cyano battle
 

So...I have a whole bunch of cyano in my display and am looking for advice on how to get rid of it all. 100 gal mixed reef heavily stocked with a sand bottom. So far here is what I have done.
1. Lots of swearing, followed by crying then praying
2. sucked out the cyano on the sand which is where most of it is
3. tooth brushed it off the few rocks that it is on
4. changed the RowaPhos in my reactor
5. reduced feeding
6. added carbon in a reactor
7. change the filter socks daily
8. added a mechanical filter for 24 hours
9. started a full black out...so far for 24 hours, plan up to 72?
10 25% water change
11. had a beer

any otlher ideas/advice? repeat #11?

Thanks Bryce

I never mess around with all that, I just hit it with chemiclean and be done with it.

I remember that you were running a Chemiclean when I came over last year Brad. How does everything do with the Chemiclean? Loose any coral or inverts? I am worried that it will nuke all my pods and good stuff too.

I've never had a negative experience using it, no impact to livestock at all. I've probably used it half a dozen times over the last 20 years, always worked well other than one time, I didn't have the scoop and guessed at dose, which wasn't enough, and didn't clear it up. I re-dosed and got it the second time.

Perhaps it is worth a try....Sounds too easy for this hobby...wait a second, is it $1000? lol

chemi clean follow the directions works perfect every time used it a couple times need an issue basically the only chemical i trust in my tank

maybe $10? Takes a few days, followed by a decent water change and a bag of carbon. Tilt the lid of your skimmer sideways, it will foam like crazy. This time next week, you'll be mad you didn't do this first :)

I had cyno, but I went the slow natural route. Used a turkey baster to get the worst off rocks and sand once a week. Dosed a bit more with microbacter and 6 months down the line it is gone.

IMO Cyno is natures way of solving an issue, granted we don't like it, but its still doing something useful. And unless the root cause is fixed it will eventually be back as the treatments out there only solve the symptoms not the cause.

Chemilclean also depletes oxygen levels so if you have a lot of fish you might want to add airstones as an added safety net.

Chemi Clean is awesome but just a word of warning. The directions have you turn off your skimmer and filter to use it. I had a 55 gallon with 5 fish in it and after turning off my skimmer and canister filter and just having one circulation pump I lost 4 of my 5 fish over night. At first I thought it was because of the chemi clean but now thinking it may have been due to a quick drop in oxygen? Just heads up if you don't have a sump or really good oxygen exchange, you may want to get an air stone or something.

The O2 thing is a concern, which is why I suggested just tilting the skimmer cup, keeps it foaming, but cup is by-passed and it just flows back into sump. Assuming it's an in sump skimmer. If not, do not do this :)

picked up some Chemi-clean, but going to try my current method first for a couple of days. If I can kill the cyano off, I have some increased nutrient export that I will use called Nitroguard which should help with the issue from reappearing.

So here is the plan:

24 more hours of lights out
25% water change
filter sock change
add Purigen for Nitrate reduction (anyone use this?)
add more MB7
slow ramp up of lights
cross my fingers while I take a 5 day vacation to London
start Nitroguard in about a week...it is in transit from Montreal

If the cyno is there when I return...nuke it with Chemi-clean!
if it still survives...move on to gold fish

I had cyano when I had zero nitrates. Low flow seemed to contribute as well. Higher nitrates and better flow improved things.

The directions on my box of Chemiclean state "Continue using protein skimmer, although skimmer may require adjustment to prevent excessive overflow." The only thing it says to stop using for 48 hours is UV sterilizer, ozonizer, chemipure and carbon.

I only had to use it once in my current tank just after I set it up and have never seen it since. No issues for my tank inhabitants.

my nitrates tested high about 30 mg/ml so that is probably the issue not lack of nitrates.

Chemi-clean will be my back up

okay so lights are on now. Brought them up very slowly yesterday so that the SPS doesn't freak out. So far so good. Big water change 30%. Started off the Nitraguard which came yesterday, so that should help long term for nutrient export. Tank is looking good, but it is early days and I will have to wait to see if I manage to balance the bioload with the amount of export enough.

Back from London, and the tank is looking good! No sign of Cyano yet, measured my Phos at zero and Nitrates at 5, so far so good.

I found it was definately water flow I moved my MP40s lower as I had cyano on the sandbed, once I did that it cleared up quickly, but then started higher on rock workj. moved MP40's backup and its all gone, even on sand. I also increased how powerful the mp40s were pumping during the day.

I do have chemclean onhand and have not used it in the last 3-4 months i have been experimenting with flow.

I did increase my flow as well, so perhaps that is part of the solution. I too have some chemi-clean on hand....so perhaps this threat is helping too!:biggrin:

Well I was away for another week and came back to a small patch of the dreaded cyano! It was on the sand bed in an area of lower flow so I have vacummed it it and performed a 25% water change, changed the filter socks too. I will try to change the flow in the tank to hit up that spot some more. Let's hope that helps.

Filter Socks
 

Hi,

How often do you change your filter socks. I was told by J&L to change them every 3 days. It takes 3 days to create nitrates in the socks.

I had good results with ChemiClean as well. I followed the directions very,very carefully but I had to turn off the skimmer for a week even with water changes. In the long run, prevention is better: reduce nitrates and phosphates, increase water flow.

AquaAddict