Cyano med treatment. Woes

fatoldsun · 08/09/2012, 05:35 PM

I have an ongoing cyano issue that I attribute to excess phosphate. I'm thinking food may be the culprit put I'm not sure. I'm also a little behind on my GFO and GAC change schedule. I'm in the process of building an LED rig and I know my bulbs are old but given the LEDs coming I don't want buy new right now.

Here are some before shots:

I used this to try and beat back the cyano

-Chemiclean red slime remover

After 24 hours the cyano is substantially gone but I found this today
My blue tipped Staghorn

This is how it looked yesterday.

Everything else faired fine except the two frags of the Staghorn I had in the tank. I guess they didn't like the chemiclean.

jwoyshnar · 08/09/2012, 06:58 PM

Make sure you do a huge water change after 48 hours. Double the recommended amount.

yellowtail · 08/09/2012, 07:51 PM

+1 to the above. How long has the tank been running? Photoperiod? Feeding?

debincalif · 08/09/2012, 08:26 PM

I had a cyano bloom and after doing some research here I did the 3 day lights out method. You can do a search for it - it's the thread that Sk8r began. Anyway, it completely took care of the cyano and my fish and corals all look healthy. You might want to give it a try instead of using chemicals if you need to combat the cyano again.

Good luck!

ebushrow · 08/09/2012, 08:37 PM

I have used the chemiclean stuff before and as long as I followed the directions completely, I didnt have any losses.....I am not sure why you lost the frags but it sucks whenever we lose one....sorry to hear it

fatoldsun · 08/09/2012, 10:16 PM

Thought I followed them carefully. I even under-dosed since it was my first shot. I guess I needed even less
I did a 15% water change tonight and 20% tomorrow and hope to halt the reaction. At least the cyano's gone. Really the cyano had no reaction for 36 hours and the frag was fine the same time. The cyano started burning out about the same time the RTN started.

fatoldsun · 08/17/2012, 11:16 AM

an update of sorts...

I used the chemiclean last Tuesday or Wednesday (I think 8/7-8) so it's been about 11 days. The cyano is completely eviscerated. It's actually quite nice seeing the sand this clean.
As many might have expected, when I was testing for NO3 and PO4 I was getting readings of zero – likely because the cyano was consuming anything that was in the tank. My plan was to test the PO4 and NO3 after I was sure that there was no more cyano to consume it. On a separate note, as I reported earlier, several pieces of a particular SPS (blue tipped staghorn) bleached out after the treatment. My first thought was to question the safety of the chemiclean but upon further consideration, I think the problem was more that the cyano was consuming excess PO4 and NO3 and when the chemiclean wiped that out I was left with a somewhat inhospitable environment for that particular coral. I have since seen the demise of my favorite new frag – a small piece of montipora undata (brown with bright green polyps) and I was starting to see signs of excess phosphate so I started my testing. I’m using a hanna for PO4 and a RedSea kit for NO3. Last night PO4 was 0.07. (I also tested my new salt water to be used for my next PWC - that was 0.0 and last test was the output of my GFO reactor – also read 0.0) I then tested NO3 – much to my dismay, it had climbed from less than 0.25 (before treatment) to 0.50. That begged the question – what’s causing it to go up? Water change water is “clean” and the GFO is working. (I also run a reactor with bio-pellets and a reactor with GAC) I haven’t tested their outputs yet. I started thinking about what I add to my tank. Food (fish and coral) a mini cal calcium reactor and that’s it. No other dosing. Well I do occasionally use a bit of Kent ZooPlex or Kent PhytoPlex. Coral food is BRS reef chili. Fish food is a mix. New Spectrum pellets, nori sheets occasionally, occasionally Ocean Nutrition formula two, and my homemade food (consists of fresh shrimp, frozen mysis, bryne, blackworms, nori, fresh garlic (some new spectrum pellets to cover any missing vitamins) and one or two other frozen things that I can’t remember at the moment) blended and frozen in cubes. Well I tested some of my food for PO4. The new spectrum pellets I soaked overnight in tank water (next time I will use RO/Di and to save on reagent (since this will require a lot of testing) I used my API kit that I shelved when I got the hanna. My homemade came in at between 5 and 10 ppm. The new spectrum came in at between 1 and 2 ppm. I’ll continue testing everything I use in the tank and try and source the problem but obviously I’m getting PO4 in there somehow and I’d like to find the cause and avoid using the chemiclean band aid again since all that did was trade one problem (cyano) for another (high phosphates). Anyone have any thoughts on this? Any thoughts would be appreciated.....

