Frustration with red cyano and green hair!

polarbear0602

polarbear0602

New Member
Hey guys! I'm really hoping that someone can think of something I haven't yet! Here's the stats:
20g long tank - 2 years running
30# LR
2in deep aragonite
Koralia powerhead
Marineland Penguin 350 (gutted out- currently contains PhosBan, Ammo-Carb, and Chemi-Pure)
2x T8's (1 Actinic, 1 50/50)
Fish: Yellowtail Damsel, Gold Bar Maroon Clown
Corals: Australian Duncan (3 heads), Kenya Trees, Button Polyps, Green Nephthea, Purple Mushrooms
Other Inverts: 4x Nassarius, 2x Trochus, Turbo, Sand Conch, 2x Scarlet hermits
2 months ago I started getting a significant amount of green hair algae (which at the time didn't look green...it looked like someone hadn't dusted my LR in a year). Soon after, I started getting a MASSIVE outbreak of red slime, like covered my tank overnight outbreak in addition to the green hair. I'm faithful about testing my water often and everything (including phosphates) kept testing fine, but the outbreak keep covering my tank. I bought new bulbs because mine were about 7 months old....not quite too old but I figured I'd try it just in case. I brought a water sample to three separate reef shops in the area just to see how my results compared, and each one had the same results as mine. I used to do 10% H2O change/week before the outbreak and I've increased it to 25%/week currently. I changed around my HOB filter and powerhead a month ago to see if maybe there's insufficient water flow around the tank, but that hasn't helped either. As far as feeding goes, I feed my fish omega one marine flakes 2-3x/week and frozen food 1x/week, I hand feed my Duncan heads mysis shrimp 2x/week, and use Kent's Zooplex 1x/week for my other corals.
Whew....how frustrating! Any other ideas??
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Hi,
Do you run a skimmer? The Cyano will give off a false 0 phosphate reading because it feeds on it. Cyano feeds off of extra nutrients. If you overfeed your coral, don't skim enough it can cause cyano. So will poor circulation of water and bad lights.
Your power heads at 2 yrs old are not as powerful as they were when new, so maybe circulation is now an issue. You need to do regular water changes after you siphon off the cyano with a turkey baster as best you can. Then what you need to do is try and figure out what the cause is...because it will return until you get rid of the reason it appeared in the first place.
 
polarbear0602

polarbear0602

New Member
I'm not running a skimmer, although I do have one that I could hook up to see if it helps. I understand how the cyano can "trap" phosphates giving it a false reading, but I thought that the Phos-Ban might "outcompete" the cyano for this?
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by PolarBear0602 http:///t/390763/frustration-with-red-cyano-and-green-hair#post_3462121
I'm not running a skimmer, although I do have one that I could hook up to see if it helps. I understand how the cyano can "trap" phosphates giving it a false reading, but I thought that the Phos-Ban might "outcompete" the cyano for this?
Well that depends on the amount of nutrients and the circulation. Phosban can only do so much. Try the skimmer and a good water change and see if it returns...if it does, we move on to try and find the next possible cause.
 
adonis311

adonis311

Member
I'm replying to this post because I'm experiancing the same issue, almost to the T. I stopped feeding my little buddies frozen food because I have had such a harrowing experiance with hair and cyno. I figure it's due to large amounts of organics in my system, but I can't pinpoint a source. I also have a massive brown algae outbreak. It's covering everything, even my poor little crabs and snails.
My 75g tank is over 8 months old, and was going swimmingly until a month ago, when this started happening. I feed once every other day, before it was frozen spurlina, now it's just marine pellets. My MH lighting is on for 6 hours a day, other then that the tank sits in darkness, with just the moonlights on. The MH bulbs are brand new, less then a month old. I run a reef octopus skimmer, and a penguin emperor 400 cascade, for right now, as my sump pump failed and it is undergoing repairs. I have 2 power heads moving water, and the flow is sufficient enough to keep debris floating around for a while, so I'm sure that's helping the hair algae spread. I blow the brown algae off after I feed, it just keeps settling and coming back. I'm running phosguard and purigen in the media boxes.
I piggybacked this topic because I have a pretty good feeling that our causes are going to turn out to be similar, and maybe we can help eachother wipe out this issue.
 
