Advice on cyano ( red slime)

[ADHDan]

Hi. I’ve got a tank about 12months old; 1000l inc sump, large refugium and macro algae, + skimmer , my tank is very understocked , I have about 12 fish in there and a few CUC (I wanted to let the system run for a decent while before I spent loads of money on livestock and coral incase i had issues, I built the tank myself and it’s my first salt water fish tank so it’s all been new to me) , my issue during the day under the light (Philips coral care) I get red cyano covers the sand and rocks in the DT and mostly disappears while the light is off , but at night it blooms up in the refugium and covers all the macro and surface area. I’ve done water changes and vacuumed out as much as I can but it grows so fast, I’m wondering what can I do to stop it being dominant in the tank, it’s incredibly dependant on the lighting, as 12 hours in the dark and it will 90% disappear but within a few hours of the lights on it covers everything again.
Many thanks

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Hi. I’ve got a tank about 12months old; 1000l inc sump, large refugium and macro algae, + skimmer , my tank is very understocked , I have about 12 fish in there and a few CUC (I wanted to let the system run for a decent while before I spent loads of money on livestock and coral incase i had issues, I built the tank myself and it’s my first salt water fish tank so it’s all been new to me) , my issue during the day under the light (Philips coral care) I get red cyano covers the sand and rocks in the DT and mostly disappears while the light is off , but at night it blooms up in the refugium and covers all the macro and surface area. I’ve done water changes and vacuumed out as much as I can but it grows so fast, I’m wondering what can I do to stop it being dominant in the tank, it’s incredibly dependant on the lighting, as 12 hours in the dark and it will 90% disappear but within a few hours of the lights on it covers everything again.
Many thanks

So if I can start out with some obvious questions: how large is your tank? (Re: 12 fish#) How clean is your gravel/sandbed.? Do you have one or two or more powerheads moving water around? Looking forward to your answers.

 

[ADHDan]

Tank is around 800litre with 200ish litres in sump, sand is pretty clean, I’ve vacuumed the sand a couple times as well to remove the red algae , flow I have 2x mp40s on max reef crest, a Ross mount 15000 mover and the return pumps join to RFGenerators , I could do with more flow but it’s on the wish list at the minute.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Tank is around 800litre with 200ish litres in sump, sand is pretty clean, I’ve vacuumed the sand a couple times as well to remove the red algae , flow I have 2x mp40s on max reef crest, a Ross mount 15000 mover and the return pumps join to RFGenerators , I could do with more flow but it’s on the wish list at the minute.

Great on flow! So are you saying that your tank is one year old and you’ve vacuumed the sandbed twice?

 

[davidcalgary29]

Let's have a look at your livestock list (including CUC), please.

I'd adopt a multiprong biological approach. Chemiclean does work, but it comes with its own host of problems (including the need to use an airstone, or else risk oxygen starvation), and the cyanobacteria will come back if you don't address core issues.

Cyano was getting out of control in my RSM250 until I resumed dosing phyto three days ago. There's already been a noticeable difference in the tank. Do you keep the light in your refugium on all the time? If so, I'd turn it off during the overnight period to see if that makes a difference. Finally, you mention that you have macro in your 'fuge -- do you have any in the display itself? And my "macro", I mean something useful and pretty, like halymenia, and not something like chaeto that really only belongs in a sump.

 

[ADHDan]

Great on flow! So are you saying that your tank is one year old and you’ve vacuumed the sandbed twice?

Yes, twice to remove the cyano off the surface of the sand, the sand itself was fairly clean without much detritus in it

 

[ADHDan]

Let's have a look at your livestock list (including CUC), please.

I'd adopt a multiprong biological approach. Chemiclean does work, but it comes with its own host of problems (including the need to use an airstone, or else risk oxygen starvation), and the cyanobacteria will come back if you don't address core issues.

