shimmy_yaz
Platinum Member
What is the best way to get rid of cyano? My tank has begun to become overrun by it and I am beginning to go insane. Thanks for all the help in advance.
Cyano
- Thread starter shimmy_yaz
- Start date
Fizz71
FragSwapper
New tank? I'd say do nothing as long as you aren't overfeeding. It's nice to have Nassarius snails, tigertail cukes and some other cleanup crew that will stir up the sand bed, but cyano is pretty common whenever you intorduce a large dose of nutrients into your tank (like new live rock).
Now if you've had it for a few months...then that's a different story..mine only hung around for a month or so when the tank was first setup and then a little spike when I dumped new LR into the system.
I never used any chemicals although if it got really bad I would syphon some of it out, but that's not a solution, that's just to make things look nicer while the water chemistry in the tank "ages".
--Fizz
Now if you've had it for a few months...then that's a different story..mine only hung around for a month or so when the tank was first setup and then a little spike when I dumped new LR into the system.
I never used any chemicals although if it got really bad I would syphon some of it out, but that's not a solution, that's just to make things look nicer while the water chemistry in the tank "ages".
--Fizz
Skateboarder
New member
A skimmer will help, yellow tang, snails/crabs,water changes(RO/Di. Every one goes through this stage so dont give up or get discouraged. I had a bad problem myself. Went on for 4 months until I really buckled down.HTH
coralnut99
New member
If you could supply some more details of your settup, (skimmer, filtration, lighting, etc.) and if possible, water parameters, I think folks can help some more. Generally speaking cyano has a multitude of causes. Primarily excess nutrients, followed closely by insufficient waterflow, and poor lighting are the main culprits.
poconofishy
New member
I've had major cyano issues when my water flow has been unknowingly reduced. Check your jets and make sure nothing blocked or reducing your water flow.
Is this tank newly set-up? If so it is just part of the aging process. Syphon out as much as you can as often as you can. If you have a shallow sand bed stir up small sections every couple of days to get the nutrients into the water column
Chemicals do nothing but kill the bacteria. The food source for the bacteria is still there. Make sure you have plenty of flow to keep the polutants in suspension. As tnyr5 said get a good gfo and do some extra water changes.
Carl
Chemicals do nothing but kill the bacteria. The food source for the bacteria is still there. Make sure you have plenty of flow to keep the polutants in suspension. As tnyr5 said get a good gfo and do some extra water changes.
Carl
shimmy_yaz
Platinum Member
The tank has been up and running for about 7 months now. I just started having the problem about 3 weeks ago. I have done 3 water changes ths far and plan on continuing to do them every week or so. I just added some more turbo snails and crabs to try and help. I also have a yellow tang and a blue hippo tang. I also just hooked my skimmer back up because I had it off for awhile because I needed to fix a broken part on it. I always use RO/DI water as well. I just did a set of test and my results were as follows:
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Ammonia - .5
PH - 7.8
Salinity - 1.024
Temp - 80.8°
Everything appears to be OK so I am not really sure what the exact cause is here. I guess I will just keep testing to make sure parameters stay good and do frequent water changes for now to see what I get.
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Ammonia - .5
PH - 7.8
Salinity - 1.024
Temp - 80.8°
Everything appears to be OK so I am not really sure what the exact cause is here. I guess I will just keep testing to make sure parameters stay good and do frequent water changes for now to see what I get.
shimmy_yaz
Platinum Member
Once again thank you all for the help as well.
Critter
Premium Member
Just an fyi, nothing will eat that stuff, (its actually a bacteria) but when it does die off (turns brown), it breaks apart (like a bad rug)into the water colum and removed via filters, skimmers etc. Every tank has it, its just whether or not it blooms. I think for me it was low water flow.
