fed up with cyano!!!!

[aslmx]

I am so sick of cyano. I have new bulbs,new filters for r.o. system, new gfo in the reactor,20% water changes every 2 weeks, fish are starving to death and I run the lights 6 hours a day. I am not showing any phosphates and I know the cyano can use it up before the test kit can detect it. I have put chemi clean in the tank just to get rid of it but any other suggestions would be great.

 

[akma]

Try bacteria like prodibio or microbaxter. I'd up the water changes to every week. I use prodibio biodigest. Helped get rid of mine. chemi clean was a waste of money. Works but comes right back. Also, syphon as much as you can. I had lot of debris under my rocks where i can't see so i just took a hose and went all around my rock work.

 

[bct15]

It might be from a build up of nutrients in your rocks (small crevices). Try weekly dusting of your rocks with a powerhead, suspending nutrients in water column for skimmer to remove. Do you skim your water surface (overflow), if not keep the water surface build up free. These things help a lot. Try to avoid cure alls and get to the root of the problem.

 

[KJAG]

Running a skimmer? Also, +1 on weekly water change

 

[aslmx]

Yes I have a skimmer and it works great. The cyano was in my sand but now its just on the rocks. Ive been thinking about replacing the rocks and rebuilding. How much rock is safe to replace at one time without screwing any thing up. Ive done like one or two baseball size rocks but havent replaced any of the bigger ones.

 

[KJAG]

Is this a relatively new tank? If it is, I wouldnt even bother replacing any rocks.

 

[Steven R]

How big is the tank? What type of skimmer do you have and is it at least one and a half times the size of the tank and what type of skim do you shoot for dry or wet? what type of food are you feeding them? Do you rinse the food? I had great luck with chemiclean i did how ever up the dose they said to do after I did one attempt at the recommended dose which did no good. I went with one and a half scoop per ten gallon's. took the top off my skimmer and set it on low and let it overflow in to the sump to keep the o2 up, And did a'little larger water change. And i ran my skimmer turned up to 3/4 of its power for two days after and it has not returned. Thats what I did but every system is different just my two cents.
Good luck, Steve

 

[aslmx]

The tank is 4 years old.75 gallon. I have a bubble Magus nac6. I shoot for drier skim. I used to never have cyano but I can't catch whatsoever causing it.

 

[bmack]

+1 on using a power head on your rocks. If you have not tried it already a turkey baster works great for this as well.
Try hitting part of your rock work every day for a couple of weeks. You will be surprised how much junk kicks up.
Just remember to clean any pref filter religiously as well.
Agree that determining the problem is a better solution than the chemical approach. It always seems to come back.
good luck

 

[florida reef]

Did you change anything in routine around the time the cyano started?

 

[TankRazr]

My Experience treating Cyano with Ultralife red slime remover

I have found the UltraLife red slime remover to be very effective. I have treated numerous tanks plagued with cyano and had excellent results. Some tanks may of had to be treated 1-3 months later while others never had the cyano return. For around $20.00 I think you will be pleased with the results. Also I believe that at some point it was suggested turning off the lights for a day or two in conjuction with the treatment; however, after rereading the package I don't see it on there but may have gleaned the suggestion from a forum somewhere.

I'm aslo +1 in aggreement with the poster who suggested the Prodibio BioDigest. Here is why, my understanding, and I could be wrong is that the beneficial bacterias you are introducing "out compete" the cyano. I believe this is the same idea as how the UltraLife red slime remover works.

One thing you should notice with the Prodibio is if nothing else your water may become even more clear. I have seen tanks which I thought were pretty clear reach new levels of clarity! Prodibio would run you approximately $6.00/month for a tank of that size and I believe it would be money well spent.

I purchased the chemiclean once for my dad to use on his tank, thinking I would have him give it a try for the sake of comparison, I read the directions and decided it was far easier to use the Ultralife red slime remover! My dad was in another state and a noob at reef tanks.

