96SS Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 I am having a problem with my nano reef. I have a 20 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump with an aqua C remora. I have plenty of flow with a CPR CS90 with 600gph back into the tank. 23lbs of live rock and 8lbs of live sand. With snails single starfish and a unknown crab. Nitrate, Nitrite, Amonia, Phosphate, at zero. PH at 8.3, Calcium over 400 and alk at 8.0-8.6. I continue to get small amounts of cyanobacteria on my sand and certain pieces of live rock. I only use R/O water and use tropic marin salt. I am about to add my two phosban reactors, one with phosban one with hydrocarbon. I dont want to mask or cover up a problem with chemical filtration and want to solve it without using those methods. Any help would be appreciated. Link to comment
Nuhtty Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 Do you have a refugium? Any way to make a refugium in your sump? I would also have a friend check your water with their test kits to see if yours are accurate. Link to comment
96SS Posted June 11, 2006 Author Share Posted June 11, 2006 I do have room in my sump but I am in between on the idea of a refugim. I have not however had anyone else check my water but that is something I am going to do tomorrow. My test kits are salifert and brand new though.... Have you had much success with the refugium? Link to comment
Diatome Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 Flow will not really make a difference, myth I even bought into at first. I had great water params on my NC12 for almost 2 years when I started getting cyano. Tried everything, even found out my RO water from my LFS had some issues but still had the outbreak. Traced it to one of my live rock pieces. Not sure of the details but eliminated the rock because it was where it started and always remained, no matter what, and problem solved. Basically, the rock had started leaching something and I guess I could have letthe wife take it to work and get someone to check it but it was a small piece and I just chucked it and cyano is gone. Never know. Link to comment
Nuhtty Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 I havent had an algae problem on any tank that has had a refugium Link to comment
96SS Posted June 11, 2006 Author Share Posted June 11, 2006 I have suspected something about my rock for some time. However, I can't figure out which piece it is. I have two different stages of rock in the tank. I have been thinking of doing a trial and error method of pulling all the rock out and putting it in a seperate tank then slowly adding it back in. How did you determine that the specific piece of rock was bad? How long did it take for the cyano to clear up? Link to comment
Nuhtty Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 Lace rock can cause problems. Leaches phosphates. Link to comment
spsdave Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 make sure that you dont over feed the tank because the food that is left over can cause algea breaks i have found that out the hard way Link to comment
96SS Posted June 11, 2006 Author Share Posted June 11, 2006 Lace rock can cause problems. Leaches phosphates. Lace rock or live rock? I have heard that live rock can leach phosphates should I pull out all the live rock and set up a small tank? My phospates came up zero on a salifert test kit. I have no animals in the tank currently because the cyanobacteria has been a problem for some time. Link to comment
Nuhtty Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 Lace rock. Live rock *can* cause outbreaks if the live rock is lace rock. Link to comment
formerly icyuodd/icyoud2 Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 cyano is a bacteria and should be treated as such. the red slime isnt the cyano but a result of. the bacteria itself will be trapped deep within the sand bed. chemi clean is an awesome product forthe removal of cyano. Link to comment
alizarin Posted June 11, 2006 Share Posted June 11, 2006 * What kind of lights do you have? Cyano grows in the top of my 2.5g pico's aquaclear refugium but nowhere else... due to the color temp of the refugium light I think. * Did the rock or sand come from somewhere less well maintained? I had sand from a poorly maintained tank and it had cyano problems for about a year. Refugium took care of that though... if you don't have some way of exporting nutrients then something will start growing to export them for you (algae/bacteria). * How old is the tank? Maybe something with the chemistry hasn't quite had a chance to settle out? Link to comment
96SS Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 I have a Coralife Deluxe 24" with a 65watt 10,000k and 65watt Actinic, with moonlights at night. All the sand and LR came from a local LFS. The tank is about 6 months old. Would you recommend a refugium? I have talked to several people who say that a refugium is mainly for looks and doesn't really help with the tank. But I will give the refugium a try; but first I’m going to pull out some of the LR to see if any of it is causing the problem since I can't seem to get rid of the cyano. Link to comment
Llamaguy Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I think that my cyano went away when I put in a purigen bag. Best $5 I ever spent. Link to comment
x3cookiex3 Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 i think it may be true as to refugiums... I've never had a problem with my water or canya how ever its spelled. I've had it when i didnt have a fuge. lols so.. yeah plus it makes the tank look nice as well. ^^ not a bad place for holding corals either. hahaha from what i have seen. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.