Looking for some guidance

[5gluder]

Hello,

I'm hoping that some of you might be able to help me out. Over the last 6 months(tank is 14 months running) or so i have been trying to fight off what i think is Cyanobacteria in my tank. I have tried many things but nothing has worked. The specs on my tank are:

one spot foxface, clownfish, royal gramma, tail spot blenny and dracula goby
60 gallon with 25 gallon sump(cheato fuge)
running leds for 8 hours
2 jebao rw-4 pumps
dc6000 jebao pump running at almost full capacity
api - ammonia - 0
api - nitrite- 0
api - nitrate- 0
hanna - phospahte - 0.02
ph range - 8.22 - 8.47
temp range 77-80

I have increased flow, changed the locations of the circulation pumps, changed food, reduced food amount, increased water changes to 20% twice a week, lights out for 3 days and changed salt. My concern is now my foxface seems to have this red stuff on its fins as well. All other fish are fine but for some reason this looks like its attaching onto the foxface.

The rock was cured for about 6 months before setting up the tank.

[5gluder]

Forgot to mention that i'm running RO water and GFO.

[Myka]

That is probably dinoflagellates, but sometimes there is a brownish cyanobacteria. Dinos can be pretty persistent.

Btw, your Dracula Goby is a Hi-Fin Goby.

[FishyFishy!]

Do you have any clean up crew?

[5gluder]

Yes i have a cuc, turbo, astrea, nassarius and margarita snails and various crabs. Total of 15 crabs and 20 snails.

[5gluder]

Anyone know where i could buy Metronidazole Powder in Canada?

I came across this thread on Dino:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2307000

My plan is to try h202 first, if no success hopefully Metronidazole will work. I know seachem makes metroplex but if i can get a generic Metronidazole that will suffice.

[Myka]

I think maybe your waterchanges aren't very effective. Could you describe how you do a waterchange? What steps do you follow? Do you use RO/DI water or tap water? If RO/DI, have you checked the TDS of the product water?

Even though Metro is generally considered reef-safe(ish?), it's not something I would be adding to my reef.

[5gluder]

I use spectra RO/DI, just replaced all the filters a couple months ago, i have a TDS meter and output reading is 0. Based on the thread from reefcentral some say not to do any water changes as the Dino thrives. At this point i don't have very much coral left so if using Metro only affects coral in the short term i'm fine with that. I made a decision not to purchase any coral since this started 6-7 months ago until i have the bacteria all cleared.

The steps for the water change is filling a 30 gallon tub and mixing the day of. I have used various types of salt, once mixed i transfer over to the tank on the same day. I checked the PO4(hanna) in the mixing tub and was registered at 0, i supposed i could try a different tub if the concern is leeching.

[Myka]

Yeah, but there's a reason it came to be. I'm more curious about the waterchange itself - do you simply remove old water and replace with new water or do you get in there and turkey baste the rocks and vacuum the sand?

Do you have a microscope by chance? It's easy to tell dinos from cyano under microscope.

Dinos:



Cyano:

[5gluder]

Oh sorry, I have been removing sand that was covered in the brown gunk as well as surface cleaning the sand. I haven't added the sand back too date so probably half has been siphoned so far. In the past this stuff didn't coat my rocks like they have now so I haven't really siphoned any out of the rocks. I would blast the rocks and then do a water change thereafter.

Yeah I'm also really confused as to why I have this, all my rock was dried, bleached and then cured for a very long time while I got the tank ready. I really wanted to start out with a clean system. I don't have access to a microscope.