Houdini Cyano algae - thoughts

[carriej]

Hi Folks, I know this is "technically" not algae... But here goes

So... I've got what I believe to be Cyano - it's in two spots; both in the front of the tank. It showed up about 10 days ago. However here's the thing...

Every day around lunch when I go down to feed the fish - I get irritated as it's in full bloom. I go down at night time to feed the fish... And it's gone. It's also not there in the morning.

I run my lighting from 1030-1:00 (blues) 1-6pm full blast (blues, whites, and a purple) and 6-930 blues). The algae appears somewhere around the 1PM mark, and it's gone by 8PM. Going to check and see if it leaves earlier...

What gives? In the evening there is literally none left - the sand is completely clean. Does anything feed off this stuff that might not come out until the daylights flick off? My skimmer did slowly die; however I cleaned out the nest of tubeworms and vermatids from my pump, and it's running again.

Someone told me old bulbs could cause the issues... I do have one older bulb (out of 6), but that is the bulb that's on when it's gone... Plus it's not THAT old. I would guesstimate maybe 6-8 months; while the others are only about 4 months. I do have new bulbs here though and I am planning on switching some out tomorrow during maintenance to see if that improves it.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I have tried pointing powerheads lower; but it doesn't seem to make any kind of difference other than creating a depression in the sand (which also fills with cyano). I am running about 25x tank volume. (3300GPH (not including return) ) on a 130G tank.

I just don't understand why it goes away every night... And comes back for the majority of the day, and gone in the evening.


Here's a pic of it in full bloom...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v709/zygirl22/photo1_zps477852da.jpg

[monocus]

check your phosphates and nitrates.cyano is naturally occurring in the ocean and is a form of phyto food

[Slyguy00]

I could be wrong but those look like dinos to me. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinoflagellate. If thats what it is, I just finished fighting this stuff and its not fun. But my advice would be to syphon the hell outta the sand and do 80% WC for 3 days in a row. After that wait a day or two to see if you have beat it. Repeat if you still have signs of it. Thats what i did and it was gone in 4 days. Not to mention my tank has never looked better since i did. Just my opinion

[carriej]

Hi there,

I have been checking, and nitrates are currently reading 0 (even on the low scale) and phosphates are either 0-.25... The color is too close for me to tell. The tank is about 14 months old, 130 gallon tank with a 30 gallon sump, and a light biolode of only 7 small fish.

My biggest thing is it disappears! Is this normal for it to completely wipe itself out each day only to return? I was concerned it might be fluctuating alk, but each time I test alk it remains consistent at around 9dkh

[carriej]

I looked at dinos, and they seemed to look stringy. I could be wrong totally of course. This stuff is more like a slimey mat.

[Slyguy00]

Well if its cyano chemiclean works good but its only a temporary fix if your perameters are off. Either way id be doing a few large water changes.

[Wheelman76]

I'm dealing with cyano right now on my new sand bed , and mine does the same thing , appears in the afternoon and disappears at night, which I'm pretty sure is totally normal as my previous tank did the same thing when I had cyano. Btw there is a big difference between 0 and .25 phosphates , so you might want to bring your water in to your LFS and have it tested or pick up a Hanna checker to get a more accurate reading.

[deeznutz]

That's not dinos, you'll see bubbles forming attached to a a slimy string but the evening hours.
Chemiclean works. I hated having to use it, but I up'ed my water changes and chemi cleaned it. Never came back, it s risk you have to weigh out.

[carriej]

I don't have an LFS, I live in the middle of nowhere.. lol

Basically, the test ranges from 0 - .025 (sorry, not .25.. that was a mistake on my part) and anyone who has ever messed with a test kit knows that it can be frustrating to try and decide which one is closest.

I want to say it says 0, but then theoretically I shouldn't have this algae.

[darkreef]

My opinion ... Don't use chemiclean ... It doesn't just kill cyano but all the bacteria in your aquarium . So if your dosing carbon you'd have to start all over.

Things to help prevent and rid it.

