Cyno outbreak. Questions

[JAWSIII]

Hello all, a week ago I inadvertently poisoned my system by installing a DIY sump in wich I used silicone that had mold inhibitors added and killed 8 out of 10 fish an anemone and at least 2 of 9 corals don’t look to be coming back. I am very certain the culprit was the silicone as the MSDS sheet says that it throws off Methanol and Amonia when submerged or heavy water interaction. After I was heartbroken and removed the sump and all the dead ones I put a large amount of carbon in my canister and did a 60% water change. Since then I have replaced the carbon 2 times and will do another large water change tomorrow (Tuesday).

since last Wednesday I noticed a red velvety slim rly looking substance that came out of no where on the sand but only where the light hit the bed. All the shadow areas had none. I vacuumed out some of it but it keeps growing especially during the day when lights are one. At night it almost seems to shrink

my tank is obviously recovering from a major toxin and I hope ar some point with water changes and carbon I can get it straight. In the meantime I am jut checking for Amonia nitrite nitrates and phosphate. Yesterday those values were

Amonia 0.1
Trite 0
Trate 30-40
Phosphate 0.2

I have never had this before I am assuming it’s cyno based on what I have read My overall question ( because it seems to react to light) should I run my lights at an acclimation setting with low light? Should I black out the tank? If so what about my corals that did survive? I have left a torch , 3 zoas colony’s, Duncan and a gornipora.

I run 2 AI prime 16 on the tank. It’s a 65 gallon tall 3 ft wide tank.

The attached pic was taken just after ii discovered all the fish were dead and before the nem died. That red stuff on the sand was just starting to form but only on the sand and only in the lite areas. It is thicker now but I have removed some.

thanks in advance

 

[brandon429]

I want to recommend a rip clean

not because I’m a broken record for ten years but because it’s directly indicated for these events, 65 gallons isn’t that much water to prep

a rip clean or deep clean is a skip cycle complete sandbed cleaning and algae kill off the rocks, takes one day to implement. Either draw off and catch most of your water for reuse as you take tank down or just make new, which is ideal, matching temp and salinity.

you then re ramp the lights back down like they’re new, feed well, bring the system back.

here’s an example below on a tank twice this size.

120 gallon rip clean

I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...

www.reef2reef.com

when the rocks are taken out, clean the algae off by scoring rocks with a knife tip until algae is debrided and gone, rinsed off with old tank water. You can use some peroxide on the former algae spots for a deep kill


this cleaning above removes waste in your sandbed, as of now it will cloud big time if disturbed and these are systemic irritants and no doser fixes them, rip cleaning does. It’s ironic that the seemingly worst option is the best option to save your tank from loss as long as the curing issues with the silicone have passed, even if not a tank with less systemic irritants is going to fare better.


rip cleaning is a form of wound care but for whole reef tanks. Anything but a reef deep clean and implementing total sandbed cleaning cloudlessness keeps the irritants in your system and the rocks and sand retain waste detritus from the initial die off.

UV, chemi clean, increased flow might kill that target for you, saving you all the work. That would be terribly bad for the long term scope, it will compound waste on waste and age the tank many years worth very quickly. Gha will soon become a problem as its beginning now based on the new nutrient availability in rocks and sand

A rip clean forces the entire system into working much better, without delay.

Jons example work above is rare in that he ran it on a fully working reef tank with no problems. In that, he shows it’s good for any reef it’s not bad or insulting. He ran it as a preventative move so his tank wouldn’t get dinos again after having had them.

if you do not fail to rinse the sand in the manner shown, if you eject 100% of its waste and reinstate cloudless sand and new water and dimmed lights and cleaned rocks, your reef will pep up fast. It’s a chem soup currently but only in whole / solid compound form, the carbon has likely helped remove many irritants from solution just not from the actual production source.

if this wasn’t a tankwide recovery event, lesser means might be more fitting. The big job is to clean out the pores in the rocks, sand, open back up space to accept feeding waste from high quality feed renewal which is what brings your tank back. As of now, you’ll be feeding less and less to hopefully stop the incursion hands off.

