Attacking Cyanobacteria

[emmanuel]

I had a battle with it about 3 months ago I would blow off the rocks every day , 20% waterchange every week with no difference .Then one day before i went away for 3 days I checked my ro filter and the first stage was covered in mud (it was only 1 month old) changed it ,back flushed the rest of the ro stages, got about 150 tiny blue leg hermits from a friend who picked them himself from florida , got 500 of those tiny (size of rice)cerinth snails from a vendor here (michael)went away for 3 days came back and there was not a spot of cyano or this ugly greenish brown algae that was starting to cover everything . I dont know what helped the most but to this day it has stayed spotless.

 

[rgun2515]

I don't have Cyano. After I added a UV light I never saw it again (well over a year). I have terrible water params too My tank is probably in the worst shape it has been in a while but still no cyano. I added UV lights to my other tanks and they did not get cyano anymore either.

I second that... Will never run a tank without UV again. But if this works well for you with no ill effects, thats great. More of a nautral :splitspin approach.. Good luck...

 

[NYPDFrogman]

Lost a couple of anthias in my rock work recently and had a cynao bloom
since I started to Vodka dose and my water quality is back where it should be the cynao has subsided.
I'm not sure if I'm sold on this whole light thing it bloomed in the darkest part of my sump it was even under my skimmer completely covered

good luck

 

[Domboski]

I stopped by Lissa's tonight and she shot down my UV theory. She had cyano in her tank although she was running the proper UV flow and wattage. My experience is unique. I guess I'll have to say it helps for now on :wink1:

 

[ellebelle]

Well, the cyano has to go through the UV filter. Because of the way I have my overflow set up, the cyano gets stuck at the edge of the box. The cyano did go down a lot once I added the UV though.

But back to Kathy's light option - the lights on my tank broke and my tank has been inadvertantly without light for the last 2-3 days (at my best guess). And the cyano is miraculously gone!

 

[KathyC]

KathyC I hope this works for you, in the short term it can help you get an edge on the cyano. I know the thread from RC very well and I also had a bit of luck with it . I used it only yo get ahead of my cyano., by keeping the fuge lights on I was able to draw the stuff into the fuge. and fight it with a vacume / water changes and Chaeto (wich is what I credit for really beating it)

IMO the lights off thing treats the symptom , and not the problem. I can see why people get desperate, cyano is a tough enemy. I see in your sig that you already know this.

If you dont already have some chaeto growing I suggest adding some and letting the lights run on it 24/7 for awhile after you do the 3dark days. IME chaeto will outcompete cyano for available nutrients. the key for me has been a 51k 75w flood light.

by breaking cyano's grip with the dark cycle its easier to get out infront of the stuff, but its not the cure. IMO the cure is macro algree, water changes.

best of luck I hope this helps. I also wanted to thank you, I have learned a ton from reading your threads.

Chris

Thanks for your post Chris!
Yes, trying to get ahead of it I do have chaeto in my sump, and I am a water change junkie but in literally weeks of reading, studing and spending endless hours staring at the tank asking where it made a 'left turn' I think things started to go downhill (cyano-wise) was due to 2 related issues...the 1st was a batch of mysis that was not what I'd always fed, but a kind that literally caused me to have to wash the 'oil' it left behind on my hands with soap in order to dissolve it! The 2nd was that due to the increase in nutrients I removed the dsb in my fuge. I shouldn't have done that. I should have gotten more aggressive with the GFO

I haven't had issues with other types of algae, minor stuff here and there, mostly introduced on frags, but easily enough cleaned up.
As I explained earlier, I have been aggressively addressing those issues, and as you point out I don't advocate treating symptoms, but in this case I have no choice but to do something to knock back the level of cyano as it has impacted a few of my corals and killing living animals doesn't fly with me. (bacteria doesn't count in my book).
If this lack of lighting approach does get a handle on things my further plans to add more nutrient export with the use of more contollable algae in my sump, add a fuge back in with a sand bed (haven't figured that out entirely yet as I changed skimmers from external to an in sump ASM G3 which now resides where my fuge used to be, but there are options ), and I am going to systematically change out the bulk of my sand bed in my DT.
I am not going to change out my LR, but continue to be aggressive with GFO and carbon and my regular husbandry practices (including feeding).
It won't happen overnight but I'll get there

 

[KathyC]

Well, the cyano has to go through the UV filter. Because of the way I have my overflow set up, the cyano gets stuck at the edge of the box. The cyano did go down a lot once I added the UV though.

But back to Kathy's light option - the lights on my tank broke and my tank has been inadvertantly without light for the last 2-3 days (at my best guess). And the cyano is miraculously gone!

Dom & Lissa...I will always stand by my position that while a UV light can be beneficial on an established reef tank it can only be a help if the bacteria, parasite..whatever..goes past the light itself...as you mention.

Sorry to hear about your lights LMK if there is anything I can do to help!


