Cyano Waning?

[pokerfish]

I humbly request your valued opinions...first,some backround,,,revamped my 55 gallon FOWLR that had been running empty (no fish) for, roughly, a year.Tank had lots of algea in it and I periodically scraped it down.stirred the sand to make it look decent for my monthly poker game. I ran my HOB Aquaclear 500 continuosly but did little else...I knew nothing about keeping salt water and was ready to quit...I decided to give it another shot...after a few big water changes,adding some live and base rock, my tank cycled and was left with normal parameters with 40ppm nitrates...got a pair of oscellaris clowns, converted my filter to a minifuge with rock rubble and cheato,purchased t5 4 bulb ( 2 10k 2 actinic) fixture and started an algea bloom (bubbles in san and all over rocks)....thought it was diatoms and I started 20% water changes (using poland springs distilled water) bi weekly. Cheato was growing in mini fuge but gave way to a purple slime that migrated into tank and what I thought were diatoms was coming up like carpet...mini fuge was slime factory so I took off light and took out cheato and run it with rubble and a bag of carbon. ....nitrates are zero (woohoo! Didn't think that was possible for me!), all parameters are good but cyano comes back immediatly after water changes( suck it all up during change) in the highest flow areas!
So, I gotta have phosphates , right? I bought a tesy kit today, and some Phosban to put in a media bag in the Aquaclear, expecting to get a positive phosphate reading...nope...zero...source water(poland springs distilled) zero....the cyano( or whatever it is} is a much lighter color (green and yelowish to almost clear) and a little less voluminous. So,finally, heres my question....are phosphates leeching out old rocks and maybe not showing up on test cause they gettin used up by waning cyano outbreak? Should I use the Phosban for a few days, or should I hold the line and ride it out?
Side note: I have had my purple mushrooms for over a month and although they have grown alot in size, they have not spread..nor has the coraline that is on the rock the mushrooms came with...any relation to cyano/algea problem?
Thanks in advance for your always valued advice...

 

[Jmck]

Ive got one question, have you got a skimmer? a fuge isnt really enough.

you can have 0 phosphates and nitrates because the algae has used it all up and continues using it to grow. So if I was you, I would get a skimmer and bump up your water changes.

Nitrates leech into the rocks as well, so you may see no results for a while but eventually it will just stop if you do the right thing.

 

[little_fish]

+Jmck

But a fuge can be good enough it its large enough, a converted HOB filter isnt going to be enough

 

[pokerfish]

Sorry, I forgot to mention my Octopus HOB skimmer...it pulls alot of green tea skimate and some darker stuff at times...it seems to do a pretty good job...I bailed on the mini fuge idea...So ride it out? No Phosban?

 

[Jmck]

Well, I would say hang it out, make sure you clean your skimmer every few days and bump up your water changes. Maybe have a look into vodka dosing. This can be very useful to get algae under control.

 

[pokerfish]

I have read alot about vodka dosing...I am very much a newbie and don't know if I am qualified to try what I'm told is an advanced technique...although, having read about it, it seems rather simple....
No opinion on phosban media? Is this just another snake oil shortcut? Or does it work?

 

[Jmck]

you can use it, it wont hurt the system. But remember it needs to be changed after a certain period.

Vodka dosing is a little advanced, im doing a red sea version which could work well, but ill tell you the results soon enough

 

[pokerfish]

Oh yes, I have read your thread on the Red Sea dosing product...very interesting and I will keep an eye on it...I guess I will keep up with water changes and try the phosban...I think I need a little more experience before I try vodka dosing...although I'm a pro at using it on myself....

 

[Jmck]

Well the other thing I would suggest is to build an algae scrubber, but im getting the feeling that you dont have an overflow

 

[pokerfish]

You are correct...I am working without a sump...just the tank,HOB skimmer, Aquaclear with LR rubble, LR and powerheads....hoping I can get away without sump, or secondary tank refugium/sump setup. The HOB mini fuge may have worked, but it seemed to be producing the slime...regular water changes with distilled water reduced my nitrates to unreadable and I am very encouraged that things are going in right direction...only 2 fish in a 55 so I may face some bioload challenges when I add some animals, but I am going very slow and hoping to get this cyano thing under control. It is possible that this is a result of adding new lights to a reestablished tank and will run its course? 3 water changes ago (6 weeks) I was reading 40 ppm nitrates and switched from standard to T5 ho lighting....then the bubbles showed up and the slime began, good practices have got my numbers down to 0 nitrates and zero phosphates and I'm hoping I've got this thing on the run...I guess time will tell, I really want to beat this thing before I add another fish...

 

[Jmck]

Just continue doing water changes and eventually, all the nitrates that are in the rocks will leech out and you can get rid of it :) Im at the point where I just need to bump up my water changes and the tank will be back to perfect conditions :)