Newbie quetsion / cyano problem

[droog]

My 120g has a mild case of Cyano - some golden brown dusting and bubbles. Not as bad as some I've seen here, but still quite ugly.

I have a guy from the local LFS that visits once a week to do a thorough cleaning job. It seems that he disturbs the shallow sand bed each week such that the brown stuff gets mixed into the sandbed (which then looks a little cleaner afterward). Is this a bad practice and should I get him to stop doing that?

Given that its already done, will a three day blackout still help me?

Thanks for any advice!

-droog

 

[1fishkeeper]

A three day blackout should help with it. How old is the tank? But mixing the sand is not a bad thing to do. A lot of people vacuum the sand and others just mix it up to get everything that settled on it up in the water so your skimmer can take it out.

 

[droog]

Tank has been up about 6 months.

-droog

 

[CountryR33fs88]

Water change and siphon

 

[pyithar]

i think golden brown dustings are diatoms. diatoms will go away on their own over time. if it's cyano, get some more water movements. my trochus snails eat diatoms as well as cyano. get some nassarius snails which will help keep the sandbed clean.

 

[droog]

I just replaced my old pumps with 2x MP40's, perhaps I have them too high up on the tank with little flow to the bottom. I'll try lowering them a little to increase flow.

-droog

 

[shesacharmer]

I kept having problems with my sand even though I have a thousand gallon per hour return and two 1500 gph pumps pointed up in my 75. I got a pair of the smallest pumps I could find (240 gph) to point toward the sand and then it cleared up.

 

[webslinger]

Are you doing water changes with ro/di

 

[Nina51]

I got a pair of the smallest pumps I could find (240 gph) to point toward the sand and then it cleared up.

this is what i did and it worked like a charm.

 

[droog]

I kept having problems with my sand even though I have a thousand gallon per hour return and two 1500 gph pumps pointed up in my 75. I got a pair of the smallest pumps I could find (240 gph) to point toward the sand and then it cleared up.

Good idea, I had not thought of that. I do have some smallish PH lying around somewhere. Will give that a shot.

-droog

 

[droog]

Are you doing water changes with ro/di

Yes, I am. Its a good point though, should have mentioned that.

I tested parameters last night Nitrate =0 (I'm carbon dosing), PO4 = 0.03ppm (Hanna URL). I may need to back of the carbon dose a little also.

I'll try lights out along with a small PH for directed flow. Thanks to everyone for the help and ideas!

-droog