 

[brandon429]

Jaws don’t let the rip clean description make you keep the current issue

most people are so turned off by rip clean reco the tank just stays as - is and gets worse. Everyone agrees you changing carbon is wise and good for ongoing offset.

you can tell from searches that additives like chemi clean or waste away or mb7 have worked to remove cyano, those can be tried and surgery saved for when you can tell by looking it cannot be staved off another minute, at least the flowchart is listed above... can try any degree of small incremental means b4

 

[Thaxxx]

If peroxide is no harm @brandon429. Why not dip the rock (fully submirge) in 3% unduluted peroxide for a true deep clean? Is it because "WE" don't scientifically know the real kill off of the live benificial bacteria in the rock using peroxide? Or would that be okay to do?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

For once I am going to ask @brandon429 to pause on the rip clean (while we diagnose the issue, brandon loves doing rip cleans)

Additional flow have helped me with cyano in the past (also a rip clean but lets not shock the system again)
I would keep with with water changes (25% weekly or so) to reduce nutrients. I would not suggest reducing lighting or making any big changes
Did you get your sump corrected? You can also try nutrient export methods like a fuge.

 

[brandon429]

Thats good we want diversity of options. the rip clean seems so harsh the thread might have died down lol. Nice input.

Thaxxx I cannot recommend any single doser for reasons mentioned here (saves retype)

I made a one page legal argument in a reefing court of law here heh last post

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

@brandon429 might suggest you're comments about OTS are a little too general. because my guess is there are multiple causes. Since many people have used many ways of filtration in the past...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

In my opinion the advanced macro and micro dieoff is plugging his pores with decay moreso than an avg reef, all the lost mass is internally circulating around and sinking when it lands in rocks and sand. Additives can only compound waste imo, more chemical souping.

but that’s only one take- we need alternate work threads on file as a reference with fixes, so we needed the varied options and input. If this tank was 200 gallons nobody would agree to rip clean it, we literally need a non rip clean method that earns good after pics without the deep dive, large tankers are not assisted by rip clean recommends it’s impractical

 

[JAWSIII]

Thanks for all suggestions. While I do see some merit in doing a rip clean. I believe the steps I’m taking are working. Of the corals I have left most are starting to open during the day and the cyno is going back a bit. I have reduced the feeding to only once every other day and only a very small amount. I put my primes on acclimation mode at 40% for 30 days. I have chemiclean coming in tomorrow and my new sump is almost ready just waiting for the silicone to fully cure (7 days) and inMADE ABSOLUTELY SURE TO USE ONLY ASI AQAURIUM SEALANT THIS TIME. I will install the new sump Friday after the chemiclean treatment and I pull all carbon out of system while treating with chemiclean.

after new sump and chemiclean I am going to put sump online and run the existing canister with a new xport bio plate in the sump for 3 weeks before puling canister. The. Hopefully all will ok and I can start to slowly restock.

BOY TALK ABOUT AN EXPENSIVE butt MISTAKE.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Thanks for all suggestions. While I do see some merit in doing a rip clean. I believe the steps I’m taking are working. Of the corals I have left most are starting to open during the day and the cyno is going back a bit. I have reduced the feeding to only once every other day and only a very small amount. I put my primes on acclimation mode at 40% for 30 days. I have chemiclean coming in tomorrow and my new sump is almost ready just waiting for the silicone to fully cure (7 days) and inMADE ABSOLUTELY SURE TO USE ONLY ASI AQAURIUM SEALANT THIS TIME. I will install the new sump Friday after the chemiclean treatment and I pull all carbon out of system while treating with chemiclean.

after new sump and chemiclean I am going to put sump online and run the existing canister with a new xport bio plate in the sump for 3 weeks before puling canister. The. Hopefully all will ok and I can start to slowly restock.

BOY TALK ABOUT AN EXPENSIVE butt MISTAKE.

I think you are on the right track my man! Unsure about the lighting being reduced as 30 days without the right par could be more harmful to corals then cyano.