Cyano

[allan]

Folks,

Anyone have any experience with the Mexican Red Leg Hermit Crabs?

I found them at the GARF website and their claim is that these guys like the cyano slime. I have one hermit in my display with bright red legs, thinking that may be one of these guys. But I only have the one.

The red film is the byproduct of the cyano, right? Which means that if the film disapears with the use of the Mexican hermit that they don't actually fix the cause but curb the symptom... not that I would have any problem with this at all. Anything to get rid of this stuff.

[Gseclipse02]

i had the problem with cyano and bought a crap load of crabs that john from reefcleaners told me to get and a few weeks later my problem was gone and is still gone i would talk to him and get in on that group order im sure they are up to free shipping by now

[allan]

John from reefcleaners... Ok, I'm on it. Thanks bro.

[KarenR]

I have been fighting with red cyano for more than a year and after using crabs, protein skimmer, etc. I got fed up last week and ripped out my protein skimmer from my sump and replaced it with a large wad of Chaeto, some turtle grass and gracilaria in my sump/fuge. In ONE WEEK my cyano is completely gone! I mean nothing left of it, even behind the rocks, etc. where I can't reach it to siphon. I didn't use any chemicals, it just disappeared on it's own over the course of several days. Also the turf algae that the cyano was resting on is disappearing as well. My coralline is now taking backing the areas the cyano and turf had previously laid claim to.

[allan]

I have a macro fuge set up where all of my water passes through. But I'm only running chaeto. I do run a protein skimmer though.

I ran my setup without lights for two days, decimated the cyano. A week later and I'm still getting spots here and there, but it hasn't come back in force. I've cleaned out my skimmer and now I seem to be making a lot more texas tea, really strange but I empty about half a collection cup of liquid every other day or so. I used to have to clean out a thick layer of crud, now it's primarily liquid.

With cyano you have to give it enough time to determine if what you are doing is working. If it gets bad, or doesn't go away entirely in a few weeks I will add a few different types of algae and see if I can 'scrub' the water that way.

[ballardjr2000]

Hey allan not sure if it helps but i redid my aquascaping (not telling you to at all cause its cool) but cause i had a rock pile before, now that i have a nice setup of rock work, it really up'd my flow, i also added a aquaclear 50, i had laying around to add a little more, and mine was gone within a week tops, it was crazy. just a suggesting try up some flow or moving it around some. just a thought

[TexasTodd]

Nutrients, heat, flow, and just plain new tank are the main factors.

Crabs get rid of the visable, but not the problem. You still want lots of crabs and snails, but you also want to fix the problem.

Temps should be coming down some now on tanks without chillers as we head in to fall. Try feeding about 1/2 what you have been for a month or so. Clean your skimmer (big clean off the tank running vinegar through it for a few hours, rinse well, and put back) then clean the neck and cup every 3 days or so. Make sure there's no dead flow spots in tank.

For some reason it seems to be more prevelent in tanks under 1 year old.

Lastly, I personally feel Calurpa pulls more nutrients then cheato. It can also be a pain, but you might try some for a while and switch back to 100% cheato after you get things under control.

Todd

[allan]

Thanks Todd,

I have some minor traces of culerpra growing in the cryptic section of my fuge, and a nice niche of razor taking hold in the same area. I like the look of the razor so I've been letting that grow. I was thinking about putting up some HO T5s in the cryptic side to turn it into a fragging area (don't like keeping them in the display) which would negate the crypt but allow additional area for more macro. I like the Chaeto in the current section as it acts as a screen/filter and the bugs really like it.


JR, I've increased my flow and until just recently haven't found that sweet spot. Now I have a good flow to the majority of the tank while still leaving some moderate areas for the softies and brain. I have a couple of ricordea that I'm partial to and I'm willing to put up with some cyano as a result.

All in all it seems to be working, but It has only been seven days since the end of my lights out time period and I'm not sure if that is the reason my cyano is in check.

I have two return lines, two Koralia 4s an MP something, and a Nano Koralia (will place into my fuge when/if I do the fragging area). One of the returns is a large Rio and provides a lot of flow, but it's also the one I turn off when I need to make water (sump level lowers and bubbles are blown in) and when I want to only send UV water into the display.

I like the idea of adding more variety to the fuge though...

[ballardjr2000]

I know what you mean allan about finding that sweet spot, i think what helped me was the fact that i got rid of that rock pile i had and opened up the tank more, to say, as for moving the pwrheads i really only added one. which i guess, worked, all in all. it was mainly luck for me. My tank has really come a long way since. that and it could have been new tank issues as well that finally worked themselves out. keep us posted.