off co2. More oxygen = less co2= less cyano by product

 

Just wondering, how deep is your sandbed? Cyano (the red you actually see) is actually the by product of the cyano bacteria in your sand bed. This bacteria thrives off co2. More oxygen = less co2= less cyano by product

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Islandoftiki

Ok so would it help if ok put a power head in there? If I could make it so my corals were still happy?

 

Most corals need a decent amount of water flow. With the exception of a few (such as my mainly mushroom coral tank), I prefer lots of flow to not enough. Random flow is better than linear flow. Powerheads like the Vortech MP10 and the less expensive but good quality Jebao WP-10 are great. They can be set to randomly change their speed. My favorite thing is to have two powerheads set to random and playing against each other to really mixing things up. Alas, even with that going on, cyano can still pop up from time to time. I've seen very few tanks with zero cyano; it's just a thing you deal with from time to time.

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How long are you running your lights and how often are you feeding your fish? Those 2 things can play a HUGE role in Cyano. Thing that helped me was a TOTAL black out period on the tank for 2 days, reduced lighting period, and reduced feeding and then BEEF up your clean up crew. Check out Reefcleaners and get a package from them.

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My lights are on for about 9 hours a day. Sand bed is about 1" its a 10gal tank. I dont have any fish in the tank at the moment and I have two snails and two blue leg hermits.

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I agree with Gooburz--cutting out light entirely or down to an hour or two will dramatically knock out cyano and other algae. Upping frequency of water changes will also help.

 

Good luck~

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NaturalViolence

I had a major cyano problem when I first setup my tank that persisted for 8+ months despite trying virtually everything I can think of. I did eventually fix it. Here are some of the things I tried based on the advice of others.

 

Things that didn't help or weren't enough:

-Increase flow. Everyone says this despite the fact that I can't find anyone online who had a cyano problem, tried this, and actually saw an improvement. This made no difference. Even at 100x turnover with pumps shooting in every direction. In fact the cyano grew best in the areas of highest flow.

-Decreased light cycle. No difference. The stuff seems to need very little light to thrive. All it did was reduce coral growth.

-Lights out. Killed it. Then it came roaring back within a day as soon as I turned them back on.

-Raise magnesium to 1600+. No effect.

-Water changes. At one point I was even doing 50% water changes every day on my 30 gallon tank. It did absolutely nothing.

-Switch to RO/DI water. No effect.

-Change out old bulbs and get bluer bulbs. Nope. Even at 20000K it grows just fine. It grows just as well under them as it does under 6500K.

-Reduce feeding. This reduced growth rates but did not kill it. I even tried starving the tank for a week while scrubbing it off. As soon as I resumed feeding it just grew right back. You can't starve this stuff out. It just stops growing until some nutrients are available. And there will always be some available nutrients as your filtration cannot remove 100% of all detritus before it breaks down.

-Scrubbing/siphoning. Nope, just grows right back.

-Switching from two part to kalkwasser. Nope.

-Running GFO. Nope.

-Running seachem purgien. Nope

-Running activated carbon. Nope.

-Running seachem phosguard. Nope.

-Wet skimming with a good protein skimmer. Helped, but did not eliminate it.

-Get a CUC. Nope. I tried every single animal that is claimed to eat cyano. None of them touched the stuff. No matter how many people try to tell you otherwise I promise you this is the truth. And yes I did try a custom cleanup crew recommended by reefcleaners.

-Deeper sand bed. No effect.

-And probably more that I can't remember.

 

Things that helped:

-Reduced feeding

-Wet skimming

-Eliminate dead zones. Rearrange your rockwork if necessary. No matter how much flow your tank has if your rockwork creates deadzones detritus will settle there instead of remaining suspended in the water column until your protein skimmer can remove it.

-Discontinue any carbon dosing. Carbon dosing helps promote cyano over algae.

-Discontinue any trace supplements. Same as above.

