Cyano: how long to choke it out?

[nanojg]

Ive been fighting Cyano for a while now and would like to win.

I aggresively run GFO, do 10% water changes/week, lights out for 3 days once a month, dose vinegar, skim very heavy. Its starting to slowly wilt away, but not fast enough and there is still plenty in my tank (mostly on rocks).

I have 0.00 phosphates on the hanna checker, but obviously have some bound to the cyano. Eventually the stuff should die off right? Little by little, it should die, then the phosphates should get sucked out through the skimmer or bound to the gfo.

I wonder if its bad for the corals to run 0 phosphates trying to choke out the cyano?

BTW the cyano was caused by major tank neglect for about 8 months.

 

[kenith]

Run and change your gfo, blast your rocks daily and reduce nutrients will help. I've battled cyano for 3 weeks now and the heavy use of gfo and serious blasting has helped tremendously (I'm almost completely cyano free). I also reduced frozen feedings. Good luck!!

 

[gbreynol]

I just did 4 days of lights out after removing most of the cyano by siphon. Before I turned the lights on I did a 20% water change. No cyano since, just coraline.

 

[TX..r33f]

I have fought it to and turning off the lights didnt help. keep what you are doing and siphon it off sand/rock. The last thing you want is to use chemicals.

 

[nanojg]

Thanks, i need to start blasting and siphoning the rocks, ive never liked doing that but i guess i should start

 

[6rotorguy]

I actually resorted to using chemi-clean after fighting a cyano breakout for a long time. It makes the skimmer go nuts for awhile but it works great.

 

[shaggss]

Be careful of using GFO "aggressively" as your SPS will get TN. I would just use it as per the instructions.

Good luck!

 

[mightymizz]

Regarding the lights out method, if you have mostly SPS in your tank, is three days total darkness going to stress them out?

 

[biecacka]

what does frozen food have to do with it? i feed my tank homemade frozen food. should i be concerned because i too have algae issues. gha could my own food be causing it?
corey

 

[bertoni]

Frozen food is fine. The amount of food is important, and foods that leach phosphate directly into the water might be more of an issue.

As far as the lights out approach, I've heard reports both ways for SPS. I'd definitely ramp the lights back up slowly.