Loosing the Cyano battle......

[Krypt]

I have been fighting tooth and nail against cyano for the past month. I have followed the 10 step nuisance algae guide and it has helped reduce it slightly, but it still comes and goes. I have thus far got away without having a sump/refugium but now I'm thinking it may be time to get one built and installed to help reduce nutrients in the system (chaeto). My question is, besides installing a sump, what other tricks could I try to get rid of it?

I already feed every other day and rinse the food in RO/DI water, I have reduced my lights to only 6 hours a day, I have added nassarius snails and a brittle star to try and get the sand bed moved around. I do bi weekly 25% water changes and I run a bak pak skimmer which does a great job.

Just in case its needed, here's my current params:
amm. 0
no2: 0
no3: 2.5
sg: 1.025
phos: 0.05
calc: 440
temp: 78 F

 

[mrg02d]

I have been fighting tooth and nail against cyano for the past month. I have followed the 10 step nuisance algae guide and it has helped reduce it slightly, but it still comes and goes. I have thus far got away without having a sump/refugium but now I'm thinking it may be time to get one built and installed to help reduce nutrients in the system (chaeto). My question is, besides installing a sump, what other tricks could I try to get rid of it?

I already feed every other day and rinse the food in RO/DI water, I have reduced my lights to only 6 hours a day, I have added nassarius snails and a brittle star to try and get the sand bed moved around. I do bi weekly 25% water changes and I run a bak pak skimmer which does a great job.

Just in case its needed, here's my current params:
amm. 0
no2: 0
no3: 2.5
sg: 1.025
phos: 0.05
calc: 440
temp: 78 F

Try testing your RO/DI water for phosphates and nitrates. Maybe the filter needs changing?
I had a cyano problem but it just went away once I cut down on the feeding. I just make sure that everyone gets 2-3 tiny pellets.
Matt

 

[Krypt]

I run a tests on my water change water before I add it to check for those and they come up with 0's across the board. Maybe I just need to suck it up and build the sump already.

 

[austinsdad]

You've still got phosphates. Any reading isn't good. I'm not one for additives, but in the past, I've used this Red Slime Remover and did a water change. But I'm thinking it did come back if the problem wasn't fixed. You are finding phosphates in your test. Got to get it to zero.

 

[mrg02d]

You can run some phosphate remover resin in a power filter to remove the phosphates but they will continue to come back from whatever way they are getting in. (Most likely the food). My pellet food says phosphate free, but I still have low levels of phosphates in my water. Thats why I feed every other day and just enough such that everyone gets just a couple bites.

Matt

 

[mr_X]

chemi-clean.
Boyd Enterprises Red Slime Chemi Clean Aquarium Bio Additives
i've used this multiple times on customers tanks and my own and it will remove the cyano without any adverse effects. the other slime remover is erythromycin, an antibiotic. this product claims it is not. ultimately, it's excess nutrients that causes cyano in my experience, but after you've done 10 water changes and are tired of waiting for it to go away, this stuff will remove it quickly.
i really don't think starving the fish is the answer. we have to face that we have closed systems and sometimes, even with oversized skimmers and upteen waterchanges, we can start to tip the scale between nutrient import and export.

 

[HN1]

Have you tried to add more flow?

 

[Krypt]

I'll have to check out that cyano remover. As for flow, I run 2 Koralia 3's and 2 maxijet 1200's in my 55 gal tank. Definitely moving some water around lol. The 2 koralia's point toward the middle of the tank and the two maxi's point behind my rocks to get at the dead zones.

 

[melosu58]

Have you read our article on cyano in the SW articles section?

 

[Krypt]

Yeah I read through the article a couple weeks ago when I started to try and get a handle on things. Maybe I'll try making my own fish food instead of buying it to reduce any phosphates that are entering the system even after I rinse. In the mean time I'm going to reduce the amount of food I use per feeding (1 cube of mysis to 1/2 cube) and see how that works out.