-Discontinue any supplements with chelators. Same as above.

-Vacuum the sand bed and get more sand sifting organisms. Cyano in my tank would grow over the detritus anywhere detritus settled.

-Blast your rocks to remove detritus.

-This is the number one thing that helped. The final pillar that killed it for good. Add a refugium. All of the above helped, but even together they were not enough. You need something else to remove any nutrients that do wind up in the water column before the cyano get get them. A macro filled fuge will do this. The fuge killed it in 1-2 weeks and it never came back.

 

Ironically all of the things people usually recommend for treating cyano or algae had zero effect (change your bulbs, reduce your lighting cycle, get a CUC, run GFO, get a better skimmer, siphon/scrub, use better water/salt, do a lights out, increase flow, etc.). And yet I've never seen anyone recommend stopping supplements or adding a fuge. Both of which helped tremendously. I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to figure it out.

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Islandoftiki

Ironically all of the things people usually recommend for treating cyano or algae had zero effect (change your bulbs, reduce your lighting cycle, get a CUC, run GFO, get a better skimmer, siphon/scrub, use better water/salt, do a lights out, increase flow, etc.). And yet I've never seen anyone recommend stopping supplements or adding a fuge. Both of which helped tremendously. I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to figure it out.

 

Yep, took me a long time to figure all of this out, too. I'd tend to agree with everything you said.

 

ChemiClean does get rid of it, and the reason I believe it does this is that it oxidizes and breaks down areas of detritus buildup and gets it out of the tank, but despite it's effectiveness, if you don't find the fix for it, it will come back in the same spot(s) in a couple months. My tank only gets cyano in one spot, which must be sort of a dead zone despite having a powerhead pointed in the general direction of the problem spot. I have the unique issue of not having a classic clean up crew as this is my 30 gallon peacock mantis tank, and she things clean up crew like snails and hermits are delicious! Interestingly, after getting rid of the cyano in that spot, it's now covered in diatoms. I stir them up regularly, but they keep coming back. They don't bother me much, they help feed the pod population in the tank.

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Do you have anything to control phosphate and nutrients? GFO, rowaphos, large fuge, skimmer, ect? Cyano loves phosphate.

 

When I had it, I had a fuge, chemipure elite, purigen. I added a skimmer and increased flow which took care of it. I had no skimmer previously though and went from a koralia 425 to a mp10 so I am sure those things tipped the scale in my case. Huge upgrades :P

 

And yet I've never seen anyone recommend stopping supplements or adding a fuge. Both of which helped tremendously. I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to figure it out.

 

Adding a fuge controls nutrients which is another form of siphon/scrub, skimmer, GFO, ect. Often, you need to do more than 1 thing to tackle it. Carbon dosing feeds the bad stuff just as much as the good stuff.

 

I think for the most part, it grows faster than a CUC can take care of it and many things don't eat it or find something else tastier!

 

 

I have the unique issue of not having a classic clean up crew as this is my 30 gallon peacock mantis tank, and she things clean up crew like snails and hermits are delicious!

 

 

 

Been meaning to ask you, have you tried dwarf cerniths and normal cerniths? They spend most of the day hours hiding. Ivy doesn't kill them off too quickly because of that.

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Islandoftiki

Been meaning to ask you, have you tried dward cerniths and normal cerniths? They spend most of the day hours hiding. Ivy doesn't kill them off too quickly because of that.

 

I thought about that. I might have a few left in the 25 gallon tank that I could try in there. I think she'd kill them just the same. I drop small snail shells packed with krill or LRS frozen food and she catches them before they hit the substrate, then goes to work on them in her den.

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I thought about that. I might have a few left in the 25 gallon tank that I could try in there. I think she'd kill them just the same. I drop small snail shells packed with krill or LRS frozen food and she catches them before they hit the substrate, then goes to work on them in her den.

 

Yeah, don't let her see them! lol Ivy will grab anything she sees me drop in.

