Losing the battle to Cyano

  • Thread starter Thread starter Leyth
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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?
No. Best time is in the evening about an hour before lights out. Then you can siphon the mats out. Also using an air line with a ridged tube can get the little spots you miss without removing a lot of water. Anything that floats in the water column at night should be trapped in floss or socks.
 
I would defiantly suggest removing as much as possible manually. I had a huge problem (I’m convinced it has something to do with my sand and changing it would be a nightmare!)
I removed a bunch right before a water change with my bare hands which worked better than syphoning it out. It really come up quite nicely in mats. Once I removed a large portion believe it or not it basically disappeared. I mean it still comes back here and there but never a huge issue. I also cut the white on my LEDs by half which I think really helped.
Are you dosing NOPOX? When I was I got it real bad! That along with cyno
 
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.
+1 on chaeto

I see your nitrates are at a decent level, but Phosphate is very low (zero). There are articles out there suggesting that low nutrient environments are breeding grounds for cyano. They out-compete other micro fauna under those conditions.

I implemented an algae refugium (ulva and chaeto) and dramatically reduced the bubble algae in my 135 gal DT (mixed coral, medium fish stock, heavy feeding, deep sand bed, SB Reeflights + 2 Jabeo wave pumps) and saw some reduction of bubble in my detritus laden frag tubs connected to the DT.

Then, my Nitrate and Phosphate fell to non-detect levels (Red Sea Pro and Hanna ULR). That's when cyano started showing up on my sand bed and low flow regions of my live rock. I did siphon the sand 2-5 times in those regions to try to pull trapped detritus out. I removed much of the detritus from my frag tubs. That helped to remove about 80% of the cyano from the DT with several live rock spots remaining and one spot on the sand. After seeing the BRSTV episode on ULM pertaining to nitrate dosing, I decided to dose nitrate, Ca(NO3)2 and phosphate, Na3PO4, on a daily basis with a dosing pump. About a week later, my sand is free of cyano and it is slowly fading from my live rock and is mostly gone from my frag tubs. My phosphate is now about 0.040 ppm-PO4 (13 ppb-Pi) but my NO3 is still non-detect. I know NO3 is in there because I'm adding it everyday, but something (algae, coral, other) are consuming it.

My recommendation: add macro algae (e.g. chaeto), bring phosphates up by first stopping phosban and if necessary implement regular PO4 dosing. You don't need a lot of PO4, just try to hit 5-10 ppb-Pi (0.015 - 0.30 ppm-PO4). Your nitrate is probably fine where it is, but chaeto will probably take it down low.
 
Also, I did the cyano vs spirulina test. It's definitely cyano based on that test.

I’ve never understood this thing people have about spirulina, which is a Cyanobacteria species.

You might as well test your yellow tang to see if it is a tang or a fish. [emoji23][emoji23]
 
No. Best time is in the evening about an hour before lights out. Then you can siphon the mats out. Also using an air line with a ridged tube can get the little spots you miss without removing a lot of water. Anything that floats in the water column at night should be trapped in floss or socks.

Gotcha, thank you. I will start doing this then.

I would defiantly suggest removing as much as possible manually. I had a huge problem (I’m convinced it has something to do with my sand and changing it would be a nightmare!)
I removed a bunch right before a water change with my bare hands which worked better than syphoning it out. It really come up quite nicely in mats. Once I removed a large portion believe it or not it basically disappeared. I mean it still comes back here and there but never a huge issue. I also cut the white on my LEDs by half which I think really helped.
Are you dosing NOPOX? When I was I got it real bad! That along with cyno

Nope, I bought NOPOX today, but I have been hesitant to use it. I read some people had cyano blooms because of it.

+1 on chaeto

I see your nitrates are at a decent level, but Phosphate is very low (zero). There are articles out there suggesting that low nutrient environments are breeding grounds for cyano. They out-compete other micro fauna under those conditions.

I implemented an algae refugium (ulva and chaeto) and dramatically reduced the bubble algae in my 135 gal DT (mixed coral, medium fish stock, heavy feeding, deep sand bed, SB Reeflights + 2 Jabeo wave pumps) and saw some reduction of bubble in my detritus laden frag tubs connected to the DT.

Then, my Nitrate and Phosphate fell to non-detect levels (Red Sea Pro and Hanna ULR). That's when cyano started showing up on my sand bed and low flow regions of my live rock. I did siphon the sand 2-5 times in those regions to try to pull trapped detritus out. I removed much of the detritus from my frag tubs. That helped to remove about 80% of the cyano from the DT with several live rock spots remaining and one spot on the sand. After seeing the BRSTV episode on ULM pertaining to nitrate dosing, I decided to dose nitrate, Ca(NO3)2 and phosphate, Na3PO4, on a daily basis with a dosing pump. About a week later, my sand is free of cyano and it is slowly fading from my live rock and is mostly gone from my frag tubs. My phosphate is now about 0.040 ppm-PO4 (13 ppb-Pi) but my NO3 is still non-detect. I know NO3 is in there because I'm adding it everyday, but something (algae, coral, other) are consuming it.

