Is this Cyno?? (pics)

[adee]

It blows away really easily like diatoms but is more red in color then the usual diatoms we get.
Here are some pics, I think I might have too low of flow in that area of the tank but I wanted to make sure it wasnt anything bad, or if it is how to fix it.

I picked up my GSP after I took the pic

 

[nycbob]

yes.

 

[adee]

really?! its cyno bacteria?
Im working on moving my powerhead down further as i know I dont have ideal flow down there.. what do i need to do in order to treat it? I know a water change, i gotta make a run up to my LFS to pick up water.

 

[nycbob]

not always a flow issue with cyano. its mostly too much nutrients in the water. water change seems to be the way to get rid of it.

 

[adee]

awesome, thanks. I did go ahead and move the PH just in case it is flow.. My tank is a 37 square (kinda tall) and I know I dont have great flow all the way at the bottom.. its been soemthing ive been putting off for awhile. My skimmer also hasnt been on for awhile, it was putting off a lot of micro bubbles so i turned it back on, maybe that will help too... assuming i dont start having a million bubbles

 

[nycbob]

what kind of a skimmer is it? r u adding anything to ur water when doing water change? sometimes chemicals will trigger the skimmer to produce lots of bubbles.

 

[meowzer]

Yeah, and also what are you feeding...or better yet..how much are you feeding?
have you tested for phosphates?

 

[adee]

no, I usually dont add anything to the water when we do a water change, its actually been quite sometime since ive done an actual water change (about a month ago was the last one we did) but levels are perfect. 0 ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Ph is always right on and the Salinity is usually about 24.. we have a nano skimmer by rio
we went ahead and did a 10gal water change on a 37gal tank. I usually feed some pellets to the fish every other day (enough that maybe two pellets hit the bottom that the cleaner shrimp eats) and one frozen block of mysis shrimp about once a week for the corals, inverts and fish.
Our CUC/Inverts consists of:
3 nass snails
3 sm mex. turbo snails
2 lg mex. turbo snails
1 cleaner shrimp
3 red leg hermits
2 blue leg (we had 5 not sure what happened to them)
1 red brittle star
1 sally light foot crab
1 emerald crab
Fish:
2 yellow chromis
1 blue hippo tang (very small, will be moving into the 125 when it gets bigger and wont be dinner to the eel for those who want to flame me)
We have tested for phosphates and do not have any at all
thanks so much for the comments on the thread

 

[errattiq]

I bet its a flow issue, just move your powerhead like you stated. Thats what I did and it cured my cyano problem.

 

[adee]

well, the lights havnt been on until now but so far, so good... no signs of cyano. Lets see what a couple hours with lights on does..

 

[teresaq]

you might try adding some Florida Cerith and a few more nass to your clean up crew
T

 

[don trinko]

I have it in one tank. Mine is worse than yours! Lowering the amount of light helped a lot. I bought a cheap "under counter' light at Wallmart. i use it most of the time and do not turn on the main lght often.
I added flow but it made no difference. There are snails that stir the sand and some that suposedly eat the cyno. They help some. Don T.

 

[beth]

Make sure you have good flow throughout the tank, especially around the sandbed. Usually tanks need more than one powerhead. Then turn off the lights for a week (as long as you don't have light demanding corals), except around feeding time. Use room lights to keep the tank lighted.

 

[adee]

I have two powerheads in the tank... there is a very small section with cyano now that the lights have been on all day. I do have some corals (zoos, hammer, mushrooms, gsp) not sure if turning the lights off for a week will be a great idea.