Fighting Cyano ... again!

[Kristy]

Ok, want to hear from you guys who have a nice healthy crop of cyano in your tanks - or even better - those who USED to have a nice healthy crop of cyano and have it no more!

Seemed like we had beaten this cyano issue a year ago when we increased the flow in our tank significantly with our Vortechs. Since then we rarely saw the annoying burgundy slimy stuff. But I came back from Hawaii to a welcome home gift of cyano.

So I am fighting this again and really want to see it clear up. My strategy is weekly water changes, getting the pH up with kalk dripping and then keeping it up and balanced with 2-part dosing (think slacking on the 2-part might be what invited this stuff to come back) and manual removal a couple times a week. Might also play with some flow options.

Question about manual removal:
I tend to suction it off with a turkey baster or sometimes with a toothbrush loosening / hose syphon suction technique. Either method tends to loosen more than it removes, and send wisps of the stuff flying around the tank. There are a couple of spots where I REALLY don't want the cyano to infringe on a coral and cause (further) damage. Do you think just blasting the stuff off the rocks would be helpful or hurtful?

[Mr Cob]

Blasting it has been helpful for me. It keeps it from being able to take a strong foot in that area....but increasing the flow in that area is even better.

I have been at this battle for some time.

Both: Green Slime in just one area and Burgundy Slime in the front sand area all along the glass (curved glass) so I have increased the flow in those areas and cut my MH from 8 to 7 hours along with the addition of some more snails.

It's being controlled now and is no longer taking over but I have not rid my system of it completely yet.

I think I need to do more water changes and add some more snails along with perhaps cutting the MH to 6 or 6.5 hours.

[Europhyllia]

I'd blast it off the rocks but if it's on the sand I've found the most effective way to control it is to wait till the end of the day when it's at its thickest and then gently lift off the whole piece and throw it away. turn off the Vortechs or else it will just be blown to bits when you lift it up.

[Kristy]

Not sure what it is about our system, but we never, ever have cyano on our sandbed (yep, I'm knocking on wood). Truly the only time we had to deal with that was when the 100g was about a month old and going through all its initial funky growth stages. We get a lot of comments on our clean sand bed, which we mostly credit to Screech, our hard-working little diamond goby. We also have some of those nassarius snails that stir up the sandbed and a sandsifting starfish.

Ok, I am going to work on some blasting techniques. Somewhere along the way I had heard that it was counterproductive because you're effectively just spreading it around more, but it's got to be in every molecule of water at this point.


Anybody used a Water Pik?

I do think I'm making some progress with it, by the way. Thanks for the comments all.

[Mr Cob]

In my opinion it's not counterproductive if you have heavy/moderate flow throughout the tank...which you probably do since you have vortechs....if you "dust" then it goes in the current until it's sucked up by your overflow...but if you have dead spots or low flow then, "yes" it will be counterproductive because you are now just spreading it all over the place.

If you see it settle, then it's counterproductive.

[Kristy]

All right, then my goal will be to create a cyano-storm in the tank! :)

[Europhyllia]

I read somewhere that it helps to blow it to bits because then it has to spend time on repairing itself rather than growing. Or something like it. Not sure if that's even true but in some cases you have to blow it off anyway to safe a coral and then thinking of it that way (destroying/need to repair/etc.) might make you feel better...

[allan]

Shoot, I get disgusted with it and then I'd blast away like a stormtrooper after the millenium falcon, only I would actually send up great plumes of the stuff. Now I've got it growing on my macro in the sump.

I only started this week, but I'll have Gloria controlling (er, I would verbally control, she would follow my leadership) the end of the siphon hose, and when I'd get it to the rock under seige gloria would, at my direction, open the 'floodgates' and siphon the stuff into my water change bucket. Five gallons out, five gallons in of new salt water. I'm hoping that I can get rid of it this way.

[kkiel02]

I got rid of mine with a phosban reactor and also added two mexican turbo snails. I am not sure which did it but it is gone from the display now. It is still in the sump on my macro but my snail cant get there and the phosban is really old at this point.

[Kristy]

Allan- we use that targeted syphoning method every water change, about 30 gallons + each week for the past 3 or 4 weeks and I think that is part of what is helping us get ahead of it. I find that I get best results if I target one side of the tank very thoroughly one week and then the other the next week, so the area suctioned is actually two weeks' accumulation. It comes up better when it's thicker.

I'm the one working the tubing and Mike is in charge of getting the syphon started and occasionally offering a visual in areas I can't see from my location. We use a tube long enough to drain directly to our sink, which is pretty convenient. A bucket at a time got too annoying.

[aquasport24]

I am having them too. I hold a mj 1200 w/ siphon hose drain to the washer drain in one hand and a baster with the other as i went around some of the problems area.I do this during water change and a filter sock to help catching those that got away. What do you think the cause was? did you add anything to the tank lately?

[allan]

That's why I only do five gallons twice a week. Too much of a hassle doing more.

My sand bed is clear but I've got a diamond goby to thank for that.

[CoryDude]

Syphon what you can and blast the rest. That and heavy water changes always seem to work for myself. I've also thrown some filter pads in the overflow for a few hours after I blast the stuff. Seems to help remove whatever was stirred up.

