Cyanobacteria Problem

[David B]

I started my 65g reef tank back in August, so it's now been running for about seven months. I'm currently on what I like to call my "second run at it" since a few months back everything "exploded" for one reason or another (phosphates were high and ammonia/nitrates were getting there) and I lost all of my coral frags and a few fish. I thought I had done all the research necessary about water conditions, but it turns out there's always something new to learn.

 

I added a PhosBan reactor to wipe out the phosphates and tinkered with my protein skimmer to get it working optimally and I now have my tank water in what I consider pretty good shape with the following specs:

 

Temperature: 78-81 degrees F

Salinity: 1.025

Nitrates: <5 ppm

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Phosphates: 0 ppm

pH: 8.4

Calcium: 500ppm (I just started a dosing a two part and stopped because the calcium wasn't being used up)

Alkalinity: 14 dKH (has always been this high and has never dropped, but most online research I've done seems to show that it's only a problem if it's really low, which can cause pH swings)

 

My roommate has a gorgeous 120g tank right next to mine and I've checked all of my test kits on his tank and they are all fine (my water specs are actually a bit "better" than his).

 

As far as lighting, I have two 175W 14k MHs and two VHOs (one 95W 10k and one 95W actinic).

 

Here's my problem:

Cyanobacteria has started to crop up on my rocks (image below) and the small amount of coraline growth I've had in the past has started to die off and turn white (image below). I always get a lot of green algae growth on the front/sides/back of my tank (more in two days than my roommates does in a week). I added two frags of frogspawn a few weeks ago and although they seemed to be doing fine at first, they've both died. I added two zoanthid frags and although they seem to be doing fine, they'll randomly open/close throughout the day. I have a few small SPS frags that have started to lose their polyps. All of my fish have been great for months and my water specs seem to be fine. My roommate just suggested this week that my bulbs may be too old. It turns out the MHs have been used for over a year (I bought them used) so I just swapped one out for a 250W 20k MH (replaced one of the ballasts) and another 175W 20k is on the way.

 

I'm posting to see if anyone has ANY suggestions as to what could be wrong as I'm totally clueless and now at the point of frustration. Even my roommate, who's been a marine reefer for around seven years, doesn't have any other ideas.

 

Here is a photo of the cyano starting to grow (this photo may look like coraline but even my roommate agrees its cyanobacteria when you see it with the naked eye):

 

And here is a photo of some of the dead coraline:

 

And here is a full shot photo of the tank (the MHs had just kicked off, so it's dimmer than usual, but you can see how green everything is):

 

 

Thank you for any help!

-David

Edited March 6, 2007 by David B

[jason the filter freak]

I think your urcin is doing the damage to the coraline.... feel free to have the exp people correct me though. As for your algea problems, I'm running t5's on a 55 with just a HOB red sea classic, and a fluval 405 temp while the new tank is getting set up. I had the exact same problem you had to the T, it turned out over feeding and too long of a light cycle was my issue. I have many hermits, snails, cowies, crabs, etc. How ever feeding less and kicking the light cycle back substantially, and cleaning out my filters. Solved all my issues but the green algae, thats also fading though... just my .o2$

[lanman]

Here is a photo of the cyano starting to grow (this photo may look like coraline but even my roommate agrees its cyanobacteria when you see it with the naked eye):

 

And here is a full shot photo of the tank (the MHs had just kicked off, so it's dimmer than usual, but you can see how green everything is):

Thank you for any help!

-David

 

Are you SURE that's cyanobacteria? Real easy to tell - brush it with a finger or a brush - if it powders away, it's cyano. Reason I say - I just recently started growing coraline in my tank; and I thought it was cyano at first - because it was DARK RED, instead of the purple I had expected. And the green - that's exactly what happens to rock just before coraline starts growing. Newbie voice of very recent experience.

 

Also - cyano doesn't stay on rocks... it likes to spread across the sandbed. And it really looks yucky. I've seen it at a local reef store; never had it myself.

 

bob

Edited March 6, 2007 by lanman

[jason the filter freak]

I'm still gonna blame the white patches on the urcin...

[YBeNormal]

I'm still gonna blame the white patches on the urcin...

 

I'm with you on that one Jason!

[David B]

Awesome, thanks guys. I do have my light cycle a bit long (VHOs for 10 hrs and the MHs for 8). I'll cut those back. As far as if it's coraline or cyano, maybe it's both. I do know some of it's cyano, cause I can take my turkey baster and squirt water at it and get it to film off (I had a bad case of cyano in the past, so I know first hand what it looks like).

 

I didn't realize urchins would eat at your coraline, I'm glad you metioned it, I'll have to watch him to see if he really starts going at my rocks, but apparently if you have enough coraline growth one urchin shouldn't do too much damage, we'll see.

 

Thanks for all of the help guys, I'll just cut the lights back and try to be patient.

[Sugar Magnolia]

What do you have in the tank as far as fish and clean up crew goes? How often are you feeding and what are you feeding the tank?

 

Syphoning off all visible cyano on a daily basis will help in the long run as well as reducing feedings and cutting back on lights.

