Anaerobic vs. Cyano and Carbon Dosing

john.m.cole3 · Sep 23, 2016

I have a situation. Nitrates are kind of high... like 40. PO4 .05. I had a fish die in the tank and couldn't find the body, so I'm sure that is why my nitrates are so high. They stayed at 5 before this happened.

I also have some cyano confined to the sump on my live rock and marinepure brick. I've tried peroxide 1ml/10 gals every 12 hrs for 2 weeks and it goes down, but comes back.

I was considering some NOPOX. From what I understand, carbon dosing will feed both anaerobic and cyano bacteria. Is there potential for the cyano to spread back to the DT if fed by NOPOX. Or is there another form of carbon dosing that won't feed the cyano as much?

drawman · Sep 23, 2016

Yes the cyano is in the system so it can/will definitely travel. It is best to get your nitrates down to a stable level and use carbon dosing for maintenance. Get some good water changes in and try to manually remove the cyano. Also remove any detritus/potential sources of high nitrates.

john.m.cole3 · Sep 23, 2016

What would be the best way to get the cyano off of the media and live rock. It can easily be removed. Peroxide bath? Vinegar soak?

drawman · Sep 23, 2016

john.m.cole3 said:
What would be the best way to get the cyano off of the media and live rock. It can easily be removed. Peroxide bath? Vinegar soak?

Can you take it out, put it in a rubbermade bin with saltwater, and scrub it off? You could do that during water changes. It will likely come back with nitrates that high but if you do that every week or so while reducing the nitrates I would imagine it will only get better.

If you use high concentrations of vinegar/peroxide I imagine that wouldn't be too kind to your biological filtration. I've sprayed peroxide on rock before but it doesn't penetrate the inner layers (I also wasn't going for cyano so I'm not sure how it would react). If you do this make sure not to breathe it in

ksfulk · Sep 23, 2016

If its onthe marinepure block, thats simple to take care of. 3% peroxide - take the media out of the sump and apply peroxide directly to the cyano, wait 3-5 minutes, rinse in water, replace in sump. I used peroxide to spot treat cyano in my last tank. Put it in a 60ml Syringe and blasted it right in the tank. Turns yellow-white and bubbles immediately. But that can cause some issues in your tank chemistry if you have a lot of it. So, since you can easily remove the blocks, just take them out and apply.

For the left overs, I like using a piece of rigid airline tubing connected to flexible tubing with a felt filter sock on the end of it. This way I vaccuum up the cyano, and collect it in the filter sock, while the water stays in the system. Worked well for me, but there were only a few spots. The rigid tubing lets you "rough up" the mats so they can be sucked up easily.

john.m.cole3 · Sep 23, 2016

ksfulk said:
If its onthe marinepure block, thats simple to take care of. 3% peroxide - take the media out of the sump and apply peroxide directly to the cyano, wait 3-5 minutes, rinse in water, replace in sump. I used peroxide to spot treat cyano in my last tank. Put it in a 60ml Syringe and blasted it right in the tank. Turns yellow-white and bubbles immediately. But that can cause some issues in your tank chemistry if you have a lot of it. So, since you can easily remove the blocks, just take them out and apply.

For the left overs, I like using a piece of rigid airline tubing connected to flexible tubing with a felt filter sock on the end of it. This way I vaccuum up the cyano, and collect it in the filter sock, while the water stays in the system. Worked well for me, but there were only a few spots. The rigid tubing lets you "rough up" the mats so they can be sucked up easily.

I DON'T HAVE A BIG SYRINGE, COULD i JUST SQUIRT IT OUT OF THE BOTTLE?