 

[mrg02d]

Yeah I read through the article a couple weeks ago when I started to try and get a handle on things. Maybe I'll try making my own fish food instead of buying it to reduce any phosphates that are entering the system even after I rinse. In the mean time I'm going to reduce the amount of food I use per feeding (1 cube of mysis to 1/2 cube) and see how that works out.

You may be over feeding with 1 cube. How many fish and what kind do you have? I only use mybe 1/3 of a cube. I have 2 clowns, a sixlines wrasse, and a strawberry baslet.

BTW- I have heard of that cyano clearing stuff to be potentially dangerous and usually result in the cyano adapting and becoming worse! I would only use it as a last resort.

Keep in mind that the cyano may be using up the nutrients so quickly that you dont realize that your over feeding. (Due to low test results).

Matt

 

[cmor1701d]

I used the Boyd's product a few years ago when I had a bad case of cyano. I still have a couple of vials of the stuff (I bought several at the time). It worked to help clear the cyano (skimmer went nuts). That's when I went to feeding 3x/week, more flow, etc. to keep it from coming back.

 

[Krypt]

You may be over feeding with 1 cube. How many fish and what kind do you have? I only use mybe 1/3 of a cube. I have 2 clowns, a sixlines wrasse, and a strawberry baslet.

BTW- I have heard of that cyano clearing stuff to be potentially dangerous and usually result in the cyano adapting and becoming worse! I would only use it as a last resort.

Keep in mind that the cyano may be using up the nutrients so quickly that you dont realize that your over feeding. (Due to low test results).

Matt

For my fish, I have an Ocellaris clown, Bicolor Psuedo, Bicolor Blenny, Blue Damsel, and a Chocolate tang. The tang primarily feeds on garlic enriched seaweed 3x a week but nibbles on some of the mysis. The rest maul the stuff and whatever they don't get, the cleaner shrimps, emerald crabs, and brittle star make short work of. Mysis isn't the only thing I feed, I also drop the occasionally shrimp pellets in and some occasional flake food once in a while to try and keep it interesting for them.

I've used products like Algaefix in the past with great success against hair algae, hasn't surfaced again since, and according to the bottle it says it kills cyano as well so I might try treating with that again while I build the sump/refugium and new stand.

 

[Krypt]

I used the Boyd's product a few years ago when I had a bad case of cyano. I still have a couple of vials of the stuff (I bought several at the time). It worked to help clear the cyano (skimmer went nuts). That's when I went to feeding 3x/week, more flow, etc. to keep it from coming back.

Good to know Cmor, maybe the increase in flow from the return pump will help me further eliminate low flow areas. If the algaefix doesn't cut it, I'll seriously look into this Boyd stuff.

 

[cmor1701d]

I'll check to see if there's an expiration date. If not I'll send you one for the shipping cost. You still need to siphon out what you can during a pwc and do the other things to eliminate it.

 

[mr_X]

yeah, you are supposed to turn your skimmer off until you've done a water change or two to remove the excess nutrients or it will overflow.
no, that's not true that the "cyano clearing stuff" is potentially dangerous. not the chemi clean anyway. whoever made that story up about the cyano adapting has quite an imagination, and terrible tank husbandry.

 

[jcmelski]

how old are your lights? try changing out your lights also.

 

[mdaniel2882]

my tank was getting daylight in the morning through the windows. Once I eliminated that Cyano went away

 

[Krypt]

my tank was getting daylight in the morning through the windows. Once I eliminated that Cyano went away

You know, mine gets the rising sun also. I'll try drawing the thicker curtains in my living room in the morning to keep the sun from hitting it and see how it rolls.

 

[Krypt]

A silver lining to my tank catastrophe of the past weekend is that whatever was sprayed in the tank killed off the remaining cyano I had so it's now clean as a whistle. I better get moving on making the sump/refugium before it comes back.