Losing the battle to Cyano

[Leyth]

I can't seem to figure out how to solve this problem. I had pretty bad cyano a couple months ago and I did a 3 day black out and that got rid of it. I skimmed wet and pulled probably 15 gallons of pinkish water out. Now, it is coming back and I am not really sure what to do. I have cut back feeding since then as well. I only feed a 1/2 inch square piece of rods every other day.

Also, I did the cyano vs spirulina test. It's definitely cyano based on that test.

All tank inhabitants are happy. I have plenty of SPS that is growing. LPS is happy. Anemone is happy. I think I'm the only one not happy haha.

Red Sea Reefer 350:
Equipment:
Maxspect Gyre XF250 . Pulsing at 60% per 2 seconds
Ecotech MP40QD Pulsing at 50% per second
Reef Octopus Varios 6 running at 100% through two RFG nozzles
Tunze 3155 auto top off
Reef Octopus 150INT protein skimmer
36" ATI 8 bulb dimmable T5 Runs at 100% for 5 hours (2 hour ramp up and down)
36" Reefbrite XHO blue strip Runs at 100% for 11 hours
Icecap battery backup for the gyre
2x Two little fishes phosban reactor (one of them running carbon, the other was going to be a chaeto reactor soon)

Parameters:
Alkalinity: 8.0 -Hanna
Calcium: 470 -Salifert
Magnesium: 1270 -Salifert
Salinity: 1.025 -Mechanical test
Temp: 78 -digital thermometer
Phosphate: 0 -Hanna
Nitrate: 25 -Salifert

Live stock:
1 Female Oscellaris clown
1 Male Wyoming white clown fish
1 Kole Tang
2 Green Blue Chromis
1 McCoskers Wrasse
1 Pom Pom crab
1 Pistol Shrimp
1 Short spine Urchin

Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[Leyth]

Here’s a picture

 

[reeferfoxx]

Are you feeding corals via particulate foods and aminos?

 

[Dennis McGrath]

Have you thought about using a UV sterilizer?

 

[Leyth]

Are you feeding corals via particulate foods and aminos?

Nope, I am not feeding them anything. I used to feed reef roids a long time ago, but even that was on a rare occasion.

Have you thought about using a UV sterilizer?

I have not.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Nope, I am not feeding them anything. I used to feed reef roids a long time ago, but even that was on a rare occasion.



I have not.

I've battled cyano for a long long time and the best route of action that's helped me was a series of water changes while syphoning the clumps of cyano and sand out. Adding reef roids and aminos once a week helped shift nutrient consumption from cyano to corals. It will take time and effort but seems to pay off in the long run.

 

[Anthony Kochevar]

You say one of your reactors WAS going to grow cheato. I would do the cheato. A combo of this and a Chemiclean dossage kicked my cyano problem for good.

 

[Tongyin]

double post...

 

[Tongyin]

OMG those bubble algae... Trypophobia triggered
Have you tried any chemical solutions? I personally had some good experiences with Zeovit Cyano Clean. It's used as a series of small dosages and thus supposed to be milder then some of the other solutions.

 

[rock_lobster]

waterflow and oxygen all that is needed.

 

[rock_lobster]

And a yellow tang will rip up that bubble algae

 

[Leyth]

I've battled cyano for a long long time and the best route of action that's helped me was a series of water changes while syphoning the clumps of cyano and sand out. Adding reef roids and aminos once a week helped shift nutrient consumption from cyano to corals. It will take time and effort but seems to pay off in the long run.

You say one of your reactors WAS going to grow cheato. I would do this. A combo of this and a Chemiclean dossaged kicked my cyano problem for good.

OMG those bubble algae... Trypophobia triggered
Have you tried any chemical solutions? I personally had some good experiences with Zeovit Cyano Clean. It's used as a series of small dosages and thus supposed to be milder then some of the other solutions.

Yea, I have a bad bubble algae issue as well. Decided to just live with it. There's like 12 emeralds in there and they're not even making a dent.

I was hoping to stay away from the chemical route, but I may not have a choice.

 

[Leyth]

And a yellow tang will rip up that bubble algae

I didn't know yellow tangs ate bubble algae.

 

[rock_lobster]

I didn't know yellow tangs ate bubble algae.

Yes its not 100% but I have tried 3 in the past and all 3 destroyed it.

 

[rock_lobster]

Try increasing your flow in the parts with cyano and also boost your oxygen levels if you can maybe with an air pump and air stone. Cyano is intolerant of higher O2 levels.

 

[brandon429]

Vibrant is the best known bubble algae product ever made. <--said by an obsessive tank cleaner logging about 2k fixes on line over the years, its best Ive seen for that specific target

20 bucks might fix that valonia, if not, no harm it doesn't cross kill anything

*a side effect of vibrant is cyano....your sandbed cannot pass a drop test (meaning reach in, grab some, drop it, a massive dangerous cloud results...we'd clean that to snowglobe effect where grains just fall, cleanly)

if it could pass a drop test, you could guide that cyano out without anything but repeat rock cleaning in the presence of no waste in the sand

**your tank is large, and this is much work to truly rip clean in the way we do nanos, so that your nutrient stores are truly removed. I might not even do that if you gave me this large tank totally free...too much work.

I would:

vibrant for sure

amazon/pond UV sterilizer grossly oversized* it comes off and goes in the closet for next battle after we win

it doesn't remove cyano, we must topically remove it. the uv guides it out from re establishment as it does travel around the tank at times, not always matted*

since I keep picos and can do full wc/clean sandbed, no UV needed to beat any invader. if I owned any reef above say 50 gallons, UV for sure. one for a five thousand gallon koi pond ready to go when needed. I wouldn't run it always, just as an implement and prob during uglies phase early on.

 

[reeferfoxx]

UV has never helped my cyano issue. Niether has high flow or O2. Problem is the trapped phosphates in the sandbed. It's a result of having high phosphates at one point or another. Replacing water with nutrient limitation will help leech po4 out and help shifting nutrient consumption to coral. That's my theory and that's working for me.

 

[Leyth]

I really don’t think flow will help. I’ve got so much flow already. Xf250 at 60% , mp40 at 50% and varios6 at 100% is a lot of flow already isn’t it?

I tried vibrant to get rid of the bubble algae, it worked for sure but the cyano issue started from the day I used vibrant.

 

[Leyth]

UV has never helped my cyano issue. Niether has high flow or O2. Problem is the trapped phosphates in the sandbed. It's a result of having high phosphates at one point or another. Replacing water with nutrient limitation will help leech po4 out and help shifting nutrient consumption to coral. That's my theory and that's working for me.

Would it be better to do the water change after the lights go out since cyano seems to recede at that point? I imagine it’s in the water column right?

 

[brandon429]

good deal at least on a confirm on the vibrant

**UV

amazon/30 days return policy less stocking fees. your best bet. buy big, not the correct size, I can't enumerate the battles we won w them, reef central has lots logged under me. They have to be used with manual removal/key/oversized

I once returned a fancy amplifier I bought from amazon, and they didn't shut me down, because I paid them $$$ and kept most orders 98%. if a UV wows, keep it. if not, send back, easy. occasional returns are nbd, and stocking fees cover all requirements on under 30 days


Your sandbed will feed whats left in the water column right back. Sure there are many ways to win, but the ones that produce results you can find in threads are very tightly ran approaches, the rest are hit and miss, like when people claim their cyano went away when they let it reach critical mass. most of the pm's I get are people in critical mass long time, nothing changing, until we changed it.
at least UV can be returned if it doesn't do its job, rare in war implement selections yep.