anyone with a magic cure or answer?

[Delphinus]

Once it gains a foothold it's really hard to get rid of it, by relying on water parameters alone. One dirty little secret I think most reefers won't admit to, but do secretly use, is the use of Red Slime Remover or Chemi-Clean or similar anti-cyano product. They make your tank go bright yellow and even smell like a banana, you'll think, OMG what have I done, but ride it out. It doesn't stay yellow forever. Turn your skimmer off because it will go NUTS (or better yet, just have it empty back into your tank, because it does depress your O2 levels), and after a couple days do a water change and run carbon to clear it out. In a really bad case you might have to run a second course a week or two later.

Assuming your parameters are good (and what you've posted, they are), the cyano shouldn't come back. If it does come back quickly, it means there's a reason, be it parameters or light or whatever.

However, one "food for thought" item, cyano is very often the result of elevated nitrates. You posted that your nitrates are undetectable. What are you using for testing nitrates, because I don't always believe a zero reading for nitrate.

[marie]

Not that I think it would make that much of a difference in treatment but are you sure it's cyano? If it's getting your snails it sounds more like dinoflagellates (aka "brown snot")

[niloc16]

it is like brown snot but really resemble cyano in form. i am using elos test kits.

[Aquattro]

dying snails? Yup, I'd agree dinos.

[jslaney]

A freshwater trick when battling green cyano is to use antibiotics.

The antibiotic I used was called Erythromycin, it is generally sold to cure ick and other bacterial infections in you LFS.

From what I understand of it, cyano is actually more of a bacteria then algea. The antibiotic is not supposed to affect your benificial bacteria because they are generally a different type. Something about being gram positive while cyano is gram negative.

I have no idea if it a good idea in SW but it works like a mirical in FW. You could easily find lots of info on using it in fresh water with a quick google search. here is a link to a site I like.

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/

Klick on Blue green algea (Cyanobacteria)

I would strongly recomend talking to some of the more experianced reefers before using it. Its a pretty common fix in FW so the fact that its not being used in SW kinda tells me that there is probably a reason.

Sorry about all the losses.

Jon

[marie]

I hate being the bearer of bad news but if it is dinoflagellates, it is really hard to get rid of (ask christy). cyano is a walk in the park in comparison

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by jslaney

The antibiotic I used was called Erythromycin, it is generally sold to cure ick and other bacterial infections in you LFS.

This is what the Red Slime remover product is

[Joe Reefer]

I had a dino outbreak in my last tank. Its a real pain in the rear. I always had a feeling it was from the sandbed, it just wasn't "live" enough if you know what I mean. It was full of worms and snails but i think it was lacking in other beneficial bacteria and such. It seemed to just become a detritus trap and fueled the fire more. In retrospect and reading a few recent articles published I had the sandbed idea all wrong.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Be careful with Erithromycin. If you decide to use it, I would dose half the recommended amount. I did an awesome job wiping out half my livestock with the stuff at one point.