08/09/2012, 05:35 PM	#1
fatoldsun Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 449	Cyano med treatment. Woes I have an ongoing cyano issue that I attribute to excess phosphate. I'm thinking food may be the culprit put I'm not sure. I'm also a little behind on my GFO and GAC change schedule. I'm in the process of building an LED rig and I know my bulbs are old but given the LEDs coming I don't want buy new right now. Here are some before shots: I used this to try and beat back the cyano -Chemiclean red slime remover After 24 hours the cyano is substantially gone but I found this today My blue tipped Staghorn This is how it looked yesterday. Everything else faired fine except the two frags of the Staghorn I had in the tank. I guess they didn't like the chemiclean.

08/09/2012, 08:26 PM	#4
debincalif Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Sacramento, California Posts: 397	I had a cyano bloom and after doing some research here I did the 3 day lights out method. You can do a search for it - it's the thread that Sk8r began. Anyway, it completely took care of the cyano and my fish and corals all look healthy. You might want to give it a try instead of using chemicals if you need to combat the cyano again. Good luck! __________________ 24g JBJ Nano, Kessil a360w, InTank Media Basket, Tunze 9002, VorTech MP10wES, ReefKeeper lite

08/17/2012, 11:16 AM	#7
fatoldsun Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 449	traded cyano problem for phosphate problem an update of sorts... I used the chemiclean last Tuesday or Wednesday (I think 8/7-8) so it's been about 11 days. The cyano is completely eviscerated. It's actually quite nice seeing the sand this clean. As many might have expected, when I was testing for NO3 and PO4 I was getting readings of zero – likely because the cyano was consuming anything that was in the tank. My plan was to test the PO4 and NO3 after I was sure that there was no more cyano to consume it. On a separate note, as I reported earlier, several pieces of a particular SPS (blue tipped staghorn) bleached out after the treatment. My first thought was to question the safety of the chemiclean but upon further consideration, I think the problem was more that the cyano was consuming excess PO4 and NO3 and when the chemiclean wiped that out I was left with a somewhat inhospitable environment for that particular coral. I have since seen the demise of my favorite new frag – a small piece of montipora undata (brown with bright green polyps) and I was starting to see signs of excess phosphate so I started my testing. I’m using a hanna for PO4 and a RedSea kit for NO3. Last night PO4 was 0.07. (I also tested my new salt water to be used for my next PWC - that was 0.0 and last test was the output of my GFO reactor – also read 0.0) I then tested NO3 – much to my dismay, it had climbed from less than 0.25 (before treatment) to 0.50. That begged the question – what’s causing it to go up? Water change water is “clean” and the GFO is working. (I also run a reactor with bio-pellets and a reactor with GAC) I haven’t tested their outputs yet. I started thinking about what I add to my tank. Food (fish and coral) a mini cal calcium reactor and that’s it. No other dosing. Well I do occasionally use a bit of Kent ZooPlex or Kent PhytoPlex. Coral food is BRS reef chili. Fish food is a mix. New Spectrum pellets, nori sheets occasionally, occasionally Ocean Nutrition formula two, and my homemade food (consists of fresh shrimp, frozen mysis, bryne, blackworms, nori, fresh garlic (some new spectrum pellets to cover any missing vitamins) and one or two other frozen things that I can’t remember at the moment) blended and frozen in cubes. Well I tested some of my food for PO4. The new spectrum pellets I soaked overnight in tank water (next time I will use RO/Di and to save on reagent (since this will require a lot of testing) I used my API kit that I shelved when I got the hanna. My homemade came in at between 5 and 10 ppm. The new spectrum came in at between 1 and 2 ppm. I’ll continue testing everything I use in the tank and try and source the problem but obviously I’m getting PO4 in there somehow and I’d like to find the cause and avoid using the chemiclean band aid again since all that did was trade one problem (cyano) for another (high phosphates). Anyone have any thoughts on this? Any thoughts would be appreciated.....

08/09/2012, 06:58 PM	#2
jwoyshnar Registered Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: 18441 Posts: 1,531	Make sure you do a huge water change after 48 hours. Double the recommended amount.

08/09/2012, 07:51 PM	#3
yellowtail Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 28	+1 to the above. How long has the tank been running? Photoperiod? Feeding?

08/09/2012, 08:37 PM	#5
ebushrow Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Plymouth Posts: 40	I have used the chemiclean stuff before and as long as I followed the directions completely, I didnt have any losses.....I am not sure why you lost the frags but it sucks whenever we lose one....sorry to hear it

08/09/2012, 10:16 PM	#6
fatoldsun Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 449	Thought I followed them carefully. I even under-dosed since it was my first shot. I guess I needed even less I did a 15% water change tonight and 20% tomorrow and hope to halt the reaction. At least the cyano's gone. Really the cyano had no reaction for 36 hours and the frag was fine the same time. The cyano started burning out about the same time the RTN started.