Cyanide problem

[Michael v]

I treated my tank with chemiclean about 48 hours ago. My sand bed is clean but my rock work still has a lot of cyano. Wondering should I give it one more day before doing a water change?

 

[elysics]

I don't think cyanide is the weapon of choice against cyano lol

poor fishies

 

[Michael v]

I don't think cyanide is the weapon of choice against cyano lol

poor fishies

Sorry spell check hostage lol

 

[elysics]

Yeah i know haha

As for the cyanos, idk if chemiclean will help all that much if the rock is leaching nutrients. The bottom seems pretty clean and free of cyano

 

[Michael v]

True I got the rock from a friend. Used bleach to cure it. Left it in the sun for a couple weeks. That was about 2 1/2 years ago. I’ve added better wave pumps to increase water flow. I guess I need to be Patient. Time will tell thank you for your feedback.

 

[elysics]

I mean it's too late now, better to just leave it, but did you put it into rodi or fresh saltwater after the bleach? Otherwise you just killed whatever was in there and didn't actually pull anything out

 

[Michael v]

I used rodi water. The bad thing is my friend had got rid of his tank and the rock was in his garden for about a year. I probably should have bought live rock instead.

 

[elysics]

Wouldn't worry too much, it's not an excessive amount. Uninformed onlookers might even find it pretty. As long it's not some massive carpet covering your corals i'd just wait it out and not care, eventually it'll go away

 

[i cant think]

I treated my tank with chemiclean about 48 hours ago. My sand bed is clean but my rock work still has a lot of cyano. Wondering should I give it one more day before doing a water change?

can you get any of it and put it into a container with pure tank salt water. let me just find what else I was advised about when my tank was suffering cyano for 2 years (2 different tanks, 2 years of fighting with cyano... never wish to come against it again)

 

[i cant think]

If you take some of the cyano and place it in a cup of tank water and add some h202 - does the cup water turn pink?

@twilliard did some studies and found different strains of cyano. That ones that make the water turn pink from h202 is Cyanobacteria that died from h202, and the one that doesn’t get affected is spirulina cyano which gets killed from chemi clean.

I did the test and found that chemi clean would work for my strain. I treated it and never had a problem again. I’d watch this video from tidal gardens as he also tried everything but only chemi clean could fix it:

here we go, these are from my build thread from @Miami Reef on how I couldve dealt with cyano quicker (I didn't do this and instead waited and added a natural predator - Koumansetta hectori).

 

[Brian_68]

If chemiclean does not clear the rocks in 48 to 72 hours when properly dosed it is likely not cyano.

 

[Miami Reef]

How big is the tank?

 

[ptrusk]

Next time you bleach, after final soak/rinse test for phosphate. Very easy to remove before you put it back in. I repurposed about 40# from my spouse's failed tank and after bleaching 2 ppm phosphate. Yeah, 2 ppm. 1/2 cup GFO in a reactor in curing tub, in 2 days it was 0.

Actually looks like coraline to me. Do the recommended water change and get your skimmer running. It will overflow. I have found the best way to deal with that is to let it fill the skimmer cup, dump the skimmer cup and keep topping off tank with new salt water. May take a few gallons.

 

[Michael v]

You may be right. I just did a water change and tried scraping it off. Cyanobacteria is supposed to be easy to scrape off. I’ll just keep an eye on it. Thanks for your help

 

[Michael v]

How big is the tank?

65 gallon with a sump.

 

[Michael v]

65 gallon

 

[i cant think]

You may be right. I just did a water change and tried scraping it off. Cyanobacteria is supposed to be easy to scrape off. I’ll just keep an eye on it. Thanks for your help

My cyano was not easy, but it was definitely cyano. Usually it starts out as a thick paste then as it dies off it’ll go thinner and become easier to pick off.
For comparison pictures, here’s some photos of the Cyano I faced, cyano is the deep red slime/paste, it wasn’t thin or easy to get off the rock and took Atleast 5 scrapes of the rock when it first came in. These photos were mostly when it began dying off;

 

[Michael v]

My cyano was not easy, but it was definitely cyano. Usually it starts out as a thick paste then as it dies off it’ll go thinner and become easier to pick off.
For comparison pictures, here’s some photos of the Cyano I faced, cyano is the deep red slime/paste, it wasn’t thin or easy to get off the rock and took Atleast 5 scrapes of the rock when it first came in. These photos were mostly when it began dying off;

Thank you the photos are very helpful. Seems like there’s always more to learn but that’s one reason I love this hobby.