Maybe the best purchase I have made.

[fav74]

I have made a couple of post and read several post about cyano bacteria and gathered tons of info. And after a few treatments with chemi-clean, numerous water changes, changes in feeding, and adjusting my lighting cycles I recently made a purchase that seems to be helping more than anything. After a visit from a friend that with around 15yrs experience he told me I was getting to much sunlight. I thought he was joking I have blinds up and the tank is in part of the room receiving little to no light. But what did I have to loose so I went out and bought heavy thick curtains and after 3 days of them being up the cyano is no longer on my rock, and only a few really light spots on my substrate.

 

[circus clowns]

I don't think that was your problem, I've had a 65 gallon sitting in the sun for 5 1/2 years, never had cayno

 

[circus clowns]

As you can see in my profile picture.

 

[fav74]

Maybe it is a series of events that has come together. Perhaps just the tank maturing, it is almost 4 months old now. Not really sure but it seems to making a difference.

Oddly enough everything I have read, everyone I have talked to has said to avoid sunlight. But it seems to be working for you. That is really the one thing about this is there doesn't seem to be any real answer to anything. What works for "Joe" might not work for "Jane".

 

[circus clowns]

Ya your right ,your not supposed to ( they say), but my corals seem to love it. Didn't know better when I originally put it there,seems to be fine. I was just referring to the sun light creating or contributing to your cayno, don't think that's your problem , especially since you said you get very little.

 

[circus clowns]

Water changes, limit your nutrients, and I say like five hours of light ( max ), and you should get rid of it in no time.

 

[mr_X]

Many use sunlight as supplemental light in their reefs and don't have any problems with it.
Here is a perfect example-
Tank of the Month - February 2006 - Reefkeeping.com
if sunlight was the problem, why aren't the reefs in the oceans covered with cyano?

 

[fav74]

I have often wandered about avoiding the sun but buying light s that closely mimics the sun. This is all a learning curve for me. Can adding supplements for Coraline be some of my issues? Calcium and magnesium. Probably replacing t5 ho 10,000k bulbscheap i have cheap off brand.

Just want it gone!

 

[circus clowns]

They love it.

 

[mr_X]

It's an issue of excessive nutrients. Feed every other day to every 3 days for a while and do weekly water changes to remove any built up nutrients. What kind of bio load do you have and what size tank is it?

 

[fav74]

I have a 55g with 60lbs of live rock, 50 lbs of live sand. Then I put my 29g in the stand and using it as a refug. Using an overflow to feed it, a coral life skimmer in it, 5lbs of live rock and 10 lbs live sand, plus 2 types of macro algae. I have 2 O. Clowns and a coral beauty, 2 Emerald Crabs, and an assortment of snails. I also put "reef" pods from reefcleaners in and they are doing really well. Was told they would help with waste and excess food.

 

[mr_X]

It's certainly a small bio load, but how much and how often are you feeding?
How often are you doing water changes and how much?
No, pods aren't going to help with removal of waste.

 

[fav74]

I have been doing 10g water changes every week to 2 weeks, plus a couple of 20g changes with the chemi clean, I feed a pinch if flake or pellets each morning and evening, 1 or 2 times a week will use a frozen feeding, and a 1/4 sheet of green algae couple times a week.

I use water from a Glacier water machine. It is a 5 step filter system: carbon, micron,uv, ro, & another uv. I treat it with a tap water conditioner before using it.

The thing that really bothers me is I meet a girl at a lfs with 55g setup 3 weeks newer than mine without the refug. She bought sps coral, an carpet anemone, and a large assortment of fish and her tank looks great.

 

[mr_X]

I don't know what to tell you about the difference between her tank and yours. Compare them and figure it out.
I would also use a T.D.S. meter on that source water.

 

[Gti_Leo]

from the info i've gathered from different sources and from a video i just saw, cyanobacteria is a photosynthetic bacteria that started to oxygenate the worlds atmosphere and the reason life exists as we know it. make sure you have good flow, and good oxygenation.

try and remove whatever cyano you have by syphoning it of the rocks/sand

Cyanobacteria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Jason M]

u gotta try my trick if u want it gone. I battled cyano also and it wasnt due to a lack a maintenance like most sites tell u. I just simply over fed had a coralife skimmer like u and didn't know what I was doing.

Blast ur rocks and tank a airline tube to such up the cyano on the bed and get in every crevice. If u take a hard Line tube about 6 inches and attach it to the end of the soft tube it will make things easier.

Take to water u sucked out and filter it and put it in. There is cyano in it so it won't have nutrients. Maybe little at thus point but nothing else is working and eventually it will be nutrient free

Keep the lights out for about three days. Ur corals are going to not like it but the blackout will help slow the growth. While u blast and filter

Every two days from when u turned off ur lights keep pulling out water and filtering it and putting it back. That way u don't use any salt and u are also slowly lossing the nutrients in ur tank. Some nutrients may be getting by on that filter ur using there is just no way to tell. I don't trust any water but the water I make. For the time being I would top off with distilled water as well except test the supply u buy for copper as some companies store it in huge copper tanks.

Do this along with the other usual suspects such as increased skimming and turnjng off the flow when u feed to decrease the chance of lost food.

Stop using the chemically pure I used it also but everytime u use it the co2 in ur tank increases and this also fuels the cyano. The only thing that red slime chemipure does is oxidize the cyano skeletons but doesn't get rid of nutrients and the root cause. Give it a shot it worked for me and other peolple I know.

 

[mr_X]

lack of maintenance and overfeeding are the same thing. Poor husbandry.
Not removing what you are putting in the tank is the problem. Cyano is the symptom.

Chemi-clean is an antibiotic. It simply kills bacteria by "interfering with the formation of the bacterium's cell wall or its cell contents."
How exactly does it increase carbon dioxide?
Shutting off the light will not stop cyanobacteria. it will appear to be less for a short time until the light goes back on.
What are you talking about when you say "filter the water"? Filter it with what?
I would not be concerned with recycling water when you can use a couple dollars worth of salt and make new water, which will also replace any depleted trace elements.

 

[Jason M]

Chemi pure is in fact not an antibiotic and if u filter out the removed cyano it will speed up the process of nutrient export because the water the cyano was in is having the nutrients used up by it.

If u don't believe it don't do it but the recyclig is not a money saving tip but part of the nutrient elimination process. For all we know he has a clogged filter that us letting nutrients by the filtering process ad there is no way to tell.

Older bulbs may be an issue as well because an older bulb gives off a spectrum the cyano prefer.

As far as a black out, that gives u time to work on the cyano without having ur tank covered in it by the time u get home from work. I don't have a cyano problem anymore and I uses the above mentioned process as well as a bunch of others and we are all happy with it.

 

[Jason M]

I meant. To say strain out the cyano.

 

[mr_X]

Are you talking about chemi pure elite or chemi-clean, the cyanobacteria remover? the OP has mentioned using Chemi-Clean.
Chemi-Pure Elite filters phosphates, silicates & particulates.

Boyd Chemiclean Red Slime Cyano Bacteria Remover