Getting cyano off sand bed

jd371 · Oct 12, 2015

How do you guys remove cyano from the sand bed? I have no problem cleaning it off the rocks. But trying to get it off the sb is a PIA. I use a turkey baster for the rocks, but on the sand (very fine sand) all it does is make a storm and scatters the clumps of cyano everywhere. I bought a tank scraper with a sand rake attachment and tried using that. It works a little better than the turkey baster and I'm able to get some of the cyano, but I'm also burying some clumps of cyano as I'm raking the sb. I don't like the idea of clumps of cyano decaying inside the sb.
The sb looks like crap with purple cyano growing on it, but I feel I'm doing more damage by trying to clear the sb and burying the cyano.
I'm feeding twice a day very little in the morning (flakes) and again when I get home from work I feed frozen food. In the tank is a Fire Fish, Royal Gramma, Cleaner shrimp, 3 Turbos and 4 Nassarius snails, so I don't think I'm over feeding.
The tank is going on 3 months and I read that new tanks will go through algae stages, is it best to just leave the sb alone and let it run it's course?

cginter · Oct 12, 2015

Siphon it out. Blowing cyano off rocks only make the problem worse. You have to remove it and find the source of it, and get control of it.

And I would cut back your feeding to every other day or just once a day. Cyano comes from excess nutrients and phosphate. (Could be from over feeding, water source etc). Only way to get rid of it honestly is siphon it out and do water changes... And it won't fix it the first time, it will take multiple water changes before your able to get ahold of it

jkush710 · Oct 12, 2015

^^^Agreed, make sure to remove it with a siphon, and keep up the water changes. Maybe try changing a slightly higher percentage of your water next time.

Alex villa · Oct 12, 2015

Siphon it out and if it keeps reoccurring in the same spot try adding a bit more flow to that area. Just don't make the mistake I did once and have a sandstorm going on it caused a disgusting diatom outbreak for a couple weeks learned my lesson

jd371 · Oct 13, 2015

Yeah, I'm using a Python siphoning kit and able to get the cyano off the rocks. But, when I try and siphon the sand, the cyano mixes with the sand and drops back to the sb. The suction is alright for the cyano that gets suspended after blasting off the rocks but too weak for the sb. It's very fine sugar type sand which makes it tough to siphon.
The Python siphon has a big opening on the end of the tube, if I try and find a way to narrow it down a bit it will increase the suction or I might look into those battery operated siphoning vacuums. I'm also cutting back on the lighting and feeding.

underthereef · Mar 24, 2023

I know this is an old thread, but I am having the same exact problem… it’s bad. I can’t remove cyano from my tank because when I try to siphon it the cyano clumps are heavier than the suction power of the siphon, just creating a mess breaking up the cyano but the cyano falling and staying in the sand bed.

are there any tricks or adjustments I can make to be able to siphon the cyano out successfully? Right now I am using a standard long siphon with the large opening for sand tumbling at the end of the tube. Will removing that and just using the tube directly work? I’m also worried that would just end up sucking out a ton of my sand even if I’m careful. Lol. I’ve been dosing microbacter clean for months with no success.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Mar 24, 2023

underthereef said:
I know this is an old thread, but I am having the same exact problem… it’s bad. I can’t remove cyano from my tank because when I try to siphon it the cyano clumps are heavier than the suction power of the siphon, just creating a mess breaking up the cyano but the cyano falling and staying in the sand bed.

are there any tricks or adjustments I can make to be able to siphon the cyano out successfully? Right now I am using a standard long siphon with the large opening for sand tumbling at the end of the tube. Will removing that and just using the tube directly work? I’m also worried that would just end up sucking out a ton of my sand even if I’m careful. Lol. I’ve been dosing microbacter clean for months with no success.

underthereef · Mar 24, 2023

Will that work with special grade sand still?

Hemmdog · Mar 24, 2023

underthereef said:
I know this is an old thread, but I am having the same exact problem… it’s bad. I can’t remove cyano from my tank because when I try to siphon it the cyano clumps are heavier than the suction power of the siphon, just creating a mess breaking up the cyano but the cyano falling and staying in the sand bed.

are there any tricks or adjustments I can make to be able to siphon the cyano out successfully? Right now I am using a standard long siphon with the large opening for sand tumbling at the end of the tube. Will removing that and just using the tube directly work? I’m also worried that would just end up sucking out a ton of my sand even if I’m careful. Lol. I’ve been dosing microbacter clean for months with no success.

Just use only the hose. You will lose some sand, it’s ok.

damsels are not mean · Mar 24, 2023

Just manually remove it if it bothers you. Eventually it just stops growing much if at all. There is no silver bullet to stopping growth (You will hear everything from you need higher nutrients to you need lower nutrients and everything in between but this has no real correlation) It's just one of those things that takes time.

gbroadbridge · Mar 24, 2023

underthereef said:
I know this is an old thread, but I am having the same exact problem… it’s bad. I can’t remove cyano from my tank because when I try to siphon it the cyano clumps are heavier than the suction power of the siphon, just creating a mess breaking up the cyano but the cyano falling and staying in the sand bed.

are there any tricks or adjustments I can make to be able to siphon the cyano out successfully? Right now I am using a standard long siphon with the large opening for sand tumbling at the end of the tube. Will removing that and just using the tube directly work? I’m also worried that would just end up sucking out a ton of my sand even if I’m careful. Lol. I’ve been dosing microbacter clean for months with no success.

Use the hose into a big bucket.

Take the bucket outside and give the sand a good clean under running tap water.
Rinse with RODI if you like and put the sand back.

olonmv · Mar 24, 2023

underthereef said:
I know this is an old thread, but I am having the same exact problem… it’s bad. I can’t remove cyano from my tank because when I try to siphon it the cyano clumps are heavier than the suction power of the siphon, just creating a mess breaking up the cyano but the cyano falling and staying in the sand bed.

are there any tricks or adjustments I can make to be able to siphon the cyano out successfully? Right now I am using a standard long siphon with the large opening for sand tumbling at the end of the tube. Will removing that and just using the tube directly work? I’m also worried that would just end up sucking out a ton of my sand even if I’m careful. Lol. I’ve been dosing microbacter clean for months with no success.

There are threads on here stating that dosing H2O2 3% helps.

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