something is still wrong with my tank .I have cyano everywhere! It has been like this for a month now. I have had my water checked and the trates and phos are 0 my scrubber is growing algae like crazy and the bulbs are less than a month old. I have tons of flow in the display tank. I am wondering if I am just feeding to much? Will red slime remover help me get caught-up?
Anytime you have nuisance algae that stays, it means your scrubber is not strong enough for how much you are feeding. Solution: Increase scrubber strength, or decrease feeding, or both.
Slime remover is not recommended, nor is anything that eats algae, because this just puts nutrients back into the water which causes scrubber growth to go darker and less-efficient.
I have the same problem, and also wonder about it
I'm not convinced that scrubbers will remove cyano. I have seen a couple of articles recently about nitrogen can carbon contributing to this terror of an algae. One link I can remember can be found here, it's an interesting read.
Mark
It's not the nitrogen, it's the phosphate that limits the cyano.
ok well I made a new screen it measures 9.5" x 16" and is still lit by 4 new 23 watt 27000 k spiral cfl's.
I will do one big waterchange and cut back on feedings and post back in a few days, thanks santa!
Make sure your scrubber has enough flow. Measure the rate on the drain or at the outlet in the DT, whichever is easiest. Don't use head-feet calculations.
floyd: what is an easy way to measure? a one gallon container and stop watch? Is the rule still 35gph per inch??
my scrubber is 16" so I should need 560 gph correct? I most likely have about 400 gph as I am running a mag 5 pump about a foot away.
Well I got sick of looking at my mess , So I tore my tank apart. I removed all the rock that did not have coral on it, stirred the sandbed while running a diatom filter,changed 80% of the water,ordered more powerfull pumps,ordered tropic marin salt,and removed anything that did not look to be in tip top health. Now I have a minimumulst looking 45 cubeI will be running a seaclone skimmer until i see the first green then the skimmer will be removed. And I will be running the diatom filter with a carbon charge until my new pump comes in,,the old pump has bite marks in the wire and I fear there may be a tiny amount of bare copper exposed to the water.
santa: my new screen measures 16x9.5" giving me 152 square inches are the 4 23 watt cfl's enough? I know this only gives me 92 total watts but my tank is only a 45 gallon with a 10 gallon sump . And I am not sure that I can even fit any more reflectors as they measure 10" dia. each! I do have some mylar kicking around tho...........
Yes those should be enough.
If you have 2 people, a half-gallon pitcher or any size container really will work. If you don't have 2 people, I would suggest getting a digital recorder or ever a tape recorder and calling out "go" and "stop" as you repeatedly fill the container, then play it back and use a stopwatch to record the times. Average out the times, then use this formula:
( Volume of container, in gallons / time to fill container, in seconds) x (3600 seconds/hour) = GPH
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