Killing/removing Cyano

[minibowmatt]

hey all, I need to kick my cyano problem. It is the stringy red/brown kind. It blows off easily, floats around, and then settles again onto something different. I am doing 30% water changes about every 3 days to try to remove the excess nutrient. I have a good clean up crew with astreas, margaritas and blue leg hermits. This is a 10G prop tank with eggcrate so when it blows around, it gets below the eggcrate and i cant siphon it out
Heres the system:
drilled 10g
16G sump/fuge with AquaC Urchin on a Mag3
Cheato and 12# LR and 2" LS in fuge
175MH on the tank, 32WPC 10K on the fuge
mag 7 return at 40" head pressure (about 500GPH at tank i figure)
MJ 606 (150GPH) PH in tank. I dont dose anything. all my tests are good nothing is registering, corals look great, Salinity is 1.026 (i use reef crystals salt)

I have done everything short of a blackout period, which I didnt want to do for fear of losing corals... what else should/could I be doing? I also would rather not use one of those slime away chemicals... But what about adding a phosban reactor with mixed media- phosguard,carbon, and/or chemipure....?
Thanx!

 

[Dante]

I understand Chemiclean clean works very well with no adverse affects to your tank. It's about $12 for a package that treats 300G at your LFS.

 

[Anonymous]

I understand Chemiclean clean works very well with no adverse affects to your tank. It's about $12 for a package that treats 300G at your LFS.

The only issue with this is that you're dealing with the symptom instead of the problem... and it kills the good bacteria as well.

Are you using RO? Usually it's a Phosphate/high nutrient issue. Measure your phosphates. Then check your lighting...when was the last time you changed your bulbs?

 

[minibowmatt]

phosphates are unmeasurable. My ro TDS is 1. I installed some filter pads in the baffles of the sump I am going to baste the hell out of the tank and manual remove it with via the pads. I am also going to do a couple larger WC...If it comes back, its the LR, which was cooked for three months...

 

[Dante]

The only issue with this is that you're dealing with the symptom instead of the problem... and it kills the good bacteria as well.

I agree you eventually need to find the root cause. Remember that Cyanobacteria is.....a bacteria. Although phospahtes and high TDS may feed it they are not the cause. My understanding of Chemiclean is that, unlike Erythromycin and other broad spectrum antibiotics, it is targetted at Cyanobacteria and will not harm beneficial bacteria. Please correct me if this is not true. There have been many reports of people having no recurrance of Cyano after even one dose (your results may vary). I am going to try it in my own tank next week. I'll let you know how it works. 8)

 

[impur]

The only issue with this is that you're dealing with the symptom instead of the problem... and it kills the good bacteria as well.

I agree you eventually need to find the root cause. Remember that Cyanobacteria is.....a bacteria. Although phospahtes and high TDS may feed it they are not the cause. My understanding of Chemiclean is that, unlike Erythromycin and other broad spectrum antibiotics, it is targetted at Cyanobacteria and will not harm beneficial bacteria. Please correct me if this is not true. There have been many reports of people having no recurrance of Cyano after even one dose (your results may vary). I am going to try it in my own tank next week. I'll let you know how it works. 8)

My first post here, but i have experience with cyno. I treated my tank for redbugs and that resulted in a cyno outbreak. Most of the info i've read on cyno is pure speculation IMO, including it being some sort of nutrient problem. My tank was cyno free for 18 months, I added interceptor, and bam a cyno problem. So i do not fully believe most of the statements regarding cyno causes. I'm not expert and this is purely speculation on my part.

Now on to how i solved my cyno problem. I tried everything that has ever been suggested to cure cyno. All of it. Even the blackout period. It was back in 4 hours. I researched for days on end, tried all the suggestions. I simply did not want to use chemicals. After 4 months, i was at my wits end and purchased some Chemi-Clean. WOW.......this is great stuff. I added the recommended dosage, added an airstone, turned off the skimmer, and left the tank for 36 hours. At the 6 hour mark every trace of cyno was gone. Throughout the treatment not a single coral, fish, hermit, shirmp or snail looked stress. Its now been 5 months, i've had no problems at all in my tank and have not seen a trace of cyno. This is some great stuff that does what it claims. My levels never waivered, all that happened was my cyno was gone.

There are so many ppl that jump into these threads and say it kills beneficial bacteria. Wouldn't i have seen a change in at least ammonia? Nitrates? I mean if its so detrimental to the good bacteria, how could it have done such a great job and I see no detrimental effects?

