Cyano or diatoms??

[Jon]

So I’ve been having a bout with cyano or diatoms lately. I’m not sure what it is. It mainly grows on my sand bed, dry rock or magnetic shelves. What’s strange is that It doesn’t grow on my actual live rock. The dry rock has been in my tank for atleast a few months and has colored up nicely. I stir the sand bed once a day to clean things up and that lasts for a couple hours before it returns.

Over the past month I’ve tried larger water changes, siphoning it up when I do water changes and chemiclean. None of them last for more than a few days.

My phosphates are .13 and thats about as low as they get in my tank. My nitrates are about 5 and I have a lot of chaeto growing in my sump.

I don’t know what else to try. Any suggestions??

Thanks

 

[DYIguy]

How old is your tank/ setup- sounds like diatoms- part of the process (if it's brown ) red would be cyano- I had that when I moved my tank- a real pain to get rid of. Patience is what you need

 

[Jon]

My tank is one year old.

 

[DYIguy]

can you post a pic- cyano looks like red slime- not sure why you'd get a diatom outbreak, but I've had a few over the course of months while the tank was aging

 

[Jon]

I will get a pic up later tonight. I stirred the sand bed about an hour ago. So it looks ok right now

 

[DangerDave]

Definitely get a pic up.

Cyano comes in many colors, though red is most often found (in my reef anyway). I have a couple patches of red and green cyano currently. Its always due to nutrients. You can take action like chemiclean to attack it directly (I have, and it works), but until you address the nutrient issue something else will step in and start using those nutrients to grow.

 

[Jon]

Here are the pics.

 

[DYIguy]

Doesn't anyone use white lights anymore? I can't see anything but blue

 

[Foxchase]

Do you have pics with white lights on?

 

[DYIguy]

Do you have pics with white lights on?

I could have been more diplomatic , thanks.

 

[Jon]

My lights are a mixture of white and blue. They look much whiter in person. I’ve never had any luck with capturing good photos of my tank with my iPhone.

 

[Jon]

Definitely get a pic up.

Cyano comes in many colors, though red is most often found (in my reef anyway). I have a couple patches of red and green cyano currently. Its always due to nutrients. You can take action like chemiclean to attack it directly (I have, and it works), but until you address the nutrient issue something else will step in and start using those nutrients to grow.

Dave thanks for commenting as you always seem to do.

My nitrates are about 5 and my phosphates were .11 as of this morning. So what nutrient could be in excess? Like I said earlier, I have a refugium that grows chaeto extremely fast, my skimmer works very well and I do weekly water changes. I also clean all of my filters / sponges once a week when I do the water changes. I also run carbon in my filter sock and rowaphos in my sump as well. I was hoping this would be enough to keep everything in check

Do you have any idea what to look / test for? I must be missing something but don’t know what.

 

[DYIguy]

Can you turn the blues off altogether for pics? that would help. But even without pics I'm sure that if it's brownish and not slimy it's diatoms- you should be able to blow it off with a syringe/ turkey baster. Cynano is like- slime. Diatoms ( in my experience won't grow on live rock- just the dry rock - maybe have to with your lighting o

 

[Jon]

Can you turn the blues off altogether for pics? that would help. But even without pics I'm sure that if it's brownish and not slimy it's diatoms- you should be able to blow it off with a syringe/ turkey baster. Cynano is like- slime. Diatoms ( in my experience won't grow on live rock- just the dry rock - maybe have to with your lighting o

So if it’s diatoms, than from what I’ve ready the only thing I haven’t done is a three day blackout with my lights. I do weekly water changes, my ro/di unit cartridges are up to par and my skimmer works just fine. I’m thinking about doing a 20 % water change tomorrow along with a three day blackout of my lighting.

 

[DYIguy]

I run a simple system- I'll leave it to the experts- Dave? But a blackout won't hurt. Why weekly water changes? Seems like overkill with all you have going

 

[Jon]

I do weekly water changes to keep my nutrients fresh in my tank at all times and also, to help keep my phosphates / nitrates down. For the first year I didn’t have to dose my tank because I was doing the weekly water changes. Now that my tank is fairly well stocked I’ve had to start dosing to keep my numbers in line.

 

[MadReefer]

I was told diatoms feed off silicates in the water. You may need something to pull them out.

 

[Iotari]

Looks like Dinos not Cyano

 

[Jon]

Looks like Dinos not Cyano

Ive looked at a lot of images online today and I’m pretty sure it’s diatoms. I’ve seen Dino’s before and they are different. The pics of diatoms that I’ve seen are pretty much spot on.

 

[DangerDave]

Dave thanks for commenting as you always seem to do.

My nitrates are about 5 and my phosphates were .11 as of this morning. So what nutrient could be in excess? Like I said earlier, I have a refugium that grows chaeto extremely fast, my skimmer works very well and I do weekly water changes. I also clean all of my filters / sponges once a week when I do the water changes. I also run carbon in my filter sock and rowaphos in my sump as well. I was hoping this would be enough to keep everything in check

Do you have any idea what to look / test for? I must be missing something but don’t know what.

Sorry if I over comment at those numbers I’d use chemiclean or do a few days lights out.