green hair allegy and red cyno?

N

Nickoz1

Reefing newb
so im having issues with red cyno all over rocks and walls... and green hair also. Its been like this for months. keeps getting worse.

first of all...

i hav 29 gallon tank, 2 powerheads, 2 filters with media in one, and other has Flural phos,ammonia, and nitrate reducer. and i got a skimmer, that i cant get to skim..
tank has about 30-40 lbs of rock.

water chemisty

ph-8.4 ppm
ammonia-0 ppm
nitrate-80 ppm
nitrite- o ppm

like i said nitrates are high.... no matter how many water changes i do i cant get that lower, and less allegy.

i do 5 gallon water change every week, and iv talked to 2 different fish stores locally and one says once a month is fine... not to do so much... because he thinks cleaning it much often. other guy says every week 10% or biweekly 20%...

which i tryed both. i havent shut down lights for days, due to corals... not sure if it would effect anything.

my lights are t8 bulbs, with blue light. bought lights 8 months ago......

seen guy today at fish store, and he said to use Chemi-clean...witch is a cyno remover. ( powder form)...

which im kinda scared to use. but if it rmoves all allegy is would be awesome.


im really fusterated and im about to dtich my hobby with this becuse allegy and water chemistry.

im also running sand bed thats 2-3 inches, i vaccume is lightly when i do water change of 5 gallon every 2 weeks or so..

im kinda stuck, and not sure what to do... or even filter wise. if someone can help me out it would be amazing. id do anything. lol..

thanks in advance, and sorry for the run on story. just wanted to throw all out there.
 
I am in your boat...

There is a food source. Find it.

These types of algae feed on phosphate, nitrate, and light.

Phosphate is removed by things like phosban et al.

Nitrates are primarily removed by your skimmer. The fact that it is not skimming is alarming.

Your lights seems to be a little old as far as I recall. When those T tubes get old, the wavelength of light shifts and that can feed algae. I believe most people replace these around 6-9 months, so you could be there. However, I don't really know was I bought LEDs to avoid that problem.

Though I am not one to talk as I have the same problem. After a few months I have found my source (phosphate) and now I just need my reactor to arrive...

Personally, I would stay away from Chemi-clean. That goes after the problem, not the source. If you don't treat the source of the problem, the problem just comes back.
 
Ok. I understand i need the source but how do i narrow it down if i tryed all? Fish stores and others even online donot have reactors let alone skimmers on 29 gallons. They use filters. I adde one for the better cause. But it seems like it shitting on me. And lights i will be replacing them this week. Just not sure what else. . I know chemi clean would fix issue but i want completly gone. Can i shut lights down even tho i got corals. And would food feed allegy? Also seems like my lights could be shot because they are ho lights but corals do not grow
 
Any Fish ?
Whats you Clean up Crew Consist of ?
How often are you feeding ??? and what are you feeding ??
Are you using RO/di water ????
Have you tested you water change water before use ???
 
I feed brine shrimp, pellets, and flakes but not so much flakes. I use half of cube every other day. As in fish. 2 clowns, and demsel. Clean up crew is bunch of purple snails, one massive one, and bunch of hermits. Ad of di i do use it . When emergencys come around tho i use tap but i use prime to take crap out. I also tryed nitrate reducer , to help lower but still nothing. I clean filter every time i do water change. I just shake media in water to clean off loose debris.

I feed every other day . With a mix either brine shrimp or pellets.

Just wondering. My kid killed my tank months agoooo. Likr i mean dumped whole container of pellets in tank and i had to start over. Would this be cause. Water and fish r fine. Other then allegy n nitrates. No stress in tank. I just let it cycle agian for 2-3 months after that happenes, i also cleaned ba corals / rock out of tank. Not sure if mabe live rock is holding crap inside. Anyways hope you can help.
 
what do you have for flow?

I would get rid of the pellets and the flake and get some ffrozen food instead. The pellets and flake are just going to add to your problem and brine alone isnt enough nutrition for your fishies (its basically fish candy)

Id say keep with the 10% a week water changes, if your having nitrates like that you shouldnt be leaving them in there for a month. Do you test your water change water for nitrates? You may be adding more w/o realizing it.

If your using tap water then you need to look into getting an RO/DI system or at least buying distilled water at walmart, Tap water will only make your algae problem worse and worse.
 
I think you have wayyyyy too much sand. I would go with a less than 1 inch sandbed in a tank that size. And if your kid dumped a whole container of food in your tank and you are using the same sand, then the sand could very well be the source of nitrates. I would start removing your sand a cup at a time every few days until you get down to a thin layer.

I would also not use that filter. I don't think it's helping you. In a tank that size, you can get away with only doing water changes to keep water quality up. I also agree with the second fish store that 10% to 20% once every week or two is a good plan.
 