So far the lights out thing is going ok. Kind of depressing not to be able to see much in the tank and I miss looking at my rics & zoas and other pretty corals. The fish have all been active and eating and not seeming to miss the lights very much.
I have noticed that my small BTA actually has bubble tips instead of the sleeker tentacles I've usually seen on him, might be that he is enjoying the lower light levels rather than the 8 T5's he is usually blasted with?

My Harley has been kind enough to drag what is left of his last Chocolate Chip starfish meal out into the front of the tank..guess he couldn't see it well enough behind the rock where I dropped it in (so that I wouldn't have to witness the cannibalism..)..I am not too pleased about this..

I obviously can't see the effect on the cyano yet as with no lights on it doesn't rear it's ugly head, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed and suffer through another day of missing my pretty reef..

 

[Domboski]

With all of the money you are spending buying GFO, Salt, Carbon and the risk of losing corals you should by a 50 watt UV and run water through it at 150-180 gph (assuming this is your 120 gallon tank and guessing your sump size). If your light out experiment should fail and the cyano returns, I vote this to be experiment number 2 You might be surprised how much bacteria is in the water column and makes its way through the UV. The UV on my reef tank is inline with my return.

Think of this, should the UV fail you would also shut me up

 

[rgun2515]

With all of the money you are spending buying GFO, Salt, Carbon and the risk of losing corals you should by a 50 watt UV and run water through it at 150-180 gph (assuming this is your 120 gallon tank and guessing your sump size). If your light out experiment should fail and the cyano returns, I vote this to be experiment number 2 You might be surprised how much bacteria is in the water column and makes its way through the UV. The UV on my reef tank is inline with my return.

Think of this, should the UV fail you would also shut me up

"The UV on my reef tank is inline with my return"

As is mine. Also, I find that the cyano starts to build up when the bulb is around 8-9 months old. I change the bulb, mix up the tank, and it all goes away...

 

[marrone]

"The UV on my reef tank is inline with my return"

As is mine. Also, I find that the cyano starts to build up when the bulb is around 8-9 months old. I change the bulb, mix up the tank, and it all goes away...

If that's the case then you're not actually getting rid of the Cyano but just keeping it at bay.

 

[wimby]

Gee Kathy seems like I was just asking you for help about this. I have been sucking mine out every 2 to 3 days and I finally got new bulbs woo hoo. I seem to have a handle on it now. I can barely find any to suck out. I am guessing it was the bulbs in my case really not sure.Just happy it is just about gone Now if you need me to babysit your rics for you I have no problem with that don't want them to get hurt LOLOL

 

[Frank]

Hi Kathy,
How are you?
I dont think the lights out will work in the long run, the cyno will come back.
You have to corect the problem which is high nutrients, nitrate, phosphate. ect..
Have you throught about Prodibio ? It will reduce all your nitrates and phosphates to zero giving you excellent water conditions. ( it will actually strave corals where feeding will be a must ). They now sell nano packs for smaller tanks. Just a idea if you want to look into it.
Frank

 

[rgun2515]

If that's the case then you're not actually getting rid of the Cyano but just keeping it at bay.

Fine with me... As long as everything is healthy and happy and I see no Cyano for 8 or 9 months, all is good...:splitspin

 

[KathyC]

With all of the money you are spending buying GFO, Salt, Carbon and the risk of losing corals you should by a 50 watt UV and run water through it at 150-180 gph (assuming this is your 120 gallon tank and guessing your sump size). If your light out experiment should fail and the cyano returns, I vote this to be experiment number 2 You might be surprised how much bacteria is in the water column and makes its way through the UV. The UV on my reef tank is inline with my return.

Think of this, should the UV fail you would also shut me up

Dom ..I'd still be spending money on salt and GFO and carbon as I run those on my tanks anyway as part of general husbandry, I'm just ramping up the use of the GFO and carbon to get all of the nurtients back in line after the tank issues. I'll never believe that a UV light is a panacea for everything reef, nor should it be, and yes I do realize how much bacteria is in the water column, no debate there

Frank..thanks but not interested in Prodibio and spending endless money on things that can be controlled with more widely acceptable..and way less expensive methods. IMO it falls into roughtly the same category as vodka dosing, except I can drink that stuff
If you RTP you'll see I am aware that the lights out approach is to help get a handle on the cyano outbreak and is only treating a symptom, not the cure.

Kim.. the ric are just fine thanks, nice try though! ..lol Great to hear that the change in bulbs worked for you, happy I could help

I offered up this thread to show how I was going about getting a grip on my cyano issue, not to say that it is a cure to cyano because it isn't. I see multiple threads here weekly on folks battling this stuff and decided to start a thread that gave a simple suggestion on how I am handling it and if you do read the entire thing you will see that I am going after the core issue which is nutrient build up slowly and methodically. It's been said many times before..nothing good happens in a reef tank quickly

 

[MatthewScars]

The easy fix is to have less fish. I have 5 in a 90 and dont run carbon, just chaeto. My chaeto has actually totally stopped growing due to lack of nutrients (no effect on coral growth). I also do 30g water changes every week to keep everything fresh. Ive only have cyno a few months right after it cycled.

