Serious Cyano: Chemiclean safe for fish?

[MaidOfDishonor]

Husband and I are newbies. We have a 29 gallon nano that has a serious cyano outbreak (we didn't know the red stuff was bad! :frusty: But our Middle Tennessee Reef Club explained that cyano=BAD. The rocks are covered in it and have air bubbles. Some of the sand even has red on it. It's way out of control but we just didn't know any better. :frusty: :cry: The good news is that we have NO coral, it's a FOWLR tank. I heard that makes it easier.

So my question: Is it safe to put the Chemiclean in the tank and run it with the fish still in it? Will it hurt the fish? The box doesn't mention this. I have two juvenile Oscili clowns, a high fin cardinal, a royal gramma, a clown goby and a yellow watchman goby.

It says on the box to remove the "chemi-pure" what is that? Is that the ceramic rings bio filter we're using? If so, what do we do with it for two days? Should we just keep it in a bucket of salt water?

Please help. My husband is so frustrated he just wants to sell both of our tanks and I'm in love with this hobby.

Kate

 

[tupes]

Follow the directions on the box and everything including your fish will be just fine. Chemi-pure is a brand of carbon. The ceramic rings you can pull out also or leave them in. Turn off your skimmer and add a bubbler for added oxygen to your tank.

The ceramic rings, you actually can pull those out all together. And keep up with water changes. I dont know of anyone that uses them in their tank. Those are mainly for fresh water but they cant hurt either.

What are the parameters of your tank.

Sent from my Note II

 

[MaidOfDishonor]

Nitrates are elevated.

I'll follow directions on box but it's odd that it doesn't mention fish at all.

I don't have a skimmer, it's an aio setup. Was working quite nicely before the husband got some bad advice and washed the green algae off the rocks in tap water. I heard tap water can cause a cyano outbreak?

Do I need a bubbler if I keep the tank (including the built in filter) running? It puts out quite the flow of water.

 

[Wrx5803]

I believe u are talking about chemiclean. The little jar of white powder. Not chemipure as the other post said. Fallow the directions and do the water change as it says. You can try to angle your power heads up to break the surface more if you are worried. I have used this many times and never had anything die. If you still have any lefy which I doubt u will keep your lights off for 24 hours and tape newspaper to the sides of your tank.

 

[Mike J.]

Here's a good article about Red Slime Algae.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/redfish/Redfish_Magazine_2012_November_Usa.pdf

 

[Reefing Madness]

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/melevsreef/129946-cyanobacteria-bacteria-issues.html

 

[MaidOfDishonor]

I called the company a few minutes ago. The fish and my anemone will be fine. But since it's so bad, I'm supposed to pre-treat the rock by putting it in a bucket with the chemiclean and a powerhead. Then after a day or two put the rock back into the tank and chemiclean the whole tank.

I'm gonna nuke that cyano!

 

[greg0385]

Just use a turkey baster to blow as much off the rocks as possible. Then do a 20% water change to suck as much as you can off the sand and the cyno that you blew off the rocks.

Then treat the tank with chemi clean and do another 20% water change in 48hours after treatment.

You may have to this several times but you should be after to defeat this problem in a week or two.

Make sure not to overfeed your fish and have good flow. Dont have your lights on too long and have good bulbs and you should be fine.

I have used chemicleam in the past with no problems with my fish, coral and inverts.

Good luck

 

[beaslbob]

I would kill the lights and stop adding food until the cyano dies off.

then resume with less lighting and feeding and adjust so the cyano stays away.

I would not use any chemicals to fight it.


my .02

 

[clownfitch]

I had a serious outbreak in my 29g nano and just left the lights off for 48 hours. Followed with a water change and it never came back. It needs light to flourish.

 

[shred5]

Dont use chemi clean.
You washed your live rock in freshwater you need to go through your cycle again. There will be lots of die off.
Cycno is a bacteria that lives on nutrients just like algae.

 

[MaidOfDishonor]

OK, update. Cyano is under control. I took the really badly covered rock and put it in a bucket with saltwater and a powerhead and chemiclean for two days as a prewash cycle. Then I put the rock back in the tank and used chemiclean in the tank for two days. Fish are fine. Anemones are fine. I can't keep the lights off because my anemones don't do well without light.