mdavis735 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I'm assuming this is some sort of bacteria. It resembles cyano almost 100%. Other than color. It seems to be the same whether lights are on or off. There is no air bubbles or anything like Dino's. I also thought about diatoms, but it seems to come in mats on the surface of everything. The tank has been set up since October or November. Using rodi water and fritz salt. There have been no fish since mid December. The only nutrients are what I've added. I tried dosing nitrate for the coral since It's fallow for a little longer. I think the nitrate may have accelerated it a bit, but certainly didn't cause it. I'm posting a few pics to get ideas what it is and what I should do next. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 It's a cyanobacteria. Cyano comes in various shades of green, brown, red and black. You can also have different types together mixing colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdavis735 Posted February 21, 2017 Author Share Posted February 21, 2017 So maybe chemiclean and try to eliminate whatever the source is?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woods Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 Cyano is usually caused by excess Phosphates. GFO or Phosban or Phosguard help to remove phosphates. Yes, Chemiclean can as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdavis735 Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 I've been running gfo since the beginning. I've also added very little phosphate as it is fallow for a few more days. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 I would be very cautious using chemiclean. It is a form of eurthromicin and using it repeatedly can create a resistant super strain. If you're going to use it siphon out as much as possible first, then dose, then after 48 hours do another big water change siphoning out as much detritus and algae as you can and run GAC to get rid of the eurthromicin. Getting rid of the cyano does not fix the problem however. You still need to shift the equilibrium of the ecosystem to favor corals. I would stop dosing nitrates, it's the corals least favorite form of nitrogen (urea is then ammonia are prefered). If you are also doing something to export PO4 and you do not supply it in some form if the corals internal PO4 level drops below .07 mg/l they will get very tempermental about temperature and light changes and will become very pale. FYI reef normal levels are 0.05 to 0.21 mg/l PO4, average is 0.13. Target feeding is much better than just adding nitrate if you are going to keep your system empty of fish. Look at Mikes thread: We got rid of nusance algae without changing the nutrient levels. This is the same basic technique I use for all nuisance algae problems in my tanks for a couple decades now. Also keep in mind your system is still new and algae cycles are to be expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdavis735 Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 Thanks timfish. I stopped dosing nitrates a few weeks ago. I will skip the chemiclean. So maybe I should take the gfo offline in order for the corals to color up a bit possibly? I'm probably not adding nearly enough phosphate to need it anyway. My current plan of attack for the cyano has been daily or every other day 5-10 gallon water changes. I just started that over the weekend. I've been using a gravel vac to syphon what I can off the sand during the water change. Is this a good idea? I can't see the link at the moment. It gives an error. Hopefully it'll work eventually. Thanks for the info. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humblefish Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 1 hour ago, Timfish said: I would be very cautious using chemiclean. It is a form of eurthromicin and using it repeatedly can create a resistant super strain. FWIW; Chemiclean's new formulation no longer contains erythromycin. It was temporarily banned in Europe due to test results showing erythromycin. When Americans found out about this, we just started dosing erythromycin (i.e. Maracyn) instead of paying for Chemiclean. So, Boyd removed erythromycin from their product for multiple reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 So what is it using? If it's still killing the cyano as fast as erythromycin does there's still the same risk of creating a resistant super strain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humblefish Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 8 hours ago, Timfish said: So what is it using? If it's still killing the cyano as fast as erythromycin does there's still the same risk of creating a resistant super strain. No idea, somebody would need to do another chemical analysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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