Cyano? Help please.

[carriej]

Seem to have heard and tried a lot of different "methods" but none seem to work. I have starved it, vacuumed it, used more flow, removed it, skimmed heavily, cut back on all foods, more water changes... I can't kill it. I remove it, go check on the tank... Looks spotless. Wake up in the morning, coated again.

How does one keep a sandbed clean? I was under the impression that they should not really be touched or disturbed... It's a 150 gallon system and I only have 7 fish. 6 small ones (two clowns, gramma, goby, pink fairy wrasse, lone chromis) and one medium ish fish a small scopas tang. So it's not a huge bioload... I don't know what gives.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by carriej

How does one keep a sandbed clean? I was under the impression that they should not really be touched or disturbed..

FWIW, I've never cleaned my sand. Tank is 4 years old. Had cyano once due to lighting issues, used chemiclean, cleared it up.

[input80]

+1 for chemiclean, follow the instructions well. It will send your skimmer crazy. For me, about 30% water change helped with the crazy skimmer issue.
Then keep your nutrients in check, although I don't know nearly enough to talk about that a still learning.
Brad, how do you keep a clean sand bed then ?

[darkreef]

I couldn't get rid of it . 25% water changes three days in a row. Then every four days .
Run GFO !!

Wait .. Wait ... Each morning you should see a little less keep fighting until you see none for a week

Also I purged my sand and rocks with a turkey baster and made a mess and kept doing water changes like that . Nitrates hit zero fast. Phosphates hit zero.


Buy some snails that move the bed

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by input80

Brad, how do you keep a clean sand bed then ?

It just stays clean on it's own. I have a few snail shells and frags and such lying around, but the detritus breaks down and is cycled by the bacteria, presumably. I might have a couple of the large nassarius snails, and a leopard wrasse, but that would have next to no impact.
I couldn't touch my sand bed in most of the tank even if I wanted to clean it, so never worried about it.

[input80]

Interesting Brad, thx.
Good luck carriej, there are quite a few posts on here regarding cyano & controlling/getting rid of it. It looks like quite the year for it, although I am only 1 yr into reefing. I have read a lot where ppl say "it happens & is caused by high nutrients". Personally I truly believe mine & a friend's cyano came from corals (bought from the same tank that had cyano). Mind you, I have no definitive proof, but the timing was coincidental, about 2-3 wks afterwards. He is using tap water & I am using ro-di water. I have also now started using MB7, after cyano is gone (visibly), which I am understanding is a deterrent.

[wreck]

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...d.php?t=102328

Here's the thread I started. Hope this helps!!!

[carriej]

Thanks guys, been reading threads all day. Between the cyano and those little rust colored demon flatworms, I'm at my wits end.

[Aysha]

I've used Erythromycin in my FW setups when everything else failed.
It's simple to use and available at most lfs.
http://www.petmountain.com/photos/pr...cin-powder.jpg