Cyano outbreak :(

[Rangachick]

Having ongoing issues with cyano.

Our tank is a Red Sea 350 (250 litres in display tank and remainder in sump). Current parameters are:

Ph: 8.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 10ppm
25 litre water change performed weekly.
Thanks to a dubious digital hydrometer, I thought my salt content was a little low however after purchasing a Red Sea refractometer it appears that salinity is in fact too high! We are working to correct this slowly over the next week or so.

Also have a skimmer that is hard at work.

It doesn't seem to matter what we do, as soon as we have vacuumed this stuff up, it is growing back within hours. I have read on many threads and forums that cyano is common in new tanks and settles over time, but I am not sure that our outbreak is "normal" (see photo - looks pretty bad to me!). Would it be best to to persist with water changes and shorter lighting periods or would it be better to go down the chemical path to get rid of it?

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Chemiclean will kill it all off. Stuff works great.

 

[lapin]

I do not see a lot of coral. Cyano likes light and calm water. Increase your flow and turn down the lights. In this case blue is better than white light.

 

[Rangachick]

I do not see a lot of coral. Cyano likes light and calm water. Increase your flow and turn down the lights. In this case blue is better than white light.

Thanks - you are correct. No coral so far, only fish, clean up crew and a star fish.

 

[Retro Reefer]

I would save chemicals for last ditch effort, Chemiclean will work but it’s also killing off beneficial bacteria at the same time. Try holding off on doing water changes for a while, it’s been my experience that can make it even worse.. there also seem to be a link to nutrient imbalance that kicks this stuff off, do you know your phosphate numbers? As others have said get your flow up, cut white light back and I would change out your mechanical filtration frequently.

 

[Rangachick]

I would save chemicals for last ditch effort, Chemiclean will work but it’s also killing off beneficial bacteria at the same time. Try holding off on doing water changes for a while, it’s been my experience that can make it even worse.. there also seem to be a link to nutrient imbalance that kicks this stuff off, do you know your phosphate numbers? As others have said get your flow up, cut white light back and I would change out your mechanical filtration frequently.

Thanks for the advice. I think I am going to turn my lights of for the next few days. I'll need to do some small water changes each day until I get my salinity levels back to where they should be but will hold off after that. In regard to changing out mechanical filtration, would you suggest a daily change (I have a Red Sea tank and it hold two socks in the sump) - just rinse and replace?
Thanks again

 

[Retro Reefer]

Thanks for the advice. I think I am going to turn my lights of for the next few days. I'll need to do some small water changes each day until I get my salinity levels back to where they should be but will hold off after that. In regard to changing out mechanical filtration, would you suggest a daily change (I have a Red Sea tank and it hold two socks in the sump) - just rinse and replace?
Thanks again

just keep an eye on them but replacing them more frequently wouldn’t be a bad idea, you can just rinse them off and replace. it’s also nice to have a bunch of extras on hand to swap out and then you can wash a batch of them at the same time.

 

[Txplicit]

1. Manual removal, siphon substrate
2.a dd chemiclean follow directions, remove carbon, gfo, chemipure etc, turn skimmer to wet skim.
3. Black out 48 hours
4. Do a 20-30% wc
5. Replace carbon, gfo, chemipure etc and reset skimmer to normal

Got rid of mine WITH corals in it.

 

[SamAPFish]

Is your tank new? If it is then this is pretty common and will go away just from sucking it up during a water change. I would be a little more concerned if your tank is a couple years old

 

[pixelbit]

I had the worst cyano outbreak that lasted for well over a year. I did a few things that helped:

1. Increased water change frequency and how much is changed
2. Installed a refugium with chaeto
3. Removed detritus from sump
4. Increased water flow

I think #1 and #2 were the biggest factors for me. Since installing the refugium I was able to reduce the volume of water changed, but I still perform one every two weeks.

 

[artieg1]

Like all the above suggestions. It is a phase. Also, additional flow helps a lot.

 

[Rangachick]

Sooooo....a few days later and after lights out and some small water changes each day, the cyano outbreak seems to have abated. Have a crystal clear tank again for the moment. Thanks so much for all of your advice and help. This is a great community