Best way to beat Cyano bacteria

[EMeyer]

My sand on one tank looked like magenta colored snot.

For me, it was low nitrates. I dosed nitrates for a while to get up to 10 and the cyano went away. It hasnt come back, and I've backed off on NO3 since.

 

[William Mumford]

I use hydrogen peroxide until it gets knocked back enough for natural processing to take over. I do this anytime it gets ugly looking

 

[saltyhog]

"Cyano" is not a singular problem IMO. Spirulina is one type and is very sensitive to chemiclean. The other types do not seem to be IME.

I recently had some mild cyano problems as a consequence of battling dinos. Because I had a small patch or two of stubborn amphidinium I tried Dr. Tim's treatment (minus a blackout) for dinos which consists of 3 days of Refresh and then use Wasteaway. It has helped my dinos by 75% but surprisingly it completely eliminated the cyano I had in a few places.

It also lowered my PO4 from about 0.1 down to 0.3 in a few days so I have had to resume dosing PO4.

Very interesting discussion.

 

[brandon429]

not only is it feasible when its done with big tanks, but its required when they have to move homes if they want to live for sure. they can risk moving wo a rinse, but its a true risk.



the sand rinse thread is 1% pico reef work, the pushy one is the pico reef and the rest is all 50+ gallons up for 80% and then in between is nanos. about 210 gallons is our largest 100% clean transfer.

big tankers moving homes without rinsing=problems, thats why searches only show one thread on the matter. there isn't a move your home without rinsing thread to consult
the side effect of rip cleaning for a home move: no cyano now or in future.


*we should stop designing tanks where its not feasible to access a bunch of waste that fuels cyano. the tank is too big at that point or the design needs reworked for true long term testing matching.



its dandy for picos too, agreed.

the single best prep one can do for a hurricane approaching a big costly tank-rip clean it to the bore to give it the best chance of living/surviving because there's less unneeded bacteria in the system to begin the crash cascade and o2 removal from fish.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Mixture of methods have worked for me and dependent on how the cyano forms, sandbed corners more flow and sand dwelling snails.

Sheets on glass or rockwork, dose n or p which ever is deficient. Or run temporary P removal. Coupled with dosing bacteria daily for ~4 weeks.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Red slime remover and done. Obviously long term you have to fix the problem as to what's causing it, but this is a proven product on the market for years. I haven't actually had cyano in years but when I did I dosed this and it was gone never to return.

I used red slime remover, and 2 doses sorted the red slime, then/now I have dinos this was due to a faulty test kit (maybe contaminated reagent?) I had my lfs check my kit on their tank and they had the same issue that it was reading higher than their kit. It was saying I had a reading of 0.05 ppm when actually 0 and it was 0.05 ppm higher than the lfs kit on their water which they keep at 0.03 and my kit said theirs is 0.08. So if in doubt and your levels look good but things aren't getting better you could always get a second opinion from a fellow reefer or another kit, or an lfs. I was chasing my issue for 5 months before I got to suspecting the test kit I was using.
This is purely my experience, and I wish I checked sooner as it's going to be a longer recovery.

 

[ZoWhat]

I tell ya' what.... I'd rather have a Cyno problem than a Turf GHA problem 24-7-365

 

[JCTReefer]

Chemiclean

 

[RudeReefNano20]

My system was nutrient deficient. I added flourish. Now moved on to dosing nitrate and phosphate.

 

[sfin52]

I used Dr. Tims recipe.

 

[Rubblereefer]

Chemiclean worked for me. Peroxide has worked for me in the past but only sometimes. I’ve noticed Cyano seems to happen when nitrates bottom out, in both my reef and planted freshwater tanks.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Do remember to watch skimmers as Chemi Cleans will make it go nuts.
Chemi clean very expensive for the thumbnail size it comes in But very effective. I have success also with use of liquid bacteria and Hydrogen peroxide with lower light.

 

[Juan Andrés Botero R]

To summaries balance you're nutrients to were the nutrients are low but not to the point that the corals starve, Have the nitrates a couple of ppm higher then the phosphates for example 02 to for the phosphates and 5ppm for the nitrates. I have dealt with cayno on many accations. The exact ratio is still a unknown for what I have found
[/QUOTE]
I agree with you at all, will add that the exact ratio from this... https://buddendo.home.xs4all.nl/aquarium/redfield_eng.htm#Buddy_ratio

 

[GJak]

-lower amount of light hours
-Chemiclean to knock it down
-vacuum the sand, blow off the rocks
-big water change
-phosrx directly into the skimmer for the next few days

Went from every coral, rock and piece of sand covered in Cyano to clean and healthy again in about a week. The phosrx is a must after the Chemiclean with the resulting spike coming from the mass of dead matter that gets into the water column. Didn't have a single negative result from the whole process.

 

[ScottR]

Increased flow. Blew it off rocks. Bye bye.

 

[Bbfishb81]

Making sure there is alot of flow through out the tank helps as well. Sometimes cyano can happen if you have a dead spot.

 

[exnisstech]

Chemiclean for me. Been over 6 months and no return yet. No ill effects ecept as mentioned about the skimmer but even that just required a little tweaking.

 

[tony'stank]

Chemiclean
Have used it three times in the past five years. I found that it works best by using for three days instead of the two days recommended by the manufacturer. I heavily aerate and do the water changes as recommended. I have seen no ill effects on the corals or fish. Nothing else as worked as well for me once the cyano has become established

 

[Katrina71]

Wait it out. It will go away.

 

[RedSea500MaxS]

FWIW...I battled Cyano on my sandbed for years..doing the manual removal and limiting Nitrates the whole 9 yards. I could somewhat keep it in check, meaning it didn't spread to my rocks and corals but it was always there. I don't like adding chemicals to the tank, but I had tried all the methods. Reluctantly, I finally decided it was time to try Chemiclean to see if I could get it gone. It worked perfectly, and no impacts to the corals or fish, and it has stayed gone.

Does Chemiclean kill our chaeto in algae refugium?