CYANO finally defeated?

[Goldndoodle]

I've been fighting a cyan outbreak for a couple of weeks - it was out of control a week ago - it was everywhere! Water parameters were all fine - though I suspect the cyano was actually consuming all of the Phos, thus providing a 0 reading. I had recently bought a package of REEF ROIDS and was feeding corals that, as well as the usual frozen. I suspect I was overfeeding, resulting in the out of control cyano bloom. Need to feed REEF ROIDS or frozen, but not both in the future ...

Last week, I was trying to suction the cyano off of the sand bed and live rock every 3rd morning right after lights on, then changing out about 20% of water in the process. While it looked like I was making some progress, there was still a lot of it in places I couldn't reach with the hose while suctioning.

I finally found a thread on this forum Saturday afternoon about cyano - one post in that thread suggested CORAL SNOW, or ULTIMATE SNOW as an additive. I luckily found a bottle of ULTIMATE SNOW at an LFS. Another post in the thread suggested 3 days of "lights off" - no lights, not even moonlights, tank wrapped in blankets or towels to block all light. I decided to do a combination of the 2 ideas.

Saturday night, I turned off all of the lights, and wrapped the tank in 3 heavy towels. I then dosed the tank with ULTIMATE SNOW. Left the tank covered and undisturbed all day Sunday. Left the tank covered, and dosed with ULTIMATE SNOW again Monday night. This evening, I pulled the towels off of the tank, but have not fired up lights yet. I have shined a flashlight in there, and it looks like all of the cyano is gone.

I don't want to freak out the tank, after 3 days of no light, so for now I'm just letting ambient room light enter the tank. I'll turn on the moonlights before heading to bed tonight, then turn the Stunners back on tomorrow morning, and finally the LEDs in the afternoon for a short light cycle, before going back to the usual schedule on Thursday.

From what I can see so far, it's amazing how much better it looks.

 

[thegrun]

Update?

 

[Goldndoodle]

It's all gone! The tank is beautiful!! The water is crystal clear!!

I can't find any trace of the cyano anywhere in the tank. Even in the spots I couldn't reach when suctioning, like between my black sun coral polyps, or on some of the base live rock.

At night under the moonlights I'm noticing new coraline that must have been covered up by one form of algae or another.

I noticed this morning that my snails look like they've been scrubbed clean too!

I'm starting to think this might be good to add as part of the monthly maintenance routine. While thinking about it the days it was covered up; out in the wild there are at least a few nights per month with no moonlight, the reefs must be complete dark during those times. Not to mention the nights they get storms that conceal the moon. No one is shining tiny little blue LEDs on the reefs in the wild at night ...

 

[Mattewell]

So are you saying the ULTIMATE SNOW did anything? Seems to me it was just the lights out that worked.

 

[Goldndoodle]

I haven't tried each independently ... but the combination worked really well for me!

I just now noticed, that stubborn line of algae on the glass along the sand is gone as well.

I'm thinking about seeing if my daughter can sew together a custom made cover out of some light blocking curtains to fit the tank, to make it easier to do as part of monthly maintenance.

 

[raybyrne67]

Coral Snow, is that the Zeovit product?

 

[Goldndoodle]

CORAL SNOW is Zeovit
ULTIMATE SNOW is Warner Marine

From what I read they're the same thing. I could not find the Zeovit products at an LFS or online in the US, I found ULTIMATE SNOW at an LFS.

This method was a LOT easier than trying to suction it out of the tank every 3rd morning, then replenishing with fresh saltwater!!

 

[Jaffy]

Hopefully it's gone. I had an outbreak then about a week almost with none then it started popping up again. Just gotta be aggressive and let it run it's course!

 

[Sooner]

interested to know how it's worked...

interested to know how it's worked...

I was doing a search on cyano and this thread popped up. I thought I'd check out to see how it's gone with the monthly routine of covering the tank? Exactly what have you been doing? And has it worked? I would assume other algae leaves, and not just cyano as well?

Thanks, look forward to hearing.