Get your rock off the sand bed raise it up
Add few more power heads
Vacuum the sand , pick up the rock and vacuum under it .
Goop in the back of the tank makes the cyano pop up in the front of your tank
Blow off your rocks while siphoning
Religiously do water changes up it to 15%
First few days 20% every 24 hours for three days
Buy another bag of sand ... Your going to loose a lot
Use GFO , buy a reactor water changes do nothing for phosphates I find
Get sand sifting critters

I did this and beat it naturally .
I used chemiclean last year and killed my pods and almost crashed my tank and broke my skimmer . Chemiclean is hard on skimmers I went threw two.

Just passing off my experience with it.

[Wheelman76]

My opinion ... Don't use chemiclean ... It doesn't just kill cyano but all the bacteria in your aquarium . So if your dosing carbon you'd have to start all over.

Things to help prevent and rid it.

Get your rock off the sand bed raise it up
Add few more power heads
Vacuum the sand , pick up the rock and vacuum under it .
Goop in the back of the tank makes the cyano pop up in the front of your tank
Blow off your rocks while siphoning
Religiously do water changes up it to 15%
First few days 20% every 24 hours for three days
Buy another bag of sand ... Your going to loose a lot
Use GFO , buy a reactor water changes do nothing for phosphates I find
Get sand sifting critters

I did this and beat it naturally .
I used chemiclean last year and killed my pods and almost crashed my tank and broke my skimmer . Chemiclean is hard on skimmers I went threw two.

Just passing off my experience with it.

Chemiclean broke your skimmer?

[darkreef]

Can I blame it on chemiclean directly no.
But when your skimmer goes wild for two weeks then still after a month your pouring out clean water. Get a mass algae problem cyano comes back . Pop a good skimmer in there and she's nasty in a hour with brown green baby poop .

Not sure if the skimmer was on the way out... It was a cheap skimmer

Made me buy a good one... Worth it in the end ;)

[The Guy]

My opinion ... Don't use chemiclean ... It doesn't just kill cyano but all the bacteria in your aquarium . So if your dosing carbon you'd have to start all over.

Things to help prevent and rid it.

Get your rock off the sand bed raise it up
Add few more power heads
Vacuum the sand , pick up the rock and vacuum under it .
Goop in the back of the tank makes the cyano pop up in the front of your tank
Blow off your rocks while siphoning
Religiously do water changes up it to 15%
First few days 20% every 24 hours for three days
Buy another bag of sand ... Your going to loose a lot
Use GFO , buy a reactor water changes do nothing for phosphates I find
Get sand sifting critters

I did this and beat it naturally .
I used chemiclean last year and killed my pods and almost crashed my tank and broke my skimmer . Chemiclean is hard on skimmers I went threw two.

Just passing off my experience with it.
Ya I agree Chemiclean is a band aid solution and put my skimmer in a bad mood for days after I used it. I use GFO and now using Brightwell's MB7 which seems help keep the cyano in check, oh ya if you got pod eaters kiss them goodbye if you use chemiclean. :boom:

I just ordered a Hanna Phosphate tester, no guessing involved using them according to reef-pilot another member.

[Cal_stir]

I've used chemiclean and never had any of those issues, I have 2 pod eaters and lots of pods, you have to turn your skimmer off for a few days and use air stones for O2, Dinos are more photosynthetic than cyano, thats why they appear and disappear with the light, if it's dinos the bubbles and strings will appear eventually, cyano mats hold nutrients and the cyano feeds itself and is less reliant on light.
You have dinos IMO, a tougher fight but winnable, it is important to ID exactly what you have.

[reefwars]

For what it's worth there's nothing in chemiclean that can hurt a skimmer , a skimmers pump works at 100% whether chemi is in there or not.

Also it's known that flow actually spreads the bak not cures it

[Aquattro]

I had some cyano reently and just used chemiclean. Cleared it up right away, didn't hurt anything in the tank, had to re-tune my skimmer for a few days (until after a big water change). Fighting it naturally and winning must be a fabulous feeling, but I'm not inclined to go through all that, so just used chemicals. Worked for me :)

[carriej]

I'd really rather not use chemi clean, I've been battling it and I think I'm winning... I am not using any phosban or anything like that so that's next on the list.

[Timbits]

Same thing happens with my tank... I see some cyano during the day, by night it's gone and comes back the next morning. Really strange, I've been wondering the same thing........