cyano

[Janus]

ok we have alittle cyano prob with our new tank. seeing as we are alittle new we really don't want to go overboard. so here are the paramaters.

30 gallon tank established for 3 months
wet dry filter
2 x 65w pc white/blue lights
237 gph flow power head

amonia 0
nitrates 3ppm
ph 8.2

15 lbs LR
3lbs limestone base rock...not yet taken by coraline.
3' aragonite gravel/sand bed

ok here is the clean up crew
4 turbo snails
4 narcissus snails
5 dwarf hermits
1 scarlet hermit
1 xl snail of unknown species(fiance bought so not sure.

also have calorpa(wrong spelling probably) seaweed both the brillo looking and the fishbone shaped.

1 small clam
2 1" yellow tail Damsels
1 2" tomato clown

we have spots of cyano that reappear on the sand bed quickly....I went to work and none was there and now I have a few quarter sized patches.

I have heard that cyano is attracted to limestone.....should I take my limestone out?

We have chemiclean but we would really prefer to try natural methods 1st

[GaryP]

Hello janusNraven,

Check out the "are skimmers bad" thread by Jeff. I just left a really long post on dealing with cyano, its causes, and cures.

[Janus]

thanks guys....I have the chemiclean from a buy off of here but I was realllllly hesitant to use it and wanted to check here 1st.
thanks for the save.

[matt]

If you only have one powerhead and that's your total water movement I'd suggest that it's not nearly enough. You could add a couple of maxijets, one on each end pointing towards each other. As Josh said, a cyano outbreak 3 months into a new tank is pretty typical. My new 60 corner is coming up on 6 weeks and I'm seeing some cyano, that's with no fish, mostly cured rock (it only cycled to .1ppm ammonia), a big skimmer, and a 1000gph return pump plus 2 maxijets.

[GaryP]

ChemiClean will kill the cyano, but its curing the symptom, not the cause. As was pointed out earlier, the actual cause may simply be that you have a new tank. In an older tank I would suggest that you look for the cause (lack of flow, high DOC, detritus buildup, or deadspots).