Need Help
 

For the last 2-3 weeks my tank has been out of control. i get this brown and red stuff all over my sand and rock, I can use a turkey baster and clean it off then next day it looks the same. I was doin a 10Gal water change 1x a week but have been doin 2 lately a week to get rid of this mess. My setup is a 20GAL REEF .....60GAL SUMP.... 20GAL FUGE...
30 Pounds of Sand in main tank and fuge, about 40-50 pound live rock in tank and 5-10 in fuge with little bit of macro. Now i use the baster and clean my tank suck out the sand and blow off the rocks. Then right after i change water. :sad: :sad: Nothing is working i have a 5 stage RO unit i will get the water tested tomorrow to make sure it is working.

HERE IS A PIC!!
http://www.phatkids.net/sand.jpg

Looks like cyanobacteria to me. What are your tank specs? Alkalinity? Do you have a skimmer? Hows your circulation? Definitely check your RO unit.

Christy :)

I would decrease my lighting hrs if I were you....

Re: Need Help
 

I get small outbreaks of cyano from time to time. I turkey baste, too. I break up the cyano on the sandbed as well as baste the rock and corals. I have foams in my mechanical filters that trap some of the crud. When the tank clears, I clean the foams right away, so the crud is exported from the system and does not become a nitrate/phosphate factory.

With bad outbreaks, which I haven't had for many years, I used to baste the tank a couple of times a day for a few days at a time, then cleaned the foams when the tank cleared. Exported LOTS of cyano producing crud that way and the cyano went away within a week.

Instead of just blowing the cyano around with the turkey baster, when you do your water changes suck it out. Maybe do a bunch of small ones and suck it out when there is enough to remove. Also make sure your not over feeding causing excess nutrients.

Dave

Blowing the red slime cyanobacteria is not the best thing, because you are basically moving the slime elsewhere in the tank which will just allow it to spread to even more places. Take a siphon and remove it out perferable a slower siphon so you can collect as much as possible without losing too much water, the slime will come out in sheets and is very loose, you'll pick up the coral sand as well, just rinse it out really good with RO water before you place it back in. Those that are on the rocks will come off just as easily. Take notes on more flow, regular maintainence, RO water for makeup and top up, a really really really good efficient skimmer and keep that skimmer in good working condition, good quality lamps not old bulbs, less feeding but no overfeeding, keep on top of the slime cyanobacteria when you see it forming siphon it out. Lots of patient and eventually if you're good, then it will disappear. Regards and best of luck.

It looks like DINOFLAGELLATE to me!!!
Cyano is more of purple velvet like film.
When I had an outbreak of that stuff, I simply just let it grow untill it absorb all of the nutrients it thrived on and than the colony would crash.

4 words: GET A GOOD SKIMMER!!

I had the exact same problem, did water changes every day and the stuff would grow back on my substrate and glass in hours.

I was using a crappy prizm skimmer beforehand, but I upgraded to a remora pro. You will be able to tell by all the crap you pull out of your tank, that is the nutrients that's feeding your cyano.

Trust me on this one, don't cheap out on a skimmer because to me it's the most important instrument to keeping a successful tank (besides using RO/DI water)

:sad: ya thats why my skimmer is crap i am waiting for a new one in the mail. Been 3 weeks and still no word. I clean my tank daily and do water changes like crazy still dirty within mins.

What a load of crap. I have kept successful reefs for years, and don't use a skimmer , or RO/DI. Do the proper research, and you will find it is not nutrients that cause Cyano. Cyano is a part of natural maturation of an aquarium. I have not seen Cyano in my tanks for years. However, I am tired of being the voice that cries in the wilderness. Go ahead waste your money on a skimmer. At least you will have a gadget that looks like it is doing something.

Bob, giving people advice like this with out knowing how there tank is set up for things such as nutrient exportation, coral types and filtration methods can cause more problems then good sometimes.

yes we all know you use tap water and that you use no skimmer and that you have low lights, but you also keep low light corals, use macro algae export and have soft corals that like a bit of nutrient in the water. you also have a conch in a tank that in my opinion doesn't have enough surface area so he keeps your sand looking nice. Also you are a user of chemicals to help clean your water.

now if you were go go to corals that demand more light say, acro's. then you would probably have more algae outbreaks because of your nutrient levels that are not a problem in dimmer light but would fuel the algae in higher light systems. this is the set up where getting a better skimmer will be of a benefit as it will be more efficient in dropping nutrient levels to a lower level where they will not cause as much problems in the brighter light.

for example i am building a new monster skimmer for my tank as I feed my critters fairly well and have a low level nutrient that is fueling an algae that got imported to my tank as a hitch hiker with some corals I got. this algae is actually having a negative effect on a couple corals. this out break was also fueled by my upgrade to newer lights as the intensity of the old ones was low enough that the algae couldn't use all the nutrients.

to be honest your tank is a simple set up and you have chosen your occupants according to your equipment (or the other way around which ever it may be) and like I pointed out it is working because of the match.

Steve

Steve, play nice please :confused:

So is it somthing not to worry about to much??? i mean will it affect my tank alot or will it be ok? Its just i try so hard to maintain my tank and keep it perfect but this seems endless :sad: If it is part of the tank i will do what i can to maintain it. But does this limit to what i can add to my tank in the meantime?

Last time I moved I had an outbreak of cyano. I used some Chemi Clean until it was gone. Haven't seen it since.

Wholly dude simmer... :eek:

I didn't realize I would get worked so badly on my reply. I have to agree with Steve, but you do mention that your opinions are based upon your personal experiences. So was mine.

So I don't think you can reply by saying that this is a load of crap, I'm suprised Brad didn't moderate your reply instead of Steve's.

I'm sure more people would tend to agree with using RO/DI water or a skimmer as opposed to not. I'm actually suprised you can get by without a skimmer, especially if you have fish in your tank since they're such heavy polluters. But that is YOUR personal experience, I didn't realize that Calgary had such pure clean water compared to Vancouver's, hmmmm I'm impressed :exclaim:

I think in my opinion that ,people are getting into the reef hobby, due to

A they hate FW tanks

B they are tired of the boring fish and

C they are looking for a new advanced challenge
you are going to expect these things to happen like a basic cynao
or hair algae. Its going to happen
man i hmaust have have had every algae problem in my tanks in the past 2 yers
from hair - to bubble and cyno and brown green you name it i have had it
Doug can atest to that.

I think that if you are going to have a small piece of the ref in your house you are going to expect the basic's of the reef hobby to kick you in the butt.

All i can say is READ <READ <READ take your time .

READ MY SIGNTURE A TRY .....

but hte basic fundamentals will help you out

if you have looks of imports in the tank you need to export them of control them .Nowe i have to go for now
Im on duty here on BASE

LIFE IS HARD
FRRE FOOD AND A FRRE COMPUTER TO PLAY WITH

mike

I have recurring cyano problems but I don't worry about it too much unless it begins to grow over my corals. Mine disappeared significantly around the time I added a sea cucumber, but I wouldn't venture to say that's the reason why, although he does a great job on the sand (my conch does not). And 20 gallons is too small for a cuke so this isn't an option for you.