cyanobacteria

[tanksman]

hey guys I'm having a bacteria outbreak I posted some pictures of a few weeks ago and everybody confirmed that it was cyno, more than likely due to hi phosphate and improper sand cleaning. Also my protein skimmer is broken okay I rectify it all of those problems now I want to dose my tank. I went to the lfs and bought a chemical called chimi clean .I'm not sure how this chemical actually work it doesn't say anywhere on the packaging that it kills this bacteria. I saw some things online where people said that erythromycinkills the bacteria but it's dangerous to use. So I'm asking for advice on this chemical I bought does it or does it not kill the bacteria it doesn't say anything on the packaging thank you very much any helpful ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea, thats one of the treatments used for Cyano. This product doesn't use the erythromycin succinate that can cause big issues with bacteria.

 

[NanaReefer]

cynobacteria

This is very important! Make sure you use an air stone for the duration of treatment. Use directed amount for your size tank. 48hrs later do at least a 25% water change. ChemiClean works great!

 

[MistaOrange]

I try to avoid chemical treatment as it can go wrong very quickly.

IMO either change the flow direction or increase the flow & set the skimmer to run more wet... If you increase the flow the cyno doesn't have a chance to settle & the exsisting cyno will melt away...

 

[Dalmatia]

This is very important! Make sure you use an air stone for the duration of treatment. Use directed amount for your size tank. 48hrs later do at least a 25% water change. ChemiClean works great!

Agreed 100%
But it is just a temporary fix. You need to know if it's your lights or your parameters causing the cyano outbreak. My guess it's the lighting which is the main thing next to high nutrient levels

 

[Reefing Madness]

Agreed 100%
But it is just a temporary fix. You need to know if it's your lights or your parameters causing the cyano outbreak. My guess it's the lighting if your using LEDs

Im using LEDs, I don't have a Cyano problem. ?? Or am i missing something here?

 

[mike007]

Yes It Is true that chemiclean will work but if you don't find out where the nutrients are coming from it will probably come back. Leds will not cause cyno. Have you tested your nitrate and phosphate levels? And are you using rodi water?

 

[tanksman]

thanks for all the help guys I'm using metal halide and my parameters all seem to be fairly normal my water flow is pretty good too I have a rio3100 return pump, and two 740 gallon per hour power heads this is a 100 gallon tank I think my main problem was with my protein skimmer and I haven't been cleaning my sand bed very well however I did you see chemi clean and I don't see any results

 

[Dalmatia]

Yes It Is true that chemiclean will work but if you don't find out where the nutrients are coming from it will probably come back. Leds will not cause cyno. Have you tested your nitrate and phosphate levels? And are you using rodi water?

I actually got a cyano outbreak from switching to LEDs from T5s. So yes LEDs can cause cyano. It took about 2 months for everything to get back to normal. I ran only blues till it subsided a little and gradually added whites, than the coloured LEDs.
Never had any issues with t5

 

[evan.lundberg4]

Im using LEDs, I don't have a Cyano problem. ?? Or am i missing something here?

thanks for all the help guys I'm using metal halide and my parameters all seem to be fairly normal my water flow is pretty good too I have a rio3100 return pump, and two 740 gallon per hour power heads this is a 100 gallon tank I think my main problem was with my protein skimmer and I haven't been cleaning my sand bed very well however I did you see chemi clean and I don't see any results

As I understand it cyano is caused my nutrients and not enough water movement. I have been using LEDs on my tanks for a year and a half and never had cyano when I switched. The two times I had issues with cyano were when I didn't properly clean my sand bed and when I let my ro/di filters go too long. It was particularly bad with the ro/di filters going too long.

Also IMO you're a little low as far as water movement goes for that size tank.

 

[JMSKI333]

+1 on not reccomending chemicals. If you don't find the course of the issue than it will just come back. Cyano is always in our tanks. It is everywhere. You can't erradicate it, you just need to find it's food source.

Most common causes is poor water and sandbed matainance and poor water quality.

 

[h20poloman2]

thanks for all the help guys I'm using metal halide and my parameters all seem to be fairly normal my water flow is pretty good too I have a rio3100 return pump, and two 740 gallon per hour power heads this is a 100 gallon tank I think my main problem was with my protein skimmer and I haven't been cleaning my sand bed very well however I did you see chemi clean and I don't see any results

I've used chemi-clean several times over the years with good success and yes, you do need to make some other changes to your reef tank husbandry or it's going to come back. If your MH bulbs or supplement lighting bulbs are old they could likely need to be changed. I'd recommend cutting your light cycle back a bit (4-5 hours max) or you could also cut them off entirely for a few days.

Personally I'm not a fan of Rio pumps. Too many war stories on those things and having two 740gph powerheads is not that much flow in addition for a 100g tank. I ran two Tunze 6095's on a 120g tank which put out over 2500gph each and I still wanted more flow. If you can get random flow even better. I'd also recommend getting a couple phosban reactors - one for carbon and one for GFO. If you feed too much or change water less often those two items will help with keeping your phosphates and overall water conditions better to hopefully avoid these types of issues. I'm also not sure how long your tank has been running but any tank set up less than a year is more at risk with going through a series of algae and cyano issues. A refugium with chaeto will also help reduce your phosphates.

Last, if you can't afford to buy some of this equipment right away. At a minimum go to weekly water changes (20%) and siphon out as much of the cyano as possible, lower your light cycle for a while and see if you can get some more flow into your tank (borrow or buy used powerheads - koralias are a cheaper option with good flow)