Cyanobacteria help!!

[Caleigh Merrill]

I have Cyanobacteria in my tank and it’s gotten to the point where it’s covered my coral. I try to go in daily to blow some of it off with a baby booger sucker and it’s all back within hours even after a water change. I also get a film of it on top of the water. Are there any other at home remedies before having to purchase a Cyanobacteria removal product? I only have 1 power head and I’ve positioned it a few different places all with the same results.

 

[brandon429]

How many gallons is your tank, there’s a certain treatment method that works well but it’s best for smaller tanks because you just take apart the tank and clean it out, and the cyano will stop. It’s not something you buy, dose, or measure- it’s a take apart cleaning to clean out the sandbed which holds the feed for your cyano, no dosers fix that part of the equation only cleaning does

 

[Reefthedayaway]

Only time I had a really bad outbreak was when my wavemaker both went **** up within a week if each other, at a time I had to put my tank I to hyposalinity as I had no room for a quarantine tank. The only flow was the return pump which was nowhere near enough. Once I got 2 new wavemaker it busted up and largely dissapeared in a matter of days to a week. Are you sure you have enough flow going? If you are then I would look at the amount your feeding and your lighting schedule. Old T5s would bring on nuisance cyano and algaes. I would always tell folk of its not bothering coral don't panic but I think your long past the panic stage and at the banging your head of wall stage.

 

[KirstenB]

My tank was really bad a few months ago for nearly 6 months. I had life stuff going on and neglected my tank. So to fix it I toothbrushed it off the rocks weekly, 20% water changes siphoning the sandbed weekly, fed less, purchased a gyre 3k pump for more flow, kept the lights down more AND purchased a ton of corals so that they can consume what the cyano needs to thrive. Now I have maybe 1% cyano left in my tank but slowly and surely it is going away. Hope this helps.

 

[RJinPV]

Do you have a filter sock and a sump? What I did was make a siphon out of airline tubing with a ~8" long piece of 3/16" rigid plastic tubing on the end. I would use that to siphon the cyano into my filter sock and then I would change out the filter sock. That way the nutrients the algae consumed to grow were removed from the system. I also made sure to use RO/DI water when topping off evaporation and other good practices like water changes. It never came back after doing this a few times.

 

[stacksoner]

Not sure what kind of fish/corals you have in your tank, but I wouldn't recommend playing games with home remedies. You have seen for yourself how aggressive this bacteria is and it's a lot more costly to deal with once is gets a stronghold on your system. This stuff produces toxins, depletes O2, and many forms are tough to remove, and will have you posting on the Tank Emergency board before you know it.