Soaking sand and rock in bacteria?

[tobster]

Have cyano in a few spots on sand. Everytime I siphon out and replace the sand it just comes back.
Would it help to soak the sand in a container with microbacter 7 and water and then add it to the tank? Would this prevent cyano or algae from growing on that sand?

 

[exnisstech]

Following along, this sounds interesting.

 

[tobster]

Anybody lol?

 

[Pistondog]

I wouldnt think so, the cyano is outcompeting now.. Get a tiger conch or 2 to turn the sand.

 

[jrill]

No

 

[Moe K]

I found getting my nitrate and po4 100 to 1 helps with cyano. They get too low and it likes to break out. When I used tropic marin elimi np for carbon dosing cyano was nowhere to be found. There is also a thread about rotifers eating cyano and I tried it and it did seem to work but the rotifers will not last in the tank.

On your point of soaking the sand mb7 I think it could work but probably temporary and a waste of effort honestly. That's a lot of work and a big disruption to the system.

 

[goosemans]

I know this is like beating a dead horse, but how old is your tank, how big, amount of power heads? Reason why I ask because when I first set up my tank. I had cyano in one spot, did nothing other than point a powerhead at that spot and it would come and go for a while but eventually just went away. I’ve heard coral snow does a good job getting rid of cyano. I use it but not for cyano removal.
I’d hate to recommend a product because I don’t want you to waste your money, especially if it doesn’t work for you. I’d highly recommend PNS probio and PNS substrate sauce. I used those bottles according to directions during early phases of my tank and I never ran into any uglies. I hope you’re able to figure out this issue.

 

[mjszos]

My gut tells me that agitating and removing the sand in order to be able to soak it in MB7 would release more contaminants into the water column faster than a dosing of a dormant bacteria like MB7 could handle.

Maybe if the sand were removed and cycled? Though my understanding is that sand in our tanks has a negligible effect on filtration unless you have a deep sand bed (someone correct me if I’m wrong here please)

 

[tobster]

I found getting my nitrate and po4 100 to 1 helps with cyano. They get too low and it likes to break out. When I used tropic marin elimi np for carbon dosing cyano was nowhere to be found. There is also a thread about rotifers eating cyano and I tried it and it did seem to work but the rotifers will not last in the tank.

On your point of soaking the sand mb7 I think it could work but probably temporary and a waste of effort honestly. That's a lot of work and a big disruption to the system.

I’m working on getting to that 100-1 ratio. Right now the rock is covered with algae so I am siphoning it out and running gfo.
It seems to slowing it down.
I was just going to try soaking the MB7 on a small amount of sand to see if it would help keep the cyano at bay.
I have NoPox but I heard that can fuel cyano?
Maybe I’ll check on the Tropic Marin
Thanks!

 

[tobster]

I know this is like beating a dead horse, but how old is your tank, how big, amount of power heads? Reason why I ask because when I first set up my tank. I had cyano in one spot, did nothing other than point a powerhead at that spot and it would come and go for a while but eventually just went away. I’ve heard coral snow does a good job getting rid of cyano. I use it but not for cyano removal.
I’d hate to recommend a product because I don’t want you to waste your money, especially if it doesn’t work for you. I’d highly recommend PNS probio and PNS substrate sauce. I used those bottles according to directions during early phases of my tank and I never ran into any uglies. I hope you’re able to figure out this issue.

Tank is year and half old, around 145 gallons, I’m running an MP40 and a ReefWave 45.
The first time I had cyano the extra flow cleared it all up within a week but for whatever reason it’s not working this time.
I’ll check out PNS too.
Thanks for your advice!

 

[tobster]

My gut tells me that agitating and removing the sand in order to be able to soak it in MB7 would release more contaminants into the water column faster than a dosing of a dormant bacteria like MB7 could handle.

Maybe if the sand were removed and cycled? Though my understanding is that sand in our tanks has a negligible effect on filtration unless you have a deep sand bed (someone correct me if I’m wrong here please)

I was only referring to replacing small sections at a time that are covered with cyano.
I definitely don’t want to mess with the whole sand bed because I’m sure it’s full of nasties.
Thanks

 

[mjszos]

I was only referring to replacing small sections at a time that are covered with cyano.
I definitely don’t want to mess with the whole sand bed because I’m sure it’s full of nasties.
Thanks

Got it, I thought your idea was to go nuclear on the whole sand bed to sort out the small spot.

I'm still not sure how effective this would be, but hey worth a shot.

 

[tobster]

Got it, I thought your idea was to go nuclear on the whole sand bed to sort out the small spot.

I'm still not sure how effective this would be, but hey worth a shot.

