Just Pure Awfulness! Help! In Drastic Need Of It!!!

[ferg822]

First off not really sure if awfulness is a word, I'm guessing it's not, but anyway. My tank is totally infected with many, many issues. The fish are fine and all the livestock is fine but it is almost embarasing (sry I am not a good speller ) to have people see it. All of this is due to my laziness; not getting anyone to do a water change over my 9 day vacation during the middle of a cyno crisis. I had my friend switch the lights and feed them but I came home to this: film on the top with CYNO GROWING ON IT, cyno covering everything, hair algea EVERYWHERE, and these little bright green things that grow from the rocks. They're long and skinny and grow straight up with a little bend in them at the top. It's just a complete wreck. Previously I have been using grocery store distilled water but I recently purchased a RO/DI that should be coming in a few days. I only have about 3 turbos and 2 hermits. Should I get a lot more? What kind? Will 2 gallons a day be effective for water changes in my 24? Please help!!!

[ferg822]

Forgot to add...diatom bloom

[scotmc]

I would clean off all the alage with a siphon. I would do a 50% water change asap. The good thing is; it's a small tank. Should not be that hard to get it back into shape.

[geraldwhite]

How is your params.??

[ferg822]

Do you mean a gravel vac for the siphon? My params. are fine for everything, ammonia, pH, nitratre, nitrite, calcium, kH are all good.

[taillonjohn]

yes a gravel vacuum is a syphon. besides the water change, I would also suggest to cut the lighting period down for a few days, stop feeding for a few days, and make sure you have adequate flow in your tank. I like carbon too

[black_majik]

I am just now pulling myself out of the same problem I had cyano coming out of the tank. I made a refugium and I have performed 3 8-10% water changes in the last two weeks. Everything except a small amount of cyano is gone. I have a 75 gallon, things go to the dumps a lot slower in my tank compared to yours. Either A Start up a refugium ( we have a Aqua110 on a 24 aquapod has a refugium, using the filtration chamber as a spot for macro. With that perform consistent small water changes. or B) Put all of it as you can out and do a 20-30% water change.

[ferg822]

my siphon doesn't suck up anything but water and a tiny bit of sand. I doubt it would pick up cyno?

[bertoni]

A turkey baster will remove cyano. A long piece of plastic tubing from a hardware store makes a nice siphon for cleaning, for that matter.

I'd stop feeding for a few days. There's far too much food going into the tank, would be my first guess.

[george81]

you re tank readings are not all fine...if they were you wouldnt have any of the above issues you listed. algae and cyno need a food source...you phosphates and nitrates are high..
what test kits are you using
how old is you re tank?

[drillsar]

Sometimes Nitrates and Phosphates will show 0 but really it's not, reason algae is eating it, But I would also check the kits. Maybe time for a Phosban Reactor.

[Mavrk]

The bright green things sound like Neomeris annulata. I like that stuff. It is a macro algae and is even calcium based.

Does it look like this stuff?
http://melevsreef.com/id/annulata.html

(gotta love melev's site for IDs)

[Sk8r]

NO GRAVEL VAC!!!!!
Do not disturb your sandbed, please! You can crash your tank that way.
Neomeris, likely.
Here is a program that will fix it in a matter of months.
1. if you aren't using only ro/di water, do that.
2. do weekly 10% water changes.
3. keep your salinity balanced with an automatic topoff system. [autotopoff.com is what I use.]
4. if any sunbeams reach your tank, stop them. Pretty, but cyano loves it.
5. set up at least a 10 gallon refugium. If you put a cheap tank just a shade higher than your 24, [figuring you don't have a sump]---put a maxijet 400 in to deliver water from your tank to it, and let it siphon back to your tank by gravity. Put cheatomorpha, a 4" sandbed, and 5 lbs of live rock rubble in there, light it 24/7, do NOT let its light reach your tank if you have to set a sheet of black foamcore board between, and run this for about 3 months. You will see the cheato in your fuge tank grow, while the algae in your main tank just fades away entirely. Your cyano can also be treated by turning the main tank lights out for 3 days on end, while running that fuge.
About 3 months with NO fussing with your sandbed and no chemical cures [that risk crashing your tank], just a fuge, and you can be out of this, with a cleanwalled tank with no junk.

[ferg822]

Thank You so much everyone! Ill update my tank and hopefully beat out the problems