Embarrassing Cyano

[Afagard77]

Chemiclean sucks. Redslime stain remover works way better than chemiclean. You can use half the recommended dosage and still works better than chemiclean.

 

[corky1966]

Chemiclean will nuke Cyano and not cause harm to the tank inhabitants if used properly. The only big caution is you must increase to oxygen supply while in use. Granted, if there are underlying nutrient issues, it may come back in the future. Oh and your skimmer will go nuts while treating with this. I just popped the skimmer cup off and let it add O2 to the water.

Like he said!

 

[Mark Novack]

I recommend a 90% water change. Blow off the rock and let everything settle. Siphon out all sand and rinse in tank water. I place the sand back in before I finish the removal of water from the tank. That helps get the last crud with the siphon. Refill. 10 to 20% changes won't fix this. Your livestock will appreciate if the new water is about 1 degree celcius higher than the tanks normal temp.

Let it run a few hours and check nitrates. You may find them still quite high if your rock is saturated. I did this twice ten days apart and it stopped the reds and browns and now I have green algaes that the fish consume.

Mark

 

[Trizzot]

Algae scrubber, Period.

 

[mkwarner77]

i use chemipure and have had limited success with it. I would still get cyano on the sandbed and have to siphon it out every 2-3 weeks. Things didn't change until I added a sand sifting star. Since I got him I haven't had excess cyano on the sand bed. I've had him 2 months now. I do still get a little on some rock work but it's easily blasted off with a baster.

 

[hubble]

Algae scrubber, Period.

I battled Cyano for months, siphoning it out then water change only to have it show up the next day. Tried all the chemical treatments with no help, tried new lights / no lights and no help. I was about to give up but I was not gonna let this stuff beat me. After tons of research I added a Algae Turf Scrubber and no more Cynao. I have also grown Chaeto in my sump with the same successes. Now I have added more live rock and my entire substrate in my DT is coral rubble not sand and I don't run Chaeto or an ATS. I think one must have lots of nitrifiying bacteria surface area. If the Cynao shows back up I'll put the scrubber back in action.

 

[MarineREEFpassion]

Chemiclean will nuke Cyano and not cause harm to the tank inhabitants if used properly. The only big caution is you must increase to oxygen supply while in use. Granted, if there are underlying nutrient issues, it may come back in the future. Oh and your skimmer will go nuts while treating with this. I just popped the skimmer cup off and let it add O2 to the water.

I’ve used chemiclean and it doesn’t really do much good with that kind of outbreak unless you clean most of it lower your nutrients make sure your skimmer is working good and then use it. Maybe get a sand sifting goby you help with extra food left over in the sand.

 

[Piranhapat]

What worked for me was adding phosphate because I had none. Cyano only can back when the phosphate was zero. You could be getting a false reading.

 

[Reefman71]

Cyano loves silicates. Do you have silicates in your source water? Do an ICP test.

Some hobbyists use maintenance doses as do I.
Run a skimmer, remove what Cyano you can prior to treatment.
I would guess that hobbyist that had a bad out come either had too much die off, they did not manually remove what they could prior to treatment and insufficient oxygenation during treatment.

Maintenance dose of what? What do you use?

 

[Reefman71]

I’m going to try Vibrant. I get it Saturday. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

[waterskiguy]

A lot of people have said excess nutrients. I don’t believe this to be true, from recent experience. I lowered my nutrients altogether, in my tank, and it never went away (no3-2 amd po4-.09). Tried chemiclean, never went away and came back worse than ever. After a few months of fighting it, I read that it is not HIGH nutrients, but out of balance nutrients. I dosed nitrate to my system, to bring no3 up to 10 and it caused po4 to go down to .06 automatically. Cyano started to melt away and the tank has never looked better. It is a new tank (6 months) so it does peak its head, on the sand, every once in a while, but the major portion of it is completely gone. My rocks and glass are completely clean now and the sand, for the most part, is white again.

 

[waterskiguy]

I’m going to try Vibrant. I get it Saturday. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Infamy seems to create a problem, in my tank. It made it worse because it lowered nitrate and not phosphate. When it got out of balance, the problem doubled.

 

[Reefman71]

A lot of people have said excess nutrients. I don’t believe this to be true, from recent experience. I lowered my nutrients altogether, in my tank, and it never went away (no3-2 amd po4-.09). Tried chemiclean, never went away and came back worse than ever. After a few months of fighting it, I read that it is not HIGH nutrients, but out of balance nutrients. I dosed nitrate to my system, to bring no3 up to 10 and it caused po4 to go down to .06 automatically. Cyano started to melt away and the tank has never looked better. It is a new tank (6 months) so it does peak its head, on the sand, every once in a while, but the major portion of it is completely gone. My rocks and glass are completely clean now and the sand, for the most part, is white again.

I don’t have excess nutrients, that much I know

 

[Reefman71]

What worked for me was adding phosphate because I had none. Cyano only can back when the phosphate was zero. You could be getting a false reading.

I’ve been dosing phosphate. Day 3 now. I’m starting to get a reading, maybe that’ll help the stuff is like glue on my Frags it will not come up for the toothbrush or anything

 

[codycolina707]

Hey everybody, so I do clean my tank a lot but everytime I suck this Cyano up it seems to come back worse. Was hoping not to use a chemical in there and wasn't sure if a orange goby would even touch it. I have a Maxspect Gyre XF330 on at about 75% speed (1,750 gph) in a 75 gallon tank. I think I'm pushing enough flow but obviously I am no expert looking at my tank. Levels seem to be fine and I'm usually doing a 10 gallon water change every week or a 15 - 20 gallon if I go 2 weeks. Any help I would love and appreciate! Thanks

Can always add a diamond goby after cleaning up the sand a bit I would get it like that from lack of flow but my sand was oolite so aiming powerheads on it wasn't in the question for me

 

[fattiremike]

So, I battled cyano for years. I've used all the products such as Chemiclean. It will come back every time until you find the source. When I did some research and found that cyano thrives off of silicates, I put a silicate block on my ro/di. It took some time, but I am now cyano free.

 

[Reefman71]

I just put chemiclean in about 3 hours ago. No phos, barely any nitrate. Changed out all of my RODI filters about 2 months ago. Flow is good? That must be my issue

 

[fattiremike]

Your normal DI resin is ineffective to taking out silicates. I added a silicate block specifically for silicates after the RO/DI. I am from Washington state and the water here is full of silicates from all of the volcanic activity hundreds of years ago. The way to figure it out is to do an ICP test. I use ATI because they also test my RO/DI water. That way, you are no longer guessing at what the cyano is living off of. Then you know. You will spend more money messing around with varied results if you don't know what is causing the outbreak. Knowledge is power. Yes, Chemiclean and the like will kill it, but it will come back if you keep feeding it. Figure out what you are feeding it.

 

[Reefman71]

Increase flow. Reduce nutrients. Wait it out. I would not use chemiclean.

I did a few hours ago and can already see results.

 

[jeffchapok]

Cerith snails will reportedly eat cyanobacteria.