Help!

[larrytritt]

HAIR ALGAE AND CYNOBACTERIA!!!

This is a repeat of a question I have asked on New to the Hobby.

I have a 12g JBJ Nano Cube. I purchased it as well as all materials at a lfs - great store w/ great employees - of course, everyone has their own experiences and own ideas - which should I use?

My tank is about 9 mos old. I set it up out of the box with live rock and live sand. I use RO water from the LFS and RO-salt pre-mix from LFS as well.

Water tests great, but I have a terrible hair algae and cynobacteria problem. How can I fix this?

Setup: 12g Nano with std JBJ lights, upgraded pump, JBJ sponges, bio balls (I think I'm going to try slowly removing these based upon feedback), carbon (haven't changed - I'm getting new tomorrow and will change monthly from here on out) and 2 purigen packs (bleached regularly), live sand and coral and live rock (not sure how much, but a pretty good amount)

Contents: (Lots of other stuff has died over the 9 mos - combination of my screwups and who knows what...) Several snails (astraea, margarita, cerith), and hermit crabs, neon dotty, yellow watch goby, clam, and flame scallop

I'm feeding frozen Formula1 and Brine Shrimp - about 1/4 of each cube nightly.

I cleaned the rocks off and put it all back. The cyno was doing better after I put a conch in, but he died and it's back with a vengance. The hair algae came right back.

I'm ready to give up, but of course, the lfs doesn't want me to do that! How can I get it back to beautiful and enjoy this hobby instead of hating it??

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/64567IMG_0089_img__WinCE_.jpg

[koolyce]

Well the problem can be your water. Try to buy distilled water from a wine store and mix your own salt. Try that and make a 30% water change. Also, try to cut your light time, so if you have your light open 12hours, get down to 8 hours for about 1 week.

Also, temporary, you can by a product called "rowphos" or something like that who absord the phosphat (what make cyano).

Try to feed your fish 1x a day and only a little bit for the moment.

And in last, your sand can be your problem also. Honnestly, on a small nano like that, I found it's better to get bare-bottom. I have a JBJ since 14 months now and no problem. They only time I get problem is between month 4 to 6 when I had sand. Since I don't have any sand, so easy to clean and so easy to get good water param.

Good luck

[GettingFiesty]

You might need to figure out a way to get more flow in your tank. I am not sure how to do this with nanos, but cyno in a big tank can usually be reduced with more water flow.

[koolyce]

Originally posted by larrytritt
Setup: 12g Nano with std JBJ lights, upgraded pump, JBJ sponges, bio balls (I think I'm going to try slowly removing these based upon feedback), carbon (haven't changed - I'm getting new tomorrow and will change monthly from here on out) and 2 purigen packs (bleached regularly), live sand and coral and live rock (not sure how much, but a pretty good amount)


Well I just read this and that's another way of your problem. Don't use sponge, bioball and carbon, remove all those 3 stuffs. Mostly no one use that on the JBJ (my self include). Sponge and bioball are nitrate factory and that don't really help for hair algea and cyano.

Your filtration is your live rock.

[tm613]

Are your clam and flame scallop still alive? The standard JBJ lighting cannot keep a clam alive for long.

Do you do any water changes? On a tank that small without a protein skimmer I would change minimum 10% of the water every week if not 20%

There is no need to slowly remove the bio balls.. take the sponge and balls out all at once. The rock and sand is filled with bacteria already.

Formula 1 has a gel binder than puts some nitrate/phosphate into the water..try disolving the cube under tap water before feeding

What exactly are your nitrate and phosphate levels?

[larrytritt]

I'll have to test the water again to get the exact levels. They are all "fine" - both by my tests and when I take the water to lfs.

The flame scallop is alive, but not very old. I can't find the clam - it's not one of the pretty clams, just a $5 version to help with the water quality.

