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CYANO AND HA TAKEOVER!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Reeferforlyfe, Mar 11, 2012.

  1. Reeferforlyfe

    Reeferforlyfe Inactive User

    655
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    +0 / 0 / -0
    I am having a terrible time kicking this Ha and CYANO. I've tried everything from water changes to starving my tank, and I don't want to do that. I feed coral frenzy, 1 tsp every other day along with half cube cyclopeeze and one cube of baby brine shrimp and one cube of Rotifers.
    I have Bud building me an algae scrubber, but that's a few months away. I need a remedy for this bad, until I have the scrubber in hand.
    I run BRS GFO pellets and Rox  BRS carbon as well. Change GFO every two weeks and carbon as well. 
    Wtf can I do?!
     
  2. Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    West Des Moines, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,821 / 14 / -0
    I plan to have your scrubber done in the beginning of April, if not earlier...not that that helps you much at this exact moment...
     
  3. Reeferforlyfe

    Reeferforlyfe Inactive User

    655
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    +0 / 0 / -0
    Music to my ears,Bud. Thanks!
     
  4. gravattj

    gravattj Inactive User

    184
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    +1 / 0 / -0
    how well do your pellets tumble? whats your nitrates and phosphates?
     
  5. Reeferforlyfe

    Reeferforlyfe Inactive User

    655
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    +0 / 0 / -0
    Nitrates are 0, phos is undetectable. API kit tho. Nitrates are zero because of all the CYANO and ha. My pellets tumble lightly at the top. Just as instructed by brs
     
  6. erayk1 Well-Known ReefKeeper Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member

    981
    Coralville, IA
    Ratings:
    +35 / 0 / -0
    Get yourself a Hana Phosphate meter, it's worth the investment!
     
  7. Kpotter2 Expert Reefkeeper

    North liberty, IA
    Ratings:
    +7 / 0 / -0
    Mike been there. Keep the Phosphate down and Nitrates. As it seem you have. It should be going away if they are at 0. Its all normal stages of saltwater from what I am learning. The alga scrubber will help too. Keep taking as much of both out as possible when doing water changes. I use to suck out as much as I could when doing water changes. It will balance out in time. I also used a Hot magnum to palish the water. I would put new filter on and then go to town cleaning all the HA and Cyano off sand,rocks and tank walls. You can ask people that came to my house for the meeting it look no to bad after looking really bad not but two week before. It was 10 time worse weeks prior. Getting mine controlled was Phosgaurd for Phosphate. I had low levels of .25 and when that was gone then the alga was lifting away. The Cyano went clear to white and then I sucked that out and it was almost gone. I had a little on two or three rocks and back wall with low flow. The biggest thing after that with my 29gl was the brown low water movement crap. I just needed another wavemaker. Also my Nitrates always stayed at 0 also.

    Good luck

     
  8. mthomp

    mthomp Inactive User

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    I would check your PH and check your RO water. I had a terrible time with CYANO not long ago nd it turned out my RO water had a large amount of TDS which was causing the issue,
     
  9. Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

    West Des Moines, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,821 / 14 / -0
    I battled this in one of the tank I took over maintenance on a couple years back, it has an outbreak of cyano after I cleaned it up. I took a mutli-level approach which involved siphoning out the top layer of sand (because you can't sihpon just the cyano off), running Purigen (could do this along with carbon too), running a Marineland Magnug canister filter with a diatom cartridge 24/7, cutting back DT light, running a Reef Octopus skimmer, and feeding minimally. Also increased flow in the tank with a powerhead, but not sure if that mattered too much. I think it was just a cycle because the nitrates in that tank were never below 80 and it went away and hasn't come back (and the nitrates are well above 400 now. I know, I know, but the owner doesn't want to spend money on PWCs anymore. He says "it looks fine". Restaurants are tight anyways so I can't blame him. It will be a scrubber test tank!!)
     
  10. Tickyty

    Tickyty Well-Known ReefKeeper

    446
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    +0 / 0 / -0
    How did you check for the TDS?  How did you mitigate this?  I think I may have the same issue.  Would adding a DI chamber to my RO system take care of this?
     
  11. mthomp

    mthomp Inactive User

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    I have a tds meter. $20 ad maybe your lfs has one. Anyway I buy my RO water and when I found there was an issue I let them know and they changed their filters. If you have your own RO unit like I should, you may need to change your filter and yes you should have a DI chamber regardless that could be a issue. For what its worth I lost my nearly my entire tank because of this.
     
  12. Tickyty

    Tickyty Well-Known ReefKeeper

    446
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    +0 / 0 / -0
    Filters should not be an issue since the system is only 5 months old.  It may be silicate related and I have been investigating how to add a DI chamber to the system.  Thanks for the insight. 
     
  13. Tholton33

    Tholton33 Well-Known ReefKeeper

    537
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Like a few people mentioned, if your levels are low its prob locked in the HA and cyano. You need to manually remove as much as possible when possible. And it should all level out. But double check your water TDS for sure. Cut back your display light cycle too. I've also read a lot of people fix cyano by adding more flow to that area. But this seems to be an outbreak and not the minor patches here and there.
     
  14. Reeferforlyfe

    Reeferforlyfe Inactive User

    655
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    +0 / 0 / -0
    I run AI lights thru the apex. It follows the lunar cycle, and follows sunset and sunrise. I run lights at 45%. Not going to change the programming on my lights, so that's outta the question!
     
  15. Big John

    Big John Inactive User

    966
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    I think your over feeding coral frenzy! 1tsp a week should be enough .It really goes along way.
     
  16. blackx-runner Administrator Website Team Leadership Team

    Cedar Rapids, IA
    Ratings:
    +738 / 5 / -0
    I'd cut the feedings way back. Just feed the fish and only what they can eat in a couple minutes. Once a day and they will do just fine. The corals will be fine without anything. Then start doing some good sized water changes weekly siphoning out all the crap.
    Also what are the rest of your parameters? PH, Alk, Calcium, and magnesium? I think some of those can have an effect on Cyano and HA as well.
     
  17. mfisher

    mfisher

    255
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    The problem is your feeding way too much. Just that simple. A fourth of that may be too much.

    You'll quickly overwhelm even gfo's capacity at that rate. When your tank is young and doesn't have many mouths for nutrient spiralling, this is esp. Problematic (and also pretty normal).

    Matt
     
  18. Reeferforlyfe

    Reeferforlyfe Inactive User

    655
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    So with my coral frenzy, I should feed maybe a tsp a week total? Oyster feast at this time as well, or should I keep adding a tsp every ore day to the water column?
     
  19. mthomp

    mthomp Inactive User

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    You are feeding oyster feast as well? If it was me I would only do 1 or the other not both when feeding. Personally I do not like oyster feast. I only feed my corals twice a week and on those 2 days I usually do not feed my fish just to help prevent over feeding which I probably do anyway. I also turn all my pumps off and use a turkey baster over the coral I want to feed and lightly squirt them. otherwise your food goes right into the overflow and through the skimmer and other filtration.

    Understand when you are feeding you're coral you are really supplementing their feeding since they get a good majority of their food from light and fish poo along with other stuff in the water column. Not to say it isn't important, just you don't need to over think it.
     
  20. Reeferforlyfe

    Reeferforlyfe Inactive User

    655
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    Yea, I do. I put 1-2 tsp when I mix up my coral frenzy. I only have a tiny bit left so I will use it up and forget about it.

    When I feed my corals, my return pump is shut off, overflow valve goes closed. So all the food is stuck in dt. Nothing goes to the skimmer until I allow it too.
     

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