Bifferwine said:
I think you have wayyyyy too much sand. I would go with a less than 1 inch sandbed in a tank that size. And if your kid dumped a whole container of food in your tank and you are using the same sand, then the sand could very well be the source of nitrates. I would start removing your sand a cup at a time every few days until you get down to a thin layer.

I would also not use that filter. I don't think it's helping you. In a tank that size, you can get away with only doing water changes to keep water quality up. I also agree with the second fish store that 10% to 20% once every week or two is a good plan.
Click to expand...

I've had a 3 inch sand bed in my 29G for years and its never been a problem. The lack of a phosphates test says it all. People always underestimate how much phosphates will grow algae including cyano.. Get an LFS test.
 
Last edited:
See where the cyno starts appearing after u suck out as much as possible. There will be your large nitrate traps. if something died or food landed and got buried and not removed or eaten.
I would slowly get rid of most the sand and put in new. Cyano is a major pain and i have been fighting it on and off since i started my tank. And it always appears with nitrate spikes which usually are from something dying or overfeeding.
Then keep up on your water changes. not doing this regularly can cause problem after problem. Its a lesson i learned the hard way but now understand a lot better how my tank reacts to certain changees.
A great sand cleaner is a queen conch. I had mine for about 8 months before she died. Those 8 months my sand looked amazing.
 
Forgot to mntion. I had puffer but i traded him in for another clown. But he ate alot an was eating all my corals. So locked him down in breeder till i traded. But anyways. You think i should remove all sand slowly. Mabe take it out while im doing waterchange with hose. And hopefuly it cleara up. When should i stop taking sand out? And should i replace sand with new? Or mabe crushed coral? Im willing to try anything. Lol. But ill feed fish everyother d
ay just lil. And what you guys recommend other then flake bring shrimp n pelletes.



Also could my live rock be holding crap inside n mabe tht why it survives etc.? I see feather duster and something like a tube with bristles at end coming out but who knows.


Meh. Just fusterated. But ill do that and see what happenes.

Soooo is it normal to have allegy in tank? Like alittle? I see all these beautifull tanks on here but mabe one day mine eill look somewhat nice. Ill take pics and post when i get chance. And mabe all can help. And it will show lil more detail.


Thanks guys. Sorry for the questions.
 
Dont be sorry for questions, There is always going to be some type of algae in the tank or sump. We just try to keep it mainly in the sump in the form of Macro algae. I keep a inch to a inch and a half of sand in the tank. Dont use crushed coral big time waste collector. Feed frozen mysis shrimp or a frozen like rods. The main way phosphates get into a tank is by the reef keeper. Either in the form of over feeding or in sub standard water. Fix the phosphates and you will fix the hair algae problem.
 
All the prime does is take away the toxicity of nitrates nitrites and amonia out of the water. I dont think it does anything for Silicates in the water. This also makes your diatoms and cyano go crazy. So dont use tap water, Unless you are using a RO/Di unit to filter it first.
 
Algae issues always come down to one thing: More nutrients are being put into the tank than are being taken out of the tank. This can be caused by several things, but it usually boils down to feeding too much or bad source water. Cyano in particular likes phosphates, which most flake and pellet foods are full of. Many municipalities have phosphates and nitrates in the water as well

Have you tested your source water for nitrates and phosphates? If so, how did those tests come back?

You shouldn't need a reactor on a 29 gallon tank, smart stocking and feeding should take care of these issues

I would ditch the pellets and the flake, and move to some sort of frozen food (Formula I or Formula II by ocean nutrition for example) and only feed a quarter of a cube every few days. Despite what the fish will tell you, they do NOT need to be fed everyday, with the exception of Anthais, which are too large for your tank,
 
So looking at ro/di systems, at aquasafecanada.com
Has em for 150+ but not sure what one i would use. There is home ro/di systems and there is fish tank ones. Not sure if it mmatters. I would be using it for drinking also and aquarium. Anyone have experence? Guy i bought corals off of guy and he told me about this site because he bought one for his 120 gallon.

Anyways hopefully i can get input, i was thinking just going with cheapest if possible, but not sure if i need canister or holding tank.
 
Home drinking systems are usually RO only and do not contain the DI stage. If you are using it for your aquarium, you definitely want to get one that has both RO and DI stages.

Many people place a T before the DI stage for drinking water since you don't want to drink the DI water.
 
You'd probably want at least a 4 stage system, I dont really know what the difference is between 'drinking water' systems and 'fish tank' systems. I know that you do not want to drink the water coming out of a normal RO/DI system

As far as a holding tank goes, you can use a platic garbage can to hold the water once its been run through the system. I usually run my system once a week and make all the water I need. It is easier on your filters if you run it a few times for longer periods of time, than to constantly run it for short periods of time (like filling a 5 gallon bucket each day for example)
 
You can drink RO water. Reverse Osmosis (RO) water is what they sell in the store. It's not recommended that you drink RODI (Reverse Osmosis De-Ionized) water, but RODI is what you want to use in your tank because it's more pure than RO water.
 

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