At any rate, when you get to the point where just looking at the tank gets you down. Give this stuff a shot. You won't be sorry.

This was the best i could get the tank to look

This is 6 hrs after adding chemiclean hard to see thru all the coraline sorry

 

[minibowmatt]

I think this weekend I will be purchasing chemiclean. I am not too worried about killing off benificial bacteria, as that can always be re-introduced. I am noticing the manual removal helps, but the eggcrate is killing me. It is like a net for it, and when you baste it off, it goes under the eggcrate, just to float back up onto it again! AGGGHH!

 

[Omni2226]

How about a product called red slime remover by a company called Ultra Life reef products?

At my LFS today and they didnt have boyds chemiclean (out of stock) and I was talking to some of the guys who work there. One has a 300 gallon system and he said he used this ulta life red slime stuff and it worked great with no adverse effects on his corals or fish.

Same directions for use as chemiclean, "may lower ph and oxygen so use an airstone" but I cant find out for sure whats in it.

 

[SnowManSnow]

it takes about a month to really get rid of the stuff. do it with waterchanges and water motion.

just my 2 cents

 

[Omni2226]

Well since I dont have thousands of dollors worth of corals I will try this Red slime remover and see how it works.

Dosage is for 30 gallons as my best guess is 40 gallons total water in my tank. If everything dies I lose about 300 dollors worth of LR and two fish.

The rock can be salvaged and if the fish start stressing I have water made up already (for water change) that I can put them in. Pulled all the carbon and I have a filter pad seeded that I use for QT so that may be enough to keep the fish alive till I can get them to the LFS if needed.

I will post an update later tonight if I see any changes and follow up tomorrow with pictures of after if it works.

 

[SnowManSnow]

haha gl!

 

[Omni2226]

Well someone lacking common sense (me) has to be the lab rat or we wont know if it works or not right?

Some times I amaze myself with how stupid I can be... :roll:

Ok dosed at 8 pm its now 12 midnight.
Nothing looks stressed and the PH is 8.4 so I guess I have enough air blasting to keep things steady.

Now will I wake up to a crystal clear tank with no slime
A tank full of milk and floating dead things
Or nothing changed and I just wasted 15 dollors :?:

Time will tell.

 

[Omni2226]

Well I have to say so far I am impressed.

All tests show water parameters are good.
Heres a before and after shot.

 

[Omni2226]

Its not 100% gone, there are a few small spots left on the rocks and substrate and some patchs on the back glass.

None of the animals appear stressed in any way. Keep in mind I have no stony corals only zoanthid (that I know of/can see) so I have no idea what effect it may have on "picky" type stony corals.

If anything major happens good or bad I will update.

 

[jandree22]

Very impressive, thanks for the detailed update. I'll have to consider getting some of this stuff

 

[Omni2226]

Mmmm I dont know..these quick cures have a way of biting the hand that feeds.

I swear I can hear whispers coming from the tank..."You think you won big boy? you just wait we will be back......just wait..."

 

[Omni2226]

Ok last update.

This stuff works. Cyano/redslime is gone and water is clear.

There are no detailed instuctions so I wll tell you what I found on the web and what I did.

Turn off all skimmers and filters that remove micron sized particles for at least 24 hours, 48 is better. (Skimmers will "overbubble" and overflow)

Place a large airstone or open a venturi on a powerhead to increase oxygen and prevent possible drop in PH. (I stuck a tube in my powerheads venturi.)

Heres a picture. Live rock has been reaquascaped to where it was before having to catch two Damsels. What a pain in the ass that was. Lesson learned anything that goes in from now on stay in till it dies.

 

[Ecsenius]

I have a 72 gallon bow and have been playing around with it for about 4 months now, being patient and listening to my supplier and friend who are both quite knowledgable. 8O Now, Ive been having problems now with Cyano Bacteria for months now, and as previously mentioned I am starting to get down everytime I look in my tank. I had the red cyano problem in a BIG way but managed to clean that up in no time by buying a skimmer, it dissappeared completely in about a couple of days. I had a small patch of green stuff that then never seemed to disappear and has been spreading slowly throughout the tank. Everything else in the tank looks healthy but the green is quite the eyesore. My supplier hasnt offered much in the way of a solution prefering the natural way .... which is to wait and see, which means its only going to get worse. I am looking for suggestions on how to deal with this fluorecent nuisance, thanks

 

[Omni2226]

Mmmm I dont know if the red slime remover will work on that, but the boyds chemi-clean might.

 

[FragMaster]

Use maracyn tablets.