[alton]

Does anyone here having or had Cyano issues use a Tunze wavemaker?

[allan]

I had a Tunze wavemaker hooked up for quite awhile, but I think I had issues then as well. I've been battling this for some time.

[Ping]

Kristi, continue with the large weekly water changes and your dosing schedule. If your nitrate levels are low it is probably time to install a phosphate reactor. I have found phosban to be the best product because it is the least dusty. In established systems phosphate levels increase and take alot of time and work to bring them down. Phosphate test kits are worthless for testing aquarium water because they only test for one type of phosphate and once we get the phosphate levels down in the water column, the rock and substrate leach phosphates back into the water column.

[Mr Cob]

well it's about time Peter. I was waiting for you to chime in : )

[Bill S]

What Peter said.

Lots of water changes (check the TDS of your water), and flow help as well. My 55 is overgrown - and I have a phosban reactor not yet on it.

[Gseclipse02]

Kristi, continue with the large weekly water changes and your dosing schedule. If your nitrate levels are low it is probably time to install a phosphate reactor. I have found phosban to be the best product because it is the least dusty. In established systems phosphate levels increase and take alot of time and work to bring them down. Phosphate test kits are worthless for testing aquarium water because they only test for one type of phosphate and once we get the phosphate levels down in the water column, the rock and substrate leach phosphates back into the water column.
what phosban brand do you think is the best ?

[Europhyllia]

I think Phosban is the brand (TLF) isn't it?

[CoryDude]

I've used Phosban and Rowaphos and I prefer Rowa. It seems to last longer than Phosban.

Kristy, as much as I hate to mention it, do you think 2 vortechs are enough for that large of a tank and amount of rockwork? Aquatek had a couple of mp40's on a tank that size. Bruce was having problems with the flow and they told him he needed 3-4 units on a tank that size. I know, it's probably just an up sale on Ecotec's part.

Maybe try adding a korallia or two to supplement flow. But, remember, this is coming for a SPS guy, so I always think you can never have enough flow.

[dclegern]

I just dealt with that c**p over the last month or so.........
"Red slime control" by Blue vet. kicked the snot out of it!
A little $5 dealy from my favorite fish guy, and I havn't seen it since.
You do have to watch your skimmer though, mine went berzerk for days pulling all the crud out out of the tank.

Looking good finally......looking good!!!

[allan]

Did the red slime control do anything to your pods?

[dclegern]

Not that I can tell Allan.....
i still have a sump full of the little boogers.
But serious about the skimmer thing!!!!.........that stuff must have baking soda or something in it.......skimmer went berzerk for a day......had to put it on low and let it syphon into a bucket.

[Gseclipse02]

Not that I can tell Allan.....
i still have a sump full of the little boogers.
But serious about the skimmer thing!!!!.........that stuff must have baking soda or something in it.......skimmer went berzerk for a day......had to put it on low and let it syphon into a bucket.

how did your corals react ???... and the only thing about that is that you still didnt fix the problem

[StevenSeas]

how did your corals react ???... and the only thing about that is that you still didnt fix the problem

Agreed more of just a band-aide until the next algae can find a foothold and take off. That is unless you did water changes or something else inconjunction to solve the problem.

Kristy I am right there with you, I asked my sister to send me pics of my tank yesterday .... Lets just say my tanks time being up at Aggieland with me must have rubbed off on it as it is MAROON. I cant even see the sand bed. 3 weeks of no attention has not been kind to it.

[Teeb]

I had cyano really bad for awhile. I did 2 things and it has pretty much wiped it all out. I added 2 units of Chemipure to my 75g. Which I'm debating whether it helped or not. The biggest thing that I saw make a difference was, and I know it sounds strange, but I started emptying my skimmer cup every day or every other day. Once I started doing that consistently, I saw huge improvements.

[allan]

Teen, was emptying your s cup one of the two things you did? I hear that chemipure forces you to do this anyway.

How did ur coral react? Sps?

[Teeb]

Yes, emptying the cup was 1, chemipure the other. I guess I'll find out soon which one the contributing factor since my CPE is about 6 wks old and probably time to remove. Everything started doing better once the cyano started to fade away. I have very little SPS in my tank, more zoas/LPS. I've seen a increase of polyp extension lately, but I think that's been due to switching powerheads.

[ErikH]

I just used Red Slime Control, for about 160 gallons yesterday. I lowered the water in my sump drastically, just enough so it is skimming moderately wet. I had 4 of the K14s in my tank, but I just added 3 K4s as well. I don't siphon, I just wait until its nasty and then flip the sand over on it with my scraper. So far today i do not see anything new. I also have a phosban reactor which will be getting hooked up today using the BulkReefSupply FOxide. It's been hell since migrating from the 75, but now that I barely have any fish, I think I will be able to kick it in the pants. I've overdone CPE before and it did nothing, which suprised me as before it seemed to work wonders. From the looks of it, I am past the peak, but you never know because the affected water so slow to change in larger tanks. The Red Slime Control has never tanked my corals. I switched from using CA and Kalk reactors and have gone to 2part after seeing how much growth Bernie was getting. It's a slippery slope!