Suffocating Red Cyanobacteria

[Hallowhead]

Howdy,

I am fighting red cyanobacteria in the frag tank and just like the dino's in my display tank upstairs it's suffocating corals - especially the fresh frags. It grows a film over & than the zoanthids close up and don't open until I take a tooth brush and scrub the plug. This results in zero growth & it's very frustrating !!!!

I started just yesterday to add vibrant - but I am not sure if that's my best route.

 

[MTBake]

Going to follow along. Fighting one heck of a cyano bloom myself.

If I syphon it all out, it comes back a couple days later. I want to try chemiclean, but have heard horror stories of dino blooms afterwards. I hate dinos. I'd rather have the cyano.

I am taking another tank down this weekend. Going to add a couple more pumps to the one with the cyano issue to see if more flow helps.

Kinda hoping it dissipates as the tank ages.

 

[Hallowhead]

Going to follow along. Fighting one heck of a cyano bloom myself.

If I syphon it all out, it comes back a couple days later. I want to try chemiclean, but have heard horror stories of dino blooms afterwards. I hate dinos. I'd rather have the cyano.

I am taking another tank down this weekend. Going to add a couple more pumps to the one with the cyano issue to see if more flow helps.

Kinda hoping it dissipates as the tank ages.

I added flow directly on corals & it appeared to help a LOAD - I also ordered some additional loc-line ad-dons to direct more flow at coral. I lost a power head to keeping detritus off BB and in the water column.

 

[MTBake]

I added flow directly on corals & it appeared to help a LOAD - I also ordered some additional loc-line ad-dons to direct more flow at coral. I lost a power head to keeping detritus off BB and in the water column.

It does blow away easily. I'm thinking some more direct flow would help. I'm running 2 gyres in addition to my return in a 5ft tank. There's not a lot of flow across my sand bed and middle rock work. Going to add a couple Tunze down lower to help out this weekend.

 

[Hallowhead]

It does blow away easily. I'm thinking some more direct flow would help. I'm running 2 gyres in addition to my return in a 5ft tank. There's not a lot of flow across my sand bed and middle rock work. Going to add a couple Tunze down lower to help out this weekend.

wanna buy me one?

 

[ScottR]

Cyano is a bacteria and vibrant is bacterial strain as well. Vibrant is a heterotrophic bacteria. Pretty sure it won’t eat cyano but goes after algae. Something like chemiclean will get rid of it easily.

 

[Hallowhead]

Cyano is a bacteria and vibrant is bacterial strain as well. Vibrant is a heterotrophic bacteria. Pretty sure it won’t eat cyano but goes after algae. Something like chemiclean will get rid of it easily.

this is good information, as stated above though chemiclean caused dino's any experience?

 

[ScottR]

this is good information, as stated above though chemiclean caused dino's any experience?

Possibly on dinos. Cyano will suffocate everything. It killed off coralline for me so I’m assuming it killed off all microfauna and organisms. When cyano is gone, it leaves an empty clean slate which is a cue for dinos. If caught early, it can be controlled. If you let it be, cyano will take over anyway.

 

[Hallowhead]

Possibly on dinos. Cyano will suffocate everything. It killed off coralline for me so I’m assuming it killed off all microfauna and organisms. When cyano is gone, it leaves an empty clean slate which is a cue for dinos. If caught early, it can be controlled. If you let it be, cyano will take over anyway.

My plan is to try chemiclean & than dose nitrates & phosphates.

 

[ScottR]

My plan is to try chemiclean & than dose nitrates & phosphates.

If possible, I’d run a UV as well. Try to crush dinos before they have a chance to take hold.

 

[Hallowhead]

If possible, I’d run a UV as well. Try to crush dinos before they have a chance to take hold.

I am curious to the UV - are there any downsides?

 

[Dan_P]

Howdy,

I am fighting red cyanobacteria in the frag tank and just like the dino's in my display tank upstairs it's suffocating corals - especially the fresh frags. It grows a film over & than the zoanthids close up and don't open until I take a tooth brush and scrub the plug. This results in zero growth & it's very frustrating !!!!

I started just yesterday to add vibrant - but I am not sure if that's my best route.

R2R posts on the use of Vibrant would not lead me to conclude it was an effective anti-cyanobacteria product.

Why not ChemiClean and be done with it? Just curious.

 

[ScottR]

I am curious to the UV - are there any downsides?

It’ll kill things in the water column. Nitrifying bacteria tend to stay in rocks and such so you don’t need to worry about that. Many people constantly run UV on their tanks. I believe most strains of dinos will let go and go into the water column after lights are out and that’s where the UV hits them.

 

[Hallowhead]

It’ll kill things in the water column. Nitrifying bacteria tend to stay in rocks and such so you don’t need to worry about that. Many people constantly run UV on their tanks. I believe most strains of dinos will let go and go into the water column after lights are out and that’s where the UV hits them.

I guess ill get the IM aqua shield for my 30 AIO. As for my frag tank... idk yet.

 

[Keen4]

Cyano is a bacteria and vibrant is bacterial strain as well. Vibrant is a heterotrophic bacteria. Pretty sure it won’t eat cyano but goes after algae. Something like chemiclean will get rid of it easily.

Vibrant didnt help my cyano issue at all. My LFS guy told me not to ever use vibrant because my zoas hate it.

 

[ScottR]

Vibrant didnt help my cyano issue at all. My LFS guy told me not to ever use vibrant because my zoas hate it.

Vibrant is a bacteria and cyano is a bacteria. They won’t eat each other.

 

[FindingPonyo]

Howdy,

I am fighting red cyanobacteria in the frag tank and just like the dino's in my display tank upstairs it's suffocating corals - especially the fresh frags. It grows a film over & than the zoanthids close up and don't open until I take a tooth brush and scrub the plug. This results in zero growth & it's very frustrating !!!!

I started just yesterday to add vibrant - but I am not sure if that's my best route.

You should take a picture. Also I wouldn’t recommend using a toothbrush.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Tegula snails eat cyano but will need quite a few to make a dent. Maybe one per each cubic half foot of used tank space, act like trochus stick to just glass and rockwork.

You can use chemiclean at lower doses than it states as well. Will act much slower, say 1/4 of what it says to use but increase flow in the tank the same or 50% more than normal. Breaking the surface tension as much as possible will help greatly with many of its side effects. The dino issue, two things id do after the cyano fades, track po4 and no3 closely and no harm in using a small uv for 6 months while the microfauna repopulate In the tank.

 

[Naturalreef]

Cyano could be caused by a nutrient imbalance or by excessive organics. Don’t look at vibrant as eating cyano, look at vibrant as eating excessive organics which fuels cyano. So if you have excessive organics, vibrant will work as long as you don’t overdose. It gave me bright, clean sand like the tank was on day one. If it’s a nutrient imbalance, you might need to dose nitrates. The only way to tell is by testing your parameters. Test your sandbed for excessive organics, by stirring a small patch and see if it quickly clouds the water.