Cyano after Vibrant?

member 99594 · Apr 6, 2020

Hey all,

I just wanted to see if someone could let me know if it’s possible Vibrant caused cyano.

Sg:1.025
Alk:8.5
Ca: 435
Mg: 1320
Po4: .08
No3:8

I dose esv ca/alk 7mls a day each. Recently I used vibrant every other week for the dose recommended on the bottle for my tank. (The light cleaning)

I have stopped the Vibrant tonight and did a 20% water change. Those numbers above are after the water change.

I have dosed about 1 and a half months now of Vibrant and the cyano(what I think is cyano) showed up this week.

Doctorgori · Apr 6, 2020

yeah in my albeit brief reseach into Vibrant it seems cyano outbreaks, Chaeto meltdowns and other wierd side affects seem to be more than statistical outliers... Might be some corollary with the higher “aggressive” dose... I’m trying it out now on my 150 vs. using the Microbacter earlier .... so I will be following this thread

member 99594 · Apr 6, 2020

I also have noticed my cheato not growing nearly as fast. Not dead, but not growing.

Brian_68 · Apr 6, 2020

I get red cyano consistently after dosing for a few weeks.

JumboShrimp · Apr 7, 2020

I would use it less aggressively (if you were doing that), and I think things will settle in and the weekly maintenance dose will have benefits that outweigh the detriments.

Injoynit · Apr 7, 2020

I myself got red cyano after dosing Vibrant for bubble algae. It did get rid of the bubble algae but it must have made room for cyano because I got it shortly after. Chem-cleaned the tank and stopped dosing Vibrant and after 4 months everything seems to be getting back to normal.

member 99594 · Apr 7, 2020

I think I’ll hold off on the Vibrant for now. I was using live rock enhance and I feel like that was doing a better job as a maintenance dose once a week for a month then one a month after that. And 5 gallon weekly water-changes.

I only use ca/alk and acropower 1/2 recommendation and carbon once every couple of months for a week.

let me know if anyone else has any “lookout” for things. I try to keep this as simple as possible.

elwallacejr · Apr 29, 2020

Good thread! I have a new (10 week old) tank that's been going through it's ugly phase. I did a maintenance dose of vibrant and 3 days later have some cyano.

The tank does CWC at 3.5g/day on a 100g tank so water quality shouldn't be an issue. But I did send out an ICP test yesterday so we'll see.

It's a small spot on a small rock so I just yanked the rock. Glad I found this thread.

Salty Rambler · Apr 30, 2020

I started using Vibrant in mid-February as a last ditch effort to remove green turf algae (GTA) that was slowly taking over the tank and seemed impervious to all other removal attempts. Following the specific directions for treating GTA (an aggressive twice a week dosing schedule), I was happy to see the GTA finally completely disappear from my tank a few weeks ago. Two weeks later, I had a cyano outbreak. I tried blacking out the tank, but had only minimal success -- the cyano reappeared a few days after the lights were turned back on. I plan to treat the cyano with chemi-clean this weekend.

Regarding the OP's specific question, I'm still new to the hobby, so I can't say whether the Vibrant definitively caused the cyano outbreak or whether it was the GTA die off that triggered it. Would I use the Vibrant again if I had a GTA outbreak in the future and knew it would be followed by a cyano outbreak? Yes. Will I continue using Vibrant in a low maintenance mode? I'm not sure. For folks who had the cyano outbreak, did anyone transition back to using Vibrant after removing the cyano?

tehmadreefer · Apr 30, 2020

To add, if it is a plant in your tank, vibrant will most likely assist in killing it off or stunting its growth, which is pretty much the whole point off using it.

Injoynit · Apr 30, 2020

tehmadreefer said:
Vibrant does want???? Kills algae! Dying and decaying does algae what?? Increases nutrients and bacterial levels needed to induce Cyano outbreaks. Gha, bubble, cheato is what??? ALGAE!

Do ppl just randomly dose vibrant without even knowing what it does? Good lord...

I think people know what it does, it kills algae.
But, what is not mentioned on the bottle or anywhere else (unless you read R2R) is what the after effects are after the algae dies off.
To newer people in the saltwater hobby it's not always known that something else will occur once chemistry (bacteria, nutrients, etc.) in the water have changed. It's a learning experience and we are learning that sometimes after algae has been reduced other "types" of problems (algae, cyno, etc.) can occur and that we should be ready to act on the next problem.

I did 2 treatments of Chemclean on my 200 gal tank for cycno and have to do another since I still have a paper plate size patch in the corner that still wants to come back.

Also, I used Vibrant for 4 weeks for killing off VERY little bubble algae and cycno came. So for me there was very little "noticeable" algae in my tank and I still got cycno after use.

I will not use Vibrant again since I can find predators that will take care of the bubble algae if ever I get it again and wont introduce another problem (hopefully) to eradicate an existing one.

waleedreef · May 1, 2020

Injoynit said:
I think people know what it does, it kills algae.
But, what is not mentioned on the bottle or anywhere else (unless you read R2R) is what the after effects are after the algae dies off.
To newer people in the saltwater hobby it's not always known that something else will occur once chemistry (bacteria, nutrients, etc.) in the water have changed. It's a learning experience and we are learning that sometimes after algae has been reduced other "types" of problems (algae, cyno, etc.) can occur and that we should be ready to act on the next problem.

I did 2 treatments of Chemclean on my 200 gal tank for cycno and have to do another since I still have a paper plate size patch in the corner that still wants to come back.

Also, I used Vibrant for 4 weeks for killing off VERY little bubble algae and cycno came. So for me there was very little "noticeable" algae in my tank and I still got cycno after use.

I will not use Vibrant again since I can find predators that will take care of the bubble algae if ever I get it again and wont introduce another problem (hopefully) to eradicate an existing one.

red seal sailfin fish eat bubble algae.. crab eat it too.

member 99594 · May 1, 2020

tehmadreefer said:
Vibrant does want???? Kills algae! Dying and decaying does algae what?? Increases nutrients and bacterial levels needed to induce Cyano outbreaks. Gha, bubble, cheato is what??? ALGAE!

Do ppl just randomly dose vibrant without even knowing what it does? Good lord...

Can you point out the helpful part of this comment? No need for this. People are learning and they don’t need sarcastic remarks like this. Help or leave.

X-37B · May 1, 2020

I have used it a few times with no cyano after.
I did get cyano on my nano though so I have used half dose in my 120 with excellent results. It did take 6 weeks to effectivly remove the uglies.
For hair algae I have used a sea hare and then gave to another reefer when all gha is gone.
The best way to use Vibrant is in half doses before you need the lawnmower, sea hare, to address the issue imo.

elwallacejr · May 4, 2020

FWIW - My dose of Vibrant was a maintenance dose and it only done more for a prophylactic reasons. My ugly phase was the bleach white tonga getting a light tan in spots. Figured I'd try to get ahead of the problem.

As an aside, it's 100g tank with 3.5g AWC daily, every other day skimmer cup cleaning and uses the Trigger Premium roller mat sump. I put a lot of effort and $$$ to ease the start up pain as much as possible. So I was a bit surprised to see cyano on a tank that really didn't have much algae to begin with.

I haven't connected the UV yet, but that and hanging the new Radions are next up.