Cyno Headaches

[ReeferRob]

So my cyno problem keeps getting worse. I have red slime all over the rocks now. Everywhere.........params are money, coral and fish health is great. Flow is awesome
Any advice or ideas on what's up or what to do??

Or is it just a waiting game for it to settle down by itself?

 

[MentalDragon]

Manually pull out as much as you can everyday.
More frequent RO/DI water changes with higher % volume.
Less Photoperiods.
Have you tried Carbon/GFO?

 

[MikeB]

DO you have a Fuge? If so, what in there. How good is your cleanup crew. You have to many nutrients in your system. If you do have a fuge, maye you need to pump more water through it. Maybe you can get a much bigger cleaning crew, Add some Mangroves, etc. Adding Flow is just a bandaid and not the correct fix IMO. Also water changes will not hurt. Also don't blow the Cyano off, remove it, it will only spread.

 

[Ike]

Just looking at your build thread photos and looking at the recent ones with your rock, it's pretty clear you have some nutrient issues. Also, if the only flow is an MP20 I'm sure you have some dead spots on a tank that size, which will contribute greatly. I also noticed that yopu're buying your water, do you have a TDS meter and have you been testing it? Personally I would never5 trust bought water in any of my systems unless I had a TDS meter to confirm the purity.

 

[TCK Corals Verified Sponsor]

This worked for me every time so give this a try. Manually remove all the red slime algae you see. Use a small tube and suck it out. Then do a 25% water change and shut all the lights off for 24 hours and then turn your lights back on and all the cyno algae should be gone and keep up with water change and that should stop it from coming back. Good luck.

 

[ReeferRob]

Manually pull out as much as you can everyday.
More frequent RO/DI water changes with higher % volume.
Less Photoperiods.
Have you tried Carbon/GFO?

Will try a shorter photoperiod and yes I do run ROWA brand carbon

DO you have a Fuge? If so, what in there. How good is your cleanup crew. You have to many nutrients in your system. If you do have a fuge, maye you need to pump more water through it. Maybe you can get a much bigger cleaning crew, Add some Mangroves, etc. Adding Flow is just a bandaid and not the correct fix IMO. Also water changes will not hurt. Also don't blow the Cyano off, remove it, it will only spread.

Yes I do have a fug with a bundle of chaeto, and a five inch deep sugar fine sand bed. Clean up crew could use a little bump with some more nassy snails. I have cut down on the feeding as I was feeding way too much. I got a pair of Donis clowns a month or so back and wanted to make sure they were doing okay.

Just looking at your build thread photos and looking at the recent ones with your rock, it's pretty clear you have some nutrient issues. Also, if the only flow is an MP20 I'm sure you have some dead spots on a tank that size, which will contribute greatly. I also noticed that yopu're buying your water, do you have a TDS meter and have you been testing it? Personally I would never5 trust bought water in any of my systems unless I had a TDS meter to confirm the purity.

Flow is the mp20 with a QO4000 as the return. Dead spot are in the back corner, where there is no cyno oddly.
No I don't buy my water I have my own RODI and TDS is at 1.

This worked for me every time so give this a try. Manually remove all the red slime algae you see. Use a small tube and suck it out. Then do a 25% water change and shut all the lights off for 24 hours and then turn your lights back on and all the cyno algae should be gone and keep up with water change and that should stop it from coming back. Good luck.

Two weeks back to back I have tried this method. Not blowing but sucking all the cyno up and doing a 15 gallon water change, which is 2.5 gallons shy of a true 25% water change based on my calculations of what my water volume is.


Thanks everyone for the advice, if you have anymore don't be shy.
Im gonna get hard core on this shizz tonight.

 

[impur]

How long since you changed your RO/DI filters?

I had cyano bad for about 8m, i mean bad. I had 0 detectable NO3 and PO4. So i kept doing my weekly 25% WCs, syphoned it out every chance i could, replaced bulbs, replaced RO/DI filters, added phosban, modded my skimmer to work a bit more efficiently, upped the flow (which didn't do much, the cyano just grew on the pump outlets), cleaned equipment weekly, used a shopvac on the sump every WC, took my fuge down (nutrient sink I will never have one again) and after about 2-3 month of being diligent with this it finally went away.

2 years later i started dosing vodka and now i have some patches again

 

[johnanddawn]

time and patence
this tank has only been set up a couple months right?
tanks reach a balance point some do it fast some take time, it will come into balance but you went from a glass box to a reef in a hurry, let it age

 

[dieselab]

Lights out for 2 days and aggressive GFO. Works all the time. Make sure not to change flow.

 

[JNye]

time and patence
this tank has only been set up a couple months right?
tanks reach a balance point some do it fast some take time, it will come into balance but you went from a glass box to a reef in a hurry, let it age

yep, totally agree. Keep up the good fight for sure, most effective will be manual removal. It'll pass.

 

[ReeferRob]

How long since you changed your RO/DI filters?

I had cyano bad for about 8m, i mean bad. I had 0 detectable NO3 and PO4. So i kept doing my weekly 25% WCs, syphoned it out every chance i could, replaced bulbs, replaced RO/DI filters, added phosban, modded my skimmer to work a bit more efficiently, upped the flow (which didn't do much, the cyano just grew on the pump outlets), cleaned equipment weekly, used a shopvac on the sump every WC, took my fuge down (nutrient sink I will never have one again) and after about 2-3 month of being diligent with this it finally went away.

