Time to drop a bomb on my cyano....

[Krypt]

I have lost the natural war against my cyano. I've done everything I can possibly do the natural way and it's not working. I have reduced feedings to every other day, I rinse all frozens in RO/DI water, I changed foods twice in case the food I was using was bad, I have changed out my RO/DI filters, I have reduced my lighting down to only 6 hours a day, and I constantly vacuum it out during my weekly PWC of 25%. This has been going on for about 3-4 weeks now.

It's time to whip out the man made guns, I'm going to pick up some chemi-clean. Has anyone here used it before? If so, how did it work out for you?

 

[austinsdad]

I have used it. Worked fine for me with a substantial PWC. Mix it in SW first and add it instead of dropping the stuff directly into the tank. The water will be a bit yellowish for s short time. No worries. My inverts and coral did fine.

 

[melosu58]

I have never used it but I know several that have and even though it did do OK at the start it eventually came back. We still need to find the cause.

 

[Jimbo7]

melosu is right, you are going to get rid of the cyano, but expect a rise in some other algae. It could also be that you just have a nasty strain that doesn't want to go away even though you are curing the problem. Make sure you keep up with the constant water changes after, and see what happens.

what kind of lighting do you have and when was the last time you replaced the bulbs?

 

[Ziggy953]

Jimbo is on point here. That was my next suggestion as well. A 3 week battle with cyano is kids play. You are doing all the right things to rid the system of that mess. Adding more flow may help as well. Are you skimming? Do you have a fuge on the system? Sorry I haven't checked your tank info so I don't know what you have.

Cyano is one of those things that doesn't let go easily. I say keep at what you are doing. Keep in mind that there is no one fix all solution to any issue in our systems they require a lot of different changes and corrections to keep things right.

 

[cabezon]

well, I'm with you krypt. I have the same problem. all new bulbs, yadayada. I messed with my skimmer last night trying to get more skim. I vacuum with a fluval 105 twice a day. I am sick of it too.

 

[bavass]

It works! I used to get mine under control while I figure out the problem. be sure to cut off your skimmer and when you start it back up it will take a few PWC to get your skimmer working correctly again.

 

[austinsdad]

Yeah, I forgot about the skimmer shutoff. Good catch!

 

[Krypt]

Thanks for the info guys. My plan of attack is two pronged, I plan to drop the chemi-clean bomb then after I do my PWC, I am installing the sump/fuge combo I am building. I'm also ditching my CPR bak pak skimmer for my new reef octopus 110 that will be installed in the new sump. Hopefully the chemi-clean will give me the tactical advantage for a bit and allow me to build new defenses with the refugium and sump to keep the cyano from not coming back.

As for my lights, I'm running my T5HO lights w/ 2 54w actinics and 2 54w 10k's. The bulbs are six months old.

 

[Ziggy953]

Sounds like a good plan. I just hate to see people thing that a bottle of "X" will solve all their problems. Obviously you have done your research and are making good choices. I am glad to see you adding a fuge to the system. Let me know what you are planning to do the CPR. I may have some interest in it.

Your lights are good to go btw. T5 bulbs should last 12-18 months no problem.

 

[johnmaloney]

try to have it coincide with a water change or you just transfer the problem from stored nutrients to available nutrients. Manually remove as much as possible first.