I've been trying to get rid of this for the last two months. Ive been doing 20% water changes weekly for about a month and half. I have also tried using the red slime remover which slowed it down but as soon as I stopped dosing it the cyanobacteria came back. My nitrates are at 2.5 ppm and my phosphates are at 0.25 ppm. How do I get rid of this stuff?
Is this cyanobacteria?
- Thread starter LaurenRebbecca
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Yea! It is. First what's your water supply look like? RODI? If so you need to change your filters asap. Then, what's your feeding regime? Also, what does your "normal" maintenance look like... how old are your lights, what are they and how long are you running them. Lastly, water movement, you probably need more. Ooh yea, skimmer? What size tank? The slime remover can eradicate the stuff but it will come me back if you don't figure out where they started. If you can answer these questions people can help diagnose. Good luck!
Yes Im using RODI my TDS coming out is still showing 0 ppm. I feed frozen food once a day. I have a 60 gallon tank with two clownfish, that has two powerheads one is 950 gph and the other is 1250 gph. I normally do a 10% water change each week. My lights are about a year and a half old and they are LED light strips. They run for 8 hours a day and are on a timer. I don't currently have a skimmer running my last one kept overflowing.
Yes Im using RODI and the TDS is showing 0 ppm.
The phosphate is probably coming from the food. The fish should be consuming the food, all of it, within 30 or so seconds. If it's filling the tank up and landing on the bottom of the tank that's too much. You can thaw and dunce the food in ro water to help with this. I personally feed frozen food once a week or so. I feed one cube to my 20 fish I. A 165 gallon tank. Maybe get some pellets so you can moderate the food a bit. This isn't going to go away quickly. More water movement will help too.
Keiffer the reefer
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My theory about nuisance algae/cyano...
Cyano is the current organism that has established in your tank and is providing most of the nutrient cycling in your system. You need to both attack the cyano and encourage a new micro organism at the same time. Try vacuuming the cyano once a week and on every day in between use a turkey baster to blow it off the rocks/sandbed. In the mean time start dosing bacteria to the tank once a day or every other day. I bet this routine would get it in check after two to three weeks.
Just to be clear, you'll never eradicate cyano from your system. What you want is to keep it at bay. I have found that When cyano starts showing up in my tank, I can blow it off the rocks and dose zeo-back for a few days and the cyano will stay at bay for 3-4 months before I need to address it again.
Cyano is the current organism that has established in your tank and is providing most of the nutrient cycling in your system. You need to both attack the cyano and encourage a new micro organism at the same time. Try vacuuming the cyano once a week and on every day in between use a turkey baster to blow it off the rocks/sandbed. In the mean time start dosing bacteria to the tank once a day or every other day. I bet this routine would get it in check after two to three weeks.
Just to be clear, you'll never eradicate cyano from your system. What you want is to keep it at bay. I have found that When cyano starts showing up in my tank, I can blow it off the rocks and dose zeo-back for a few days and the cyano will stay at bay for 3-4 months before I need to address it again.
racin2438
Active Member
I've been through this... demoralizing isn't it?
Chemiclean is great, but only use it once you've addressed what's causing the cyano to bloom, otherwise it'll come straight back.
Get some gfo or change out what you've got, try to get po4 to undetectable.
If you're carbon dosing then stop! Running carbon to filter is fine, it's organic carbon we need to remove.
Then clear as much cyano away as you can, scrub rocks, siphon etc...
Spot treat hard to reach areas with h2o2 using a syringe, remove rocks and dip in h2o2... use at least 6% stuff, not 3%. If you can get it, use 35% h2o2 mixed with 50% tank water. At that strength you'll only need to dip for a few minutes. If you're using 6% then use it pure.
Do the same with the top layer of sand, scrape it up and dip in h2o2.
At the same time, start to dose live bacteria... Dr Tim's or ATM colony is fine. I used microbacter7, if possible use 2 or 3 different types.
If you can get hold of any sand / rocks from other tanks (assuming you know they're disease free!) Then throw that in too, if you can get to a beach, pick up some sand, rocks etc there too. You want to introduce as many strains of bacteria as possible... one will outcompete the cyano
Increase flow, this will help to stop the cyano settling.
If you can, get a oversized UV unit... at night cyano will release from the mat and go into the water column to find new areas to colonise, this is when a UV does it's work, so you can run it only at night if you want.
By the time you've done all this, you can then use chemiclean to annhiliate anything remaining. I didnt, but your choice.
A couple of pics to give you some confidence that it can be beat! The first is how it was, second after h2o2 treatment, 3rd once I'd eradicated it, all the same part of the tank
Chemiclean is great, but only use it once you've addressed what's causing the cyano to bloom, otherwise it'll come straight back.
Get some gfo or change out what you've got, try to get po4 to undetectable.
If you're carbon dosing then stop! Running carbon to filter is fine, it's organic carbon we need to remove.
Then clear as much cyano away as you can, scrub rocks, siphon etc...
Spot treat hard to reach areas with h2o2 using a syringe, remove rocks and dip in h2o2... use at least 6% stuff, not 3%. If you can get it, use 35% h2o2 mixed with 50% tank water. At that strength you'll only need to dip for a few minutes. If you're using 6% then use it pure.
Do the same with the top layer of sand, scrape it up and dip in h2o2.
At the same time, start to dose live bacteria... Dr Tim's or ATM colony is fine. I used microbacter7, if possible use 2 or 3 different types.
If you can get hold of any sand / rocks from other tanks (assuming you know they're disease free!) Then throw that in too, if you can get to a beach, pick up some sand, rocks etc there too. You want to introduce as many strains of bacteria as possible... one will outcompete the cyano
Increase flow, this will help to stop the cyano settling.
If you can, get a oversized UV unit... at night cyano will release from the mat and go into the water column to find new areas to colonise, this is when a UV does it's work, so you can run it only at night if you want.
By the time you've done all this, you can then use chemiclean to annhiliate anything remaining. I didnt, but your choice.
A couple of pics to give you some confidence that it can be beat! The first is how it was, second after h2o2 treatment, 3rd once I'd eradicated it, all the same part of the tank
