stumped with cyano

[Euphylin me]

man ive tried everything i could think of....i have increased flow, added sand, done daily water changes for a week tried chemiclean, microbacter 7, and adding seachem biomax. I cant seem to figure out how to get rid of this crap. it does get a decent amount of natural sunlight and its only a little IM nuvo 10 so tearing it down and moving it wouldnt upset me too much. but finding another spot in the office might be a little difficult as there are so many windows

 

tank info...i use chemipure blue, nitrate pads, a little bit of kent carbon. and seachem biomax. 1 inch sandbed and about 10 pounds of liverock. tank lights are on for 6-7 hours daily (leds).  any help/ info would be greatly appreciated

[LongBeachReefer]

Red slimmer remover. It’ll be gone in a few days. reducing ur lights and feeding will fix a lot of algae problems. 

[vegasgundog]

Up the dose of chemi clean. The stated dose is conservative for safety of the manufacturer. Google it to be sure. I know I did it back two years ago when I had an issue. It's part of new tank syndrome I suppose. 

[Clown79]

I have mine near a window.

 

I went through a period of bad algae. Gha and cyano. For months.

 

I put curtains over my verticals to block out the light even more.

 

 

 

It was my sand. That's the only place it grew too. 

 

I never used chemiclean but tried cutting photo period, added flow, cut corals feedings(I didn't even have a fish during this), aggressively vacuumed sand bed, changed floss more often, changed media more often, rinsed media bags every week, did extra waterchanges, removed half my sand bed.

 

It was controlling it but it just came back.

 

I got rid of my sandbed and added phosguard.

 

Problem solved. Never came back.

 

I also had an algae issue in my 5.5g in its early stages. 

I dosed hydrogen peroxide directly to the tank.

It worked and has never returned.

 

Try peroxide dosing.

 

 

[seabass]

Cyano often means you have an organics issue.  Could be dissolved organics in the water, or in the sand.

 

Added flow, siphoning, turkey basting, changing chemical and mechanical media, and protein skimming can all help reduce organics.  Occasionally, we fix the root problem, but the cyano still doesn't want to go away.  In these cases, ChemiClean usually can knock it out 

[Euphylin me]

16 hours ago, LongBeachReefer said:

Red slimmer remover. It’ll be gone in a few days. reducing ur lights and feeding will fix a lot of algae problems. 

trust me, im not new to reefing lol just new to the nano reef thanks for your advice but it was definitely the first couple of things that i tried😄 

[Euphylin me]

8 hours ago, seabass said:

Cyano often means you have an organics issue.  Could be dissolved organics in the water, or in the sand.

 

Added flow, siphoning, turkey basting, changing chemical and mechanical media, and protein skimming can all help reduce organics.  Occasionally, we fix the root problem, but the cyano still doesn't want to go away.  In these cases, ChemiClean usually can knock it out 

i do not run a skimmer on this tank as 10 gallon tanks dont really need a skimmer i do 20 percent weekly water changes and i do not feed heavily at all. i have added flow, and changed the media. i might steal my skimmer from my 40 gallon tank for a bit and see if it works as i dont really want to run a skimmer but if i have to i will. i tried chemiclean and followed the directions to a tee....it helped a little but did not clear it up

[Euphylin me]

14 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I have mine near a window.

 

I went through a period of bad algae. Gha and cyano. For months.

 

I put curtains over my verticals to block out the light even more.

 

 

 

It was my sand. That's the only place it grew too. 

 

I never used chemiclean but tried cutting photo period, added flow, cut corals feedings(I didn't even have a fish during this), aggressively vacuumed sand bed, changed floss more often, changed media more often, rinsed media bags every week, did extra waterchanges, removed half my sand bed.

 

It was controlling it but it just came back.

 

I got rid of my sandbed and added phosguard.

 

Problem solved. Never came back.

 

I also had an algae issue in my 5.5g in its early stages. 

I dosed hydrogen peroxide directly to the tank.

It worked and has never returned.

 

Try peroxide dosing.

 

 

i also have mine near a window and yes its almost exclusively on the sand bed. do you think the peroxide dosing will help with cyano?i have not tried peroxide dosing...not that i am worried about timing, just rather curious, how long did it take after you started dosing?

[Euphylin me]

16 hours ago, LongBeachReefer said:

Red slimmer remover. It’ll be gone in a few days. reducing ur lights and feeding will fix a lot of algae problems. 

do you know the difference between red slime remover and chemiclean?

[seabass]

20 minutes ago, Euphylin me said:

do you know the difference between red slime remover and chemiclean?

