Nano Reefer Ky Posted May 6, 2014 Author Share Posted May 6, 2014 Based on advise from a fellow ARC reefer JeeperTy and some reading I have decided to go the tried and true method of keeping parameters simple. I let the tank drop to 10dKH and have been maintaining it there for about 2 weeks. It is much easier to maintain at this level by small daily dosings or dosing every few days if I forget. The LPS and monty seem to be a lot happier with the change. I have been running into some cyano problems though. PO4 - .02ppm NO3 - 0ppm (REDSEA test kit) I stopped dosing NOPOX because I read chaeto will stop reducing PO4 when it does not have access to NO3 in the system. If this does not work to rid the tank of the cyano I will purchase a reactor and start running GFO. Does this sound like a solid plan? All the corals still look happy except for the zoa frags that have cyano on them. Also the zoas haven't started producing more polyps either. Could the absence of NO3 be causing them to have stunted growth? I have been feeding Red Sea reef energy A and B daily as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted May 6, 2014 Author Share Posted May 6, 2014 Purchased some frags from mrshall last week. Here they are in the tank. Favia Candy cane Zoas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted May 9, 2014 Author Share Posted May 9, 2014 Ordered a reactor and GFO that should be here today. Any tips on making sure I do not clean the water too much for the euphyllias and zoas but still eliminate the cyano? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 I'd go off of BRS' recommend amount off their website and then just use half of that and see how the cyano reacts over the span of a month. If it it's still there, then when you replace the media (monthly usually for me) then use a little bit more and see the results again. Obviously test as you go to see how it affects your phosphates. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted May 9, 2014 Author Share Posted May 9, 2014 Sounds like a good plan to me. Thank you for the tip. The GFO I bought is BRS's GFO so looks like I chose a good one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Did you get the high capacity one? Or the regular one? Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted May 12, 2014 Author Share Posted May 12, 2014 I bought the regular BRS GFO and not the high capacity (it was cheaper and was on amazon prime). I have the reactor all hooked up and running for a couple days now. I did a big water change and I will be doing another today. Hopefully I will start to see some of the cyano die. I haven't noticed any new cyano growth so that is a possitive. I did the math in my head incorrectly and ended up putting the recomended amount instead of half the recomended amount in the reactor. I figured I will still be ok if I continued to watch the PO4 levels and pay close attention to the corals? Here's a couple pics of the ractor. I marked the top of the reactor with a purple paint pin in order to be able to set the reactor without having to take it all the way out of the tank. It is very difficult to look at the media from the top of the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted May 21, 2014 Author Share Posted May 21, 2014 Still battling the cyano but I believe I am winning. I have been religiously turkey blasting the rocks like I'm a Thanksgiving Space Ranger. I found a spot I haven't been blasting. When I blasted that hole a bunch of gunk came out and I mean a bunch. The whole tank clouded up after being blasted. So far my game plan has been: turkey blasting the rocks, adding a GFO reactor, reducing reef energy feeding to 2 times per week, reducing fish feeding to every other day, raising light fixture 2 inches, reducing photo period to 11.5 hours. Hopefully I will beat the evil cyano! Here is a current full tank shot and a shot of the recovering favia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenver Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Have you been doing water changes? Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemoon Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 turkey baster ranger! i would also consider lowering your light period a little more. I've noticed that has helped immensely with some of my cyano battles. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 Have you been doing water changes? Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk Yes weekly, sometimes twice a week if I have time. turkey baster ranger! i would also consider lowering your light period a little more. I've noticed that has helped immensely with some of my cyano battles. Haha Ok I may give that a shot. I took a bunch of the white spectrum out of the cycle but maybe I should remove some of the blue as well? I have been scraping algae off the back wall and brushing the cyano off the rocks every couple days. Could the algae die-off be the problem? Will the GFO eventually rid the tank of the released phosphates as I continue to brush it from the rocks? I did add an extra tablespoon of GFO to the reactor when I changed the media yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted June 2, 2014 Author Share Posted June 2, 2014 Added a jeabo wp-10 to the tank to increase water flow. I really like this pump. Lots of flow and the wave action is nice. Tested phosphates and got a .02 Looks like I am making headway on the cyano problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstarwiggle Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Sweet deal! That is one awesome little pump! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nori4dori Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I love my Jebao WP-10. Did you try out the different wave modes? I keep mine on "Else". