cyanobacteria problems

Raf

Raf

Malawi BadBoy~
Jan 9, 2004
175
0
0
West Vancouver, BC, Canada
www.malawimayhem.com
Ok, fairly new to marine so bare with me.

We have a 20 gallon tall (about 25 gallons) with a coralife 135 watt compact flourescent with 10000K and actinic bulbs and glass top, Prizim skimmer, AC 150 with carbon, 2 powerheads and 150 watt heater.

The tank has live rock about 0.75 lb/gallon, coral sand and some soft corals and mushrooms. The fish are 2 clowns (occelaris), 2 firefish, 1 yellow clown goby, 2 green clown gobies and a whole bunch of hermit crabs and snails(turbo).

Our current w/c schedule is 35% once every 2 weeks. All levels test good, nitrate a tad high at 20(15 right after a w/c)

Since the start, we have been battling cyanobacteria. The previous setup was using an eclipse top.....we were told that we had excess nutrients so we got a glass top, a better light and a skimmer......this did little to help and the cyanobacteria thrived....often appeared only 2 days after a waterchange even after picking all the bits out. We don't think it is a water movement problem as the tank has strong water movement throughout.

Our next attempt to rid the tank of excess nutrients was by adding an AC 150 with carbon and changing the substrate from crushed coral to finer coral sand. So far, it is day 2, but i already see the cyanobacteria forming.

Any ideas here...what can we do...what is the problem.

Thanks
 
Are you using reverse osmosis source water? That would help. Tapwater can contain suprising amounts of nitrates.

Also feed less, increase the circulation inside the tank, manually remove all that you can, keep your pH up in the 8.2+ range, make sure your alkalinity stays up, and crank the skimmer as high as it will go.

Is the Prizm actually producing skimmate- they aren't the most effective skimmers...
 
Have a look at one that you know is working well, and then compare if yours is. How many days does it take to fill the cup, and does it stink. Prisms are hard to get running efficiently.

You have 7 small fish in a 20 gallon tank that I guess is less than a year old.. Basically while it has 'cycled' like a fresh tank, things take more time to settle down in salt, so stocking a new tank heavily often causes problems like this.

Keep going with the skimmer, go to 10 % changes once a week or more often and try a phosphate remover. Make sure your sand bed doesn't start to stick together too. Good luck. Make sure you're not overfeeding
 
Unfortunately one of the amazing things about cyano is how little nutrient you need to produce astounding volumes of cyano. So it can be an uphill fight once it's established , especially as often it means nutrient is being leaked from the gunk in your substrate. So lots of gravel hoobering too, especially if you're using crush coral. But it sounds like you're on the right tep, though I'm not especially keen on the cannister, though sometimes this all just requires tlc and lots of hoovering. If you really are skimming properly make sure you stir the sand bed to get more gak into suspension for removal. Good luck

What do you mean your sand bed is going hard. Is it crusty, clear, hard? That's from CaCO3 precipitation I tihnk - you might try searching wetwebmedia.com with the word concrete or simialr. Are you adding lots of additives or something?
 
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