My 300g 'build'

[davocean]

Wow, hard to believe it's already been a year since this build, yeah, updates would be great!

[sbarber]

One whole year is right! Tank still looks a little 'immature' but I get a lot a compliments on the way the stand is built and the tank looks like it belongs on that wall, so thanks again Dave!

I'd love to post some updates this weekend when the lights are on.

[LotsaFishies]

Updates please! Haven't heard from or seen you around in awhile Scott!

[Mclovings]

Just got in on this thread... Updates would be great!

[ReEfErAdDiCt]

Updates? Would love to see that new emperor in there!

[FDdragon]

yeah, this tank looks great. would love to see updated pics.

[sbarber]

Thank you for checking in. To be honest I've been a little embarrassed to share any updates since the tank is not looking the way I envisioned. I've struggled with cyano for the better part of a year and it's been depressing at times. I thought many times about throwing in the towel... But I've persevered, kept researching treatment options and getting good advice.

I've added a UV sterilizer, upped the flow, and recently started dosing with NOPOX and I finally feel like I have the upper hand. Still working on getting Alk/ca balanced but cyano is retreating.

Along the way I learned a lot and there are few things I would do differently in the future.

I snapped a couple of new pictures not sure how they'll look loaded from the tapatalk app. I'll update again with some Behind the scenes photos tomorrow.

[LotsaFishies]

Very nice Scott! That big emperor is amazing!

[echoreef]

The large emperor angel looks right at home in your tank.

On the cyano problem, did you start with 100% dry marco rocks? I used all dry rocks from marcorocks when I started by 120 gallon. For the first 2 1/2 years, all I had was cyanobacteria bouts one after another. I got desperate and tried everything: blowing cyano off the rocks, scrubbing with tooth brush, 3 days light out, volka dosing, zeovit. Nothing worked. It got pretty depressing. I didn't want to use chemical for fear of killing the invertebrates in my tank including the Sebae anemone.

The first time I tried Boyd Chemiclean, I pulled the plug after 8 hours when I saw some snails dieing. After another few months, I tried again. This time I stuck to the precise instructions. Provided plenty of oxygen in the DT with lots of air stones. After 48 hours, all of the cyano died off. Did a big water change. Never had the cyano problem again. Once in a long time a little bit come back. I would repeat the same process. Did not lose any livestocks. If you have not tried chemiclean, it may be the solution for your problem.

[Aaron]

The large emperor angel looks right at home in your tank.

On the cyano problem, did you start with 100% dry marco rocks? I used all dry rocks from marcorocks when I started by 120 gallon. For the first 2 1/2 years, all I had was cyanobacteria bouts one after another. I got desperate and tried everything: blowing cyano off the rocks, scrubbing with tooth brush, 3 days light out, volka dosing, zeovit. Nothing worked. It got pretty depressing. I didn't want to use chemical for fear of killing the invertebrates in my tank including the Sebae anemone.

The first time I tried Boyd Chemiclean, I pulled the plug after 8 hours when I saw some snails dieing. After another few months, I tried again. This time I stuck to the precise instructions. Provided plenty of oxygen in the DT with lots of air stones. After 48 hours, all of the cyano died off. Did a big water change. Never had the cyano problem again. Once in a long time a little bit come back. I would repeat the same process. Did not lose any livestocks. If you have not tried chemiclean, it may be the solution for your problem.

+1 chemiclean. Follow directions precisely to the T and it will do wonders. If it doesn't completely clear on first round and after water change it will with 2nd treatment

[ReEfErAdDiCt]

Looking great! Cyano is a bummer tho. I dealt with it at one point as well and I blame phosphates. That's the only thing I could think of. Flow was great, nitrates were 0, but phosphates were through the roof. Initially I just stopped feeding frozen food all together and reduced any other feeding also and it seemed to help slightly but not much. I finally decided to start actively removing phosphate and after speaking with Will at AquaSD, I decided to go with RowaPhos. Literally the day after I added it into my reactor the majority of cyano and algae was gone. I've been running it for a while now and there's not a spot of either in my display. I like the fact that with RowaPhos even if the media is exhausted it won't leach the phosphates back into the water column. Anyway, not a promoter or advertiser lol I just really think it works great and if you haven't tried it I highly recommend you do. Good luck!

[sbarber]

Its good to know that I'm not alone in fighting Cyano. It is (hopefully was) a tough battle. I'm almost ashamed to admit it but I did try multiple chemical attacks, sometimes simultaneously. I would get some die back but it always returned with a vengeance.

I did start with 100% Marco rock. Not sure there is any coincidence or maybe it acts like a phosphate sink. For now I'm focusing on chemistry and keeping nitrates around .5 and phos around .03. Trying to raise Alk and keep Ca stable. I'm also keeping lights half the strength that Aqua SD sets there Vegas at.

I've also gone to using the whole Red Sea line, supplements, minerals, test kits. I'm trying to limit variables.

Here's a quick shot behind the scenes.