Cyanobacteria fix?

[rowdie]

Hi guys, I'm new to sw and have had my tank up for ~4 weeks. I have a 29g biocube with 20lbs of live sand and 20lbs of live rock and added a CuC a couple weeks ago. I've replaced the stock filter pad and bio balls with the intank media filter with filter floss in top chamber, purigen in middle chamber, and chemi-pure elite in bottom chamber. I think I'm reaching the end of my cycle, ammonia and nitrites are 0 and nitrates are <20 ppm. Over the last week some pink/red cyanobacteria has started to grow on my sand. I've read that cynobacteria is somewhat common at the end of cycling and is caused by excess nutrients and phosphates. I just ordered the tunze 9002 nano protein skimmer and plan to keep the lights off for the next 3 days (normally they are on a timer from noon until 8pm). Will the skimmer help to eliminate the cyano and would other people recommend turning the lights off for a few days to keep the cyano from becoming worse while the skimmer is being shipped to me? Any other suggestions on fighting cyano are appreciated. Oh and hi everyone.

 

[Lil BamBam]

Welcome!!! Great 1st post...

Hate cyano :sly: Someone should chime in soon regarding this issue..

I always added more flow and did more water changes..

 

[Smitty]

Welcome to the site, glad to have you aboard. It is caused by high levels of phosphates and nitrates, which new tanks do go thru, and adding more flow will help. What type of water did/do you use in your tank, because tap water will cause it also, as well as overfeeding. Best suggestion is multiple water changes with ro/di water, light feedings, bulbs that aren't too old, and siphon as much as you can out when you do your water changes. It'll eventually go away. Good luck.

 

[SkunkerX]

Welcome to the site, glad to have you aboard. It is caused by high levels of phosphates and nitrates, which new tanks do go thru, and adding more flow will help. What type of water did/do you use in your tank, because tap water will cause it also, as well as overfeeding. Best suggestion is multiple water changes with ro/di water, light feedings, bulbs that aren't too old, and siphon as much as you can out when you do your water changes. It'll eventually go away. Good luck.

Ya +1 what smitty said . Welcome to ChicagoReefs and good luck.

 

[rowdie]

Smitty I have indeed been using RO/DI water that I get from a LFS. Thanks for all the quick responses!

 

[Smitty]

Ok, cool...once the tank establishes itself more, it should eventually go away. Just keep up with the water changes and add a lil more flow.

 

[FishBeard]

One thing that was overlooked is you talk about reaching the end of your cycle. You really didn't/shouldn't need to run your lights or any filter media during the cycle since only bad things would be using the light to multiply and the media won't strip those things from the water. The beneficial bacteria that develops during cycling do not need light, only the appropriate nutrients to multiply. If you have no photosythetic livestock that depend on the lights, I suggest leaving them off for several days to a week or so, and doing a few larger water changes over that time. Just match salinity of the new water to not shock your inverts. You should remove most of the excess nutrients and kill off the cyano in one shot this way and when lights go back on your tank should look great once again.

 

[EricTheRed]

One thing that was overlooked is you talk about reaching the end of your cycle. You really didn't/shouldn't need to run your lights or any filter media during the cycle since only bad things would be using the light to multiply and the media won't strip those things from the water. The beneficial bacteria that develops during cycling do not need light, only the appropriate nutrients to multiply. If you have no photosythetic livestock that depend on the lights, I suggest leaving them off for several days to a week or so, and doing a few larger water changes over that time. Just match salinity of the new water to not shock your inverts. You should remove most of the excess nutrients and kill off the cyano in one shot this way and when lights go back on your tank should look great once again.

 

[sparky5785]

Ummm yeah what they all said LOL. Welcome!!!

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Herbie]

Welcome to the Reef!!
Do you have any additional flow other than the return? You may want to look at a Koralia Nano or similar power head to get a litle more (I don't see any listen in your original).

Pics!!

 

[Pufferpunk]

I've replaced the stock filter pad and bio balls with the intank media filter with filter floss in top chamber, purigen in middle chamber, and chemi-pure elite in bottom chamber.

I'd dump all that mechanical filtration. It only adds to your nitrate/phosphate levels (should be <1) and/or causes a great deal more maintenance, cleaning the detritus out all the time.

 

[rowdie]

Welcome to the Reef!!
Do you have any additional flow other than the return? You may want to look at a Koralia Nano or similar power head to get a litle more (I don't see any listen in your original).

Herbie I forgot to put in the original post that I have a korelia nano 425 in there too.

Pufferpunk could you clarify, do you think I should have no filtration at all?? I thought the only mechanical filtration I have is filter floss, as I was under the impression the purigen and chemi-pure are chemical filtration. I just replace the filter floss whenever is gets dirty and purigen/chemi-pure last for months at a time so maintenance hopefully shouldn't be that bad.

 

[rowdie]

Turning the lights out did the trick in 2 days, cyano is all gone. :a31:

 

[Smitty]

Good job...now make sure you do a nice water change to remove all the nutrients in there before the cyno tries to come back.

 

[KeishaKornbread]

Goodo job! And Welcome!!

 

[ghostman]

You mentioned RO water is purchased from your LFS. I would also make sure that it has TDS of 0. Sometimes LFS water isn't up to par.

 

[KeishaKornbread]

You mentioned RO water is purchased from your LFS. I would also make sure that it has TDS of 0. Sometimes LFS water isn't up to par.

+1000

Sometimes their employees might be lazy and take shortcuts....so protect yoruself with a TDS meter.