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 I have been trying to set it on W1 to get the wave action. I played with it for a couple hours last night and I am not sure if I have it dialed in yet or not. It's hard to accomodate all the LPS in the tank since I don't have anywhere to dump the extra flow. I think I just figured out that S1 is 100% and S3 is 50%. All the LPS had closed up after doing water change so I will have to see what the flow does to them when I get home from work. I also put the pump on a timer so it only comes on during the day. This should help get the most flow possible without beating the LPS to death. I'll have to check out "else" if I can't get the wave setting to work. One of the clowns loves the new power head too. He has been rubbing on it since I put it in the tank and this morning he was laying on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 Ok so i have been fighting algae for a while now and i believe I am winning but I can't get rid of that last little bit. I have been feeding the fish every other day and feeding the corals with Reef Energy every 4 days. I have been running chaeto in the fuge and running a GFO reactor for about a month now. I have also been running SeaGel in a filter bag under the chaeto on one of the overflows and changing it out every two weeks to make sure it isn't leaching PO4 back into the water. NO3 - 0 PO4 - .01 The large cyano growth has all died off but there is still a few places in the tank where the cyano is still living. It is still located on a few of the zoa frags on the upper part of the tank and in one central location in a lower flow area at the top of the tank. I say lower flow but the flow in there is still really nice with the new WP-10 which I finally got set how I like it. I am also getting the brown dusty hair algae on the sand and back wall now. The only two other things I can think of that are causing the algae growth are either residual nutrients from algae die off or photoperiod is too long. What do you guys think? I changed my lighting schedule to this just in case. What do you guys think of the lighting schedule? 1 - 11:30 - whites 0% - blues 1% 2 - 1:00 - whites 0% - blues 35% 3 - 3:00 - whites 80% - blues 100% 4 - 6:00 - whites 50% - blues 100% 5 - 8:00 - whites 0% - blues 40% 6 - 9:30 - whites 0% - blues 1% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 I would suspect possibly your RO/DI water. Do you buy your water or make it? What do you feed your fish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemoon Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 im on day 3 of darkness battling a cyano outbreak in a tank -_- i hate it, but from past experiences i can say that adjusting the light schedule for less light has never hurt me when battling algea. Almost positive mine was caused by detritus build up and too much natural light....along with feeding my mandarin enough pellets to make it through an apocalypse, and then some ...i just can't say no to him. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 I would suspect possibly your RO/DI water. Do you buy your water or make it? What do you feed your fish? I make my RO/DI water at home. I have tested it with TDS meter a couple months ago and it read 0. I guess I should test it again to confirm. I have been feeding frozen mysis every other day and RedSea's Reef Energy every 4 days. I occasionally will feed a flake food when I am really busy and don't have time to feed the frozen. I feed about 1/5 of the frozen cube each time. im on day 3 of darkness battling a cyano outbreak in a tank -_- i hate it, but from past experiences i can say that adjusting the light schedule for less light has never hurt me when battling algea. Almost positive mine was caused by detritus build up and too much natural light....along with feeding my mandarin enough pellets to make it through an apocalypse, and then some ...i just can't say no to him. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk It's really hard to tell the cute little sausage he can't have any more food I've never had one but I know I wouldn't be able to resist either. So far the decreased lighting doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. But then again this is just the last little bit of algae I'm trying to finish off so maybe it will take some more time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Sounds like you just need to keep up the regiment and let your system balance out. I'd imagine the last bit of cyano will slowly start to disappear in time in the next couple months without you changing anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 So, against my better judgement of ridding the tank of algae before buying any more corals, I bought another frag. The guy at river city said it was a rainbow monti. It looked close enough to me and rainbow montis are very pretty once grown out. For $5, how could I pass this up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 That's awesome! Montis are very forgiving of water quality and are a good way to test you system out to see if one day you can keep acro frags alive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Found this guy in the tank the other day. Looks like a harmless algae eater based on research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Reefer Ky Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Here is a before and after shot of the favia I have been trying to bring back. The first pic is when I added it to the tank on 4-28-14 and the second pic is a current shot on 6-23-14. Looks like it will make it and I am anxious to see how it colors up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 wow, great improvement on the favia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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