I believe it's basically the same thing made by two different companies.  Likewise, hydrogen peroxide might also oxidize dead organics.  However, some "red slime removers" were actually an antibiotic (erythromycin).

 

32 minutes ago, Euphylin me said:

10 gallon tanks dont really need a skimmer i do 20 percent weekly water changes and i do not feed heavily at all.

Still, it's either a bacterial imbalance or an organics issue.

[Euphylin me]

1 minute ago, seabass said:

I believe it's basically the same thing made by two different companies.  Likewise, hydrogen peroxide might also oxidize dead organics.  However, some "red slime removers" were actually an antibiotic (erythromycin).

 

Still, it's either a bacterial imbalance or an organics issue.

im thinking bacterial imbalance paired with indirect natural sunlight. i think my next plan of action is to add some more rock from my 40 gallon that has been set up for about 2 years  to help with the bacterial imbalance

[seabass]

Some people have also had some luck with Microbactor7.

[Euphylin me]

Just now, seabass said:

Some people have also had some luck with Microbactor7.

i posted the thread with the microbacter 7 and i believe it was you who commented about my clown fish loss😭 

[Clown79]

40 minutes ago, Euphylin me said:

i also have mine near a window and yes its almost exclusively on the sand bed. do you think the peroxide dosing will help with cyano?i have not tried peroxide dosing...not that i am worried about timing, just rather curious, how long did it take after you started dosing?

Took about 2 weeks. I had a few algaes happening in my 5.5g. Bryopsis looking algae, a stringy algae, gha.

 

I got on it right away. 

 

 

If you have done all you have done and it's not going away, something is causing it. 

 

It's not always feeding. Sometimes it something stupid simple like not vacuuming back chambers, cleaning a dirty pump, not having rinsed sand.

 

I recently had an algae only growing on my sand in my 25g. I suspect it was the new sand or vitamin supplements. No matter how many times I washed the sand, the water was still slightly foggy. I mean I washed it in small sections, each section rinsed at least 10 times. It took 2hrs to do.

 

Low and behold i had issues only in one tank with that sand.

 

I actually started removing sand sections during waterchanges and washed it. I vacuum it every week, I did a bunch of stuff.

 

I ended up removing most of the sand. There a light dusting left and the problem is gone.

 

So I suspect the sand was the issue initially and using vitamin supplements aided it.

 

Any time i use vitamins or amino's in any of my tanks, even in tiny doses, i end up with an outbreak. 

I don't get why. I am very diligent on my husbandry and my nutrient levels aren' high, hell they are low to normal but no word of a lie, i dose these products and i get algae.

 

 

So it really could be just about anything that may be aiding the cyano.

 

 

[Euphylin me]

Just now, Clown79 said:

Took about 2 weeks. I had a few algaes happening in my 5.5g. Bryopsis looking algae, a stringy algae, gha.

 

I got on it right away. 

 

 

If you have done all you have done and it's not going away, something is causing it. 

 

It's not always feeding. Sometimes it something stupid simple like not vacuuming back chambers, cleaning a dirty pump, not having rinsed sand.

 

I recently had an algae only growing on my sand in my 25g. I suspect it was the new sand or vitamin supplements. No matter how many times I washed the sand, the water was still slightly foggy. I mean I washed it in small sections, each section rinsed at least 10 times. It took 2hrs to do.

 

Low and behold i had issues only in one tank with that sand.

 

I actually started removing sand sections during waterchanges and washed it. I vacuum it every week, I did a bunch of stuff.

 

I ended up removing most of the sand. There a light dusting left and the problem is gone.

 

So I suspect the sand was the issue initially and using vitamin supplements aided it.

 

Any time i use vitamins or amino's in any of my tanks, even in tiny doses, i end up with an outbreak. 

I don't get why. I am very diligent on my husbandry and my nutrient levels aren' high, hell they are low to normal but no word of a lie, i dose these products and i get algae.

 

 

So it really could be just about anything that may be aiding the cyano.

 

 

thanks for the detailed responses...im not sure...i do use reef chili but the cyano was a problem before the reef chili was introduced. im guessing its because the sand i used for the tank was new and the rocks were established. maybe the bacteria just needs time to populate the sand bed and the cyano will go away...idk

[Euphylin me]

ok so my plan of action is to put a black aquarium wallpaper on the side of the tank that gets natural sunlight and to add more established rock to the system and we shall see. after the cyano is gone (hopefully) i will remove the wallpaper after a few days. if it comes back then i know i should probably relocate the tank...any thoughts on this? im not ignoring anyone's suggestions by any means, i have tried most of them and would prefer not to dose peroxide until it is my last resort