Cyano was getting out of control in my RSM250 until I resumed dosing phyto three days ago. There's already been a noticeable difference in the tank. Do you keep the light in your refugium on all the time? If so, I'd turn it off during the overnight period to see if that makes a difference. Finally, you mention that you have macro in your 'fuge -- do you have any in the display itself? And my "macro", I mean something useful and pretty, like halymenia, and not something like chaeto that really only belongs in a sump.

Hi, i have a 3 tangs, regal, clown and sailfin, 2 royal gramma, 2 clownfish, 5 chromis, CUC ive got a sally lightfoot, probably around 12 of the original 20 snails i got and 3 hermit crabs. Ive got chaeto in the refugium non in the display, and the light comes on after the display tank light goes off, im using one of the preset settings for the display tank light (philips coral care set on natural reef)
Im going to add more stock in the coming weeks starting with a large CUC package , but id like to get the red slime under control or at least know how to combat it.
My train of thought is that i dont have enough bioload in the tank and the cyano is able to take advantage of the space because the other organisms are held back by the relatively small bioload to sustain them but thats just an uneducated guess on my part

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Yes, twice to remove the cyano off the surface of the sand, the sand itself was fairly clean without much detritus in it

How much sand do you have? An 1/8” and yes I can see detritus not getting caught up in it. Do you deep syphon all the way down to the glass bottom?

 

[ADHDan]

How much sand do you have? An 1/8” and yes I can see detritus not getting caught up in it. Do you deep syphon all the way down to the glass bottom?

Levelled out flat I’d say 3” depth , it’s never flat because of the flow, forms sort of shifting dunes , it’s the Carib special grade stuff , first time I vacuumed through a canister filter back into the tank which clouded the water and there wasn’t really anything in the filter floss of the canister so the second time vacuuming I dumped the water and did a 15% water change .

 

[Uncle99]

If it leaves to the water column every night, check for Dino’s as well. Very common.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Sorry for your troubles. What are your NO3 and PO4 at?

 

[ADHDan]

Sorry for your troubles. What are your NO3 and PO4 at?

N03 is around 1
P04 is between 0.02-0.05 everytime ive tested over the last year they have been low but never zero

 

[ADHDan]

spirulina and regular cyano?

 

[BostonReefer300]

N03 is around 1
P04 is between 0.02-0.05 everytime ive tested over the last year they have been low but never zero

OK. If you have a ton of cyano, you probably can't trust the readings because the cyano is sopping up nutrients. (BTW, I try to keep my NO3 at ~ 5ppm and my PO4 between 0.05 and 0.09ppm). When I had a bad cyano outbreak I couldn't fix by reducing nutrients (wet skim, extra water changes, etc.), I resorted to chemi-clean. It would really well for me with no adverse effects, but I did aerate the heck out of my water.

 

[ADHDan]

just a follow up on this thread, i can confirm i have both forms of cyano bacteria, spirulina and normal cyanobacteria, from microscope samples the regular cyano is by far the most numerous so my treatment plan is as follows

regular cyanobacteria
Dosing 3% hydrogen peroxide -1ml per 38litres or 10 USgallons of tank water, dosed 'twice' daily for 14 days

Spirulina
Im going to wait 48hours after dosing the last peroxide for it to leave the system then use chemiclean/redslime remover which will kill the spirulina

 

[Dan_P]

spirulina and regular cyano?

Great pictures. I see two types of cyanobacteria, one is Spirulina. @taricha will have an opinion on the larger one.

 

[taricha]

Yep. That is likely be very common type that we see in most tanks. It is usually called oscillatoria, because even doing a really deep dive into guides for cyano identification doesn't give you any other genus that fits better.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi. I’ve got a tank about 12months old; 1000l inc sump, large refugium and macro algae, + skimmer , my tank is very understocked , I have about 12 fish in there and a few CUC (I wanted to let the system run for a decent while before I spent loads of money on livestock and coral incase i had issues, I built the tank myself and it’s my first salt water fish tank so it’s all been new to me) , my issue during the day under the light (Philips coral care) I get red cyano covers the sand and rocks in the DT and mostly disappears while the light is off , but at night it blooms up in the refugium and covers all the macro and surface area. I’ve done water changes and vacuumed out as much as I can but it grows so fast, I’m wondering what can I do to stop it being dominant in the tank, it’s incredibly dependant on the lighting, as 12 hours in the dark and it will 90% disappear but within a few hours of the lights on it covers everything again.
Many thanks

