Cali Kid Corals

Nitrate spikes causing Algae on sandbed

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wbrosha

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I am having nitrate spike that are causing algae growth all over. I can’t figure out why and it is driving me nuts!!! I keep up on weekly water changes and have had no die off other than 2 snails that were removed immediately. PH is great, ammonia is 0, nitrates are 0. Any thoughts? Feeding pellets once a day and frozen in place of pellets 3 days a week.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

Wylie B.



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That is cyano bacteria (red slime). I usually associate it with phosphates. Where are yours at, and do you use anything to remove them such as gfo?
 
Brand isn't as important as is method of use. There is high capacity GFO and regular GFO. Both can be bought in bulk (BRS is one place many folks get it from.) They both do the same thing, but the high capacity can be changed a little less often -- but it's a lot more expensive. GFO works best in a reactor where it can lightly tumble, however, lots of folks also just put it in a media bag and place it into the filter sock or under the inlet pipe of your sump. One of the popular ways of doing that is to purchase it in a bag with carbon under the brand name Chemipure. I often pair that with a bag of Phosguard.
 
I’ve only used phosguard to remove phosphates. It’s just a different media that does the same thing as gfo. It’s a bit cheaper than gfo but also absorbs less. When I researched it, it was about the same ratio of phosphates to dollars but I think it works better in a bag than gfo.
 
Thanks everyone. I will get some ordered immediately. What about the lights off for 3 days approach I’ve read that works as well for a kind of quick fix? Any of you had luck or experience with this.


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I may be in the minority, but I recommend that you just focus on your water quality, but don’t try to get too aggressive on eliminating cyano specifically. It will go away on its own if you are diligent on your maintenance. I agree with trying to lower your phophates with gfo if necessary. But I think a lights out period is too aggressive, and then you’re potentially dealing with alk spikes and generally serves to destabilize a system.

I have a plumbed in frag system to my main tank. The main tank had zero cyano, and the new system had tons! Same water. New tank. And it just took time to resolve.


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I had cyano outbreak and it took a month to go away on its own. All I did was lower my feeding amount. Tried chemiclean once but it did not do anything. I have a lot of gfc and carbon I ordered from BRS in bulk I dont use. I could sell it to you 1-2 dollars cheaper than BRS if you want. Pm me if interested.


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For me, cyano never harmed anything which was nice (unlike dinos). It just looks gross. I was impatient once and used chemiclean, that worked almost immediately and it never came back. In my latest tank, I had some but ultimately dinos came in and became my main problem at the same time.

I'm like @Gablami, try to just focus on overall water quality and it'll go away. If you're impatient like I am sometimes (ok, most of the time), use chemiclean. It'll just be annoying how your skimmer will be overflowing for a week until you do a big water change.
 
Opinion:
Check and reduce phosphates.
Check that Nitrates are not zero. (Cyano likes that also)
Manual removal by siphoning sand bed.
It is ok to accidentally siphon out sand with it. Just clean sand in tap water, rinse in rodi, and put it back.
Once you notice it not increasing, hit it with Chemiclean to wipe out the remaining bits.
 
Rocks are ultra clean for being 8 months old. Can you provide more info in regards to the tank?

I've always just let the tank and time resolve itself when it came to cyano.
 
Red Sea Max 130
30lbs of love rock, 20lbs of live sand. Running bio media, and carbon with upgraded Tunze skimmer.
A pair of clowns, 1 purple and one standard Firefish, and a Mandrin plus 4 frags.


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Just an update, I ended up doing a 30% water change and a 48 hour blackout period with no lights and a blanket over the tank and that got rid of the majority of the cyano.

Thank you everyone for your help with this.


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