bacteria to control cyano?

[spamreefnew]

I have been getting a little bit of cyano on my rocks ,,so i have been asking around for ideas on how to keep it in check. One person said they had luck adding bacteria ( like cycle) to the tank. It seems to make sense. thoughts?

 

[titoav15]

you can buy the "red slime remover" it will take care of it (worked for me) and IS reef safe. Also you can try pointing a power head in that direction (can drow due to low flow). hope this helps

 

[RyanAlan]

How mature is your tank?

 

[phaedrus1]

If the tank is mature you are far better off controlling organics in the tank, than trying to correct with additives. Watch your feeding and step up the maintenance schedule. Dosing with pellets or Vodka also really helps to control it.

 

[wickedfish]

If the tank is mature you are far better off controlling organics in the tank, than trying to correct with additives. Watch your feeding and step up the maintenance schedule. Dosing with pellets or Vodka also really helps to control it.

Sound advice.

Sometimes simple changes cause mine to show up. I recently changed from BRS to rowaphos and it caused a bloom but in a week it cleared. Cyano is no death sentence and is more nuisance and ugly than anything else. Try not to go nuts.

 

[spamreefnew]

thanks for the replies guys! Well I think the cyano was due to me being lazy and feeding flake food for a month or 2 ,,,I did the 3 days lights out and switched back to my frozen food and the cyano is already on the decline,,went from 10 rocks covered down to one rock in just the past 2 days

 

[sea of cortez]

Really, I have had a cyno problem and did the opposite
I cut back on the frozen and used the flakes
It has helped but not totally cleared

 

[spamreefnew]

wonder if the cyano just burns itself out by using up it's favorite food ?

 

[terry4505]

I am fighting a similar battle. My sand/rocks are covered in the stuff. My tank has been up for about 7 months. I don't know if the cyano is just a normal part of the tank maturation or what. I dose vodka (up to 6 ml a day) and feed pretty lightly. I added some red slime remover, because no amount of vacuuming, water changes, etc. was having any effect. I have considered turning the lights off for 3 days to wipe this stuff out, it is driving me nuts.

 

[jimnrose]

I had a similar outbreak and used the redslimeremover (antibiotic)but the tank crashed. I finally got rid of it by turning off the lights plus added a filter sock. I alsoadded SpecialBlendbecause whenthe tankcrasheditkilled most of my worms and shrimp so I felt I needed to replenish the 'good bacteria'. That was 6 months ago. I still get a slight outbreak of cyano when making a water change but my RO/DI says the TDS is 0. Lights out worked for me. Jim

 

[180+55reef]

I am fighting a similar battle. My sand/rocks are covered in the stuff. My tank has been up for about 7 months. I don't know if the cyano is just a normal part of the tank maturation or what. I dose vodka (up to 6 ml a day) and feed pretty lightly. I added some red slime remover, because no amount of vacuuming, water changes, etc. was having any effect. I have considered turning the lights off for 3 days to wipe this stuff out, it is driving me nuts.

I have cyno too and I dose vodka
I am wondering if I am not getting all the bacteria out with my skimmer and this is the effect?

 

[terry4505]

This was a fear of mine as well. Its my understanding that cyno feeds on nitrates and phosphates, not bacteria that is blooming from the vodka. I used the red slime remover to wipe it out, and hoping that with vodka, there won't be enough nutrients available for the cyno to come back.... I hope

 

[CLINTOS]

On my skimmerless/refugeless/tap water tank's

I've always increased flow, carefully fed my tank along with having limited bio load.

light's out for a few day's a week for a few week's until everything else has been corrected have always worked out

 

[Sk8r]

If you google this stuff: 1) it's why our planet has an oxygen atmosphere, after the Permian extinction.
2) it thrives on ANY nutrient plus water, carbon, and sunlight, and can adapt to any OTHER nutrient if one runs out. Some varieties crawl.
3) it's the basis of the chloroplasts (light-conversion cells) in all green plants on earth, so it's probably about as universal a thing as you can get. The only place free of cyano might be the Atacama Desert in Peru---oops, no, they just found dormant plant life there, too. So forget being rid of it.
HOWEVER: there's one thing we can take away from it that will let our skimmers scarf up the residue: light. The 3-day lights-out won't hurt corals or fish, is gentler than the dieoff you get with chemical remover, which is an antibiotic that will kill, yes, bacteria; and if you repeat it monthly, you will get relief. If you use mh lighting, do a 4th day of actinic only.

Patches love to grow where slanted sunlight reaches the tank (maybe it mimics the Permian extinction sunlight, filtered through thick noxious cloud) and blooms also happen where tank lighting has changed spectrum and hit the downslide.

 

[jdyer88]

i had a bad outbreak of cyano and used sk8r's method...it worked perfectly.

 

[djt511]

ive been combating this issue for a while as well, i will try the lights out method and see how things go.

 

[terry4505]

Can I leave my LED moonlights on during the lights out?

 

[markob]

terry4505: Why would you do that? Lights out usually involves covering the sides of the tank as well to block all light.

 

[zaheda]

Strong water flow with many water changes can help ridding cyno. Good quality carbon and phospahte remover will help too.

 

[byrdman81]

Also if you people are dosing vodka in your tanks you should be dosing sometype of bacteria with it or use vinegar with the vodka in a 8:1 ratio vinegar to vodka.