ugly phase - diatoms and cyano

[reef tank 2.0]

I have been fighting what seems to be a mixture of diatoms and cyanobacteria since June 10th. I'd say within the last week, it really thinned out and was looking a lot better. but it has never gone away since it first started (June 10th). Didn't think much of it, just kept cleaning and waiting for it to disappear. today I got home and when the lights came on I noticed it is now very thick. same as it was many weeks ago. I am now having to constantly blow the corals off so that it doesn't cover them. My gyre pump and the tank glass are all turning red. the glass seems to have a powdery dusting on it, almost makes me think its diatoms.

why would this be coming back so aggressively, and why so quick?

is this normal?

here are my parameters, they are very consistent:

ALK - 6.9
CAL - 445
PHOS - 0
MAG - 1200
PH - 8.2
SAL - 1.025
TRATE - 2.3
TEMP - 78

RODI unit TDS meter always reads 0

 

[PharmrJohn]

What's your flow like? And what's the tank size? You have one Gyre?

 

[jackson6745]

how old is tank? did you seed it with live sand or live rock?

 

[reef tank 2.0]

80 gallon cube (32 x 24)
I have one gyre running at 30% (I just increased the flow to 30%).
it's the larger gyre (old model), maybe the 250?. (I have two of them, that were re-used from my last tank. that was a 6ft tank, so I had one at each end. that is way too much flow for this cube, so I went with one gyre). I have scaled the amount of flow down to avoid sand from getting blown around.

from what I can see, I have no dead spots. everything is flowing and I see this slimy stringy red stuff waving around in the current a well.

the tank is new. it's been running since late February, but it didn't have livestock in it until 4/17.
I used dry rock and sand. seeded the tank with chemicals.

 

[jackson6745]

seeded the tank with chemicals.

Your main problem. This is biome or lack thereof related. 3 options. 1- wait it out (could be a year+), 2- seed the tank with live sand and rock (fyi Marco rocks is selling live stuff now), 3 - implement a uv and or ozone to knock out dinos and cyano. Choice 2 would be the easiest way.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I first seeded the tank with raw shrimp, but ended up going the chemical route since I was struggling to determine if the cycle was complete. but I think whether it was a shrimp or chemicals, it doesn't change anything for the sake of this discussion.

 

[jackson6745]

I first seeded the tank with raw shrimp, but ended up going the chemical route since I was struggling to determine if the cycle was complete. but I think whether it was a shrimp or chemicals, it doesn't change anything for the sake of this discussion.

There's something with the introduction of ocean bacteria on rock and sand that's combats Dino and cyano. Your nitrogen cycle is far over. It's very common for dry start setups to be covered in dinos and cyano for a year or so. The small amount of bacteria introduced by the coral biome ends up being your slow seeding. It's much faster with some rock and or sand.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I know when I had my 6ft tank, I cycled that tank in the same exact way I did this cube. I don't remember the cyano acting the way it is now. I was wondering if it was due to the fact that the cube tank is a lot smaller.

 

[NanoNana]

I know when I had my 6ft tank, I cycled that tank in the same exact way I did this cube. I don't remember the cyano acting the way it is now. I was wondering if it was due to the fact that the cube tank is a lot smaller.

Smaller tanks do seem to have more stability issues. UV saved my sanity but will kill all your pods. It’s a catch 22.

 

[jackson6745]

I know when I had my 6ft tank, I cycled that tank in the same exact way I did this cube. I don't remember the cyano acting the way it is now. I was wondering if it was due to the fact that the cube tank is a lot smaller.

It's the kind of thing that you'll never really find out. Throwing darts at the board. The one tank that I started dry was a pain. I hope you figure it out some different way so I can learn from you.

 

[KC2020]

You mentioned the cyanobacteria is on your corals. Hard or soft corals ? If they came in on plugs then they brought new, additional good bacteria making how you cycled the tank irrelevant. And by 'chemicals' I'll assume you mean a bottle of cycling bacteria like Dr. Tims or Fritz. Those aren't chemicals they're bacteria cultures.

Increase the flow until it starts to stir the sand and then back down a little until it's keeping all the detritus in the water column and able to be skimmer or filtered.

You can turn the light off for a couple of days to stop the current bloom.

 

[Daniel Rosenwinkel]

Have you considered Chemiclean? That stuff always works great for me.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Agreed with Bacterial competition for space. Keeping attention to flow and an increased biome, those issues will decrease with time. There are chemical treatments you can use, yes, but unless the core issue is handled, they will pester you.

 

[KC2020]

Yes Chemiclean (Erythromycin) will work but it's a quick fix and not a long term solution.

 

[GT3000XX]

Your phosphate is too low at 0. You may have dinos. Try to get your phosphates up around 0.10 and nitrates around 10.0.

 

[Dan_P]

I have been fighting what seems to be a mixture of diatoms and cyanobacteria since June 10th. I'd say within the last week, it really thinned out and was looking a lot better. but it has never gone away since it first started (June 10th). Didn't think much of it, just kept cleaning and waiting for it to disappear. today I got home and when the lights came on I noticed it is now very thick. same as it was many weeks ago. I am now having to constantly blow the corals off so that it doesn't cover them. My gyre pump and the tank glass are all turning red. the glass seems to have a powdery dusting on it, almost makes me think its diatoms.

why would this be coming back so aggressively, and why so quick?

is this normal?

here are my parameters, they are very consistent:

ALK - 6.9
CAL - 445
PHOS - 0
MAG - 1200
PH - 8.2
SAL - 1.025
TRATE - 2.3
TEMP - 78

RODI unit TDS meter always reads 0

Hard to say what’s happening. Rather than the same species coming back, your system might be experiencing the growth of a series of different microorganisms, taking turns bothering you.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Ha ha. I'll continue to blow the corals off and cleaning the sand during water changes....I got nothing but time.

One thing I will say, is that my astraea snails are kicking butt. They are making my rock work nice and pretty. Now if only I could get them to clean the sand, I'd be happy

 

[jackson6745]

Your phosphate is too low at 0. You may have dinos. Try to get your phosphates up around 0.10 and nitrates around 10.0.

Agreed. Just noticed his low nutrient levels. Guys also had success dosing silicates.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

well, all corals are still alive. the ACANS seemed to have shrunk a tad, but no skeleton is visual. I'm keeping an eye on those. All my other corals seems happy still. They haven't gotten any bigger from what I can tell.

On 8/13/2024, most of all the stringy red stuff (cyano) has disappeared. The sand/glass/rocks still have what might be diatoms coating them. Not a lot, but nothing like it has been. I do notice that when i use a turkey baster to blow the rocks off, it doesn't take much effort to clear the rocks. All this algae is very loose. I do blow it off, net out as much as i can throughout the display tank.

Last night i noticed a patch of red stringy algae at the base of my brain/acan corals. thinking it was cyano, well, i think i was wrong. that was a red algae of some sort. it had to be pulled off with a decent amount of force, and it wasn't slimy. SO I may have had a storm of different algae/bacteria blooms going on. (diatoms/cyano/red algae). none of this was overwhelming, just ugly to look at.

as of right now, everything seems to be pretty minimal. i'll continue to monitor everything and hopefully it doesn't come back for a little bit. Last time it was on it's way out, it decided to come back in full force. So I may not be out of the woods yet.