Red Sea Max 130D Issues

[Eb0la11]

Im getting pretty fed up with my Red Sea Max. Had the system going about 9 months or so now and I cannot beat this string of red cyano. I have tried just about every suggestion I think I have read online without any luck.

Tried shorter photo period.
Tried Turbo Snails.
Tried sand sifting gobies.
Tried more frequent water changes.
Manually filtered a lot of it out via syphon regularly.
Changed the light bulbs.
Upped the flow, though I could still up it more.

Ive been battling it for like 6 months.

I had a much larger tank if anyone remembers when I was on this forum a couple years ago, but this nano is a lot more difficult.

I feel like the skimmer sucks. Ive had like 4 fish die in the system yet my main 4 guys that Ive had in for the past 6-7 months prior to the cyano all seem to be going strong. Some corals are growing noticeably.

Anyone have any suggestions? I feel like my pod community in the tank is not real strong. Do they help at all? I have one wrasse that has sort of pillaged them though I gave them a shell stronghold in a glass dish under some rocks in the back middle, but I dunno if that is really helping.

Im tempted to just try some chemical that irradiates it though Ive read it just returns again if the root of the problem isn't addressed.

[kazzman]

Pick up some chem clean and flow the direction


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[Koleswrath]

Nano's are definitely a big challenge. I had a small outbreak of Cyano when I got my reef keeper and decided to try a wave pattern with my two Koralia 425's. This effectively cut my flow in half. As soon as I got both pumps running full time again the Cyano disappeared within a few days.

The two big contributing factors for Cyano growth is excess phosphate and lack of flow.

You might need to combine everything below to beat it:
-increase your flow for sure.
-water changes won't do much unless your changing significant quantities. eg. .012ppm phosphate in your water column - change 10% of your water = still about .010ppm phosphate in your water column. Instead, run GFO or Phosguard to get the phosphate out of the water.
-continue with manual removal. Cyanobacteria is actually a great phosphate remover for our tanks, just remove it to get the phosphate its incorporated into its cells out for good.
-Skimming is pretty important in removal of excess nutrients. Try to upgrade your skimmer if possible. In the meantime, keep it clean and run as wet as you can. Always good to get the organics out of the water before they break down to phosphate and nitrate.
-Basting live rock while using a filter pad will also get some of the detritus out of your tank. Change the filter pad every few days.

Hope this helps,
Greg

[Stones]

I have the exact same tank as you and have also had cyano from time to time. Obviously excess nutrients are the main issue at hand but increased flow makes it hard for cyano to get a foothold.

I changed out the skimmer on my RSM130D to a Hydor Slim Skim Nano. I had originally wanted to go with the larger Hydor Slim Skim but was worried it wouldn't fit in the skimmer sump compartment.

Even though the Hydor slim skim nano is a much smaller skimmer, I feel it performs as well if not better than the stock skimmer. The stock skimmer seemed to generate more noise than actual skimmate.

I also agree with the above posts. I run a bag of GFO suspended right behind the grill in the sump compartment. All water flowing through the sump comes in contact with the bag and my hopes are that at least 25% of that water is passing though and having the phosphates bound to the GFO.

Increasing flow really helps. I'm running 2 vortech MP10s on opposite sides of the tank on ~60% reef crest mode. There are some very attractive group buys going on right now on Jebao WP10 dual controller packages so I'd recommend picking one of those up as I'm sure that would really help alleviate your cyano problems.

Best of luck! I've had many more algae outbreaks and problems with the RSM130D than I've had with my 225 gallon tank but I attribute that simply to lack of maintenance. Nano sized tanks need maintenance done on a weekly basis as opposed to monthly which is what I'm accustomed to. With smaller quantities of water, there is less of a dilution effect and nutrient levels seem to exponentially rise once I start to slack on the tank maintenance.

[Eb0la11]

Thanks guys, I suppose I'll keep trying. I need to trade away my Korallia 4's I used to use in my old tank for something better. They are just too clunky for the small nano despite their power. Unfortunately the Atlantareef forum (which is where I now live after having lived in Calgary for 28 years) seems like I need to buy a membership to participate and so Im having trouble finding suitors.

[kien]

I also vote for Chemiclean. It works wonders.