I hope this helps, please keep us posted with whatever course you decide to take and the results you end up with.

 

[MarineSniper]

If you have a large amount of cyano, I would recommend picking up a BucketMax at Lowes or HD, along with the Micro Tools kit (33 dollars, total). When I had my cyano outbreak, it was beyond unbearable. I just couldn't kill it. I would vacuum it out daily (about 5g) and it would come back within a few hours. I was running GFO and had reduced the feedings and it was still coming back

I had tried turning off my lights, as I read where that worked; with no success. I finally thought about ambient light as well and went with a 3 day lights out, only this time I took a blanket and covered the glass to keep all light out. When I removed the blanket after the 3rd day, I was stunned. My sand was snow white again and my rocks completely clean and Purple. It has never returned since. I have recommended this method to several people and all who used it have eradicated their cyano. worth a try, I'd say

 

[Dowtish]

cyano is a bacteria, and the fact that it suddenly appears is because there is some sort of bacterial imbalance going on in your tank. I highly suggest getting some Microbe-Lift 'special blend' and dose according to the manufacturers suggestion on the bottle. After about 2 weeks of dosing and siphoning out what you can, it will not come back.

 

[KSzegi]

I used zeo coral snow and zeo bak ..... dosed every other day for a little over one week and cyano gone ..... and as a bonus, water has never looked more crystal clear!

 

[aslmx]

If you have a large amount of cyano, I would recommend picking up a BucketMax at Lowes or HD, along with the Micro Tools kit (33 dollars, total). When I had my cyano outbreak, it was beyond unbearable. I just couldn't kill it. I would vacuum it out daily (about 5g) and it would come back within a few hours. I was running GFO and had reduced the feedings and it was still coming back

I had tried turning off my lights, as I read where that worked; with no success. I finally thought about ambient light as well and went with a 3 day lights out, only this time I took a blanket and covered the glass to keep all light out. When I removed the blanket after the 3rd day, I was stunned. My sand was snow white again and my rocks completely clean and Purple. It has never returned since. I have recommended this method to several people and all who used it have eradicated their cyano. worth a try, I'd say

will this have an effect on my corals, do I feed during the 3 days, do I just resume my regular light times after 3 days.

 

[Troylee]

Go with some microbacter 7 and dose as per directions on the bottle... It won't disappear over night but when it does it's gone for good...

 

[aslmx]

Go with some microbacter 7 and dose as per directions on the bottle... It won't disappear over night but when it does it's gone for good...

Did you use this?

 

[MarineSniper]

will this have an effect on my corals, do I feed during the 3 days, do I just resume my regular light times after 3 days.

Your corals will be fine. They have events in nature that deprive them of light for days at a time. Most will look even better immediately afterwards. They'll be expanding as far as possible to take the light in and the cyano should be gone, reducing that stress on them.

I have tried, and still have the bottle of UltraLife. You can consider using it but I firmly believe in trying the blackout first. I have yet to see it fail and there are none of the negatives of the chemicals. Your skimmer will absolutely Explode with them, they drop the O2 levels in your tank and don't always work the first time, leaving you with a stressed tank still filled with cyano. I've suggested to people I know to try the lights out, with the glass covered and THEN use any chemical treatment afterwards, when the cyano is weakened; if needed. To date, no one has ever had to end up using it

As for feeding your fish, it's really a personal call. Your fish can easily go 3 days without and many people feed that way regularly. I spoil my fish (less so now as that was one of the causes of my outbreak) and feed every day. What I did was feed them before turning the lights out, I didn't feed them the next day but did turn one light on for about 3 minutes to feed them the 2nd day. As I said, it's up to you on that. Either way is fine; they'll survive!

Good luck and please take a before and after pic, if you try it. I wouldn't worry about covering the side glass, unless they face a window or large source of light

 

[aslmx]

Right now the cyano is gone because of chemical clean and a water change. I'm sure it will be back and I will do lights out or do I need to go ahead and do it anyway.