Cyano breakout during/the end of Cycle

[04V10]

Hey guys,

I'm having an issue with my Nano (10 gallon) at work. I started the cycle around 6 weeks ago on this little guy with 10lbs of live rock and a small amount of live sand on the bottom (maybe an inch deep).

Everything was looking normal until week 4, which I saw a brownish stain on the sand and though oh great, the diatoms are already starting. However they weren't. This brown stain spread all over the sand and live rock with a brown slime and is trapping bubbles just like red cyano.

I test my water and of course I don't see any phosphates as they are all being chewed up by this stuff, plus no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrates.

Week 5 I said screw it, and I did a 50% water change and sucked up as much of it as I could. However, within 4-5 days it came back, not as bad, but the stringy slime is starting to grow like crazy again.

I never had this with my other tank, just the diatoms and then my CUC handled everything great, but this brown slime is crazy. I killed the lights this morning and will keep them off, however I'm not too sure if I should use some chemistry to get rid of this stuff (chemi clean) just yet.

I'm on week 6 and things still test the same and look the same. Tons of pods cruising around as well. Any info or advice that you guys could give me would be great. Lots of flow in the tank currently, and I have battled red cyano in my 20 gal and it has never come back.

I'd like to get this reef going..lol

[Myka]

Are you sure you're not experiencing dinoflagellates? Do a Google search and see what you think. Dinos look very similar to cyano, except dinos are more "snotty" than cyano is. Dinos tend to be caused by low flow combined with abnormally low pH. Do you know someone with a digital pH meter that can test for you? pH test kits aren't very accurate.

If it is dinos, I would suggest you re-start the tank since you don't have anything in it yet. Dinos can be VERY troublesome. You can either purchase new rock, or give the old rock a vinegar bath to kill off the dinos. In the future, if you see this starting up in a skimmerless tank, add an airstone or point a powerhead at the water surface which will help to raise the pH by off-gassing the CO2 in the water.

If it is cyano, you can pull the rocks out and swish them in a bucket to get it off. It comes off easily. Then use a piece of rigid airline with a piece of vinyl airline on it to siphon it off the sand. The BEST method to be rid of cyano is to physically remove it. You will likely have to do this several times over several weeks.

[04V10]

Yep. Looks like I have dinos.... Damn!

I'm going to cover the thing with cardboard and not let any light in for 72H. I don't have any livestock in the tank, so I don't have to worry about that. I don't even have carbon in the system yet as it was still cycling. I'll add the carbon to the HOB filter during blackout to help..

Any other suggestions let me know. Might keep it black until next week!

Oh and I'll add an airstone while doing this to keep the pH up.

[04V10]

Just an update on this. My tank has been covered for 2 days and I took a peek today. Noticed that the dynos have receeded a tonne! There are no stringy dynos anymore and the sand bed looks like it doesn't have a mat on it anymore. I'm going to wait until the end of the day today, put the carbon in my HOB and let it sit for another 4 days before I pull a cover to look at again. Then I'll do a water change and suck up what I can, cover it up and let is sit again next week.

I'll keep ya posted!

[04V10]

Well,

I pulled one of the carboard covers to have a look at the tank today. This is after the tank being blacked out for 7 days, pluss me adding an air stone on day one, and adding carbon to the filter on day 4. Guess what I found...

Bleached white sand and beautiful white rock. Not one spot of Dynos!

Though I'm extremely happy, I'm not gonna jump to conclusion, but I think I beath the buggers.

I'm going to do a large water change tomorrow, then black it out again until Thursday. At that point, I will put the lights back on it and hope for the best. The snails and hermit crabs in the tank look happy as heck and are cruising around quite a bit.

[Myka]

Awesome! Don't be too hasty though, it could cone back the moment you add light back to the tank. Keeping the air stone going and a few big waterchanges should certainly help!

Sent from my Dungeon using mad Ninja Skillz.

[Slyguy00]

I just recently finished dealing with dinos. I didn't like the idea of covering my tank for days on end so decided to do a few massive water changes. Did 50% day 1, 85% day 2 and another 50% day 3 and 30% day 4. After that it has basically disappeared. Still tiny spots of it but i just continue to remove it and it comes back slower and slower. Just another option.

[04V10]

Thanks Slyguy. I think I'm still going to leave the tank black until next week. I'm going to do the water change tomorrow (forgot my refractometer), then just black it out again until Monday. I'll do another water change on Monday as well, then put the lights on.