My recommendation: add macro algae (e.g. chaeto), bring phosphates up by first stopping phosban and if necessary implement regular PO4 dosing. You don't need a lot of PO4, just try to hit 5-10 ppb-Pi (0.015 - 0.30 ppm-PO4). Your nitrate is probably fine where it is, but chaeto will probably take it down low.

I'm not running phosban or any type of GFO. The reactor that is going to be used to house the chaeto or macro algae has already been running. However, it's full of green algae. Is this essentially an algae scrubber at this point? Would it still be a good idea to add chaeto in it?

I’ve never understood this thing people have about spirulina, which is a Cyanobacteria species.

You might as well test your yellow tang to see if it is a tang or a fish. [emoji23][emoji23]

Well, I read that cyano can be treated with h2o2 but spirulina can't so it's worth finding out which it is before trying that treatment.

In desperation about cyano, an antibiotic like erythromycin can do the trick, but before that there may be better options such as more organic export.

Yea, I read about that as well. I haven't looked into it yet as I really feel that there is an obvious fix for my issue that I am close to finding.
 
Well, I read that cyano can be treated with h2o2 but spirulina can't so it's worth finding out which it is before trying that treatment.

What did you do to tell what species it was?

If you just added hydrogen peroxide to it to see what it did, IMO, that is a susceptibility test, not a species identification test. That's a fine test to do, but I don't believe that cyano species can be identified this way.

If you found it susceptible, are you planning to treat that way?
 
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What did you do to tell what species it was?

If you just added hydrogen peroxide to it to see what it did, IMO, that is a susceptibility test, not a species identification test. That's a fine test to do, but I don't believe that cyano species can be identified this way.

If you found it susceptible, are you planning to treat that way?

Yea, I just added peroxide to it and the water turned pink and it turned green. I think I might give this approach a try, it seems to have worked for many others and seems less dangerous than some of the other methods. What do you think?
 
Yea, I just added peroxide to it and the water turned pink and it turned green. I think I might give this approach a try, it seems to have worked for many others and seems less dangerous than some of the other methods. What do you think?

I don’t know if it’s safer than erythromycin antibiotic, but if the cyano is bad, it’s a fine option.

Long term, you may want to modify the tank husbandry somehow if it may just come back. [emoji3]
 
I don’t know if it’s safer than erythromycin antibiotic, but if the cyano is bad, it’s a fine option.

Long term, you may want to modify the tank husbandry somehow if it may just come back. [emoji3]

It seems to be the path less travelled in comparison to peroxide dosing though. I haven't seen many reports of peroxide dosing going badly for anyone. I wish I knew which husbandry habits I am doing that are wrong :(
 
I had the same issue until I used chemiclean. Highly recommend it and did not have any adverse reactions to coral or fish. Only draw back is the skimmer working like crazy.
 
I am holding my ground but like you, I am struggling. I believe it is part of the new tank uglies, as I’ve heard it called as my tank is only four months old. Cyano is light on the sand bed. I am doing GFO and 10% water changes every week. I can reduce the light and it reduces as well. However, I can bring up the lights and almost watch the cyano grow in front of me.
 
It seems to be the path less travelled in comparison to peroxide dosing though. I haven't seen many reports of peroxide dosing going badly for anyone. I wish I knew which husbandry habits I am doing that are wrong :(

IMO, the reason these sometimes go wrong may have more to do with toxin released from the dead cyano than the method of killing itself. Cyanotoxins are well known problems in the ocean when cyanobacteria die.
 
Just did a Chemiclean on my 850 gallon sps reef.....Zero bad side effects. All Cyno gone in 48 hours. No Color loss, no tissue loss. Can't be happier with Boyds Chemiclean - I used the 900 gallon single dose.
 
Just did a Chemiclean on my 850 gallon sps reef.....Zero bad side effects. All Cyno gone in 48 hours. No Color loss, no tissue loss. Can't be happier with Boyds Chemiclean - I used the 900 gallon single dose.

Despite the Boyd claims, folks should realize that product is erythromycin. That doesn't make it bad, I'm just clarifying. :)
 
I wish I knew which husbandry habits I am doing that are wrong :(

L
its the sandbed causing most of the issue
 
Hey would you ever consider siphoning it out in stages, relatively low work actually as you do upcoming water changes to keep on top of mat removal? That at least systematically reduces feed, and invader, and we put it back later after it's sun baked dried n rinsed

After tank cyano was beaten

Neat little changeup to consider too in brainstorming. I have three message tankers right now removing sand to prep for battle, it was bcarl77's idea for his own system and I'm relaying it out to others since his after pics look so nice

Yank bed/option

Wage war on easy bare bottom setup

After tank behavior good, use new or clean sand if any to be put back. I think one of em is staying bare bottom.
 
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I have read that fox face can eat bubble algae.
 

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