zero indicated phosphate and NO3 cyano

[Austintylerl]

Hi, I have just tested my water for the above and it is reading as zero using new salifert kits. However I do have a bit of CYANO on sand! I have plenty of flow and my photoperiod is 8 hours using 2 AI primes over a 20 gallon. I have very little algae appearing day after day on my glass and my softies and euphylias are very happy. Oddly my stylophora isn't doing great. Whats the deal here?

[Austintylerl]

Nothing?

[WV Reefer]

On 11/20/2018 at 5:08 PM, Austintylerl said:

Hi, I have just tested my water for the above and it is reading as zero using new salifert kits. However I do have a bit of CYANO on sand! I have plenty of flow and my photoperiod is 8 hours using 2 AI primes over a 20 gallon. I have very little algae appearing day after day on my glass and my softies and euphylias are very happy. Oddly my stylophora isn't doing great. Whats the deal here?

How much is “a bit”? 

 

What is “plenty of flow”?

 

need specifics. 🙂

[patback]

It could also be caused by silicates, however Chances are that it is registering as 0 because it is being used as it is coming up.

[HarryPotter]

The cyano is using the phosphate and NO3, that’s WHY it indicates zero. A healthy tank should have some. (Assuming you have a low range checker)

[FISHnChix]

A picture would help and a fts too.  you might have "enough " flow gph  wise but depending on scape you could still have dead spots and need more flow.. 

[Austintylerl]

Ok thanks. My return is 380 gph and i have a wave pump at 80%. Saliferts range starts at .003ppm for phosphate. 

[Tamberav]

The stylo looks too close to the GSP. 

 

Looks like the cyano is on the sand bed? It looks like it could also be diatoms but hard to say from the pic.

 

Do you clean/stir the sand bed regularly? 

[Austintylerl]

I do once week with WCs. The stuff is kind of tough. When you pick it up it holds together in a mat and its sticks to a thin layer of sand. Isnt diatoms or dinos really soft? Heres some new pics with a lens

[paulsz]

do you have a microscope by any chance (i'm just testing my luck here)? That would help identify what it is. 

 

Dinos will appear when there are little amounts of nitrates and phosphate because it can live in those conditions. And flow does nothing to dinos. On the sand, it will attach itself so well that i can't siphon it off (unless i siphon a bunch of substrate with it).

 

I'm going through a huge dinos outbreak, which is why you may want to act on it now (if it is in fact dinos and not cyano). 

 

Another thing you can tryis put a bit of this stuff in a cup full of tank water. Then add 1 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide. If the water turns pink/red after a few hours, it is cyano. Note, however, that spirulina (one type of cyano) will not cause the water to turn pink. Which brings me back to why a microscope would really help here (even a super cheap one off amazon).

 

[Austintylerl]

Ok thank you everyone. Im going to try peroxide and report back tomorrow

[FISHnChix]

Looks to be in dead spots in the corner or between coral??? I dunno I would move a power head and aim it towards the sand bed if it were me. Good luck. And not dino imo just regular ole cyano

[Clown79]

I had similar looking algae on my sand bed when I upgraded my tank and used new sand.

 

It doesn't build or get siphoned out like cyano, rather it clumps the sand together in an odd way, like webs matting together.

 

I simply siphoned the sand out where it grew and washed the sand with a little bit of peroxide and then replaced it.

I also added fresh purigen and very small amounts of phosguard which all helped get rid of it.

 

Vacuuming lightly the top layer in this area helped, deep vacuuming and stirring the sand in between water changes made it worse and spread further

[Austintylerl]

Well its definitely not cyano. It did not react to the peroxide test. 

 

Thanks clown79 ill try that

[mcarroll]

how is it?

[Austintylerl]

I performed two or three large waterchanges within a few days and that was all it needed!