Need advice what this is and how to beat it…

[nightmarepl]

Been having this for a good year now i do 2-3 week water changes roughly 10 gallons per change tank is 75g sump is around 30 gallons
Ph 8.0
Nitrates 10ish
Phosphates are 0.86. On hanna
Temp 77
Hard to take a picture of it but develops on my sand bed first starts off reddish then gets brown / greenish
Eventually get it on my rocks and it’s reddish
If i hit it with chempure it kills it in 2 days but returns in 2-3 weeks any ideas?

 

[NanoJoe]

How old is the tank?
Looks like cyano in the pictures to me.
The claim is that the imbalance of nitrate and phosphate (one being higher than the other) will allow the cyano bacteria to take foot over beneficial good guy bacteria.
The chemi-clean treatments work as a bandaid in your situation. Focus on bringing down the phosphate .10 or lower based on your given nitrates.
From there wack it again with chemi-clean to rid of it.

 

[nightmarepl]

How old is the tank?
Looks like cyano in the pictures to me.
The claim is that the imbalance of nitrate and phosphate (one being higher than the other) will allow the cyano bacteria to take foot over beneficial good guy bacteria.
The chemi-clean treatments work as a bandaid in your situation. Focus on bringing down the phosphate .10 or lower based on your given nitrates.
From there wack it again with chemi-clean to rid of it.

Thanks for the info bud.
Tanks about 2 years now i believe it is cyano from looking on google what you think is the best way to lower phosphates to best

 

[NanoJoe]

Thanks for the info bud.
Tanks about 2 years now i believe it is cyano from looking on google what you think is the best way to lower phosphates to best

GFO, just be careful with it as it will pull your alk down as well if you use a lot or replenish it often. Up the water change frequency or volume. Refugium can help out too.
Also a more active approach would be just to siphon out what you can on the sandbed and rocks. You could blast the rocks with a turkey baster and swap out the sock after the water clears up.
Take a multi-approach attack on it.

 

[Bot587]

How is your flow?

 

[nightmarepl]

How is your flow?

I’m using current usa wave makers 1050 gph x 2 around the center of the tank

 

[Bot587]

It could be cyano or diatoms (based on 2 years this is less likely). If it’s cyano picking up flow in the tank will help.

did you mean chemiclean before? If so I’m almost positive it’s cyano. Increasing flow will keep it suspended in water and off the rocks.

 

[nightmarepl]

It could be cyano or diatoms (based on 2 years this is less likely). If it’s cyano picking up flow in the tank will help.

did you mean chemiclean before? If so I’m almost positive it’s cyano. Increasing flow will keep it suspended in water and off the rocks.

Yah chemiclean i have another power head i can add into the tank and increase the power to max

 

[Bot587]

I would add the power head and increase the flow to start. No real change in the chemistry (only change is potentially increase evaporation).

If you can eliminate dead spots it should go a long way in preventing cyano. I would also look at your feeding. Go with frozen food from LRS or another reputable dealer (less phosphates) and reduce your feeding if you have not already.

Your nitrates and phosphates are not in tandem at 10 nitrate you should have a 0.05-0.2 phosphate reading.

I don’t recommend GFO (for controlling phosphates) if you have not used it before. If you do go that route do some research beforehand to figure out other issues that arise from it so you know what to look for.

 

[nightmarepl]

I would add the power head and increase the flow to start. No real change in the chemistry (only change is potentially increase evaporation).

If you can eliminate dead spots it should go a long way in preventing cyano. I would also look at your feeding. Go with frozen food from LRS or another reputable dealer (less phosphates) and reduce your feeding if you have not already.

Your nitrates and phosphates are not in tandem at 10 nitrate you should have a 0.05-0.2 phosphate reading.

I don’t recommend GFO (for controlling phosphates) if you have not used it before. If you do go that route do some research beforehand to figure out other issues that arise from it so you know what to look for.

Yah i rather not go the chemical route honestly and my sump is pretty much useless all i have in the sump is my skimmer don’t even use socks only throw in filter floss

 

[nightmarepl]

I have about 20kbs of crushed rock rumble in there a small power head heaters and some filter floss was thinking of changing the inner chamber into a full fuge but i tried eating chaeto it faded out quick

 

[DYIguy]

I have about 20kbs of crushed rock rumble in there a small power head heaters and some filter floss was thinking of changing the inner chamber into a full fuge but i tried eating chaeto it faded out quick

I have plenty of chaeto if you ever want any, I also recommend adding pods if you don't have them. I would never starve my fish- better to feed the corals less

 

[Salted]

I have plenty of chaeto if you ever want any, I also recommend adding pods if you don't have them. I would never starve my fish- better to feed the corals less

This. We pluck these creatures out of the vastness of the ocean and put them in little glass cages for our pleasure. We need to give them the best life we can. Under feeding them so we don’t have to struggle with parameters is wrong. Otoh if you’re over feeding and can cut back then that’s different. Or add to your cuc.