How often?

Should i be changing out my rena 20ppi and 30ppi+ 50% of my ceramic rings every six months,if so i have not done this since tank started 11 months ago, just been swilling them out, could this be a contribution to my cyano outbreak, which is may i add truly p&^%$£g me off.

Cheers
Stingray...

 

Nobody? is this a common sense question...

 

idk about every six months, maybe clean out 25-50% weekly or bi-weekly? i dont use these filters so i really dont know. as for the cyano outbreak, what are your water parameters?

 

Amonnia-0ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Nitrate-5ppm
PH-8.2
Salinity-1.025
Phos-0-0.3ppm
Alk-7
Calcium-390
Magnesium-1150
Temp-79F

Cheers

 

yeah, cleaning out the filter might help to lower nitrates and phosphates and thus kill off the cyano. Hopefully someone else will chime in with more experience but id try to clean out 25-50% of the filters weekly or bi-weekly. Also, how is your circulation inside the tank? is the cyano growing in a dead spot?

 

No dead spots, the sand actually dips to the glass nearly through powerheads blowing down there, makes no difference.

 

You might want to try bringing your mag up.I brought mine up to about 1500 and it wiped the cyano right out within a week. I know how you feel I had a bad outbreak of it in my fudge to the point of cleaning it out everyday and it was back the next.

 

Assuming that the rings are basically the same as any other rings in filters (not familiar with the rena myself), I would say bi-weekly as well. Or even better, ditch them completely for LR rubble. Your probably definitley having a nitrate and phosphate issue. Cyano feeds off those like crazy, so your most likely pumping a lot more than 5ppm of nitrates.

 

Hmm.... Id just work on bringing those nitrates and phosphates down as much as i could... otherwise in all out of ideas....have you tried to physically remove spots infected with cyano?

 

+1. Bring the ca nad alk up along with it. All three are a little on the low side.