Cyano is a pain

[9975]

I've been fighting cyano for about 3 months (did the cup test with h202 and cyano). I have 350g with around 60g of water in sump. Tank has been running since end of December. I've Been so frustrated that I put in 120 ml of h202 twice a day for over a month.

Only had 4 fish until a couple weeks ago and now 7. I dont feed heavy and with minimal fish I dont think the bio load is heavy.

I've turned my t5 hybrid down and dont even have my leds on which has helped. When I first started dosing the cyano bubbles up and died. Now there is quite a bit less and it ends up turning almost a blackish color and it comes off the rocks/sand pretty easily.

Nitrate is minimal, nitrite 0, phosphate I will measure tonight, salinity 1.024, ph ~ 7.9 - 8.0. I dont dose anything other than peroxide. Fish are fat and seem happy. I have no corals at all. Rocks are starting to green up and if I stop putting h202 in, some hair algae shows up.

I've kept myself from trying chemi clean but that's the only thing that I can think of to try. Any other thoughts?

 

[Sdot]

I've been fighting cyano for about 3 months (did the cup test with h202 and cyano). I have 350g with around 60g of water in sump. Tank has been running since end of December. I've Been so frustrated that I put in 120 ml of h202 twice a day for over a month.

Only had 4 fish until a couple weeks ago and now 7. I dont feed heavy and with minimal fish I dont think the bio load is heavy.

I've turned my t5 hybrid down and dont even have my leds on which has helped. When I first started dosing the cyano bubbles up and died. Now there is quite a bit less and it ends up turning almost a blackish color and it comes off the rocks/sand pretty easily.

Nitrate is minimal, nitrite 0, phosphate I will measure tonight, salinity 1.024, ph ~ 7.9 - 8.0. I dont dose anything other than peroxide. Fish are fat and seem happy. I have no corals at all. Rocks are starting to green up and if I stop putting h202 in, some hair algae shows up.

I've kept myself from trying chemi clean but that's the only thing that I can think of to try. Any other thoughts?

Why are you dosing peroxide? In my experience, when I get cyano that means my ratio of nitrate to phosphate is off (More Phos than nitrate) To fix, either reduce your phos or raise your nitrate.

 

[Spare time]

Raise your nitrates if they are below 5. Let us know what the phosphate is at.


Honestly chemiclean and similar work so well I wouldn't hesitate. I recently used it on a store biocube and 2 days after it was eliminated 100%

 

[ReefPig]

You say chemi-clean is the only other thing you’ve not tried, so what have you tried?

Thats kind of the key bit of information missing.

Also you say nitrate is minimal, what does this mean? Likewise, you didn’t mention PO4.

Very difficult to make any suggestions when you’ve given so little.

Its nice you put a bit of a story up front, but just keep posts focused on the important stuff, you’ll get more responses.

 

[9975]

Nitrates are always 5 - 10. I've read many threads about peroxide killing cyano and i see it make a difference but not enough

 

[BrandonS]

Nitrates are always 5 - 10. I've read many threads about peroxide killing cyano and i see it make a difference but not enough

my only worry is peroxide would also hurt the beneficial bacteria. The ones you need a healthy balance of to fight cyano. I am finishing my battle with it as well right now. What has finally started to turn the corner for me was dosing nitrates and dialing my algae scrubber back. Only dose about 5ppm a week. But it has made a difference.

 

[ReefPig]

Personally never heard of people dosing H2O2 for cyano.
I've heard it for dino's, but even them I'm super sceptical and it can only do more harm than good.

I'm all for things like chemi-clean, it works, not always on the first treatment, but it's proven as safe.
I'm even open to using things like fluconazole for algae issues.

I draw the line at adding a chemical people bleach their hair with.

Maybe I'd consider it if all other options were exhausted and I hadn't NOTHING left to lose before a tank breakdown.
You seem to have jumped over all the natural ways, skipped chemi-clean, which is the right tool for the job when you need to escalate, and gone straight for something serious.

It's like going to a bar on your lunchbreak from work and instead of having a beer and a meal, you've gone straight to shots, now you're laying on your back wondering what happened.

You've been dumping in 240ml of hair bleach into your tank each day for a month!
Chemi-clean works in less than 48hours, you may need a second treatment, but you will have dealt with 80% of the issue immediately.

So you did H2O2 for a month, what did you try the two months before that?

 

[9975]

I tried removal with the baster and water changes

 

[ReefPig]

Honestly, at this stage, your tank sounds like it should be completely sterile.
You need to stop the H2O2, its been a month and not worked.

Can you get access to NSW? Maybe a company can deliver to you? I know I can get it delivered for a reasonable price close to me. Start weekly water changes with NSW would be the best bet right now, get some biodiversity into the tank.
Maybe add some Fritz or ATM bacteria, or Dr Tims waste away, to ensure your nitrifying bacteria exists.

If the cyano is a major problem, then move to chemiclean, but I wouldn't do it immediately, unless the tank is completely covered, you need to help get your tank back on track.

 

[ReefPig]

In order of escalation over many months, from the first time you see it:

In the first month or so:

• Increase flow, turn up the pumps or reposition them if needs be, move them towards the issue area
• Add more flow, get a cheap powerhead
• Turkey baster every night, cyano will burn nutrients to regrow the next day
• Lower light intensity a little, don't go crazy, particularly if you have corals
• Weekly water changes, ideally with NSW
• Reduce or stop adding coral feeds and amino's etc, just go with fish food
• Phosphate testing starts to become pointless, as the accuracy of it degrades as the issue gets bigger, you'll start seeing zero PO4, but you know that's impossible, it's just bound up in the cyano
• Keep feeding as normal, don't starve the tank, this is the mistake many people make and then dino's will start
• If low on NO3, it can be easier to dose it, I personally use potassium nitrate regularly, try to keep it up to around 10.

80%+ of cyano issues can be resolved with the above alone.
If things are not improving, or getting worse:

• Continue everything above, nightly turkey baster is important
• KZ Coral Snow + ZeoBac is a proven recipe to help reduce cyano, do it every couple of nights, start with 1ml of KZ CS per 100L, then ramp up to 3ml per 100L over a couple of weeks. Let the KZ CS and KZ Zeobac mix together in a beaker with a bit of tank water for an hour before adding
• If after a few weeks there is no improvement, increase KZ CS treatment to every night

The Coral Snow and zeobac is all "good stuff", not really a chemical treatment at this stage, it's flocculent and bacteria mixture.

Do this for a couple of months, things should improve after a couple of weeks.

By this point in time, if things are not improving at all, then something is seriously wrong, or you're adding stuff which the cyano likes (coral food usually).
If all else fails:

• Chemiclean, 48hours, skimmer cup off but still running, no carbon or UV etc
• Big water change, ideally NSW
• Continue KZ Coral Snow + ZeoBac, but start ramping it down over a week or so
• After about a week, can you see any cyano? If so, hit it again with chemiclean and repeat

At this point in time, if the cyano still hasn't gone, then I dunno, maybe leave a few weeks, keep up water changes and coral snow mix, and hit it again with chemiclean.