Great ideas ... I'm going to do some work on it today. Any other ideas? I'm doing regular water changes. LFS recommended Phosguard, a blennie, and macroalgae. Agree?

[SugarShiki]

What tests are you doing? I had the same problem in my tank, (20gal.) I would siphon as much of the cyano as I could, and began using the LFS saltwater, instead of mixing my own, lol.

I used a product called AmQuel, which worked REALLY well. You just have to make sure you add aeration, it states it can deplete oxygen levels. I just added an airstone and pump overnite.

Definitely add macroalgae. I added some feather caulerpa to the main tank, and I saw a definite decrease in cyano. I have none now-span of 2 weeks. I converted my PF500 filter to a fuge with LS and LR, and added spaghetti macro and more feather caulerpa. Water is doing great now.

Good luck!

[koolyce]

I don't think it's a good idea to add caulerpa in your jbj because when caulerpa is stock on LR, forget to bet able to ride of it, it's stick on the rock. Caulerpa is perfect for fuge but not in main tank.

Phosguard is a medication so it's not really the best way to stop your problem because you have to found why you have cyano.

How often you make water change? Are you sure the water from your lfs is ok?

[Jack04]

Hey Larry it's Jack from Gerbers, I would also recomend perhaps cutting down on your feeding, I only feed a small portion of flake food every or every other day. maybe extra food is boosting your nutrients in the tank which the cyno and hair alge is feeding off of.

Some one posted above that you should remove the carbon, bio balls, and sponge from your tank. because "they are Nitrate Factories" I would also agree that those things are nitrate factories, but thats why you should change the carbon and sponge monthy or every two months (before the nitrates build up).

These are methods which i practice with my own 10 gal reef and i am have an alge free tank with thriving animals.

[davelin315]

I would avoid adding AmQuel. I'm not sure of what it adds to the water, but it does add something. If it were harmless, I would've been dosing it daily into my old reef tank to keep levels at a pristine condition.

As far as the cyano and the hair algae, you will definitely want to get rid of the bio balls as a start. I would also increase the flow as someone else suggested. In addition, try some of the phosphate removers but make sure you do it the right way. If I remember correctly, the majority of them are only usable for a set period of time and many of them contain heavy metals that can leach into your water supply. Try a poly filter as well or a phosphate pad. Also, your lighting cycle and light source itself can have an affect on the nuisance algaes. If you have old bulbs or poor quality lighting, it could be causing your problems. Along those lines, if you're not lighting it correctly (time wise) it might exacerbate an existing problem. Try to drip kalk in as well if you have a sump area as it will help to precipitate phosphates out of your water.

In such a small system, it's important to maintain everything pretty constantly, and you seem to be adding a lot of food in there along with things dying off. You can unbalance the equilibrium of such a tiny environment pretty quickly with feedings and the death of a single inhabitant.

Good luck, it's much harder to do a small system than a large one because your margin of error is so small. I'm in the process right now of setting up a 15 gallon in my classroom when my experience has been in larger tanks only (the smallest was a 29 with a 10 gallon sump) for reefs. As I think of new ideas, I'll keep you posted.

[larrytritt]

I'll cut back on the food for sure. I have the frozen stuff, which is somewhat difficult to cut. Can I just feed what I'm feeding now every other day or is it better to feed daily?

[koolyce]

Originally posted by larrytritt
I'll cut back on the food for sure. I have the frozen stuff, which is somewhat difficult to cut. Can I just feed what I'm feeding now every other day or is it better to feed daily?

Don't sure what you mean, but use a knife to cut your piece and do it small. Feed 2 day stop 1 day, 2 day stop 1 day etc.. the time you fix your problem.

[davelin315]

I used to feed very minimally in my 125, instead relying on the fish to feed themselves. See how they fare with intermittent feedings and adjust from there. The whole idea in a reef tank is to make it self-sustaining as a bit of the ocean. The pieces should all be there for the fish to survive with minimal additions from you, so definitely go for the minimalist approach.