Cyano (red) outbreak... what will eat it? Seahares?

[jdieck]

I doubt you will find chemiclean on a store, I had to mail order it.
In any case most of the damage of the cyano long term will be done to the coraline, the sponges if you have and the poor snails that will have less and less area to feed on. In addition. covering the sand bed calls for some potential problems with die off sand critters, Try to vacuum as much cyano as you can until you find the source of the problem and trat with the chemiclean.
I tried to be as detailed as possible above as to covering all the bases for finding a solution to the source.
Keeping your alkalinity higher is only one of many.

Good Luck!

[kayakrob]

Thank you, so it wont immedietly destroy my corals (two leathers,polyps,button pollyps,metalic plate) or my fish. Whew! but is it as impossible to get rid of as it sounds?? thank you for the help!
Any suggestions on where to order it from??

[Saltz Creep]

Originally posted by Reefmaniac1
Personally, I have never witnessed a turbo snail eat cyano. They tend to stay away from it like the plague...mostly because cyano is toxic. The pigment that the bacteria uses for photosynthesis is a form of cyanide (hence the name cyanobacteria) and is usuall toxic to just about everything.

I disgree. Turbos don't eat it because it's not algae.

Also, you are spreading some misinformation that may cause uneccesary worry among reefkeepers. Cyanobacteria is named for the photosynthetic pigment phycocyanin which DOES NOT contain cyanide. Cyan means "blue" as in the family of primative blue-green algaes of which cyanobacteria was originally classified. The toxic substance cyanide was named because a common form of it was a ferric-cyanide dye called Prussian Blue. Cyan simply means "blue", and there is no relation between cyanobacteria's blue pigment phycocyanin and cyanide (C=N) . Research it yourself.

[Reefmaniac1]

Originally posted by Saltz Creep
I disgree. Turbos don't eat it because it's not algae.

Also, you are spreading some misinformation that may cause uneccesary worry among reefkeepers. Cyanobacteria is named for the photosynthetic pigment phycocyanin which DOES NOT contain cyanide. Cyan means "blue" as in the family of primative blue-green algaes of which cyanobacteria was originally classified. The toxic substance cyanide was named because a common form of it was a ferric-cyanide dye called Prussian Blue. Cyan simply means "blue", and there is no relation between cyanobacteria's blue pigment phycocyanin and cyanide (C=N) . Research it yourself.

I am well aware of what "cyan" means. But, if "there is no relation between cyanobacteria's blue pigment phycocyanin and cyanide" is true, then what I was taught in zoology about the basic structure of the pigment is wrong. This could be the case as it wouldn't be the first time a text book had inaccuracies.

However, cyanobacteria are still toxic:

"Cyanobacterial toxins are the naturally produced poisons stored in the cells of certain species of cyanobacteria. These toxins fall into various categories. Some are known to attack the liver (hepatotoxins) or the nervous system (neurotoxins); others simply irritate the skin. These toxins are usually released into water when the cells rupture or die...Very few cyanobacterial toxins have actually been isolated and characterized to date. "

So, you should still be wary of cyano blooms in your tank.

[jdieck]

Originally posted by kayakrob
Thank you, so it wont immedietly destroy my corals (two leathers,polyps,button pollyps,metalic plate) or my fish. Whew! but is it as impossible to get rid of as it sounds?? thank you for the help!
Any suggestions on where to order it from??

Try this ones, one might be able to ship to Canada.

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/.../5600/cid/1546

http://www.customaquatic.com/customa...xid=fi-mbfm-cm

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...Np=1&N=0&Nty=1

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=BE1115

[rockster]

"OK, do not vacuum the sand, test it instead. Just use a 1/4 plastic rigid pipe with a hose. Insert it to the bottom of the sand and siphon small amount of water. See what comes out and decide."

listen, I do not want to sound like the know-it-all, but, stop worrying about the sand bed. do not insert anything...

listen. if you simply use patience and watch what you are doing, all will work out fine.

CHEMI CLEAN

Chemi Clean does not just simply KILL the cyano, it EATS IT UP.. along with other organics.

the water change is more for diluting the left over chemi clean than anything else..

follow insructions

after treatment we do a 20% water change and run our carbon and skimmer

now, once that is done, then WATCH YOUR ADDITION OF FOODS!!

I STILL BELIEVE THIS IS THE CAUSE

your sand bed will build up the correct bacteria load to deal with extra input loads...

a stable ALK, PH and CALCIUM parameter is what you want...

remember, high alk also breaks phosphates down,,,

good water flow keeps dead zones from collecting organics..

as far as toxins, we have never lost any animals due to cyano, it is simple to remove with chemi clean , then one simply records the additions of ORGANICS.

the simply fllow what "jdieck" wrote above in these LETTERS:

c
d
e
g
h
j

and you will be fine.


oh, chemi clean is manufactured by
Boyd Enterprises Online

and the reason I like it is because not only does it work, and not harm animals, but you should read about Boyd Enterprises..

the man who started the company had a 3000 gallon reef for 19 years before almost EVERYONE on this form even knew about a reef.. and even before many of the professionals were out of collage or highschool!

in fact, he, along with three others, STARTED THE FIRST Aquarium Society in the US in 1955...

say YO...

[SaCe]

Very helpful information here! I recently started having trouble with this as well. I'm a bit hesitant to add a product (chemi-clean) to address the situation, but I'll do some research on it to see how safe I feel it is.

I'm thinking in my case it's been caused by lack of water movement towards the bottom of the tank (a good share of the problem seems to be the sand bed) and probably over feeding.

I feed only once a day, but have such a variety of critters that I probably feed to much.

[lakee911]

Good 'ole bump for the good info!

[Emo]

Wow! talk about back from the dead

On the earlier discussions of siphoning cyano off the sand: theres nothing wrong with this practice. I think some earlier posters were confusing vacuuming the sandbed with siphoning cyano off of the sandbed.

[Joe LoPresti]

For my cyano outbreak, I employed all three methods mentioned in the following order:
1) I tried siphoning off the sand bed, this was quite a battle and I never seemed to get ahead
2) Then I used Chemi-clean. I was REALLY hesitant about adding a chemical to my tank because of the corals, but I watched the tank closely, followed the directions completely and this seemed to work (for a while) I do have to admit, it took care of any other stray algae I had too
3) Finally I decided to re-design my reef for better overall flow and I also increased the water flow. I had 6 powerheads of all different types, I replaced these with two Tunze 6025's and a Hydor Koralia 3. No more cyano and the corals seem so much happier!!!!!

[grandPOOBAH]

Siphoning out most of the cyano and then using Maracyn-two is a great way to "nuke" the stuff. cutting down on all the promoting factors is a must as well, but we use the maracyn all the time at the store I work at and it works better than chemi-clean. water flow is a great help as well. That's the problem at our store: too many nutrients and poor flow

[m2434]

Just read this thread.... Why do I have this feeling that there are some Boyd enterprise reps in the house?