I can’t seem to get rid of cyan bacteria ahhhahahahahhhh

carlos413 · October 19th, 2009

I am using R.O. water, no phosphates or nitrates. It’s only on the sand bed but it looks awful. I am feeding once a day. The lights are on a timer for 10 hours each day. I have a HOB refugeum 4 gallon with some micro algae. The lights on the fuge are on opposite of DT. My pH is at 8.2 temp 78 ammonia zero and zero on the trates. I did have a hair algae problem in the past, switching from tap to RO water maid a huge difference. I did use a powder my LFS recommended it worked temporarily but the stuff came back. I do weekly water changes of 12 gallons. Is there anything else I can do to get rid of this cancer alga? Any other info I can provide to help with this problem? Oh I forgot my tank is a 55 gallon and I am using pc lights. My stock list is two clowns, one royal gamma, a purple fire fish and a green mandarin.

carlos413 · October 19th, 2009

i forgot to post pics

Annadvn · October 19th, 2009

How many and what size power heads do you have moving the water around?

I had a cyanobacteria problem and found it was mainly due to lack of water movement. Can you move the power heads so they blow just over the surface of the sand as well as the live rock (assuming you have some).

Using the powder will clear the tank of Cyano but it will keep coming back until you get to the root cause.

Do you have any fish/inverts to move the sand bed and keep it stirred?

What are your readings for alkalinity as sometimes a low alkalinity reading can cause an outbreak of cyano (best to check readings first before you add anything to alter the alkalinity).

As you have said you have 0 for phosphates and nitrates and use RO/DI water and do weekly water changes this we should be able to rule this out.

I would up the water movement in the tank and even rearrange the live rock to give you better flow around the rocks and sand bed.

As you are doing water changes i would recommend syphoning the cyano off the sand bed, it will syphon up easily.

Anna

carlos413 · October 20th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annadvn

How many and what size power heads do you have moving the water around?

I had a cyanobacteria problem and found it was mainly due to lack of water movement. Can you move the power heads so they blow just over the surface of the sand as well as the live rock (assuming you have some).

Using the powder will clear the tank of Cyano but it will keep coming back until you get to the root cause.

Do you have any fish/inverts to move the sand bed and keep it stirred?

What are your readings for alkalinity as sometimes a low alkalinity reading can cause an outbreak of cyano (best to check readings first before you add anything to alter the alkalinity).

As you have said you have 0 for phosphates and nitrates and use RO/DI water and do weekly water changes this we should be able to rule this out.

I would up the water movement in the tank and even rearrange the live rock to give you better flow around the rocks and sand bed.

As you are doing water changes i would recommend syphoning the cyano off the sand bed, it will syphon up easily.

Anna

I have two Koralia 2 and a penguin 300 GPH power heads. I have a skimmer and HOB fuge

Annadvn · October 20th, 2009

Can you add another power head temporarily and have it blowing across the top of the sand bed?

Syphon the cyano out as best you can, then add the extra powerhead. Give it a week and see how much has grown back, if its as bad as it was before then you can try other things, if its not grown back as bad i would keep the power head in the tank and maybe move the others around to improve water flow/movement around the tanks.

What sand stiring fish/inverts do you have? Any sand sifting star fish, hermit crabs etc....

Anna

sgould · October 21st, 2009

I'd be inclined to try increasing water flow with another powerhead for a bit as a first step as well. Also, how long since you've changed the pre-filters in your RO filter? I usually know it's time to change mine out when I start seeing algae issues, which usually resolve pretty quickly once I make the filter change.

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