Best way to beat Cyano bacteria

[Taxus812]

Gee is no one having fun with it but me?

Newer tank and ignorant New reefer.
Chemiclean - gone and two weeks its back
Lights out 5 days give - two weeks it’s back
Make pathetic attempt to suck it out (that’s a joke , I’m mean I broke it up and stirred the sandbed and it leaves clumps ) - four days it’s back

Really predictable honestly (obviously I didn’t fix root cause)

phosphates stay .09-.15 and nitrates stay about 20. flow moves piles of sand.

Really don’t have any coral on this 7 month old tank and I wont for about3 months. So I’m playing with my cyano. I have nothing else to do.

today I ripped apart my AIO sump and all the pumps to clean off detritus (much more slime than I thought). I’ll go lights out and get the sandbed pure white again. Curious to see how long it takes to come back.

obviously I have some food (light, nitrates, carbon?)

Don’t flame me to bad but here is a silly question. is cyano acutely bad? I mean it’s eating The trash.

the pics are when I got out of the hospital last week.

 

[Sallstrom]

Here are my observations from working with several reef tanks at a public aquarium for 10+ years.

First, it seems to be diffrent ways to deal with Cyanobacteria depending on if the tank is a low or high nutrient tank. Size of the tank also seems to make a different. Cyano seems to be easier to manage if the water volume is larger. Smaller tanks often have faster swings of the water parameters(which I think favours Cyano).

Trying most methods I've found that keeping nitrate and phosphate available in the water is important in low nutrient tanks. I've seen many outbreaks of Cyano when nitrate or phosphate is depleted(or "too low"). Adjusting NO3 and/or PO4 with addetives and then keeping the nutrients at a stable levels keeps the Cyanobacteria away in those cases(for the tanks I'm keeping and have kept).
Also changes, like higher temperatures at summer or extended light hours, have cased Cyano outbreaks. So avoiding changes or just having patience to wait until a "new stability" has settled in in a tank after a change makes the risk of getting Cyano less IMO.

Cyano in high nutrient tanks is harder to find an easy solution to IMO. But I've managed a couple of times just by having patince and keeping all I can stable(temp, sal, nutrients, light hours, feeding schedules etc).

Anyway, I think you need to get to know your tank and find out what works for that tank. Nowedays I can see quite easily if any of "my" tanks at work are low in nutrients(it starts to grow Cyano or certain coral species starts to look pale) and I can just add NO3 and/or PO4 with dosingpumps and the Cyano will go away over a week or two without any other changes.

Keeping a record of all changes is also good. I have discovered changes I've done (lights etc) that I had forgotten by looking at my notes. These changes somehow caused a change in the tank which led to Cyano. After changing back, the problem solved itself.

Explaining a "philosophy" is short is a bit hard, but that's the the main stuff. And of course having all the other parameters at good levels too.

 

[Katrina71]

Gee is no one having fun with it but me?

Newer tank and ignorant New reefer.
Chemiclean - gone and two weeks its back
Lights out 5 days give - two weeks it’s back
Make pathetic attempt to suck it out (that’s a joke , I’m mean I broke it up and stirred the sandbed and it leaves clumps ) - four days it’s back

Really predictable honestly (obviously I didn’t fix root cause)

phosphates stay .09-.15 and nitrates stay about 20. flow moves piles of sand.

Really don’t have any coral on this 7 month old tank and I wont for about3 months. So I’m playing with my cyano. I have nothing else to do.

today I ripped apart my AIO sump and all the pumps to clean off detritus (much more slime than I thought). I’ll go lights out and get the sandbed pure white again. Curious to see how long it takes to come back.

obviously I have some food (light, nitrates, carbon?)

Don’t flame me to bad but here is a silly question. is cyano acutely bad? I mean it’s eating The trash.

the pics are when I got out of the hospital last week.

Cyano doesn't stress me out. Get some green coral and hope it lasts through Christmas.

 

[kenjung]

For my 400 gallon system. I added 90 watt UV to my system that include Bio Pellet, Cyano are gone and Pho and NO3 are under control without using any chemical. For anyone using Bio Pellet, UV is a must have item.

 

[TropicalReefCorals]

We tried just about everything over the years. Siphoning it out off the rocks with a turkey baster worked well. Used Chemiclean when it got out of control.

 

[lion king]

Gee is no one having fun with it but me?

Newer tank and ignorant New reefer.
Chemiclean - gone and two weeks its back
Lights out 5 days give - two weeks it’s back
Make pathetic attempt to suck it out (that’s a joke , I’m mean I broke it up and stirred the sandbed and it leaves clumps ) - four days it’s back

Really predictable honestly (obviously I didn’t fix root cause)

phosphates stay .09-.15 and nitrates stay about 20. flow moves piles of sand.

Really don’t have any coral on this 7 month old tank and I wont for about3 months. So I’m playing with my cyano. I have nothing else to do.

today I ripped apart my AIO sump and all the pumps to clean off detritus (much more slime than I thought). I’ll go lights out and get the sandbed pure white again. Curious to see how long it takes to come back.

obviously I have some food (light, nitrates, carbon?)

Don’t flame me to bad but here is a silly question. is cyano acutely bad? I mean it’s eating The trash.

the pics are when I got out of the hospital last week.