fastcroc

fastcroc

New Member
Wow I feel crazy feeding my BC29 twice a day lol. It's only 2 fish and 7 inverts but haven't had any algae issues. Hope to keep it that way! Good luck.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by adonis311 http:///t/390763/frustration-with-red-cyano-and-green-hair#post_3462546
I'm replying to this post because I'm experiancing the same issue, almost to the T. I stopped feeding my little buddies frozen food because I have had such a harrowing experiance with hair and cyno. I figure it's due to large amounts of organics in my system, but I can't pinpoint a source. I also have a massive brown algae outbreak. It's covering everything, even my poor little crabs and snails.
My 75g tank is over 8 months old, and was going swimmingly until a month ago, when this started happening. I feed once every other day, before it was frozen spurlina, now it's just marine pellets. My MH lighting is on for 6 hours a day, other then that the tank sits in darkness, with just the moonlights on. The MH bulbs are brand new, less then a month old. I run a reef octopus skimmer, and a penguin emperor 400 cascade, for right now, as my sump pump failed and it is undergoing repairs. I have 2 power heads moving water, and the flow is sufficient enough to keep debris floating around for a while, so I'm sure that's helping the hair algae spread. I blow the brown algae off after I feed, it just keeps settling and coming back. I'm running phosguard and purigen in the media boxes.
I piggybacked this topic because I have a pretty good feeling that our causes are going to turn out to be similar, and maybe we can help eachother wipe out this issue.
For both of you:
Are you rinsing your frozen food? Stop feeding pellets or flakes, it pollutes the tank. Spurlina is good for fish such as tangs, clown fish for example need some mysis shrimp. The way to rinse the frozen food is to use a fish net, put the cube in it and run water over it until it is thawed, then the last rinse I use RO water...invert the net in the tank to feed the fish.
If stuff is settling on the rocks you either don't have enough power heads or they are not directed properly to clear off the rock. You may need a better CUC an algae eater will groom the green off the rocks before it grows long enough to be hair algae. I always add a few serpent or brittle (not the green) stars, they clean the rocks of food.
A phosphate reactor will do better than running phosguard or purigen.
Make certain that natural sunlight is not hitting the tank at any point thru the day.
Run your skimmer, stop feeding your corals unless it needs direct feeding. The kenya trees, mushrooms and polyps are all filter feeders and all the food you are giving them is also feeding the hair algae, there is enough organics in the tank to feed the corals from broken down fish poo.
Use ONLY RO water and make sure you have good clean filters for it. Do weekly or small daily water changes. Keep the lights on only long enough for the coral to live.
Last resort, get a good UV sterilizer...it will kill the HA spores. It also kills the good tiny critters, so only run it at daytime with the lights on to perserve the tiny critters
If you can remove your rocks...scrub them in a bucket in the old saltwater you remove for water changes, be sure to rinse them in another bucket of saltwater after the scrubbing to remove any loose HA, shake the rock under water to be sure.
That's all I can think of for now. Siphon the cyano up and use the red slime remover FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LETTER. Do not use it until all else fails, and don't use it as a maintenance...just one application to be rid of cyano for now to help you get a grip on the situation, and get an upper hand. You must discover the cause and fix it.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by adonis311 http:///t/390763/frustration-with-red-cyano-and-green-hair#post_3462791
Would carbon change anything in conjunction with your suggestions?
Carbon removes toxins, and stops coral from chemical warfare, it is also a water polisher to make the water look crystal clear, but it won't do much for hair algae. I always run carbon and it's a hassle trying to find a spot in the sump where water flows to put my carbon bag...so a duel reactor solved my problem. The Bulk Reef Supply store sells a nice duel reactor. I have it on my 90g reef tank. The one from two little fishes is on the 56g seahorse tank.
 
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