Yea idk either but it’s worth a shot. I’ll let you all know how it goes

 

[mjszos]

Yea idk either but it’s worth a shot. I’ll let you all know how it goes

I'd personally be interested to see if the cyano spreads to anywhere else in the tank in the absence of that pocket of sand. In any tank I've had cyano in, it would always start in generally the same area - if neglected it would spread in pockets around the tank. Thankfully it never became problematic enough to go nuclear, but it's an indication that something is out of balance and the cyano is capitalizing on it.

 

[goosemans]

I was only referring to replacing small sections at a time that are covered with cyano.
I definitely don’t want to mess with the whole sand bed because I’m sure it’s full of nasties.
Thanks

That PNS stuff smells terrible so it must be good lol

 

[malacoda]

Tank is year and half old, around 145 gallons, I’m running an MP40 and a ReefWave 45.
The first time I had cyano the extra flow cleared it all up within a week but for whatever reason it’s not working this time.
I’ll check out PNS too.
Thanks for your advice!

what are your parameters at, particularly PO4 and NO3?

I tend to see cyano only when the following occur:

• PO4 and/or NO3 get near zero
• PO4 and NO3 are very out of balance
• tank micro biome becomes non-diverse

I agree with @Moe K - tank seems to do best, not just in terms of cyano, but overall, when NO3/PO4 balance is roughly 100:1. Doesn't have to be exact. Just ballpark. E.g. NO3 of 10 and PO4 0.05 not really a problem. But 20 and 0.05 could be.

As for the micro biome — MB7 and other bottled stuff is not diverse. It is just a couple strains to establish and maintain a healthy amount of denitrifying bacteria, not a multitudinous array of microfauna. So, in my experience it rarely resolves a cyano or dino problem ... and just doesn't 'perk up' a tank up the way real sand and/or rock from the ocean can.

At least once a year, if not twice, I add a bit of sand and a couple rock nuggets from Tampa Bay Saltwater ... some Wonder Mud from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms ... or a few small rocks from KPS ... and it makes a WORLD of difference in the 'happiness' and balance in my tank.

Doesn't have to be much. A cup or two of sand ... 3-4 golf ball size rocks are more than enough for my 120g. And yes, shipping is expensive for such a 'small', boring item. But the visual difference I see in the health of my tank ... and the pleasure I get from it ... are more than worth it.

Bottom line: I highly doubt the simple addition of MB7 will fix your biome imbalance (didn't for me). But a little real rock, sand, or grunge could help a lot. (Has for me, more than once.)

 

[tobster]

what are your parameters at, particularly PO4 and NO3?

I tend to see cyano only when the following occur:

• PO4 and/or NO3 get near zero
• PO4 and NO3 are very out of balance
• tank micro biome becomes non-diverse

I agree with @Moe K - tank seems to do best, not just in terms of cyano, but overall, when NO3/PO4 balance is roughly 100:1. Doesn't have to be exact. Just ballpark. E.g. NO3 of 10 and PO4 0.05 not really a problem. But 20 and 0.05 could be.

As for the micro biome — MB7 and other bottled stuff is not diverse. It is just a couple strains to establish and maintain a healthy amount of denitrifying bacteria, not a multitudinous array of microfauna. So, in my experience it rarely resolves a cyano or dino problem ... and just doesn't 'perk up' a tank up the way real sand and/or rock from the ocean can.

At least once a year, if not twice, I add a bit of sand and a couple rock nuggets from Tampa Bay Saltwater ... some Wonder Mud from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms ... or a few small rocks from KPS ... and it makes a WORLD of difference in the 'happiness' and balance in my tank.

Doesn't have to be much. A cup or two of sand ... 3-4 golf ball size rocks are more than enough for my 120g. And yes, shipping is expensive for such a 'small', boring item. But the visual difference I see in the health of my tank ... and the pleasure I get from it ... are more than worth it.

Bottom line: I highly doubt the simple addition of MB7 will fix your biome imbalance (didn't for me). But a little real rock, sand, or grunge could help a lot. (Has for me, more than once.)

That’s a good idea, I never thought about adding live sand from TBS.
Nitrates were 8 and Phosphate was.02 but like I said there is a lot of algae so I’m sure that is messing with the numbers.
I’ve never heard of the Pacific mud? Where would that go in the tank? Sump?

 

[jmcdona6]

When you say you have Cyano in a few spots...just a few spots? Is it getting worse? Causing issues with corals?

If its only an inconvenience I would let it be. Remove it during water changes or periodically. Maybe consider root causes, but it seems like you already have. Otherwise, if you have good flow and your nutrients are in a good situation, it will likely go away on its own in time. Invasive methods are likely just to prolong the instability causing it to begin with and waste your money.