Why wont this Cyno go away

[dingo0722]

Well I finally had to post something about this issue my 90g reef has been having. There seems to be a constant outbreak of cyno(Red hair algae) in my tank and I am getting fed up with it. First let’s start with the tank stats:
Ammonia 0
trate 0
trite 0
ph 8.2
Calcium 450
alk 11dkh
Phosphate 0.0
mag 1300
RO/DI water
Kent sea salt
sg 1.025
5 gallon water change every week
Lighting 2x10000k MH 2x110VHO Actinic replaced March 1,2006 Actinic are on 12 Hr MH on 6Hr
Filter: wet dry, magnum 350 w/phosphate sponge, Quiet one water pump used to circulate hooked up to a SWCD, and a protein skimmer which has its own pump.
I have increased my water flow by putting in the quiet one pump and SCWD thinking that would help. I changed my water changing schedule from 20gallons every 2 weeks to 5 gallons every week, I have reduced my lighting schedule, I have vacuumed out the Cyno with a turkey baster in an attempt to remove it, reduced my fish feeding schedule to every other day, I have cut down on supplementing Chromaplex and Micro Vert (Next I will stop all together) I have tried to increase my cleanup crew, but the snails would die off due to lack of food. The other day I bought some Cheato. I have that now in the tank, in a breeder net. I am in the process of building a fuge for it to go.
What am I doing wrong here? One possible thought is that my dishwasher is contaminating the tank during the drying cycle. When it dries the dishes, hot steam comes out the front vent which smells like the detergent.
Any help or possible course of direction would be helpful

 

[koon7]

they say that phosphates from the water can cause red hair algae and also the high light also helps it grow. I had the same problem. I bought some stuff and the lfs called ultra life red slime remover it works really well and the only side affect is that it may raise your ph hope this helps

 

[teen]

are all of your tests good, as in not expired? i have some old ones, and when i tested my nitrates with them, it went up to like 80 or 100. maybe yours just doesnt pick anything up.
also, try taking the rocks out of your tanks, and in a bucket of saltwater from you tank, scrub them with a toothbrush, then throw away the water.
everything else sounds fine, maybe start running carbon in your filter, and a phosphate absorb pouch, even though your test say phosphate is at 0. the carbon will just polish up your water, which cant hurt.

 

[piscian]

Hey, I'm new here. However I've had my tank for about a year and we had the same problem with our 90 gallon about two months ago. We tried treatments that our LFS suggested, running our lights less, and even feeding the fish every other day. Nothing worked. Then we read on another forum that it doesn't like too much aggitation. So in the end, we bought another power head and put it to flow across the area where we had the most problem and within a week it was gone. It also doesn't hurt to buy some more clean up crew.

 

[dingo0722]

My tank has a turn over of 15x right now. I dont want to increase it any more. As for the test kits, they are up to date. I think the nitrate reading of 0 is because the Cyno is soaking it up. I am really hoping the addition of the Cheato will help things out.
I am still wondering about the dishwasher though. Does anyone out there have a tank in there kitchen?

 

[murph]

I had persistent cyano growth in my fuge despite my best efforts.
Cyano is a bacteria and one of the oldest forms of life on the planet. IMO once established for whatever reason in an enclosed system like our tanks it can be next to impossible to get rid of.
At the risk of getting clobbered by some of the "purist" around here I suggest you shut down your skimmer and use a product called Red Slime Remover. I resisted using this product myself until it became apparent I was in a battle with one of the longest lived survivors on the planet and the odds were stacked against me. Like you all my tank parameters were on target but I was still just maintaining the same level of infestation despite my best efforts.
The product worked for me, caused no problems with any of my corals and did not disrupt my bio filtration to any testable degree ( there was no ammonia or nitrite rise). Once eradicated with this product good husbandry, which you seem vary capable of, has prevented its return.
If your like me you may even have some misidentified cyano wich is makeing your sand bed appear dingy. Not all cyano displays the oridnary pinkish color. After useing the product you may be pleasently surprised to see a bright white sand bed in spots you did not think you even had cyano.
I can understand if your a bit stand offish about adding any kind of anti biotic to your tank which is basicllly what this product is but if you do a search on the fourm for Red Slime Remover you will see that over 90 percent of those people who have used the product report good safe results.

 

[dejaco]

Cyano! The answer was given to you, increaded water movement across the substrate area affected and it will go away! I have now done this in my 210 g, 55 g, abd 29 g tanks.
A properly directed flow will get rid of it. As far as turnover goes, it really doesn't matter if
the flow through your tank is laminar instead of mixed and chaotic. I have a complete flow
rate of 4800 gph in my 210 g reef set up. Until the flows were directed properly and no dead areas existed I got cyano. My 29 g has 2 maxi jet 1200's and two HOB filter for 1000
gph. I was at 700 gph and still got cyano, one more PH and problem solved. Current flow
will actually help clean your system as no dead spots form, excess nutrients are delivered to filters and live rock better and faster, and no amount of current will ever be too much
(unless you are blasting a living organism continually!) Next time some one post a reply as above and you don't believe it - then dont ask any more!

 

[piscian]

Thanks for the backup!

 

[rusting]

2 small power heads worked for me.

 

[dingo0722]

I have been directing the flow over the areas of the Cyno, but the result has been minimal. It seems that the increased flow causes the Cyno to grow longer streaming hair. Last night I went at it again with the turkey baster, and removed as much as I could, and today I am running only the VHOs. I am very apprehensive as to using any chemical cleaners, hoping that I will find the underlying problem.

 

[dingo0722]

Originally Posted by DeJaCo
Cyano! The answer was given to you, increaded water movement across the substrate area affected and it will go away! I have now done this in my 210 g, 55 g, abd 29 g tanks.
A properly directed flow will get rid of it. As far as turnover goes, it really doesn't matter if
the flow through your tank is laminar instead of mixed and chaotic. I have a complete flow
rate of 4800 gph in my 210 g reef set up. Until the flows were directed properly and no dead areas existed I got cyano. My 29 g has 2 maxi jet 1200's and two HOB filter for 1000
gph. I was at 700 gph and still got cyano, one more PH and problem solved. Current flow
will actually help clean your system as no dead spots form, excess nutrients are delivered to filters and live rock better and faster, and no amount of current will ever be too much
(unless you are blasting a living organism continually!) Next time some one post a reply as above and you don't believe it - then dont ask any more!
I am not really sure what your saying here "dont ask any more!" but the point of the form is a discussion and a place to ask questions

 

[piscian]

It appears that it's getting longer, but it's actually just trying to hold on for dear life by thinning itself out. Eventually it will let go and be sucked up by the filter. Just be patient.