Thats because this bacterial algae favors light as its photosynthetic. When lights are off it loses it opportunity to compound cells. Cyano blooms typically start when water nutrient concentrations go haywire. Just like when you eat too much sugar and your waistline starts to bloom, the same happens in your tank when concentrations of phosphate, nitrate and other organic compounds are too high.
Some of the most common causes include:
- Protein skimmer which fills water with tiny air bubbles. As bubbles form from the reaction chamber, dissolved organic compound molecules stick to them. Foam forms at the surface of the water and is then transferred to a collection cup, where it rests as skimmate. When the protein skimmer does not output the best efficiency or you do not have the suitable protein skimmer to cover the tank, the air bubbles created by the skimmer might be insufficient. And this insufficiency of air bubbles can trigger the cyano to thrive.
- Overstocking / overfeeding, your aquarium with nutrients is often the culprit of a cyano bloom
- Adding live rock that isn’t completely cured which acts like a breeding ground for red slime algae
- If you don’t change your water with enough frequency, you’ll soon have a brightly colored red slime algae bloom. Regular water changes dilute nutrients that feed cyanobacteria and keeps your tank beautifully clear
- Using a water source with nitrates or phosphates is like rolling out the welcome mat for cyano. Tap water is an example
- Inadequate water flow, or movement, is a leading cause of cyano blooms. Slow moving water combined with excess dissolved nutrients is a recipe for pervasive red slime algae development

I recommend to reduce white light intensity or even turn them off for 5-7 days. Add liquid bacteria daily for a week during the day at 1.5ml per 10 gallons. Add Hydrogen peroxide at night at 1ml per 10 gallons. Add a pouch of chemipure Elite which will balance phos and nitrate and keep them in check.

After the week, add a few snails such as cerith, margarita, astrea and nassarius plus 6-8 blue leg hermits to take control.

 

[ADHDan]

***just doing an update on how im getting on for anyone else with similar issues,

the 2 weeks of dosing hydrogen peroxide has indeed worked and got rid of the cyano (but not the spirulina), sometimes you might think its not working but see it through to the end because it 100% does work.

I got some redslime remover and did 1 dose of that and it hit the spirulina hard, i didnt have enough to do the second dose which was a mistake because the spirulina has since come back quite strong (i believe the 2nd dose would of eradicated it from my tank), it does make your protein skimmer foam like crazy so be prepared.

In my tank now i have a huge bloom of diatoms and the spirulina is getting a strong foothold again

I am going to order some more red slime remover and make sure i have enough to do 2 full doses and should be rid of the spirulina.

i have also added microbacter7, dont know if it has helped or not but i couldnt see it harming anything

IMAGE: you can clearly see the cyano is all spirulina now and the other strain is eradicated following the 2weeks of peroxide dosing

 

[piranhaman00]

***just doing an update on how im getting on for anyone else with similar issues,

the 2 weeks of dosing hydrogen peroxide has indeed worked and got rid of the cyano (but not the spirulina), sometimes you might think its not working but see it through to the end because it 100% does work.

I got some redslime remover and did 1 dose of that and it hit the spirulina hard, i didnt have enough to do the second dose which was a mistake because the spirulina has since come back quite strong (i believe the 2nd dose would of eradicated it from my tank), it does make your protein skimmer foam like crazy so be prepared.

In my tank now i have a huge bloom of diatoms and the spirulina is getting a strong foothold again

I am going to order some more red slime remover and make sure i have enough to do 2 full doses and should be rid of the spirulina.

i have also added microbacter7, dont know if it has helped or not but i couldnt see it harming anything

IMAGE: you can clearly see the cyano is all spirulina now and the other strain is eradicated following the 2weeks of peroxide dosing

Any further update?