rollrok18 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 So I am not sure if I have diatoms or cyano, more than likely both...All my water chemistrys are within normal limits. I have been doing water changes every 2 weeks for the past 2 months with little to no change. I have scraped every inch of the rocks with a tooth brush on more than one occasion getting them clean, and only waking up to the same situation. I am using API alageFIX, no change. I have also used chemi clean twice with a water change post 72 hours with no luck as well. Not sure if my lights are causing the problem, they do need to be changed, but not sure if it would be this bad. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed, thanks. 90 Gallon DSA, 2X250 HQL Sunlight Supply, 45 gallon PM sump with RL250 skimmer; Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 How long has the tank been set up? Diatoms and cyno are typical during the first few months of a tank. What is your lighting settings, feeding schedule, livestock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viet-tin Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Maybe its dinoflagellates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 You could look into excess co2 in the tank or low o2, cyano loves co2. Also consider the flow in your tank. Planting halamida in your sandbed is a good way to prevent nutrients from collecting there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollrok18 Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 How long has the tank been set up? Diatoms and cyno are typical during the first few months of a tank. What is your lighting settings, feeding schedule, livestock? James - I have 50 coral pieces in the tank, ranging from mostly acros, favia, acans, lobos, duncans. Feed Every other day, target feed the corals reef frenzy -good stuff - lighting is 8am-8pm ,8 hrs of MH 4 hrs , 2hr before and after of actinics. The tank is about a 1.5yrs old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollrok18 Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 Maybe its dinoflagellates. I although I have never heard of it, I am going to have to do some research on this because the pics look similar - How do you get rid of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollrok18 Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 You could look into excess co2 in the tank or low o2, cyano loves co2. Also consider the flow in your tank. Planting halamida in your sandbed is a good way to prevent nutrients from collecting there as well. There is some kind of vapor bubble build up on the rock and sand bed, how would my tank get excessive CO2 - I have never a a low O2 problem, I think the skimmer kicks up enough o2 in the water but maybe not...Will look into borrowing an O2 measuring device from the Chem department. I am willing to test or try anything at this point... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 You could look into excess co2 in the tank or low o2, cyano loves co2. Also consider the flow in your tank. Planting halamida in your sandbed is a good way to prevent nutrients from collecting there as well. There is some kind of vapor bubble build up on the rock and sand bed, how would my tank get excessive CO2 - I have never a a low O2 problem, I think the skimmer kicks up enough o2 in the water but maybe not...Will look into borrowing an O2 measuring device from the Chem department. I am willing to test or try anything at this point... If your feeding as much as you say then bacterial breakdown of organic matter can release co2, and alot of it. if your tank is 1.5 years old and you have a fairly deep sandbed or one that collects alot of organic matter this can cause a reduction in o2 levels, an increase in co2 levels and algae. what is your alk and ph at? The bubbles on the rock are o2 bubbles most likely. how well ventilated is the room your tank is in, your stand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollrok18 Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 You could look into excess co2 in the tank or low o2, cyano loves co2. Also consider the flow in your tank. Planting halamida in your sandbed is a good way to prevent nutrients from collecting there as well. There is some kind of vapor bubble build up on the rock and sand bed, how would my tank get excessive CO2 - I have never a a low O2 problem, I think the skimmer kicks up enough o2 in the water but maybe not...Will look into borrowing an O2 measuring device from the Chem department. I am willing to test or try anything at this point... If your feeding as much as you say then bacterial breakdown of organic matter can release co2, and alot of it. if your tank is 1.5 years old and you have a fairly deep sandbed or one that collects alot of organic matter this can cause a reduction in o2 levels, an increase in co2 levels and algae. what is your alk and ph at? The bubbles on the rock are o2 bubbles most likely. how well ventilated is the room your tank is in, your stand? Not sure what the ALK. is at but I just raised the pH to around 8.6 in case of dinoflagellates, but was sitting around 8.4. With the CO2 question, I was brain farting on break down of food, but I feel like my tank has good flow and a low amount of it breaks down inside the tank before it can be removed, but then again maybe not. Sand bed ranges from 1.5" -2.5" in some spots. I feel like the sand bed does collect organic matter in some areas, so maybe my flow is not as great as I claim. Not sure exactly what the first step I need to take is as this point other than reduction of feeding/amount of food. Any other advice would be appreciated, thanks for your replys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 you could try doing 3 30 gal wc over the course of 2 weeks. that can help. how much skimmate is your skimmer pulling out? how much flow does your return do? how much flow do your powerheads do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 dinoflagellates are bad bad bad, but not normaly seen in captive reefs. so i would bet cyano. i thought i had them but no. the only way i have seen to remove them was really high ph from what i read they feed on light. i would seriously doubt thats what it was. although i have been wrong before. i have been fighting cyano lately. what finally did it was back to back red slime treatments with 20% water changes in between and after and going dark all the wile. also blue legged hermies will eat it. i had it bad like you do, people say cyano is not photosynthetic but i think it is. it has to be. i have done the back to back treatments with no luck the lights out with treatment worked.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollrok18 Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 you could try doing 3 30 gal wc over the course of 2 weeks. that can help. how much skimmate is your skimmer pulling out? how much flow does your return do? how much flow do your powerheads do? Thats a lot of water, but can be done...The return i believe is an eheim 1260 - 635 gph, 2 maxi jets that put out (supposdly) 1600gph, and one that flows 300gph so 3 total. The skimmate produced about 1/2-3/4 full every 7-10 days, although I will have to start paying more attention because I can't say that for sure may be longer/shorter but not by much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 cyano is certainly photosynthetic, it's ancestors were the first ones to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 cyano likes amino stop all feeding of the coral frenzy, i was feeding brightwells coral amino every other day as well and i stopped for a bit when i did the last treatment of red slime, that mite have helped too. also the high PH to kill the Flagellates was around 10-12 in some cases 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollrok18 Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 I will try the red slime treatments back to back with the lights off with 20% water changes, so thats 4-5 days with no lights right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 6 days. also make sure you use a turkey baster and suck up all the cyano you can get to. before you do the treatments and turn skimmer off and UV and pull carbon (if you use it) just pumps and powerheads.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollrok18 Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 6 days. also make sure you use a turkey baster and suck up all the cyano you can get to. before you do the treatments and turn skimmer off and UV and pull carbon (if you use it) just pumps and powerheads.. Whats the total amount of time you would go with lights off before any damage is done to the corals and fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Fish wont be effected, corals mite be just a little bit, but 6 days isn't that long. i did it and i have 90% sps in my solana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollrok18 Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 For anyone interested in this post and/or is having similar problems I have solved the problem (for now). I did a red slime treatment and cut the lights for 4 days. I was afraid to go anylonger. I bought a python gravel cleaner and sifted through all the open sand in my tank. WORKED GREAT! I did a 20% water change at that time. I did another one 1 week after and another 1 week later. The gravel syphon is the best thing I decided to do. It cleans all the sand and with little effort you can keep the sand from getting sucked up. I also changed my halides, although I think they had little to nothing to do with the problem but it was time for new bulbs anyways. Dont have any pics but could post a few if anyone is interested. There is absolutley no cyano or any signs that there was ever any in the tank. Thanks for everyone contributing to the post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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