 

I would add a bunch next time she closes up for a molt which I guess may be awhile at her size? Maybe drop it in awhile after lights out somewhere out of her line of sight?

 

At night the glass swarms with all the snails that were hiding under the sand and Ivy goes to bed.

 

I am sure I will eventually have to restock but reefcleaners will send like 10 trillion for every 2 I order.

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I do dose carbon ( not anymore lol ) I have been working on a fuge and am going to the pet store this weekend to get some macro to put in the tank.I dont have a skimmer...

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NaturalViolence

Do you have anything to control phosphate and nutrients? GFO, rowaphos, large fuge, skimmer, ect?

In my experience GFO made no difference at all. A skimmer made some difference, but minimal. And a fuge made a big difference.

Cyano loves phosphate.

I keep hearing this everywhere. But I can't find any evidence to back it up. In my case I observed the exact opposite effect. High phosphates seems to promote hair algae over cyano.

Adding a fuge controls nutrients which is another form of siphon/scrub, skimmer, GFO, ect.

Yeah but out of all of those the fuge is the only one that made a dent in the cyano population.

Often, you need to do more than 1 thing to tackle it.

You would think so but I've encountered the opposite. My protein skimmer pump broke and it's been offline for over a week now while I get a replacement. I haven't seen cyano or algae bloom despite the fuge being my only filtration. The macros in the fuge just grow faster to keep up with the extra nutrients.

Carbon dosing feeds the bad stuff just as much as the good stuff.

It's strange though that so many people can do it without getting any cyano blooms. In my tank I can't carbon dose because all it does it cause a cyano bloom.

I think for the most part, it grows faster than a CUC can take care of it and many things don't eat it or find something else tastier!

Yeah I couldn't find anything that touched it at all. I tried every crab and snail that was claimed to eat the stuff. And I can't find anyone who actually had a cyano problem and had a CUC that helped.

Any suggestions on a good one?

There are lots of good cheap bubble magus and reef octopus skimmers in the used market (check ebay/craigslist).

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In my experience GFO made no difference at all. A skimmer made some difference, but minimal. And a fuge made a big difference.

 

I keep hearing this everywhere. But I can't find any evidence to back it up. In my case I observed the exact opposite effect. High phosphates seems to promote hair algae over cyano.

 

Yeah but out of all of those the fuge is the only one that made a dent in the cyano population.

 

You would think so but I've encountered the opposite. My protein skimmer pump broke and it's been offline for over a week now while I get a replacement. I haven't seen cyano or algae bloom despite the fuge being my only filtration. The macros in the fuge just grow faster to keep up with the extra nutrients.

 

It's strange though that so many people can do it without getting any cyano blooms. In my tank I can't carbon dose because all it does it cause a cyano bloom.

 

I had a fuge and I still had bad cyano. I don't think there is a 1 trick pony to fixing it as each tanks chemistry is different. Even the size of a fuge will matter. Maybe even types of bacteria could be competing for the same resources.

 

Perhaps when phosphate/nitrate reaches a certain point, GHA starts out competing cyano. GHA is much more effective at taking up nutrients than macroalgae afterall.

 

I would guess some cyano is still living in your tank in small amounts? After I got rid of the cyano, I had a skimmer so I started carbon dosing and it has never returned.

 

CO2 also feeds cyano, a skimmer could have a negative effect possibly if the CO2 levels in the house were high. Otherwise I would think just the skimmer adding oxygen would make conditions worse for cyano.

 

I guess one thing to keep in mind is there are many different species of cyano so saying you had cyano and I have cyano... doesn't mean we had the same cyano or that it would respond the same way.

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Islandoftiki

I don't think there is a 1 trick pony to fixing it

 

What we need here is a two trick pony! Except that ponies bite. I'd sooner pet my mantis shrimp than a pony. Ok, how about a two trick mantis shrimp that easy cyano! Ok, I got nothin'.

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