About the throw in the towl

[freerider]

Hey Everyone, just gonna get right into my problem, i have a insane cyno bacteria problem and ive tried everything, i do a 25% water change every week with good R/O water from LFS, ive added another koralia (could mabye add another) i only have 3 fish now, and i feed once a day, so i know its not a over feeding problem. ive started with chemiclean and it seemed to have worked, but3 days after the cleanup, another out break. ive read that old lights tend to cause to much red light so i changed every bulb in my light just last week. my corals are dieing, by Anemone died and i dont know why, water tests perfect for everything. I havent seen my cleaner shrimp in a couple days so as you can see im about to send my fish(which are doing prefectly fine) to my moms tank and trashing mine becuase i just cant seem to get ahead, the tank has been running for about 2 years now, have a fluval 304 which i clean out once a month, got a reef octo bh1000 skimmer and 2 koralia powerheads. if anyone has any advice that would be awsome, im thinking mabye just chucking out the rock and sand and starting from scratch.let me know
Travis
Thanks

[lastlight]

What do you run inside that filter?

What are your actual params?

[PoonTang]

What do you run inside that filter?

What are your actual params?

+1 And I would consider ditching the fluvial.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Canister filters are breeding ground for Bacteria because of all the Nitrates it can hold.

Also changing the lights may add to your problem too, new lights still require a short break in time.

If you have an outbreak of algae it usually indicates that there is a source of nitrates or phosphates. Often this is caused by over feeding. However, there could be many other sources. Look for dirt traps in the filtration system, low grades of carbon in use, and the foods your using.

Don't assume that because your readings for nitrate and/or phosphate are low that you do not have a problem. Often algaes can absorb these quickly, so the water reads good and the algae grow well.

Chemiclean is used only as a last resort. regular water changes, less light, more water flow, and siphoning out the cyno would help.

Here is a link that might help http://other-invertebrates.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_battle_cyanobacteria

Ken - BWA

[reefwars]

+2 drop the fluval. you can syphon out a bit at a time but it takes time to go away i would consider running some carbon or a uv sterilizer. if your going to remove your fish and corals it leaves you a good oppurtunity to do a very large water change,cut your lights, move around rock as the problem you have you may not see because your looking at the whole picture.are you running a sump??? like someone said post your exact tank details right from parameters to livestock to when they were added and any meds or additives you have used. you said you get your water from an lfs is this store trusted?? hope this helps some times its hard trying to find the cause of problems when our water checks perfect:)

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Don't assume any RO from a store is good. If the filters are not changed at regular basis, the water is not any better than tap water.

Also how you prep your food can be a problem also, do you use tank water to thaw it out? do you rinse the food? etc...

Ken

[Captainhemo]

If you are removing your fish etc, try this:http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=ulf-slimer
I used it years ago and it actually worked, follow directions .
Also, get rid of the fluval or at least the sponges, use the rest for carbon etc

[Red Coral Aquariums]

freerider pop into the new Red Coral store opening on Saturday Sept. 04 and we can go over some options. I will be there all day.

Kevin

[Slick Fork]

I'll add another vote to ditching the cannister. Try a 3 day blackout... no lights at all and then actinics only on the 4th back to regular lighting on the 5th.

[The Grizz]

I had a mass break out when I first started with a 65gal and a canister filter. I had to clean out the filter weekly, used a high quality carbon and a phos remover. I then started Coral Snow and a UV and with in a week I noticed a big reduction of ALL algea. Just my 2 cents.

[marie]

The other thing to check is to make sure it's cyano and not dinoflagellates. If your corals are dying I would suspect dino's (aka brown snot algae)

[Madreefer]

I used to run a cannister when I first started as well. Who has'nt? If you do plan on running your tank with what you have than I recommend you do this. Take everything out of the cannister and just use live rock rubble instead. You can also put a bag of carbon in as well. Just like others have said, "it's just a nitrate trap."

[outacontrol]

+10 on getting rid of the fluval, when I started out I was running a fluval 404 and after about a year I started having big algae problems, ditched the filter added a few mexican turbo snails and things turned around completely.