Tbose parameters are a perfect example of how too much phosphate to nitrate is likely the root cause. If your phosphate test was a Seachem or Red Sea or comparable you can easily double that reading. If you are using any test other than the Hanna ULR your phosphates should be undetectable with 20 nitrates. If you use the Hanna Ulr you might get into trouble as low as .08, I guarantee you if you work or your phosphates, that cyano will dissappear.

I am surprised and dissappointed how many people resort to chemical band aids rather than to address the root cause.[/QUOTE]

 

[Taxus812]

Tbose parameters are a perfect example of how too much phosphate to nitrate is likely the root cause. If your phosphate test was a Seachem or Red Sea or comparable you can easily double that reading. If you are using any test other than the Hanna ULR your phosphates should be undetectable with 20 nitrates. If you use the Hanna Ulr you might get into trouble as low as .08, I guarantee you if you work or your phosphates, that cyano will dissappear.

I am surprised and dissappointed how many people resort to chemical band aids rather than to address the root cause.

I am testing my phosphate with a Hanna ULR tester. Nitrate I have redsea but get lazy and use my API because I honestly get similar results with half the steps.
Just to make sure I’m reading it right. Since I’m using a Hanna my .09 - .15 is high ? Or where it needs to be . (I think my cyano ate my cat this morning so I’m going to have to knock it back later)

 

[boacvh]

Chemiclean. One treatment. Gone. Skimmer goes crazy though

 

[lion king]

I am testing my phosphate with a Hanna ULR tester. Nitrate I have redsea but get lazy and use my API because I honestly get similar results with half the steps.
Just to make sure I’m reading it right. Since I’m using a Hanna my .09 - .15 is high ? Or where it needs to be . (I think my cyano ate my cat this morning so I’m going to have to knock it back later)

I had an issue with nitrates at 20 with my phosphates reading with the Hanna ULR at .08, when I dropped it down just a smigg it cleared right up for me. I also turned my red spectrum lights completely off. I found using reef energy was my phosphate culprit. Powdered coral food, pellet and flake fish food is also a very common source.

 

[Pedal Dangit]

does a refugium help? or hurt? I have a 40 gallon tank cyano on my sandbed and forms on some new pieces of rock. I was going to try adding a separate 20 gallon tank to my sump for some chaeto and possibly deep sand bed.

 

[Whispers]

Using ChemiClean is the single worst thing I have done. It did not kill the corals or fish. I did eliminate the cyano.
Soon after the cyano disappeared turf algae started up and took over. Nothing eats it; at least trochus snails and pincushion urchins do not. None of the tangs touch it either. Countless hours spent pulling it off the rocks; pulling all the rocks out and scrubbing them clean. Covers them back up in a few days.
Cyano was not really that big of a deal compared to the disaster treating it created.

 

[WVNed]

I have used Chemiclean on the 75 and the 240. It works.

 

[NShirke]

i would dust it off the rock, if outbreak is very small. Perhaps, water change may help too. if you’re still not able to control, I would add chemi-clean.

 

[laguest]

I tried to wait it out, lower phospahtes, nitrates, etc and in the end it just kept getting worse. I dont like using chemicals but I was not happy with the tank so I used chemiclean. I went 100% by the directions with massive aeration and the 20% water change at the end. It took out the red slime and other misc algae I didnt like and the tank went from looking bad to looking great and it has stayed that way for 3 months now. I did change my water flow which I think was the original problem. I am just now getting normal green like algae in some places.

 

[lion king]

does a refugium help? or hurt? I have a 40 gallon tank cyano on my sandbed and forms on some new pieces of rock. I was going to try adding a separate 20 gallon tank to my sump for some chaeto and possibly deep sand bed.

Absolutely, a great addition to manage excessive nutrients. Macro algae removes excessive nutrients in a balanced natural way, nitrates and phosphates removed together to keep the tank more balanced.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

I just recently beat cyano. No chemicals or aggressive treatments.

I think the major factor was getting nutrients in balance. I essentially had to lower my nitrates while raising phosphates. A few water changes helped to get things back in balance.

I also dosed MB7, Vibrant and Fritz 360 weekly. Bubble scrubbing at night definitely helped to remove the cyano. As it started to really lose hold, towards the end, the scrubbing was lifting sheets of it off of the back of my rockwork

Just took some time and patience

Have only been at this a little over a year so I feel great to be able to tackle this hurdle

 

[lapin]

Just to add my 2¢.
I just siphon it out when it gets to a certain point. Unless it is taking over stuff or you hate red, I can not see what the fuss is about. To me its another visual like coraline.

 

[Rams54]

I've done siphoning it off of the rocks and wherever I find it. I've done Chemiclean, and have cut way back on feeding and still it comes back. I have a 125gal tank and I've spent probably $75.00 on Chemi. and it still hangs around. I buy my water from my lfs which they say it's ro/di water. Before I bought this 125, I had a 80 gal Nuvo and had cyno once. I treated it with Chemi and it never came back. For some reason this 125 keeps it stored somewhere. I'm wondering if the 2 overflows are blocking good water flow. Good water flow will keep cyno down, but yawl probably know that.

 

[Rams54]

Just to add my 2¢.
I just siphon it out when it gets to a certain point. Unless it is taking over stuff or you hate red, I can not see what the fuss is about. To me its another visual like coraline.

Cyno. also sucks oxygen from your tank, that's what the big deal is.

 

[Jay Z]

Ozone. Set at 400-410. Walk away.