Cyano-fatigue

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Jahalu

Jahalu

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I am tired of battling Cyanobacteria. It is on the back of my rock work and sides of my tank. Luckily, it has yet to invade the front. I pull as much of it out as I can even third day or so. I am not overfeeding because my tank has been fallow of fish for almost 3 months. I feed corals reef roids and Dr G's twice a week and my scoly once a week. I may have some dead spots which may be part of the issue, but I doubt adding an extra power head will solve everything since some of this stuff is fairly close to my mp40 already. I don't run carbon, and I don't use gfo yet. No carbon dosing. I dose 2 part and keep a small chaeto refug. Should I consider using a reactor with gfo or should I go for the chemiclean? I have a mixed reef, no measurable phosphates and 5ppm nitrates. I am ready to add fish back to my system, but I'm terrified that adding fish feedings is going to make this stuff grow crazy. Any other thoughts? All corals are healthy. It's a 75g system, and I change 5g a week.
 
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TylerMoralez said:
I'm having the same problem. Heading to my LFS to look at increasing my CUC. It's insane
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Any luck? My lfs said there really isn't any cuc that will deal with Cyanobacteria since it is not an algae.
 
Use a baster and blow the crap outta it. It's a chore and has to be done everyday. Id get on running gfo as a priority. Use phosphate rx if you cant do gfo soon. Both have worked for us in the past 11 years. Astrea snails don't hurt to add but don't think they'll solve it themselves. It'll just keep growing back until phosphate is being taken out of the water by something besides the algae consuming it. You can knock em loose but the phosphate will be there for the others to grow from unless gfo or rx pulls it out quicker than they use it. Anyways, gl. It took us about a month on our new tank while using gfo.
 
Ok, just an update. I am so frustrated. After battling it out for 2 months- pulling out as much as I can, adding a new powerhead, bringing my nitrates from 5 to 0. I have no fish in this tank, so over feeding is not the issue. My phosphates are reading 0, I even added a Chaeto refugium last month. I finally decided to use redcyano rx yesterday morning. Only effect was a crazy skimmer. Livestock looks great, but so does the cyano!!! It didn't dent it!! So now I'm wondering if it is even cyano at all. I am so frustrated- just about to restart.
 
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Please read up on the use of hydrogen peroxide to treat cyanobacteria. If it truly is cyano, hydrogen peroxide will get rid of it (I speak from experience) and it is reef safe. Good luck.
 
Phosphates are reading 0 because the cyano consumes it before you can test it leaving the test as 0. You have to keep doing what you're doing with bi-daily (daily preferably) cleanings manually and have something to pull the phosphates out faster than the cyano can consume it. Once you see phosphates come up to .03 or so, you'll be on the downside of the outbreak. It's a pain, no doubt, but the only way we've been able to rid of the occasional outbreak. If you don't have gfo, it'll take much longer than people with gfo. I know it's not what you want to hear, but it's true.

You've gotta turn the skimmer off when you use that stuff too.
 
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Mike_J said:
Please read up on the use of hydrogen peroxide to treat cyanobacteria. If it truly is cyano, hydrogen peroxide will get rid of it (I speak from experience) and it is reef safe. Good luck.
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Hmmm, interesting. We tried that once and it didn't work so I called bs on it. Maybe we did it wrong though. What works for one doesn't always work for others, and that's why I really like reef keeping!
 
Cylindrospermum cyanobacteria is easy to rid of :)
You can be stripped of no3 po4 DOC's and it will find a way to survive. Trust me ;)
I have studied this extensively, in and out or upside down.
H2O2 gone in 14 days
So there is hope now to aid in the frustration of cyanobacteria (this is not including spirulina )
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
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Have you confirmed it is cyano and not something else? There are simple methods to determine if is cyano or not.
 
I know others might disagree with me but I use chemi clean. Basically I add the recommended dosage ( I think its 1 scoop per 10 gallons), I add an air pump with a stone to the tank to keep the tank oxygenated. I does take about 3 days before the cyano starts disappearing. I keep my skimmer running but have to adjust it so it doesn't overflow because it does make it go crazy. Don't run your carbon or gfo during treatment because this will just take it out of the water. About 3 days later I do a 30% water change and presto its gone. Its never had any adverse affects on my fish corals or macroalae. I do monitor ammonia a little closer during the treatment because if its killing bacteria I would assume it kills the good bacteria but have never seen it rise. I have done this treatment twice (once on my old tank and a few months ago on my new tank). and its worked both times. I never let it get out of hand though so my issues were pretty light. It might take a few times to completely get rid of it if you tank is bad.
 
jaws789832 said:
I know others might disagree with me but I use chemi clean. Basically I add the recommended dosage ( I think its 1 scoop per 10 gallons), I add an air pump with a stone to the tank to keep the tank oxygenated. I does take about 3 days before the cyano starts disappearing. I keep my skimmer running but have to adjust it so it doesn't overflow because it does make it go crazy. Don't run your carbon or gfo during treatment because this will just take it out of the water. About 3 days later I do a 30% water change and presto its gone. Its never had any adverse affects on my fish corals or macroalae. I do monitor ammonia a little closer during the treatment because if its killing bacteria I would assume it kills the good bacteria but have never seen it rise. I have done this treatment twice (once on my old tank and a few months ago on my new tank). and its worked both times. I never let it get out of hand though so my issues were pretty light. It might take a few times to completely get rid of it if you tank is bad.
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Chemiclean is highly effective against spirulina cyanobacteria but does not harm cylindrospermum cyanobacteria at all.
I should work for them to straighten this up lol
 
AS
Thanks for all the thoughts. I really thought the red cyano Rx would do the trick. If I squint really hard I can imagine maybe a 10% reduction, but it may just be wishful thinking. Before and after photos look the same. So, now I have a mess. A skimmer that is foaming like crazy, a really angry and moving anemone (who hasn't moved at all in 9 months) and a lethargic looking half-drugged cuc. I will probably let the system settle in for at least a week before I try something else. I have rowaphos, so I will run that with my carbon this week. I was thinking of trying a blackout next. I'm scared of H2O2 because I took a sample and placed it in the peroxide and it just bubbled a little, but the water did not turn red. So I was thinking spirulina, according to previous threads?? But if it was spirulina, then the cyanorx should have worked. Correct? I'm really trying here.
 
I will post some pics once my lights crank up.
 
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