Algae or Cyano
- Thread starter r1racer
- Start date
Eric Boerner
Coral Cutter
Thats a pretty bad outbreak of cyano.
Black out will work, but with that amount, you'll need more than 3 days. Your best bet is to get a turkey baster and try to suck as much of it off the rock as you can. It'll come up in thick mats if you move it a bit first.
Cautionary, since you have such a high amount of cyano, you may cause some gas off from it too, so don't stir it up too much. There are some oxidizing products out there too that would help a ton if it is too problematic sucking it up.
Cut back on feeding and add more flow to the tank to keep it from coming up that bad again.
Black out will work, but with that amount, you'll need more than 3 days. Your best bet is to get a turkey baster and try to suck as much of it off the rock as you can. It'll come up in thick mats if you move it a bit first.
Cautionary, since you have such a high amount of cyano, you may cause some gas off from it too, so don't stir it up too much. There are some oxidizing products out there too that would help a ton if it is too problematic sucking it up.
Cut back on feeding and add more flow to the tank to keep it from coming up that bad again.
danil
New member
With cyano it's hard to say what exactly will help system to get rid of it. The generalization is you must have other "good" bacteria to compete with cyanobacteria to outgrow it. Since your tank has total cyano domination is pretty useless to run GFO or anything else.
Try 3 day blackout first. It's a good start. If this will work - great if not next step is going to be - chemiclean red slime remover. Follow the direction it will kill cyano with no harm to anything else in your tank.
Try 3 day blackout first. It's a good start. If this will work - great if not next step is going to be - chemiclean red slime remover. Follow the direction it will kill cyano with no harm to anything else in your tank.
Mcgeezer
Reef gardener
Major cyano problem. You need to manually remove it. Take airline tubing and place a filter sock in your sump. Tape one end of the tubing to the sock and take the other end and create a siphon in the tank by holding it near a power head or return line to force water down the tube and siphon out all that cyano. You won't lose water this way.
Use a high quality GFO like rowaphos or BRS high capacity. You have to eliminate the source of the problem and then treat the root cause with GFO. You need to increase your flow significantly as well.
Cyano loves light, nutrients, and low flow. Eliminate the last two and say bye bye to cyano. After you manually remove it, do a three day blackout while running the higher quality GFO.
Don't use meds like chemi clean. They are a band aid and don't fix the underlying issues.
Use a high quality GFO like rowaphos or BRS high capacity. You have to eliminate the source of the problem and then treat the root cause with GFO. You need to increase your flow significantly as well.
Cyano loves light, nutrients, and low flow. Eliminate the last two and say bye bye to cyano. After you manually remove it, do a three day blackout while running the higher quality GFO.
Don't use meds like chemi clean. They are a band aid and don't fix the underlying issues.
coralsnaked
New member
More flow and less nutrients = long run fix. But I would hit it w/ Chemi-clean to get a frsh start. It is safe to use but follow the directions and do not overdose. Be sure to calculate the water volume correctly to include the sump and the displacement of rock and sand to get the correct net water volume.
Before dosing be sure to remove as much of the pest bacteria as possible by siphoning. This will reduce the chances of depleting oxygen because of dying material. This is where people who experience problems go wrong. Be sure to remove collection cup from skimmer as it will foam. But I leave mine running to aide in oxygenation of water. After the process do a 20% water change and your tank will be clean and free from cyano.
Before dosing be sure to remove as much of the pest bacteria as possible by siphoning. This will reduce the chances of depleting oxygen because of dying material. This is where people who experience problems go wrong. Be sure to remove collection cup from skimmer as it will foam. But I leave mine running to aide in oxygenation of water. After the process do a 20% water change and your tank will be clean and free from cyano.
Looks like cyanobacteria. Use a turkey baster to suction off the slime. If you are removing it near coral, gently blow it off the animal and from a safe distance, suction it up.
Blackouts seem to work for many forum users. It probably does not kill the bacteria but certainly disrupts mat formation which is all we care about. It is about the only thing besides Chemiclean that gets an immediate result. With all other remedies, it will take weeks or months before the slime growth disappears.
Good luck!
Blackouts seem to work for many forum users. It probably does not kill the bacteria but certainly disrupts mat formation which is all we care about. It is about the only thing besides Chemiclean that gets an immediate result. With all other remedies, it will take weeks or months before the slime growth disappears.
Good luck!
Stevenliu9
New member
Sorry to hear about your cyano, but it's not the end of the world- http://thewetandwild.blogspot.com/2014/11/20141102-cyanobacteria-brown-slime.html
