Hey Ash,
Try getting a phosphate reactor to kill off the red and black slime and use a treatment of chemiclean powder and the bacteria problem should cease to exist.
As for the spinning of cheato ??????????????? you got me... lol
need help getting my cheato to spin again! please help!
Hello all. I actually wanted to know some advice on a few things if anyone has anything at all to offer, I would greatly appreciate it. First, my fuge has always been VERY healthy, my cheato blew up, and I needed to trim it back because it started growing cynobacteria on it, and has been growing here and there in my tank. I trimmed my cheato, increased the flow in my tank, remove as much of the black and red slime as I can, and run my skimmer 24/7. I also decreased my feeding. Seems like the growth of the cyno has decreased, if not completely stopped (just little patches here and there that I need to remove at my next water change). I used to have a really clever set up in the fuge with a power head and some plexiglass pieces to deflect flow to cause the cheato to keep the rolling motion. Since it grew so much, it stopped spinning. Now that I’ve trimmed it, I want to get it spinning again, but I can't seem to get that power head and plexiglass to do what it was doing before. Any advice as to how to get that cheato spinning again? It’s been growing coralline algae all over it too...I’m not sure how great that is. I imagine that it's better than having cyno on it, but I don't know it the coralline can harm it or make it less affective at removing nitrates and phosphates. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance!
-Ash
i have a phosphate reactor running. does chemiclean kill any benificial bacteria or organisms?
Not that I know of I use it in my tank the day or two before I do a water change... And the Cyano Bac is never a problem again!!!
sweet. thanks!
Vodka dosing killed Cyano for me. As far as spinning, get a few pepermint shrimps and a 6 line wrasse in there.
How did you do the vodka dosing? Did it have any negative affects on anything else in your reef? And I think putting some peppermint shrimp and a 6 line in my fuge would give me more trouble than they would do good. I don't want all my pods and stuff getting eaten...Plus, I think they would probably end up on the sponge that the water from my fuge flows onto before it goes into the chamber that returns the water back to my tank...
I was joking about the peppermint shrimp and wrasse, they Wrasse would chase them endlessly and they would like like if they were running on a log. lame joke. Anyways.... There's an article in ReefKeeping magazine about the vodka, just follow that and you'll be fine. It cleaned up my tank in about a week.
lol! yea, i didnt know you were joking, and i didnt want to be rude...i was like "wow...what the heck is this dude thinking? thats the worst idea ever!" haha! thanks for the info about the article. i will check it out
I would be very cautious and careful with vodka. You have to keep your water change cycle consistent and on schedule or you'll have have major problems.
Robert
I also would not do the vodka...too much risk, not enough reward.
Cyano is killed by siphoning all you can get out and then putting a TON of flow in that area. It's that simple. All algae are always present in all tanks, but because of what we do to the water conditions, they do, or do not, show up. Cyano likes calm areas. I simply siphoned out everything I could see. then I put a modified Maxi-jet 1200 with the Sure Flow mod kit using the 2100 gal/hr prop. pointing directly on that area (it gives a nice wide flow).
A week or so later some cyano had grown back so I turned off the pump, and siphoned the area again. then I turned back on the Sure flow maxijet and I've never seen it again. that's how I always get rid of Cyano, tons of flow.
Now, if you have a ton of it, and it's all over, then Kent Marine makes a stellar product called Poly-Ox. It works extremely well when you use it exactly like they say....it's not hard to use, it is actually really easy, but it takes some dedication so you use it as often as they say and for as long as they say. It works wonders on a situation that seems hopeless. Best of all, it is super cheap! LOL (:^)
Many reefers have way too little flow. Many of the problems that occur in a reef can be associated to too little flow. If all reefers would have a set rule for flow: If you look straight down into your water from directly above, and you can see what things are (ID corals, fish, etc) you have too little flow! Please remember, in the ocean, corals are subjected to a constant, almost thrashing of waves and current. Having your tank like a "blender on low" is really only a slight exaggeration! You almost can't have too much flow...seriously. I have a 3' x 8' frag tank (approx.200 gals) that has well over 10,000 gallons per hour flow. The corals and fish LOVE IT! (:^)
Yes i agree with reefcorals. Very good comment. The decrease in feeding was def a good thing. Most of the time its caused by to much food. As for the coraline, dont think that good. Light cant reach the algae. I think just an inlet on one side and outlet on the other is great. All my algae grows like made and no coraline on the algae. lol Just some on the glass.
As for what u said about your protein skimmer running 24/7, well, i dont think thats good. As you know it also removes good elements from the tank. After feeding my tank meaty foods, the protein skimmer acts up alittle. Plus it only tanks a few hrs for the skimmer to do its thing with the proteins. If you have alot of sponge growing everywhere, well, they need proteins. Sponges are great filters for nitrates and more so proteins. If your skimmer is removing all the proteins before the sponges can, your sponges wont grow as good.
I feed my tank at night when i get home, so I only run the skimmer from 10am - 4pm. This way it gets out everything it needs to, without remove good elements for those additional 18 hrs. I have had wonderful results with this. Been doing it for about 8 months.
Current is the key lols i love current ive seen so many people with the same cyno problem ive never seen it iin none of my tanks so up the current see what happens.
update: sorry i didn't update this sooner...things are under control. haven't had a cyano problem in a long time! replaced my phosban reactor with a magnavore simplicity reactor over a month ago, put rowa in, did a water change, and BOOM! all gone. doing just fine. i've ALWAYS had a ton of flow...in the tank (alternating, not direct, of course), and i also like to have higher flow through my refugium than some people. i have plenty of filter feeders (sponge, feather dusters, tube worms, etc.) multiplying and spreding like mad...i believe a lot has to do with my fuge being so healthy, and also having so much established rock from my other tank, along with my deep sand bed. as far as the small patches of cyano(it was VERY little amounts, here and there) i think that the phosphan reactor was just not working for me. they are really great reactors, but this magnavore one is VERY short and fits right in the sump. the more compact design makes it so that 100%(or very close to it) of the water is making contact with the media before it exits the reactor from the top. so, all is well for a while now...sorry i didn't update sooner...but regardless, me not updating allowed for A LOT of good advice for anyone who may be having a cyano problem and runs into this thred! so thanks guys!
actually, i think that the topic kind of got off course. the cyano problem was never really THAT big of an issue. only had a TINY bit in a couple places, and inside my fuge...my original reason for the post was because my cheato is green, but encrusted with coralline algea, so it's too heavy to even float anymore, so i can't get it to spin all nicely like it used to. that was really my main issues...but my friend is going to be sending me some new cheato, so i think i'm just going to chuck the cheato that's covered in coralline. anyhoo, i'm off! thanks boys!