[Atomikk]

Hey Everyone, just gonna get right into my problem, i have a insane cyno bacteria problem and ive tried everything, i do a 25% water change every week with good R/O water from LFS, ive added another koralia (could mabye add another) i only have 3 fish now, and i feed once a day, so i know its not a over feeding problem. ive started with chemiclean and it seemed to have worked, but3 days after the cleanup, another out break. ive read that old lights tend to cause to much red light so i changed every bulb in my light just last week. my corals are dieing, by Anemone died and i dont know why, water tests perfect for everything. I havent seen my cleaner shrimp in a couple days so as you can see im about to send my fish(which are doing prefectly fine) to my moms tank and trashing mine becuase i just cant seem to get ahead, the tank has been running for about 2 years now, have a fluval 304 which i clean out once a month, got a reef octo bh1000 skimmer and 2 koralia powerheads. if anyone has any advice that would be awsome, im thinking mabye just chucking out the rock and sand and starting from scratch.let me know
Travis
Thanks

Ditch the Koralia powerheads. They are known for their seal letting up and allowing water into the motor housing causing stray voltage to run through your tank. Best test is to find a cut on your hands, and while barefoot, touch the water. If you get zapped, you have stray voltage. If not, then you are ok.

The cyano issue is always very simple, there is too many nutrients in your water. The water from your LFS is probably high in total disolved solids (TDS). Get yourself a RO/DI unit. Trust me, it will give you sanity.

Vlad.

[daniella3d]

WHAT??? what are you talking about???

where did you get that? I never heard of koralia pump causing stray voltage. I have 2 in my tanks so I want to read about that for sure.

I am sure there are better way to check for stray voltage than get zapped!


Ditch the Koralia powerheads. They are known for their seal letting up and allowing water into the motor housing causing stray voltage to run through your tank. Best test is to find a cut on your hands, and while barefoot, touch the water. If you get zapped, you have stray voltage. If not, then you are ok.

[gobytron]

thats cuz its an old, old issue from when these first came out.

one that was addressed by Hydor years ago.

[Captainhemo]

I've had 3 Koralia's in my tank for a couple years now with now issues

[Cal_stir]

consider a remote deep sand bed. a rubbermaid office garbage container or a salt bucket will do, fill with 8 inches of sugarfine reef sand, flow about 30 gph water across the top of the sand with the water about 2 in above the sand, keep it higher than your sump so you can gravity feed the water back to your sump, keep it covered and in the dark, it will take about 2 weeks for it to kick in, will reduce nitrates, i added one to my 90gal heavily stocked mixed reef and dropped my nitrates from 10 to 1, be patient and keep up the fight, ditch the sponges in the fluval. good luck

[ponokareefer]

I am having the same problem in my system with cyano, although it hasn't killed anything, yet. I did turn off my lights for 60 hours straight, and this knocked the cyano down drastically, but not completely. The 60 hours without light had no ill effect on my corals or anemones.
I am planning on a 3 day complete black out shortly to completely get rid of the problem. This means you need to completely cover your tank with blankets to ensure no light gets in. There has been a few threads on www.reefcentral.com on this issue and this has been where I have done my research on how to fix this problem.
You would have had a problem that started the cyano and you could have fixed it, but once it has established, you need to do a 3 day blackout to get rid of it. I would get rid of any media in the canister filter, as this may be one of the reasons this problem started. I have also added extra flow, lowered feedings and changed out my bulbs. None of these affected the cyano at all, and it continues to get worse all the time.
I am planning on doing my 3 day blackout the weekend of September 10 to 13th. I can let you know how it goes if you want to see how mine turns out before you give it a try.

[reefwars]

I got rid of my cyano easily by vacumnng with everything off, I cut my lights back 2hs and added 2 koralia2's aimed at the worse areas no probs I left it like that and changed my water schedule to 5% every 3days and wala:):)

I had to do a blackout when I had a bad algae bloom a few years ago same thing usd blankets because even ambiant light will help it I also used weiss algae remover gone in a few days:) not sure if it's safe to use with reefs though :)

[ponokareefer]

I got rid of my cyano easily by vacumnng with everything off, I cut my lights back 2hs and added 2 koralia2's aimed at the worse areas no probs I left it like that and changed my water schedule to 5% every 3days and wala:):)

I had to do a blackout when I had a bad algae bloom a few years ago same thing usd blankets because even ambiant light will help it I also used weiss algae remover gone in a few days:) not sure if it's safe to use with reefs though :)

I do completely vacuum out the cyano every week, and aimed my powerheads at the problem spots, but it just always comes back in a new spot, and gets worse each week.