[David B]

My fish:

Yellow Tang (medium size)

Blue Hippo Tang (smaller than the Yellow)

(2) True Perculas

Clarkii Clown

Pink Skunk Clown

(2) small blue damsels

 

Cleanup crew:

I originally purchased a cleanup crew package from Reeftopia.com back in August, and since a number of my snails/crabs died off on my first try, I ordered another package, they both included:

36 turbo snails

10 scarlet reef hermits

12 blue-leg hermits

4 emerald crabs

6 cerith snails

6 nerite snails

2 star snails

 

I have a number of empty shells lying around but my roommate told me not to be concerned since a number of snails usually die off?

 

I feed them Ocean Nutrition Formula 2 twice a day, and I only give them what they can eat, that way there isn't food lying around. I give them brine shrimp every once in a while.

[dschflier]

I am not trying to be contradictory but I suppose I will be somewhat. I wouldn't be so quick to blame the white spots on uchins. I would think they would eat the coraline not kill it.

If you can syphon the algea up then it probbably is cyno. I have coraline that is the very dark red and the pink as well so you really should make sure before trying to tackle the issue.

 

Since all of your paramters seem good. I would look at water movment hard skimming and the new lights. Even though your water reads 0 phosphate, it could be getting used up quickly by the algea over skimming has helped me a bunch.

[lmeyer]

I have to go with the urchin for removal of coralline, that is just what my rock looks like after one of my urchins has a go at it.

[David B]

Does anyone have any clue why my frogspawn/SPS/polyp frags aren't making it?

I have a polyp rock that closed up earlier last week and hasn't opened since, yet other zoo frags seem to be doing ok...

[Almon]

These sea urchins that hitchhike in on live rock are, IMHO, truely dangerous. I thought they were cute when I first setup my tank. I had about 8 of them wandering around the reef getting larger by the day. Until I realized that these things eat and process everything...algae....rock.....they are the bulldozers of the sea. They leave a clear path of destruction in their wake.

 

I just started a 55g refugium with 110w of light on it and the Cyano was out of control. I first cut the light back to a couple hours a day, and then just replaced the lights with a 40w fixture. The Cyano is all but gone.

[Gatortailale]

Water quality - What brand of test kits are you using

- phosphate - really hard to test for this with cheaper kits, even salifert brand not very accurate on phosphate. You need something like the deltec one that is $80+ to have a chance to get accurate reading.

 

 

- white patch - due to urchin. I have 2 urchins and that is what/how they eat coraline algae.

 

- Could be age of bulbs. Also, you didn't explain much about amount of flow in your tank. Maybe adding powerhead or 3 would help.

 

 

frogspawn death - could have been poor frag when you got it (poor health) or could have someting to do with timing/use of phosban media [maybe sucked out nutrients that frogspawn relied on] or you didn't rinse phosban media sufficient and it settled out on frogspawn and caused death (just speculation here, not supposed to hurt corals - but you never know).

 

I know years ago a member used a hugh amount of phosban or similar product and it sucked alk out of his water super fast and caused corals to rtn/die. I have used similar media and I started out at 1/4 recommended dose for first few days to avoid any drastic swing to tank. Hard to tell when you were testing alk at time of use of phosban and coral deaths.

[David B]

As far as water flow:

Since it's a 65g tank, it's only 36" wide and I have my return line pumping back into the center of the tank and I have two Maxijet 1200s (one on each side) using my ReefKeeper's wavemaker cycle (back and forth). It's a lot of flow in the tank, which I thought might be the reason the frogspawn wasn't happy in the first place. The frogspawn frags I got were from Steveoutlaw and were incredibly healthy (as was his mother colony).

 

As far as the PhosBan reactor:

I've had it running for two months now (long before I ever added the frogspawn and other frags).

I don't believe it's sucking out my alk, since I've consistently tested alk before the reactor and every other day since and it never really changes. I've also tested my alk test kit on my roommate's tank and it showed 7dKH, which is what he said he keeps it at, so I feel somewhat confident in my tests.

 

As far as the test kits:

I've been using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kits, so nothing special at all, but before I setup the PhosBan reactor the phosphate test kit showed it was at the high end of the test scale, and afterwards it dropped to zero, so it did at least show a big change.

 

I do have a lamp (40W I believe) over my sump/refugium and it's on 24/7 (my roommate has always done the same thing), but I'll knock that down. It sounds like a general consensus is to lower the lighting cycle in general and siphon out any cyano.

[YBeNormal]

I am not trying to be contradictory but I suppose I will be somewhat. I wouldn't be so quick to blame the white spots on uchins. I would think they would eat the coraline not kill it.

 

I added a short spined urchin to my tank last week and it quickly climbed up on the coraline covered LR. It then began moving slowly accross the rock leaving a white trail behind it. Yes, this thing definitely eats coraline. It will grow back and is not an issue to me though.

[David B]

So, I've made some progress thanks to everyone's suggestions. As I mentioned, I switched over one of the old 175W 14k bulbs to a new 250W 20k bulb (with a new ballast) and I swapped the other 175W 14k out for a new 175W 20k bulb.

 

I also took my sump/refugium light down from 24 hrs/day to 8 hrs/day and bumped the tank lighting cycle down by an hour.

 

The green algae growth on the tank glass has slowed down noticeably and my rocks look a lot better. I decided that most of the purple/dark pink growth is coraline and only one of the rocks had cyano on it (started filming like cyano does), so I gave that rock a good cleansing.

 

My green start polyp is thriving (but it sounds like they're easy to keep) and hopefully my zoa frag will start growing.

 

Here's a shot of it from yesterday:

 

Thanks for all of the help/suggestions.

-David

Edited March 12, 2007 by David B