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Old 10-13-2012, 07:06 PM
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Default Cyano and LEDs?

Woah! Just switched out my T5s with LEDs this morning, and the cyano outbreak I've been battling has become way worse in the last two hours. It is all over the place now, where as before it was limited to a few places on the sand bed.

Coincidence? Am I just seeing it more clearly now? Or, does cyano just really like LEDs?

Everything in the tank looks good, so I think my light setting are probably pretty close to what the tank's inhabitants are used to.
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Old 10-13-2012, 07:18 PM
ocean diver ocean diver is offline
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What do you have the led's set at %? if you just put them on the tank today then they should be at a low % for awhile them increase it over time so everything can adjust to the increased light.
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Old 10-13-2012, 07:20 PM
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They're at 45%, and 12" above the tank. I had them at 11" above the tank, but I didn't like the way a couple of my SPS were looking. Moving it up to 12" the SPS look better.

The t5s were 2" above the tank.
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Old 10-13-2012, 07:25 PM
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cyano algae is caused from high levels of nitrate and or phosphate so control them and you will control cyano algae. What are you using for water? tap or RO? What is your bio load? The leds aren't causing it but might be able to see it better now.
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Old 10-13-2012, 07:29 PM
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High bio load. Zero phosphates using the Hanna Checker. 0 Nitrates on the ELOS test. RO/DI water. Changed carbon and ROWAphos last week. Not skimming, as the skimmer still isn't producing foam since I changed the reactor media.

Haven't had to remove film algae from the glass in five days.

The cyano issue was very close to being resolved, so this is a bit shocking. Nothing has died. Everything is accounted for.

The LEDs have 40 degree optics.
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Old 10-13-2012, 07:32 PM
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Do you have a sand bed? How old is your set up?
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Old 10-13-2012, 07:40 PM
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Originally 30 lbs of sand in a 40 breeder. Some has been siphoned out when siphoning out cyano, maybe around five pounds worth? The sand is three months old: it was new when i upgraded the display tank. The system started out as a ten gallon in March, so some parts of the system are 6 months.

It may just be that I can see the cyano better now. It is a different color under the Sols. It is a very dark wine color now and is really obvious. The cyano was disappearing overnight, and reappearing as the day progressed for the last couple of weeks. I'm going to to try to get it siphoned out again today. I may try using airline tubing for the stuff that I'm seeing on the rocks.
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Old 10-13-2012, 10:25 PM
04V10 04V10 is offline
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Hey enigma,
I don't know if you remember the cyano outbreak post that i had made, but i didn't siphon any out at all. My personal thinking was that when i disturbed the sand bed when moved the tank, that is what caused the outbreak because of the garbage that was released. So all i did was really maintain my normal maintenance duties, cut back my feeding a hair and just waited it out. Took me 3 to almost 4 weeks to rid of it. My setup is under radions and i saw the same thing as you, a dark red wine color that would go away at night and grow during the day. I did replace my chemistry elite, and added a bit more macro to my hob fuge.

So yeah your leds might be making it "look" worse than it is. Hopefully it goes away for ya.
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Old 10-13-2012, 10:36 PM
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could be because the color temp changed?

the reason your phosphates are at 0 is because the cyano is consuming it to grow.
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Old 10-13-2012, 10:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 04V10 View Post
Hey enigma,
I don't know if you remember the cyano outbreak post that i had made, but i didn't siphon any out at all. My personal thinking was that when i disturbed the sand bed when moved the tank, that is what caused the outbreak because of the garbage that was released. So all i did was really maintain my normal maintenance duties, cut back my feeding a hair and just waited it out. Took me 3 to almost 4 weeks to rid of it. My setup is under radions and i saw the same thing as you, a dark red wine color that would go away at night and grow during the day. I did replace my chemistry elite, and added a bit more macro to my hob fuge.

So yeah your leds might be making it "look" worse than it is. Hopefully it goes away for ya.
I remember. I'll have a read through the thread again.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkoD View Post
could be because the color temp changed?

the reason your phosphates are at 0 is because the cyano is consuming it to grow.
The primary reason my phosphates are at zero (other than the fact that i tested with a device with a .04 window of accuarcy) is because I'm using Phosbuster Pro and changed my ROWAphos. My phosphates spiked at 0.26 before that. While I am obviously still adding phosphates to the system they are nominal and my ROWA fluid reactor produces a 0 reading, even if the phosphates are registering high in the tank. The small amount of phosphates that the cyano consumes are negligible compared to what the Phosbuster and ROWA process.

I suspect I'm now seeing cyano that I just didn't notice before. The Sols have really changed the way some things look. It makes me wonder how bad it would have looked when my battle with this stuff was at its height!
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