[MitchM]

Hmmm,

Post your water parameters, a picture of your display tank, sump and/or filtration setup, maybe answer a few more questions..and I guarantee that the people and combined knowledge on this board can solve the problem for you.
Money back guarantee.:wink:

Mitch

[lorenz0]

I feel bad for the guy, was hoping to see a response back from him but here goes nothing.

This is the problem with this hobby. And I have been through dinos, and cyano. It's a headache but you can get through it. Like mentioned previously, ditch the fluval and move to a aquaclear. Also, wouldn't mind seeing a picture of your rock work, and how the power heads are set up.

You can get through this. Star with the mentioned about and turn off your lights, put a blanket over the tank for 3days and start dozing kz coral snow every day. This has been the most effective way for me and works like a charm.

[Atomikk]

thats cuz its an old, old issue from when these first came out.

one that was addressed by Hydor years ago.

Actually it wasn't addressed years ago. We spoke to the reps last year at MACNA regarding this, and they assured us that the newer models will not have this seal problem.

Older models just have this issue. I know numerous people that have reported this problem. So this is not an isolated case where the pump has a breached seal.

[reefwars]

if they assured you the new models are not going to have this problem then i would consider it addressed unless your wanting them to do a re-call??

[Seth72]

Canister filters are breeding ground for Bacteria because of all the Nitrates it can hold.

Also changing the lights may add to your problem too, new lights still require a short break in time.

If you have an outbreak of algae it usually indicates that there is a source of nitrates or phosphates. Often this is caused by over feeding. However, there could be many other sources. Look for dirt traps in the filtration system, low grades of carbon in use, and the foods your using.

Don't assume that because your readings for nitrate and/or phosphate are low that you do not have a problem. Often algaes can absorb these quickly, so the water reads good and the algae grow well.

Chemiclean is used only as a last resort. regular water changes, less light, more water flow, and siphoning out the cyno would help.

Here is a link that might help http://other-invertebrates.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_battle_cyanobacteria

Ken - BWA

Would really aggresive skimming fix that....i havent bought a skimmer yet,but i was reading somewhere that I should buy a skimmer rated for twice the size of my water volume.:question:

[daniella3d]

Mines are Koralia Evolution so I guess they are OK since they are the new generation of pumps.

Still not cool. I don't have the budget for a MP20...maybe later on.

that hobby is a money pit :)


if they assured you the new models are not going to have this problem then i would consider it addressed unless your wanting them to do a re-call??

[Captainhemo]

Would really aggresive skimming fix that....i havent bought a skimmer yet,but i was reading somewhere that I should buy a skimmer rated for twice the size of my water volume.:question:

Yup, a skimmer will only help. Get the best skimmer you can afford

[MMAX]

Freerider, you still with us??? Lots of good advice here but you don't have to get rid of your Fluval. Like someone else asked, what are you running for media inside it? I run one also on my 20 gallon but it's gutted. Bottom tray holds carbon, the rest is full of live rock. I had a massive cyano outbreak 2 summers ago and it was due to experimenting with tap water. Make sure the RO water you are getting is true RO. Everything came out of my tank and got scrubbed with salt water, filled with new RO water and I didn't have a problem again.

[Atomikk]

if they assured you the new models are not going to have this problem then i would consider it addressed unless your wanting them to do a re-call??

The problem is addressed with new models, not old. So the issues with older Koralias still persitst. There isn't a need for a recall, as I am sure it would be too costly for Hydor to do. It is a lot easier to market the newer pumps, and make more sales this way.

[ponokareefer]

Well, I decided to do the black out a weekend early, and so far, no signs of cyano. All fish, corals, anemones, and clams look really good this afternoon. I really hope this is the end of it.