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Canyo or diatoms? Either way I want it GONE!!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by ThyRaven, Nov 17, 2011.

  1. ThyRaven

    ThyRaven Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    So I have 8 spots like the pic below of this maroon colored stuff on my rocks and started on my back glass.  What is it? And how do I get rid of it?  Sorry the pic sucks.  Not sure why I got so small / blurry.
    [​IMG]
     
  2. Bela

    Bela Inactive User

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    Is it soft? I have actually seen coralline algae come in this (and many other colors), but that would be hard, of course.
     
  3. ThyRaven

    ThyRaven Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    It is stringy. I havent actually got a piece in my hand before or touched it in the water. I've scraped a few spots off and it took some muscle to get moving. Some of those spots are coming back. I'll see if I can get a feel on a piece of it later tonight.
     
  4. vikubz Well-Known ReefKeeper

    734
    Cedar Falls
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    Cyano. Typically occurs in dead spots where detritus settles. What do you have for flow?
     
  5. ThyRaven

    ThyRaven Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    1350GPH from a Iwaki 40RXT external pump. A Koralina 4 on the left sife of the tank and a Koralina 3 on the right. I'd love to get 2 - MP60s on it but cant afford them right now. Was also looking into splitting off of my dual returns with 2 or 3 loc line nozzels to help reach spaces that could have weak or no flow to them right now but still havent had a chance to get that ordered and installed, but working on it.

    @vikubz - The corals ya gave me are loving the water and have already grown in size since I added them on Sunday!
     
  6. j.stacey

    j.stacey Inactive User

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    Have you gotten rid of those damsels yet? lol. Hows the coral keeping going? We finally got our tank finished and mostly stocked. Then we had a huge algae outbreak and lost a couple corals. What you have is definately cyano.
     
  7. ThyRaven

    ThyRaven Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    Got 2 blue damsels left and the tomato still. He is bully so I like him!

    The Kenya tree you gave me is growing like crazy. I've add in a frogspawn, green stag, and a think AJ said it was a pink acropour (cant spell). The frogspawn looks to have split and is growing already. Looks like the other head that was about to die is coming back as well.

    Now since we've determined what I got is canyo, how the heck do I get rid of it? I have my mag crazy high. Don't know the actual number but I accidentally poured a whole bag of Epson salt into my 35 gallon trash can that I use for my ATO. I removed half the water into a old 55 gallon tank and added fresh RO to the can that had all the espon salt end up in it to mix it up better. Doesn't seem to have bugged anything with the high mag. Might've made the canyo grow faster.

    Once I added in those other corals I started dosing kalk with the cheap DIY build I saw in a BRS video. Works wonders. Been mixing at night, letting it sit and then dosing during the day. I've also been skipping a day between my dosing so that the tank has a change to adjust to the additives. I think I need to get a GFO / Carbon reactor going here in the next week or two to help me clean up the water a little more.
     
  8. Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    West Des Moines, IA
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    Cyano is a pain to get rid of. I have been battling it in my system, a couple of things mine is related to are the following: old lights (about a year old now), my algae scrubber is on top of the tank and dumps nice red light into the tank all night (temp setup), flow is not superb. I have had success keeping it relatively at bay by running an old Magnum 330 with a diatom filter cartridge and also carbon.

    GFO will probably help, but not completely. Cyano makes it's own Nitrate so you can get it even with zero N. I don't think boosting the Mag will help, I don't recall reading that it will but I could be wrong.

    I think you have enough flow with all those power heads. I'm not a big fan of chemicals but I've heard that Chemi-clean does the trick. Also Chemi-pure which has some phosphate absorbing somethingorother in it. You really need to get to the root of the problem or else it will just keep coming back.

    Siphon out what you can, blow the rest off with a small power head and run some floss in your sump to collect what you can't siphon out, and change/rinse that frequently. Check your lights and your light cycle, make sure you're not running them too long. Some suggest blacking out the tank but this just causes the algae to die off and dump nutrients back into the system, which then have to be removed or the cyano comes right back, so I'm not a big fan of blacking out. It's also hard on your corals.

    I personally like Purigen over carbon, it lasts a lot longer and you can recharge it so it lasts years.
     
  9. ThyRaven

    ThyRaven Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    I was looking at your isano-pus there Bud and was looking at maybe taking my return lines and making spray bars off of them since I havent had a chance to play with the loc line yet to see if I have a flow issue. I'd like to get 3 more korlina 4's for the tank so that I have 2 on each side blowing back acrossed the center of the tank. 1 set for behind the rock scape since my rocks are pushed close to the back glass. Then another set for the open area acrossed the front of the tank. Or what would be really nice is a pair of MP60s but I need to win the lotto first before I can afford those lol.

    I know my lights are either a year old or very close to being a year old. Where did you order yours Bud? I am running 2 - 36" PC Units on my tank that have a 10000K Day light and a 10000K Atinc, I think. I'd like to find a cheap 6 foot light system for my tank where that I can have more than just 2 bulbs. Would like a 4 bulb system so that I can do 2 day light,1 purple, and 1 atinic. Open to ideas, suggestions, visitors (located in Hiawatha), and offers for parts / hardware.
     
  10. j.stacey

    j.stacey Inactive User

    69
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    I agree with Bud the floss helps a lot we use it in our sump to help with micro bubbles that keep finding their way into the DT. The algae we had was dyno's but we went completely dark in the tank for 3 days and got a bunch of snails and hermit crabs and a sailfin tang the combo has wiped out the algae issue all together but i don't know if cyano is different it's not something we have ever gotten in our tanks before. If its photosynthetic going dark in the DT might help kill it off but if you don't do something else pro-actively going dark is only a temporary solution. If you ever want to get rid of the tomato just let me know we will gladly bring him back we have another tank setup starting in January. At this rate there isn't going to be anything left of our apartment its just going to be one big reef tank.
     
  11. ThyRaven

    ThyRaven Well-Known ReefKeeper

    919
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    Where do you guys get the floss? I do have a 100 micron filter in my sump that I was out with dirty tank water once a week. This week i'm going to throw it away and put down a fresh sheet.

    I was thinking my lights were old but I just remembered they've only been running for 4 months but they sat in a guys shed for who knows how long. The tank sat there for 8 yrs. Looking into getting new bulbs just in case they are old and woren out already to see if that helps. Looking at the GFO and carbon reactors still as well. I'll start looking for the floss to see if that helps me pull it all out.

    Also looking at getting 4 - 1400 GPH Koralinas. I have a koralina 4 and 3 already but I want the new ones so I can work with a wave maker.
     

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