2 years later i started dosing vodka and now i have some patches again

RO/DI filters are brand new only made about 100 gallons give or take so far.

time and patence
this tank has only been set up a couple months right?
tanks reach a balance point some do it fast some take time, it will come into balance but you went from a glass box to a reef in a hurry, let it age

Ya, its still a fresh tank. Just never had it this bad in any other tank Ive owned.
I just need some more patients and let it age like you said. Its just so ugly.

 

[Harry_Y]

You can try skimming harder and GFO, and more flow.

My flow is about 27 times Tank volume in the Display.

I had some Cyano in my frag tank (tied into the main sump),
once I upped the flow in the frag tank it went under control.

 

[ReeferRob]

Well I think I am cutting the lights completely tomorrow.

I did a 15 gallon water change last night syphoning off as much cyno from the rocks as I could. Also reduce photo period by 3.5 hours and it doesn't look like I did squat when I got home from work today.

I don't think flow matters and I'll tell you why. There is a rock that is about two inches in front of the mp20. I syphoned off all the cyno perfectly, tonight it is all back, if not more.

Thinking of adding maracyn?
How many 25% water changes can I do in one week?
Any thoughts?

 

[flapjack]

Phosphate reactor worked for me. Cleared it right up.

 

[JR's Reef]

Thinking of adding maracyn?
How many 25% water changes can I do in one week?
Any thoughts?

You could do a couple. Ive done 2 50% waterchanges in a weeks time without a problem but dont recomend it. I would cut lights off for a day(or two) and do 2-3 15% water changes a week for a couple weeks. The more often smaller changes are better on the tank than the less often larger ones.

 

[ReeferRob]

The other nights water change and cyno attack didn't do too much. By the end of the very next day it was back 100% plus more.

Last night I did a 10 gallon water change while syphoning the rocks off with an air line hose. Took forever but I was able to get more of the cyno. The smaller hose deff. works better, but doesn't work too hot on the sand. Kept getting clogged.
Today I didn't allow the lights to come on at all, hoping this has some effect??

Honestly I don't know what to do next.:cry:

Of all the tanks Ive had this tank is proving to be the most difficult. And to think on all my other tanks I used regular tap water, used hand me down rock and bought some from the LFS. Instead of pest free Marco Rock. Never dipped anything, never inspected anything for pests. I relied on my eye for water quality instead of actually testing things. Had a crappy PC light fixture with old bulbs. Never had to battle cyno, never had to battle byropsis.

I am seriously considering throwing in the towel on this tank.
Anyone have any ideas on what to do next??
All I can think is another maybe 5 gallon water change tomorrow night and possibly a second day without lights. Although hesitant to do so for the health of the fish and corals.

 

[chenwon54]

Bacteria

I just add a ampule of bioptim bioclean/carbon source together and its gone within 12 hours. Then you have a bacteria bloom going on so ensure there is not a power failure and your alk is somewhere between 7-9. It will clear up and then you can get to the root cause. Make sure to monitor ph closely why lights out is going for two days. Keep tank completely dark with no chance of light getting in from surrounding windows or any external sources. Its suprising how much a small amount of light can fuel cyano.

You could also try brightwell microbacter 7 - never used it but it may help. I've heard others say good things about it. I've also heard of people adding some fresh fully cured live rock to re-seed with different types of bacteria. Expensive fix but may be better for the long term.

 

[SPS clown]

After trying most of the stuff stated in this thread, i tried red slime remover.

Just put it in last night but it already looks much better.

Everyone told me to blow the rocks, not to siphon....so i was doing that wrong oh:

 

[SPS clown]

The other nights water change and cyno attack didn't do too much. By the end of the very next day it was back 100% plus more.

Last night I did a 10 gallon water change while syphoning the rocks off with an air line hose. Took forever but I was able to get more of the cyno. The smaller hose deff. works better, but doesn't work too hot on the sand. Kept getting clogged.
Today I didn't allow the lights to come on at all, hoping this has some effect??

Honestly I don't know what to do next.:cry:

Of all the tanks Ive had this tank is proving to be the most difficult. And to think on all my other tanks I used regular tap water, used hand me down rock and bought some from the LFS. Instead of pest free Marco Rock. Never dipped anything, never inspected anything for pests. I relied on my eye for water quality instead of actually testing things. Had a crappy PC light fixture with old bulbs. Never had to battle cyno, never had to battle byropsis.

I am seriously considering throwing in the towel on this tank.
Anyone have any ideas on what to do next??
All I can think is another maybe 5 gallon water change tomorrow night and possibly a second day without lights. Although hesitant to do so for the health of the fish and corals.

Dont throw in the towel for cyano man... If you have bryopsis too, then it might be ok to consider a restart tho.

If the fish and corals are doing ok like you said (just like mine) then just let it go for a while and keep doing the right things is what i would say.

....and dont invite any company over :bigsmile:

 

[Usefulidiot213]

Don't GIVE UP!!
I had a cyano issue for about 5 - 6 months, and tried all kinds of stuff. Some things helped, but never got ride of it.
The thing that worked was dosing Vodka. Took about 6 weeks, but the Cyano finally withered away. It's been about 4 months, and there has been no return.