cannot get rid of cyano

[ravedood]

so i have been battling cyano for quite some time know. not sure what else i can do. below is what ive done.

-several water changes using reef crystals salt
-replaced all rodi filters
-added gfo reactor
-added carbon
-increased flow
-replaced t5 bulbs
-water chemistry is good
-temp is good. 78 degrees
-did a chemiclean treatment
-replaced ato reservoir for food grade container

equipment:
125g rr tank
vertex 180i skimmer
200 micron filter socks
two mp40 power heads
ati 6 bulb t5 fixture 60"
reefbrite leds 72"
gfo reactor
bag of carbon

live stock:
lots of rock
blue tang
2 chromis
wrasse
2 clownfish

i have reduced feeding to every other day.

cyano still continues. what else can i do?

 

[Pet Detective]

Try Chemi-Clean.

Shut skimmer down

Pull gfo off line

Remove carbon

Follow directions on the box to a tee, it will work, I've used it with great results.

Others will chime in, their suggestions will work as well but will take longer to achieve the same results.

Be forewarned that if the pre-existing conditions that caused the Cyano outbreak in the first place still exist, it could come back, mine did not, my clean-up crew had been depleted, I added some hermits & snails after the treatment and the Cyano has not returned since.

 

[nycman]

I had same problem - very broad red slime on substrate and bottom third of my rock and corals.

It is now completely gone less than one month later. No traces whatsoever.

Chemiclean'ed twice - no help.
Lights out 3 days - no help.
Massive regular water changes - no help.
GFO - no help.
Going blue and royal blue on lights - no help.

What did it, I believe, was -
Changing RO/DI filters
Getting rid of GFO
Continually siphoning away the slime, but this is difficult to do when it is extensive.
Replacing filter sponges in sump with 50/100/200 micron filter pads. And replacing them daily.

 

[zxknight]

Chemi-Clean when nothing else works..

 

[mcgyvr]

Siphon as much as possible as often as possible during water changes.

Or another trick is to just put a filter sock in the sump and just start a siphon from the main tank into that sock in the sump and just start sucking up the cyano..
Clean out the sock and start again..
No need for water changes that way.. Just siphon..siphon..siphon it out.

 

[ravedood]

I already tried chemiclean, did not work. Maybe I should try multiple treatments. How much time should I allow between treatments?

I am going to order some 200 micro filter socks and try the repeated siphoning. Would it be better to get the cyano out of the system with water changes or siphoning it back into the filter sock is fine?

Has anyone tried a UV sterilizer with success?

 

[Xandernfs]

One thing that I see you haven't tried was rinsing your food if you feed frozen. That helped a lot for me.

 

[ravedood]

I havent tied that. I usually feed frozen brine shrimp and mysis. So i should thaw it out and and pour it through a filter first?

 

[Hitch08]

Have you tested for nitrates and phosphates? If so, what are the numbers?

If Chemiclean did not work, try Red Slime Remover. I had a lot more success with one over the other.

 

[DanConnor]

I have used a UV hooked directly to the tank for dinos, and it worked. Haven't tried for cyano.

Apparently there are multiple species of what we call cyano, and if chemiclean doesn't work, then H2O2 might. So I would try that.

 

[Xandernfs]

I havent tied that. I usually feed frozen brine shrimp and mysis. So i should thaw it out and and pour it through a filter first?

I had a tea strainer that I used. I basically just put the food in the strainer, poured RO over it and bob-ed it up and down (you'll be surprised the amount of stuff that it filters). Once there was a bit of stuff that was filtered out, I dumped that water out and I rinsed it again with new RO and then fed to my fish.

 

[Ritten]

I had same problem - very broad red slime on substrate and bottom third of my rock and corals.

It is now completely gone less than one month later. No traces whatsoever.

Chemiclean'ed twice - no help.
Lights out 3 days - no help.
Massive regular water changes - no help.
GFO - no help.
Going blue and royal blue on lights - no help.

What did it, I believe, was -
Changing RO/DI filters
Getting rid of GFO
Continually siphoning away the slime, but this is difficult to do when it is extensive.
Replacing filter sponges in sump with 50/100/200 micron filter pads. And replacing them daily.

nycman, are you stacking the three 50/100/200 filter pads ?

 

[FoxFace Fish]

just a quick question are you sure it is cyano. I am not implying you are wrong or anything but I thought I was fighting certain algae one time and it was not actually what I thought it was

 

[ravedood]

I could be wrong but it looks like a duck and walks like a duck too. Below is a picture i took after the first chemiclean treatment.

 

[FoxFace Fish]

can I ask how long the tank has been set up?

 

[ravedood]

probably 4 years now.

 

[FoxFace Fish]

Alright I guess the reason I ask is I had something like that and I thought it was diatom low and behold 1 month later I am now fighting Dinos I am not trying to scare just curious

 

[ravedood]

Does it look like cyano to you? I could be wrong and that could be the reason why i cant get rid of it.

I had the same thing happen with some stuff that looked liked hair algae what was way more aggressive. Took me a long time to figure out how to kill it. I was able to kill it with API MARINE ALGAEFIX, but I cant seem to get rid of this stuff now.

 

[mcgyvr]

Take a picture with the blue channes off or way down..
Proper color rendition is important in identification pictures..
Excessive blue light will NOT show colors properly..

and in general siphoning via water changes is a bit better than siphoning via filter sock method I posted above but the difference is very minimal.. A filter sock traps most of the cyano but may let some tiny pieces through..

and please tell me you have spots far worse than that picture shows..

and yes please post nitrate/phosphate test results.

 

[ravedood]

I have an ATI T5 fixture and all bulbs have some hint of blue in them. I can try a flash light.

its pretty much like that through out the sand bed and lower rocks.

I will do the tests again tonight and post the results.