If you dont want to get rid of fish, the suggestion '3 days of darkness' with your fuge like on 24/7 is a good one. then make sure to skim aggressively. Or if you can increase your water column, that is good also.

 

[ellebelle]

My sand sleeping wrasse definitely didn't come out while the lights were off. When I (and by "I", I mean Dom) got the new fixture 1/2 working yesterday he didn't come out and I thought perhaps he had perished. But swimming around, very hungry today.

 

[fishguttz]

I just started 3 days without lights. I had upped the photo period to stimulate Occelaris spawn. but instead I got cyano. They may be spawning but they hide in a place I can't get to!! I will post before and after pictures on friday.

 

[basiab]

Just another experience.
My problem was due to 4 fish in a 10 gallon. So reducing the nutrients is just not going to happen. But I did try and also did the 3 days lights off. It got rid of about 80% and then slowly started increasing. I finally tried Red Slime Remover by UltraLife and it got rid of it 100% and no reaction from the fish or snails and very little reaction from my candycanes. I did a big water change and used carbon afterwards and was conservative on the amount of remover I used. I figured with rock and sand I only have 7 gallons and measured the stuff based on that.
I only kept the tank another 6 weeks when I upgraded to a 24 gallon so I can't say that it is a long term fix. But it did do a good job and in fact the color of my tank looked so different since it did not have a reddish hue as in the past. I know everyone is reluctant to use chemicals, myself included, but I just had to try something.

 

[KathyC]

Lissa, good to hear that at least part of your lighting is back up and your :fish: is happy


Matthew..my tank isn't overstocked but it is excellent advice that people should heed.

Fishguttz..how old are you bulbs, or did you increase the photoperiod dramatically? Better to get fish into spawning mode by feeding live foods and water changes. A little Barry White doesn't hurt either

Sam...I loathe chemical methods and while it's nice to hear that it worked for you, I've read many times that it backfired and harmed others tanks.


Ok then... my lights (actinics anyway) are back on
Damn, I missed seeing my reef

I didn't have the opportunity to turn them back on this morning prior to work as I'd planned to do a good sized water change before hand and I didn't have the time. When I got home today I did a 35g change and flipped on the actinics.
The first thing that happend was my stupid bristle worms started to spawn. lol It wasn't so bad as I only have some tiny 1" skinny ones in the tank now, but they made the tank 'cloudy' enough to thwart my picture taking efforts, so that will have to wait for tomorrow
I did plug back in my 5 bulb T'5s for about the last 30 minutes they'd usually be on so that I could take a look around the tank and see the results.

Two other things did happen while the lights were off...
this guy made an appearance someplace other than where I have to contort myself to see him (the pink anemone, not the fish )

...and this ricordia seems to be up to something, though I'm not positive what. I know that when a frogspawn has a 'bubble' like this it is reproducing, not sure that that holds true for rics tho...hmmm, we'll see!

Everyone else looks good...fish, frogspawn, torches, the leathers (all shed, but that's to be expected)..etc...and my zoas

The cyano has almost totally died off, even the dark red type that almost looks like coraline easily blew off the rocks that it was on.

Why 'almost totally'? Well...if you recall I mentioned the ceiling fixture that 'overlaps' the edge of my tank earlier? It is a mere 14" above the tank and does 'flood' a good deal of light into the tank. One the second day into my lights out period I added a big piece of cardboard to shield the tank from that light as I could still see cyano in that area.
It used to be that ALL of the corals on the left side of the tank would always be open until I shut down here for the night. They haven't done that in a long while but I did realize last night that the light with it's old bulbs might have something to do with my cyano issue when I read Kim's post about changing her bulbs. It occured to me that was where the bulk of the cyano was..all lush and fluffy
I went out last night and bought new 'daylight' bulbs (6500K) for the fixture and popped them in. All the corals there are still open now, nice to see them again

I would have to call the 3 days of lights out to be a success in beating the cyano down with no ill effects on the tank, and it should be able to be maintained from here on with good husbandry because THAT is the cure

For those of you who are trying this too, please feel free to post your observations/pic and results here!!

 

[Teddy]

I've just tried this method too, and it did an awesome job

before I tried the no light for 3 days, my sandbed had a very dark brownish film on it, I would vacuum off at much as I could, but they would grow back within a couple of days. I thought it was my light, but it couln't be cuz it only 3 months old

So I decided to shut the lights off completely for 3 days straight. After 3 days, when I turned on my lights, my sandbed was completely white as if it was brand news, corals were happy, there was not one single brown spot on the glass or on the sand :splitspin