G&D's Foray Into a 90G Tank (Take One)

[gridley]

Well, I still don't have the support wall completed But I do have the storage room clean!

On to more urgent matters. A little over a week ago someone pointed out a red algae on one of my rocks and suggested that it might be cyano. Over the next days I watched as it spread to another rock and the sand. By Thursday morning it had spread significantly. I tried several times to siphon it as best I could - with little result. I did some reading on line and came up with a possible solution.

Since cyano needs light to survive, the absense of light will kill it. The theory was to turn off the lights and either close all blinds in the room or wrap the tank in a blanket for three days. During this time the fish will mostly sleep and coral will survive.

So I gave it a try. . .


I continued with regular, but lighter feeding for the three days, made sure the skimmer was working well and hoped I was doing the right thing. At the end of day one there was no noticable difference. By the end of day two almost all the cyano was gone - there were still multiple red strands on the sand. By this afternoon the tank appeared complelty clean - an incredible difference! I wish I had before and after pictures, but never thought of that.

All the fish, snails, crabs, shrimp appear perfectly fine. The soft coral and LPS appear a bit "ticked off" but are already coming around and opening up.

Time will tell whether this is just a very temprary fix, whether significnat progress was made or the elimination of cyano was achieved.

So, maybe I'll finish the floor support project this week . . . LOL

[gridley]

Wow, I actually completed the floor support - not a large project at all - it just takes me time. Now there will be far less floor movement as the kids run in and out of the room and less "sloshing" in the tank.

Now onto another project . . . hmmm, maybe I could drill some holes in the floor, run the plumbing downstairs, get a larger sump, set up a tank room . . . that can't be that big of a project . . . can it?

[gridley]

I figured that I would do a quick update from the three day tank blanket wrap experiment. As of today (only 2 days later) there is no visable cyano - for which I am very glad. In addition the coral all seem to be happy critters. Here are pictures from yesterday afternoon.

[Leah]

I do not mean to rain on your parade, and hopefully someone else will chime in here.

I think you have the right idea sort of with the black out, but you need to cover the tank for three days. Do not feed the tank or even peek at it then on the third day you need to do a water change...just can't remember how much!
Then slowly turn your lights, say half a day for 2 days and full on the 3rd.

Leah

[gridley]

Originally Posted by Leah

I do not mean to rain on your parade, and hopefully someone else will chime in here.

I think you have the right idea sort of with the black out, but you need to cover the tank for three days. Do not feed the tank or even peek at it then on the third day you need to do a water change...just can't remember how much!
Then slowly turn your lights, say half a day for 2 days and full on the 3rd.

Leah

Thanks for the input Leah - and if anyone else can chime in, that would be helpful as well.

I have to admit that I did peek under the blanket - I couldn't help myself - couriosity took over, I was out of control! LOL

What you say here regarding the water changes amd turning lights on slowly makes sense. (I had done a WC earlier this evening) By all appearances I may have gotten off lucky. As I've been thinking about this there may be several reasons for the luck . . .
1. My lights (RADION) are only at 50% because I am still stocking the tank with coral.
2. All my corals are still quite low in the tank - the most are within 3 inches of the bottom
3. As the tank is still newer there are not that many fish so that the bio load isn;t that high.
4. Though the cyano was spreading it wasn't heavy yet.

If anyone has thoughts I would apprecaite it as I am sure this will not be the last time I need to deal with this.

[gridley]

The first round goes to the cyano!

I thought that I had an early victory over the cyno with the blanket wrap approach. A week ago Sunday when I took the blanket off, the tank looked great! However, on Saturday there was some suspicious looking algae growing and I now have three areas of cyano growing on the sand.

So . . . onto round two! Any suggestions? . . .

[kien]

Originally Posted by gridley

So . . . onto round two! Any suggestions? . . .

Have you tried chemiclean? That stuff is MAGIC!!