STUPID cyano

[Joe0813]

Gaaah i cant seem to get rid of this stuff... ive been battling it since october. I know it cant be flow... i have a 75 gallon reef ready with a mag 7 a Mp40 and a mp10... I'm no expert but that seems plenty... It cant be lighting. i have a 6 bulb t5... actinics on at 10am off at 9pm, whites on at 11am off at 8pm then the moon lights come on at 9pm turn off at 6am. I only feed a pinch a day to two clowns, a mystery wrasse and a watchmen goby. and then once a week i feed my corals cyclopeez. I have a sump with a fuge. Ive tried the lights off for 3-4 days but it doesnt totally kill it so it just comes back. I suck most of it up during waterchanges and then a few days go by and there it is. oh and my tank is one month away from being a year old.


phosphates and nitrates are zero but im guessing thats because my cyano friend is taking it all

[ImNotLion]

What kind of water are you using? RO/DI or straight from the tap?

The best way to combat cyano is doing regular water changes with good water, using a phosban reactor or GFO can help. You basically need to figure out where the excess nutrients are coming from and eliminate them. they will slowly starve out.

[Joe0813]

Im using RODI with zero tds.... I have a phosban reactor that i change the pellets out every 6 weeks or even sooner... I do 15 gallon water changes every other week. should i switch and do weekly water changes?

[Gary Majchrzak]

nobody has mentioned protein skimming yet, have they?

is your reef octopus 1000sss operating properly?

[Gary Majchrzak]

amazing how lighting always gets blamed.

Bring SG up to 1.026 (with an accurate reliable device) and stop the Cyclopeeze

[Joe0813]

sorry yes i am skimming... and i have stopped the cyclopeeze... my sg right now is 1025 and im doing a 15 gallon water change tomorrow after work so i can bump it up to .026

[msaba]

Do you have a sandbed and how deep and old is it? I always had a 2inch bed with perfect readings and difficulty with rs algae until I removed it. I was not up to the maintenance and replacement required to maintain a shallow bed....

[Joe0813]

the sandbed is around 3 inches ... its about a year old now. next month the tank will be running for a year

[smy168]

I think lighting plays a small role, Cyano lives by photosynthesis as well, I don't think it's the lighting you use but I think how long you have the lights on plays a part. When I had my first cyano outbreak in the 90s, I did all the chemical and water changes that was advised...nuthin. So my methods are:
*increase Flow
*cut down feeding
*cut down light duration
*sock of chemi-clean

You never really get rid of cyano completely but it helps control it a bit.

Good Luck

[erock68]

You mentioned your lighting schedule....all that you have are actinics and whites (besides your moonlites)?

This could be the source.

[msaba]

My bias here is that you siphon off your sandbed in stages and replace it, 3 inches is phosphate trap despite your readings...

There is also ultra life red slime remover which is considered reef safe and at least a temporary fix to keep the red slime under control

make sure and turn off your skimmer for a few days when using

[ACBlinky]

I too get frustrated with cyano, but remember you're fighting against a VERY resourceful, primitive life form with millions of years of adaptation/evolution behind it. Without cyanobacteria, none of us would be here, so you have to give the slime some credit -- it's ugly in an aquarium, but it's amazing stuff!

Siphon it off as much as you can, reduce N and P to as close to zero as possible, increase the flow if you're able (or change the pattern), and try to outcompete it with macroalgae if you have a refugium.

[Gary Majchrzak]

I no longer get frustrated by Cynobacteria. Of course it needs light! Depending on environmental conditions and species, it might need a lot of light or a little light. Cyano can grow inches under breaking waves in full sunshine or way down below the surface in heavy blue light.
To control cyano in a reef aquarium maintain optimal lighting for corals and go after cyano nutrients in the water. Stop blaming the lights.
Reefkeeping will get simpler.

[thebkramer]

it can be a real PITA!!! I battled for over a year.. and mine was at plague proportions IMO!!!

If you don't find the source of the problem.. no matter what you do.. it will keep coming back. it can be beyond flustering.. but you can get past it!!!!

I finally stopped keeping it as my dirty little secret lol and asked RC for help! this is what I did/would do: when doing a water change.. I would take what rock you can out and scrub them in a bucket with sw. Attempt to suck up what you can off of sandbed. (if you do not clean your sandbed during w/c.. then don't disturb it too much!!!) I would do lights out once a month for a few months. and I would also run GFO and some Polyfilter. I did w/c every few days (about 15-20%) for about a month. I also cut back on my feeding and what I was feeding. I changed out my lighting (my bulbs were old) and did more of a wet skim. I saw improvement fairly quickly.. yes I would see small patches of cyano come back.. but with lots of tlc.. it has gone away!!! yAy!!
Every tank is different.. but I do believe you can beat this!!!

Have you checked out Sk8rs Info on Cyano and More Cyano by SK8r ???
Lots of Great Info there!!!

Good Luck to you!!! I hope you beat it!! and Ask lots of questions if you need to!!!!

