Cyano Scrubber Experiment

[dg3147]

I am attempting to create a sink for my my new tank cyano outbreak. I stuck a fist sized ball of clear plastic screen in my tank and it grew a nice coating of cyano in about 2 hours.

With this is mind, I have stuck a 16 sq foot ball of it in my refugium/sump and will turn the sump lights on for the next 12 hours. Will see tomorrow if it operated as an effective cyano sink; hence, easier to harvest out / nutrient export.

Keep in mind I have a small DT:sump ratio (75g:55g), so I can stick a lot of surface area into my sump. (lol...Of course, my other theory is that my cyano outbreak is all do to the fact that cyano needs soft plastics to live. Wouldn't that be ironic?! )

Pick of cyano covered DT screen:
<a href="http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/?action=view&current=2012-10-31_15-26-55_762.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/2012-10-31_15-26-55_762.jpg" border="0" alt="Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App"></a>

Pick of screen in sump/refugium (cyano high surface area sink):
<a href="http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/?action=view&current=2012-10-31_15-26-36_471.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/2012-10-31_15-26-36_471.jpg" border="0" alt="Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App"></a>

 

[jadendo]

how did it go?

 

[dg3147]

Experiment in progress now (just started in a couple hours ago). I pulled out the DT screen, cleaned it off and put it back it. Will photo both tonight and tomorrow around 3pm-ish.

I did notice one thing right away though, the screen in the DT grows cyano in MINUTES; whereas, the sump screen has been running for an hour with no growth yet. Could be a lighting difference. Both sump and tank are very high flow.

Sump is now powered by a fluorescent bulb and incandescent bulb. DT powered by t5 with led supplements. Both will run until 8pm, then sump only until 10am tomorrow when DT lights go back on. I will check on tank around 2-3am tonight and photograph it, then again tomorrow around noonish.

 

[Dmorty217]

Why don't you leave your sump lights on for 18/6 or 20/4? I had a cyno problem because of bio balls. Slowly took them out wk by wk and would do 72hr once a month with the lights off, increased the flow and after 2.5 months my problem is gone. I had it come on really bad really quickly but less light for DT, less feeding, 72hrs lights off once a month for 2 months, more flow and weekly water changes and you should have the issue under control quickly. If you have cyano there is something not right, and until you pinpoint the problem you can only make the cyano better slowly. But something you are doing is causing the cyno in the first place

 

[spamreefnew]

this thought has been toyed with but you are one of the first to go for it good idea! good luck whit this

 

[dg3147]

Update.

12 hours into experiment:
Minimal growth on sump screen --LEDs added to sump at this point.
<a href="http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/?action=view&current=2012-11-01_01-57-05_162.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/2012-11-01_01-57-05_162.jpg" border="0" alt="Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App"></a>

DT Screen:
Minimal growth at 3am with lights out. Screen came loose and is snagged on frags.
<a href="http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/?action=view&current=2012-11-01_01-56-36_897.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/2012-11-01_01-56-36_897.jpg" border="0" alt="Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App"></a>

24 hours update:

Sump has moderate growth:
<a href="http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/?action=view&current=2012-11-01_13-31-03_28.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/2012-11-01_13-31-03_28.jpg" border="0" alt="Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App"></a>

DT screen has lots of growth still.... BUT (I should have done FTS before and after pics) the rest of the DT is VERY clean compared to yesterday. There is still cyano, but it is not smothering my corals like before. There is definite improvement.
<a href="http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/?action=view&current=2012-11-01_13-30-48_459.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/2012-11-01_13-30-48_459.jpg" border="0" alt="Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App"></a>

 

[BigAl2007]

Tagging Along! Great experiment

 

[dg3147]

It is totally working --about 50% total reduction in growth as of 24 hours. Not sure if the sump screen is even necessary (the lighting is not quite strong enough I think). 4 balls of this stuff in each corner of the tank would easily work as a huge exporter of cyano. It appears to preferentially grow on the screening (vs on corals that is).

 

[dg3147]

48 hours into experiment and it is a near total success! No cyano on corals and sand 100% white...minimal cyano elsewhere. It is still growing on DT and sump screen this morning. I will clean screen now and see how long it stays clean. When experiment first started it would cover the DT screen within a few hours. Pics to follow.

Sooooo excited that it worked! We need to confirm a couple things:

1) that the repeated cleaning of the screens actually exported the essential nutrient the cyano needed to live and that, after we discontinue the screen, the cure persists for a reasonable amount of time.

2) That it can be replicated in someone else's tank. For all I know, the screen I used has some anti-fungal/bacterial in the plastic. (incidentally, I used left over clear screening from BRS that I had used for my canopy).

Some caveats:
1) I did not alter feeding or lighting.
2) My tank has abundant flow, a premium skimmer, and minimal dead zones on my minimalist aquascape.
3) My tank was going through "new tank cycle" of cyano outbreak. It was not growing cyano due to some other husbandry issue.

We need to see if it can be replicated under other circumstances. Remember to pull and clean screens every few hours on first day. They will grow cyano, quite literally, within minutes. I will post a link to this in the General Reef Discussion thread to recruit a few volunteers...

-david g.

 

[pop0tart]

2) That it can be replicated in someone else's tank. For all I know, the screen I used has some anti-fungal/bacterial in the plastic. (incidentally, I used left over clear screening from BRS that I had used for my canopy).QUOTE]

I'd say that's pretty unlikely since the screen was covered in the stuff.

 

[dg3147]

And the proof is in the pudding! Here is the DT screen after 4 hours of growth. Just a slight bit of slime. 2 days ago it would have been dripping with it:
<a href="http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/?action=view&current=2012-11-02_14-00-05_569.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/2012-11-02_14-00-05_569.jpg" border="0" alt="Uploaded from the Photobucket Android App"></a>

 

[TheFragHouse]

great! I love it. It also works w/ the same stuff in an ATS

 

[elegance coral]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...8YGIDw&usg=AFQjCNEyxt7nnbynToFk6LLfgbVGOVZ9FA

 

[bbwebb]

Curious if anyone else ever tried this. Seems like too easy of a solution. Definitely way safer than Chemiclean!

 

[cheezischrist]

i think i may have a goahead at this. cyano isnt always my problem, i just get random outbreaks of all kinds of stuff, never too nemesing, and seems to take care of it self, but i have noticed that just about all nuisances in my system, except aipstasia, tend to root onto plastic first and easier than anything else. i might even go as far as to plumb a smalll dedicated tank into my system to experiment with this. think they would have this screen at home depot or a similar store?

 

[dg3147]

They may not have translucent screen which is better if u are just balling it up. My screen was from BRS.

 

[Bosco83]

When I had really bad problems with bryopsis it also started on only plastic surfaces like my power heads. Then when I didn't treat it properly it spread through my whole tank like crazy.

 

[ademster]

I am trying this out, after a matter of hours I started having growth on the screen. I haven't checked it this morning as my lights don't turn till 11am.

I have bad canyo on one side of my tank only.. I put a big piece of it on that side, shall see what happens.

 

[Cirrhitichthys]

Back when I had a 29g tank going I used one of those commercial dividers at the very end of my tank, once every 3-4 days I would remove the screen, clean and replace. It worked as both an algae and a cyano scrubber. Consider instead of a clump, make sheets of finer mesh, like an actual ATS, but passive. It will save space, and look better in the sump, as you could line up a half dozen or so.

| ////// |
^Like that (| = sump baffles, / = sheets of mesh)

 

[Andrew17030]

Cut the lights and bring up the water flow. Cyno is not nutrient limited, well that is some of it. It's a light spectrum solution.