Cyanobacteria

[palvyre]

Can cyano kill off clove polyps, zoas, and aggravate Xenia? I have mass die off of blue clove polyps and earlier the pink zoas had problems. So I moved the pink zoas to the sand bed in a high flow area and the remaining polyps have opened and look good. Clove polyps away from the main colony are doing fine. Other coral in the tank such as Duncan's and gargonian look fine. A second Xenia colony on the other side of the tank looks fine. The one that is aggravated doesn't look that way all the time. It all the sudden shrinks and stays that way for a couple hours before coming back out. I am guessing based on googlefu that it's the result of toxic red cyano, I see it growing on rocks near affected corals and in some cases on the colonies such as the clove polyps. I ordered some Chemiclean, hoping that will resolve it.

 

[vlangel]

Maybe try doing some good water changes too to reduce the nutrients in your tank. That may also replenish something the corals want as well.

 

[palvyre]

All my nutrients are under control. No nuisance algae growing anywhere. In fact my blenny has lost a ton of weight, I am going to have to get some kind of veggie supplement for him. I am thinking veggie flakes, he is way too thin. I can see his skeleton.

 

[vlangel]

Emerald entre is a good frozen food that should help your blenny.

 

[palvyre]

Just did a recent water change, planning on doing Chemiclean and then another water change.

 

[palvyre]

Also feed emerald, but he has lost a ton of weight. Don't think he is getting enough. I don't feed much at all anymore, but all the other fish are keeping a healthy weight but him.

 

[vlangel]

Yep, that should help. You can suck cyano out while doing a water change and that helps too. I've gotten a little cyano when I have my LED strip light on too long. Old bulbs will contribute to it as well.

 

[palvyre]

Using brand new Kessil a360w E series. At around 16-18k color range. I have no Cyano on my sand. It's only growing on the rock and on some corals.

 

[vlangel]

I guess we can definitely rule out old bulbs in your case. Have you read any of the thread about using Nualgi? I am doing the test trial and although I only had a very small amount of cyano on my sand from feeding heavy to help new fish settle in, its pretty much gone now. I cut back to normal on my feedings, cut back on how long the LED strip light was on and used the Nualgi, so I can't say for sure what factors helped with the cyano.

 

[palvyre]

Looks interesting. Would definitely help with diatoms. Not sure about Cyano.

 

[Jeremy S.]

Chemiclean did wonders for me when I had a cyano outbreak. I was pretty impressed by it, but I've heard not everyone gets the same effect.

 

[Dowtish]

do the chemi clean asap. just let the skimmer overflow into the sump for 48 hours and then do a 20-30 percent WC.

 

[palvyre]

Ordered the chemiclean today. It already shipped, hopefully gets here before too much damage is done.

 

[palvyre]

Here are some pictures of the damage and Cyano I can see.

 

[palvyre]

That is Xenia completely retracted in that first picture.

 

[palvyre]

That rock on the sand bed had 40-50 polyps on it. They all died in about 4-5 days. Moving it to a high flow area has stopped the death cycle.

 

[palvyre]

The clove polyps all looked awesome a week ago. Now it looks like a bunch of weeds on day 3 of being sprayed with round up.

 

[palvyre]

Other corals in other locations look perfectly happy. The ones that look the worst have a powerhead blowing over a patch of cyano before getting to the corals.

 

[palvyre]

Found some Chemiclean at Petco. Put it in just now.