algae has me ready to pack it in!!!

[UnderwaterWorld]

Your definetely not overfeeding, I would just pick up the water changes. Do 8 gallons a week, how many are you doing now? Have a protein skimmer?

[Melonbob]

I will up the water changes for the time being, I was doing 5 gal every other week in a 46g, I'll up it to at least 5 gal a week. I did 10 gal last week. I am running an Aqua C Remora Pro, getting about 1 cup of black crud weekly

[fatman]

How much circulation do you have? You can not remove what is not kept in suspension. If it settles out on the substrate or in nooks and crannies it just becomes algae nutrients. Cyano is a good sign of putrefaction going on. Which means stuff is laying around long enough to putrefy. You would not want to know how low your dissolved oxygen and reflux levels are at this time in your tank. I would suggest you use a power head and move it all around the tank pointing it in every nook, crack, corner and cranny. A filter can mechanically remove it if you get it in suspension so that it makes it to the filter. Either you have poor circulation or you are feeding too heavily or both. It takes little food to over feed a tank considering very little of what a captive fish eats does much but run through it. Your water changes at even 10 percent is probably not even keeping up with the problem yet alone doing anything to make it go away. Try a couple water changes of 25 to 50 percent. If you have actinic lights run them only for a week. Actinic lights do not support the lighting needs of cyano bacteria. Do not feed dry foods of any type (freeze dried, flake or pellet) and if you feed frozen, thaw it first and feed only the particles and not the fluid. Do not feed frozen brine shrimp at all. The fish get no nutrition from it at all so it is just algae food. I would only feed 1/4 of a cube of thawed food every day until you have a handle on the problem. The fish will not starve on this reduction of food. You do have sufficient live rock and/or a deep sandbed don't you? How much?

[yote]

We all know how you feel Melon.We've all been there.
And I'm gonna agree with Fatman on the possible solution.

It might also be a good time to look at your RO filters(if you have you own unit).The cartridges may need to be replaced.

[Melonbob]

No RO/DI unit, I buy RO/DI water locally, and I'm sure thats not it cause virtually every local reefer uses this water. I never knew about thawing the food first, I usually throw it in frozen, I'll thaw it from now. Also going to run actinics only from this point for a week. I am running 50lbs of LR in a 46 g tank, very light porous stuff, look in my build thread to give you an idea. my SB is about 1" deep. I am running two powerheads, a maxi 900 and a koralia 1, but it does seem like there are dead spots, I'm not sure what else to do with them, they are both at the back facing out. Thanks for all the input guys, I'm going to start with a few of your ideas immediately!

[Melonbob]

I also ordered new bulbs for my nova, a pair of UV actinic white 12k, and a pair of UV super actinic. I'm thinking of ditching my 36" coralife t5, as it adds a little yellow tinge, and I can't get bulbs other than coralife for it as it is a 36" 21W

[sen5241b]

I had a horrible layer of red cyano on my sand and I used chemiclean once. Be patient it might take a few days to work. The cyano has come a little since then. Nothing was for the worse after using it but I haver no corals in my tank at this time.

[fatman]

It might seem like a lot of flow but I would recommend either replacing the Maxi-Jet with a Koralia #3 (total 23.5 X) or adding a Koralia #2 (26.7 X). Adding the additional Koralia #2 would be better but then you would have to put up with the appearance of three power heads. With three power heads I would (from the back of the tank) point the Maxi-Jet at the surface of the water just in front of the front glass. I would point the two Koralia's at each other from opposite sides of the tank to a point half way down the tanks depth and just in front of your live rock. Adjust from those points as needed. With out a skimmer your nutrients and nitrates will build up quickly so water changes will need to be pretty large and frequent to not have an algae problem. A one inch sand bed will be negligible in its bio contribution and live rock is not that good at denitriication so nitrates will climb easily.

[Melonbob]

ummm....I have a skimmer......aqua c remora pro.....

about more power, does anyone know much about the maxi-jet mods? I agree that the koralia does not seem to move alot of water

[Melonbob]

Ok, here's the plan. I'm gonna dump the biowheel 350, I have a 25 gallon I want to set up with a lionfish, I'll use it in there. That will clear up the clutter, I'll add a second koralia and point them together at the back. I'll get a #2 this time. I'm also going to buy the skimmer box for the remora pro to help a bit more with skimming. Thats my start for now