-Rhonda

[Gary Majchrzak]

I remember your cyano thread Things are better?



There's some good advice in that thread. Not all of it is good.
At the point cyano is proliferating it's actually helping to keep N and P down in an aquarum by acting as a scrubber.
It's an indicator that nutrient levels must be limited (reduced) and nutrient export (removal) must be increased.
There's lots of ways to do this. I would not recommend messing with the lights to control cyano.

[thebkramer]

Originally Posted by Gary Majchrzak

I remember your cyano thread Things are better?

There's some good advice in that thread. Not all of it is good.
At the point cyano is proliferating it's actually helping to keep N and P down in an aquarum by acting as a scrubber.
It's an indicator that nutrient levels must be limited (reduced) and nutrient export (removal) must be increased.
There's lots of ways to do this. I would not recommend messing with the lights to control cyano.

Gary! lol
I remember you too!! You were one of the nice supporters with my situation!!!!

Yes! Things are much better!! No more Cyano Migraines!!
and I remember you not being a fan of lights out too. which I can fully understand!! but it did help me get ahead of it. I don't think I will do it again only because of my PLTA. last two times I did lights out.. it only ticked him off and by day 2 he was on the move. so no more lights out for me!!! I don't need to find him wrapped up in my powerheads

Which reminds me Joe0813. I also upped my water flow and placement of powerheads!!! make sure you have no dead spots!!!

[fishy888]

I seem to recall having read that a higher alk is a deterrant to cyano. Dunno but it seems to be helping me. I have been battling it but there is a section of the display where I let it grow and harvest bits of it when it gets too large. It was also at plague proportions for me then it settled down to where it grows an inch more in diameter in a week to two weeks. I do know that depending on the rock there could be phosphates leached back into the water. One other thing that might help you is an algae turf scrubber. I am going to make one once we move this summer.

[kissman]

I had the same problem. I started running the HC GFO from BRS in a Phosban Reactor. I cleaned all the Cyano out that I could get, did a 3 days lights out. When I cut the lights back on the Cyano was dead. I started running twice the recommened amount of HC GFO and changed it out every 2 weeks. Never ran it longer until the Cyano was gone. Now you have to be careful because you can strip the water to fast. I think what I accomplished was that by running twice the amount the HC GFO consumed the PO4 before the cyano could take hold. I have been Cyano free ever since.

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally Posted by fishy888

One other thing that might help you is an algae turf scrubber. I am going to make one once we move this summer.

sure an algae turf scrubber can help. But IME I've used protein skimmers to starve out turf scrubbers. Protein skimming is is the elephant gun when fighting cyano.
SG 1.026 and a properly sized properly operating skimmer will take care of many cyano plagues.

[slajiness]

I'm fighting this crap now.

[megadeth72]

with lots of biopellet reactors on the market now, I'm surprised these cyno threads pop up so much

[Stolireef]

Hey Gary:

It's Stoli from the old days in Rochester. Out hear in sunny AZ and back in the hobby.

OP, another weapon in the cyano arsenal is low dose vodka. The carbon dosing will help other bacteria in the tank outcompete the cyano for nutrients. It worked wonders for me with an awful GHA outbreak.

The hardest part of dosing was that the GHA was taking up all of the nutrients in the water so fast that test kits were useless. I just started at a low level and slowing increased until I noticed a decline in the GHA. Once it was gone, I reduced the dosing to a very low maintenance level and no GHA or cyano.

Not sure it's a magic bullet, but I doubt it would hurt anything.

[voidg]

We just setup our first reef tank last November and are just over coming our cyano problem. While our root causes may be different, I think mine was caused by rap water and extra silicate in the sand bed, I can tell you what we did to get over it.

1) we had no live stock so we did a massive 80%+ water change
2) i started wet skimming like crazy
3) started daily cyano removal using a plastic fork to rake the sand bed
4) weekly sand bed vacuuming in the trouble areas
5) twice weekly water changes: small change mid week 5% bigger change on the weekend 10%
6) kept the tank as clean as possible

[TucanSam007]

The weird thing for me is that I get absolutely no cyano in my display, but I have it constantly growing in with my chaeto in the sump and it looks horrible. Helps keep my nutrients dead low though .

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally Posted by Stolireef

Hey Gary:

It's Stoli from the old days in Rochester. Out hear in sunny AZ and back in the hobby.

OP, another weapon in the cyano arsenal is low dose vodka. The carbon dosing will help other bacteria in the tank outcompete the cyano for nutrients. It worked wonders for me with an awful GHA outbreak.

The hardest part of dosing was that the GHA was taking up all of the nutrients in the water so fast that test kits were useless. I just started at a low level and slowing increased until I noticed a decline in the GHA. Once it was gone, I reduced the dosing to a very low maintenance level and no GHA or cyano.

Not sure it's a magic bullet, but I doubt it would hurt anything.

I saw that username pop up on the reply and I couldn't believe it!
How's it goin?

The carbon dosing thing... that's what the other fellow was mentioning with biopellets.