Mike,
I had the same problem, great water params, (FYI, your pH should be 8-8.4, maybe consider some extra buffering or a counter-light-cycle fuge), I had no fish, and only a small coral/anem population, 5 month old tank. I fought with it for a month ... turkey basting my rocks daily, vacuuming sand, cleaning glass non-stop, tons of water flow and water changes. I finally tried Chemi-cure, followed the directions and it disappeared in 2 days and has not come back. ( I should say I cleaned it out and it didn't grow back.) I use very little additives to my Nanos, but I made an exception here and it took care of my Cyano. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. That was a real pain. I am a biologist, and I am sure the bloom was caused by an environmental factor in my tank (all growth requires nutrients, lots of growth requires lots of nutrients), but it had me stumped!
Good luck to you.
Fred
Good, luck.
I wish I knew the
Whoops, my bad,
I also used "Chemi-Clean".
I posted "Chemi-Cure", WRONG.
Boyd Chemicals makes a drop-in filter pad called Chemi-Pure, and a additive treatment for Cyano called Chemi-Clean.
Hey CRITTER, you should sell your PICS to "Boyd Chemicals". That is a pretty impressive outbreak. Mine never got that bad, but I was manually cleanning my Aquapod24 once or twice a day.
Cheers
Fred
I also used "Chemi-Clean".
I posted "Chemi-Cure", WRONG.
Boyd Chemicals makes a drop-in filter pad called Chemi-Pure, and a additive treatment for Cyano called Chemi-Clean.
Hey CRITTER, you should sell your PICS to "Boyd Chemicals". That is a pretty impressive outbreak. Mine never got that bad, but I was manually cleanning my Aquapod24 once or twice a day.
Cheers
Fred
I thought I had it bad until I saw that pic above!
I got a new skimmer about a month ago and that really helped things out. I was using a Remora that just wasn't cutting it on 120G. I got the Octopus NW-150 and all of a sudden I'm pulling a cup full of crud every 2 or 3 days. I think you answered your own question tho - you disconnected your skimmer for repairs, thus disturbing the balance that you created.
I got a new skimmer about a month ago and that really helped things out. I was using a Remora that just wasn't cutting it on 120G. I got the Octopus NW-150 and all of a sudden I'm pulling a cup full of crud every 2 or 3 days. I think you answered your own question tho - you disconnected your skimmer for repairs, thus disturbing the balance that you created.
shimmy_yaz
Platinum Member
Wow OK I was starting to get really upset about my outbreak until I saw that pic above. That is a lot of cyano, mine is nowhere that bad.
Yeah I am hoping hooking the skimmer back up is gonna help me out quite a bit and with water changes I can beat this. Although if it don't go away soon after seeing those pics I may have to try that stuff cuz it looks like it works amazing.
Yeah I am hoping hooking the skimmer back up is gonna help me out quite a bit and with water changes I can beat this. Although if it don't go away soon after seeing those pics I may have to try that stuff cuz it looks like it works amazing.
Critter
Premium Member
its kind of embarrasing, but I figured better to let others see where it will go if you don't stop it. I was a noob.. or well more of a noob then now, I thought it was all kinds of things like coraline etc lol. But other then ripping down the tank, I had to do something and fast. If at all possabile, I will try to get rid of the problem to fix the issue, but I also learned to admit failure and try something else.
I'm really thinking of taking this 55 down and replacing it with a 75. Its just I will have to do some work on the wall and redo the molding and probably rebuild the base I made. so... someday I guess.
Ps.. while I was looking for those pics.. I did notice around the same time I went from 40watt NO floresent to 220watt VHO There was an overnight algae bloom and my guess the cyno came immediatly after that.
I'm really thinking of taking this 55 down and replacing it with a 75. Its just I will have to do some work on the wall and redo the molding and probably rebuild the base I made. so... someday I guess.
Ps.. while I was looking for those pics.. I did notice around the same time I went from 40watt NO floresent to 220watt VHO There was an overnight algae bloom and my guess the cyno came immediatly after that.
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