ErikH
Mon, 22nd Jun 2009, 10:45 AM
Hey y'all! As of recent, I have finally been battling cyano. I recently went from 20k bulbs to 10k, and as I figured, there were algae problems. Cyano, and lots of it, and other green algaes that seemed to just grow out of control.
I am winning this battle using an invasive strategy. I do not recommend this for everyone as it could easily spike and kill everything in your tank.
That being said, here's some detail:
75g Oceanic Brick
29g Fuge
150+ LBs LR in display
30+ LBs LR in fuge
No skimmer
4x Chromis
4x Tangs
1x Engineer Goby
1x Target Mandarin
1x Emo Nemo
4" sandbed display
6-10" sandbed fuge
At first, I was blaming the lights. Then I was blaming the abscence of the skimmer.
Cyano needs light, and nutrients to grow. If you cut the lights for three days, WHAM, no cyano.... For about a month or two.... Then you are right back where you started. Then I became a Chemi-Clean/Phosban addict. Spending money on chemical removal of nutrients is a waste of money, unless being used only temporarily. YOU MUST ELIMINATE THE SOURCE(S) OF WHAT IS FUELING THE GROWTH OF THE ALGAE, EVERYTHING ELSE IS A BANDAID.
What I realized is that my sandbeds were overloaded with excess detritus. I have a DSB in my fuge, and knowing that will keep me from spiking, I went berzerk. I got a 5g bucket, an mj1200 with a hose running from the bucket into a filtersock (higher the micron the better here for SURE) and a siphon hose from display to bucket. I could have easily went from display to filtersock in the fuge, but my return would not have been able to keep up, so I used this method.
I ran my fingers through all of my sand, getting ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM, and swirled and swirled the sand. Then I started my siphon and kicked on the mj. The siphon tube is larger than the MJ tube, so I had to watch for a bucket overflow. Once the bucket was full, I would stop the siphon. Then I power washed more rock, and swirled more sand. By this time, the MJ is just about to empty the bucket, so I started my siphon again. I did this for about 15 buckets of water on my display and my tank is looking GREAT.
I am going to keep doing this regimen once a week on my display until it becomes too much work for too little detritus. Then I will start on my fuge. Just what has been done on the display has made such a huge impact that I am feeling much better about my husbandry techniques and more attached to my tank.
I am winning this battle using an invasive strategy. I do not recommend this for everyone as it could easily spike and kill everything in your tank.
That being said, here's some detail:
75g Oceanic Brick
29g Fuge
150+ LBs LR in display
30+ LBs LR in fuge
No skimmer
4x Chromis
4x Tangs
1x Engineer Goby
1x Target Mandarin
1x Emo Nemo
4" sandbed display
6-10" sandbed fuge
At first, I was blaming the lights. Then I was blaming the abscence of the skimmer.
Cyano needs light, and nutrients to grow. If you cut the lights for three days, WHAM, no cyano.... For about a month or two.... Then you are right back where you started. Then I became a Chemi-Clean/Phosban addict. Spending money on chemical removal of nutrients is a waste of money, unless being used only temporarily. YOU MUST ELIMINATE THE SOURCE(S) OF WHAT IS FUELING THE GROWTH OF THE ALGAE, EVERYTHING ELSE IS A BANDAID.
What I realized is that my sandbeds were overloaded with excess detritus. I have a DSB in my fuge, and knowing that will keep me from spiking, I went berzerk. I got a 5g bucket, an mj1200 with a hose running from the bucket into a filtersock (higher the micron the better here for SURE) and a siphon hose from display to bucket. I could have easily went from display to filtersock in the fuge, but my return would not have been able to keep up, so I used this method.
I ran my fingers through all of my sand, getting ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM, and swirled and swirled the sand. Then I started my siphon and kicked on the mj. The siphon tube is larger than the MJ tube, so I had to watch for a bucket overflow. Once the bucket was full, I would stop the siphon. Then I power washed more rock, and swirled more sand. By this time, the MJ is just about to empty the bucket, so I started my siphon again. I did this for about 15 buckets of water on my display and my tank is looking GREAT.
I am going to keep doing this regimen once a week on my display until it becomes too much work for too little detritus. Then I will start on my fuge. Just what has been done on the display has made such a huge impact that I am feeling much better about my husbandry techniques and more attached to my tank.