ridding cyanobacteria w/o chemicals?

I've got a couple more questions to ask about this bloom I'm having. Let me please start with what I have been up to lately to see help me identify what exactly is causing this. My tank as been setup since late January, from then up till' a week or so ago I had a canister filter on the tank. I removed this canister filter from the system and set it up on my daughters new 72gal system.

About 2-3 weeks ago I replaced my 2 40watt junk lights with a 4bulb t5 setup. 1 daylight, 2 actinic, 1 60/40 bulb.

I'm guessing both of the above statements are the primary reasons this is happening in my system and the sand bed now has to help makeup for the removal of the canister filter. In retro-spec, I feel I should have slowly shut down the amount of water flowing through the canister filter before removing it from the system.

At this point I wonder what I can do to help my situation without adding chemicals. In a separate thread it was recommended that I stir up the cyano. Should that be done regularly? It seems only 24 hours later that stuff is right back to building up a layer on the substrate again. Should I add some more cleaner crew, some turbos perhaps?

Nitrate is at 0, I turned the skimmer up to be a bit more aggressive to try to remove more dissolved organics. 10% water change was done a matter of days ago. umm...yah that's all i can think of at this time.

Thx in advance all!

 

Oh yeah, I am using a new bucket of salt too, instant ocean brand (~50lbs in size) dunno if there is a recall or something due to phosphates :shrug: same brand i've always used tho.

 

Serotonin, you say Daylight for the T5, is this 6500k bulb? If so replace that one with a 10k or higher. That would be one reason why the breakout. Also did you lessen the amount of flow in the tank?

Side note I added a refug to my 29 sump with 3" of sand and macro. Within 2 weeks i had great marco growth but also a big break out of Cyano in the refuge area only which was odd since I only added Live sand. I am thinking that the sand had something that made the break out. So went right to the Chemi-Clean to take care of it.

 

lately I have had more flow than ever. A couple weeks ago a threw a 1000gph return pump on my sump and there is quite a bit more water movement from this. There is 4 output joints from this to aid in directing water movement over a more wide area. This and a 300gph powerhead help keep a moderate current throughout the tank.

I forgot to add that as of today im running on two of the four bulbs (the ballast that's off has the daylight bulb on it) so we'll see what its like when I get home in a couple hours.

(fingers crossed)

I'm thinking about buying a few red legged crabs and a few turbos to see what that does. I don't know how there could be this much of a nutrient base for this stuff to be so out of control. My skimmers been truckin away for quite some time.

gotta be some stuff that was in the canister filter, or my salt as a truckload of PO4's in it(not likely). This is all i can gather at this point. fun learning experience though!

 

Serotonin, i have been using and testing I/O for about a year now and i have never seen any phosphates or any indication of Nitrates in fresh water. Believe me i have test/test and re-test due to my Nitrate break out this last past month. I finally got it under control. Working on a coil-denitrification unit to help.

I would be it is that Daylight bulb. Does your tank have any direct or indirect lighting from the sun?

 

Any sunlight that could get to the tank is from early morning sun and I would have to open the blinds on my patio door. You would think there would be some trace of nitrates in my tank?

 

What about heat? What temp do you keep your tank at?

 

its at about 78 degrees now, it goes up to 79-80 degrees durring mid day. 77 at night with lights out. I dont use heaters to regulate the temp. Constant indoor temps and the pumps do good and keeping the temp in check for me.

THX!!

 

change water, stir, carbon and good skimming. ;]

 

At 6 months you can still be cycling a little. Almost every tank I've had has had a bloom to some some degree or another within the first 6 to 9 months.

Since you brought it up, have you tested your Phosphate levels? I ass-u-me that you are using RODI water. Tap water is very high in Phosphates.

There is typically no single cause or cure for Cyno. They key in avoiding Cyno is to have a nutrient poor environment.

Things to do:

Larger 25% water changes every 3 weeks. IMO, 10% doesn't cut it. Larger changes a little less often are better than smaller changes more often. Take the opportunity to vacuum up as much of the Cyno as you can.

Skim like mad!

Increase water flow within the tank. Really try to avoid dead spots.

Reduce feeding to a minimum! IMO, this is one of the biggest causes of uncontrolled Cyno.

Lighting is an important factor too, but in my experience is way down the list. If the prior issues are not present, you can get away with all types of lighting issues with no ill effect.

IMO, Chemical based cures are bandaids. They have never really worked for me. Cure the cause and you will cure the problem.

Good luck.