Cyano with undetectable phosphates! Why?!

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mhayes462

Guest
I have cyano but my nitrates and phosphates are undetectable on the test kits. Why is this? How do I get rid of it? All I've read is to lower phosphates and it will go away. It has not! I have even ran gfo in a bag for a day a couple of times. I also vodka dose. Other than that, everything is doing great.mit isn't a lot, just get a little on my glass and back wall and return nozzles.
Mike Hayes
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Most likely the bacteria is using up any phosphate as it shows up which is why your test probably says 0. What you mentioned will generally prevent it from spreading but I have found that it is almost always necessary to remove any cyanobacteria. I usually try to remove it in the morning right after the lights turn on in the morning as it is usually easier to remove.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Your test kit is probably incorrect.
I find that running a "three punch combo" of a fuge, skimmer and phosphate reactor works best for reducing nitrate and phosphates, but also remember that you have to keep your rocks and your sand clean. You have to turkey baste your rocks and make sure you have enough flow to keep all organic matter suspended in the water column. Even then, it may be necessary to lightly gravel vac your sandbed and then add pure live sand from another hobbyists tank to your own.
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
Your test kit is probably incorrect.
I find that running a "three punch combo" of a fuge, skimmer and phosphate reactor works best for reducing nitrate and phosphates, but also remember that you have to keep your rocks and your sand clean. You have to turkey baste your rocks and make sure you have enough flow to keep all organic matter suspended in the water column. Even then, it may be necessary to lightly gravel vac your sandbed and then add pure live sand from another hobbyists tank to your own.
Thank you Snake for saying this as I have been siphoning my sand in the SSB method for years. I am now using the DSB method and find, I fight more slime algae then I have ever. My belief is that food builds up in the sand and rots there because I am not siphoning it out. My rock work prevents me from cleaning 2/3 the sand bed in my cube so I use serpent starfish as CUC. I would like to add that in order to siphon the sand you have to do it often enough to prevent Hydrogen Sulfide bacteria from being an issue and as I have always said 3 months is as long as I would go in my tank that was lightly fed. If you feed more heavy you will have to test how long you can leave it without getting the rot or you may loose animals to disturbing it.
Snake I know that you want to tell people to do things in a safe way but you don't have to repopulate the sand when you siphon it as you don't harm or remove the sand bed animals or bacteria. If you don't agree with that idea and you think you will remove and disturb the sand animals understand you don't clean under your rocks so that area will repopulate the sand. Your are also removing a large amount of waste so if you don't agree that the bio-filter will not be harmed then understand that the benefit of removing the waste is larger then any harm done to the bio-filter. If you are still not convinced but would like to siphon, do half the tank but more often.
I personally think that the RDSB is better then a DSB as long as the food waste is not allowed to clog it up. So you can siphon a deep sand bed if you do it in a thoughtful way and I recommend that people do.
 
M

mhayes462

Guest
My tank is a biocube 29. Stock lights: 36w 10000, 36w actinic, plus marineland reef led with 21x1watt LEDs. The stock bulbs are a month old. I have the aquaticlife 115 skimmer in chamber one, media basket w/ floss, purigen and chemi-pure elite, and a fuge rack with chaeto in ch 2. Carbon in chamber 3 every other week. I vodka dose and do 4 gallon water change every week. Blow off my rocks every other day. Ro/di tests 0 tds. I just installed it a month ago. Di resin is silicabuster. I have four fish, I feed the corals every 2-3 days and let the fish get the leftovers. My cyano is not a major problem, just enough to be annoying. It is on a lobo that I am trying to rescue and on my return nozzles that make them look an ugly brown. It also came off my glass by the sand bed when I cleaned it with the mag cleaner. Some may even ask why i am griping about this little amount of cyano. Just didn't understand why I was having this when all my params are near perfect.
Mike Hayes
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
The tank is still young and will go through a number of algae until it settles down. The API test kit can't read the very low phosphate numbers. I think the slime will recede in the next few months, if not that would be time to try other things to get it under control.
 
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mhayes462

Guest
It's not that young though. I did take off the returns and clean them, and it hasn't come back yet. Hope it stays away
Mike Hayes
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by mhayes462 http:///t/391085/cyano-with-undetectable-phosphates-why#post_3467165
It's not that young though. I did take off the returns and clean them, and it hasn't come back yet. Hope it stays away
Mike Hayes
I have a similair issue with my returns and my powerheads. Over time they get a buildup of red slime and there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it except taking them out and cleaning them once a year or so.
 
M

mhayes462

Guest
I took mine off and cleaned them and removed all the rest of the cyano and it has not returned yet. Hopefully it doesn't come back
Mike Hayes
 
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