Cyano problem

[Joe37]

I've had cyano growing in my tank for about three weeks, my tank is only 3-4 months old and this the only real bad algae I've had(diatoms and film algae are the only other algaes Ive had) It's not to bad but I've noticed that it has been slowly growing. What should I do to get rid of it?
My plan right is to increase flow(getting wp10 tomorrow), do a 20% before a 3 day blackout and a 20% water change after the blackout. I will also be doing a wetter skimmate while this is going on. For Christmas I will being getting a phosban reactor 150 which should hep since I'm not currently running any gfo. Will this be enough to get rid of the cyano, I don't really want to do chemical sunless it gets way out of hand. Thanks

 

[adambom]

Blow it off the rocks with a turkey baster or powerhead. Personally I use Julian's Thing. Whatever works. Just make sure it gets filtered out so it doesn't settle elsewhere. Then lights out for 3 days. After 3 days go crazy with the turkey baster and blow off all your rocks like no tomorrow then do a big water change.

Continue to blow the rocks off daily to remove any algae that grows back. You may notice areas where detritus is settling on the rocks. The algae is likely feeding off of this stuff. You can adjust your flow if need be to prevent detritus settling in places like this.

This has worked for me in the past. Your results may vary. Patience and persistence are key here. Better to keep the rocks clean before it gets bad, but if you can't keep up by just blowing the rocks off, lights out (at most around once a month) and big water changes are your friend.

 

[Sapelo]

This has worked for me in the past. Your results may vary. Patience and persistence are key here. Better to keep the rocks clean before it gets bad, but if you can't keep up by just blowing the rocks off, lights out (at most around once a month) and big water changes are your friend.

This.
You have a new tank so follow these steps and be patient. It's not going to go away overnight.

 

[xCry0x]

I wet skimmed, ran GFO in reactor, 5g changes weekly on a 20g tank. Sucked as much out every water change as I could and it would be back in full force a few days later.

Had cyano for better part of 6 months.

Bought chemiclean.

Dosed tank.

Cyano bye bye and hasn't come back (been 6 months).

That is my experience, people seem to lose their **** over chemical treatments but it worked for me and I would use it again in a heart beat.

 

[Joe37]

Questions about the chemiclean
Do I have to being running an air stone?
Should I keep my skimmer running during treatment?
Do I do water change right after the 48 hour treatment, if so how large for a 29 gallon tank

 

[xCry0x]

The instructions are right on the box:

1. Aquarium oxygen levels MUST be increased using heavy aeration or a large air stone.
2. Turn off UV sterilizer, ozonizer, chemi-pure, carbon.
3. Continue using protein skimmer although skimmer may require adjustment to prevent excessive overflow
4. Maintain normal water flow with pumps & powerheads
5&6 dosage instructions
7. Successful treatment may take up to 48 hours, after 48 hours perform a 20% water change.
8. Turn on everything from step 2.


The stuff makes your protein skimmer go crazy -- I used a little airline valve to restrict airflow to stop it from overflowing my skimmer. Gradually let more air in to basically wet skim. My skimmer handled my air needs - but I am using an Aquamaxx hob-1 on a 20g tank so fairly oversized skimmer there =)

Do research, read up on it. Everything I read made it sound like the only people who have issues are the ones that don't follow the instructions (re: aeration, step #1). I find it believable - people seem to generally suck at following instructions. I think the average person did not get to build enough legos growing up or something

 

[BrickFishHouse]

Chemiclean has been successful for me, as well. Every now and then, I run across a tank that needs a second dose right away, and sometimes a few months later.

But overall, it has worked pretty well whenever I have used it.