Cyanobacteria ! ! !

cmomo0128

cmomo0128

New member
I setup My new 125 3 months ago and everything went great for about a month. I started having cyano problems and cant seem to win the war. My water params are amonia 0 nitrate & nitrite 0 Phosphate .05 and alk 3.0. Also running a 20 gallon fuge. I blow the stuff off of the rock and siphon it out of the sand, but it only takes about 2 days to come back in full force. My lfs said to use myracyn, but I dont think that is a very good idea as with every other idea I get from them. I prefer to rid the tank of this as naturally as possible. I had a 55 gal for a year and never had a cyano outbreak. Is this stuff that hard to get rid of?
Any ideas??
 
It can be tough... You need good strong water movement to stir any detritus or leftover food so it can be removed by mech. filtration. A phosphate remover can also help. IMO cyano doesn't like a high ph. Try to raise ph with kalk or something of that sort, keep good water movement and try to get all your phosphates out... Otherwise you should know that as new as your tank is, some say it is just a part of the cycling it is still going through. GOOD LUCK!
 
I guess water movement could be a factor in there. I've got a few mj1200 in there but i dont think its enough. I've got 2 seio 1200s on the way. Maybe that will help.
 
Good luck with the seios... they are kinda hit or miss on restarts. I have one and love the way it moves water, but I got a wave2k now and couldn't be happier with water movement! :)
 
Thanks, I appreciate the input. Just wanted to get an outsider view as I have never dealt w/ this before. From all the reading i've been doing I guess its a normal thing, but I had a 55 gal for quite a while and never saw any cyano. Guess i'll keep fighting until I kill it or it kills me lol.
 
boyds chemi clean, only thing that helped me win the war, along with feeding less and vacuuming more of the sand bed
 
In my 65g it seemed like cyano was just part of the cycling process and went away after about a month of regular maintenance (10-20% weekly water changes, running the skimmer wet and using carbon). I used a baster to blow off what I could but didn't go crazy trying to remove it, I just kept some macro in the tank (there's no sump/fuge) and waited it out. The tank is a FOWLR with lots of fish and just a few corals, PO4 is typically around 0.1-0.25ppm so I'm surprised it's gone. I've got four regular and four zebra turbos in the tank, it's possible they eat cyano before I can see it even though they're well fed (they're expert nori thieves).
 
I really dont want to take the chemical approach just yet. I think i'll keep using the turkey baster to blow it off the rock and then vacuum it out. You would think that at some point the cyano and the chaeto together would eat most of the nutrients feeding it. The tank is very lightly stocked. Mostly lps and 2 percula clowns, 1 firefish, 1 red scooter blenny 2 cleaner shrimp. I've got 50 + blue leg hermits, 50 turbo snails, and a sand sifting star. Still working on the cleanup crew. They are very busy.
 
I'm going thru the same battle and doing frequent water changes and vacuuming to help.

Question: When vacuuming the sand, is there a way to clean it and put it back in the tank? I was thinking of boiling it or something to make sure it's free of bacteria and then putting it back in the tank. I'm losing a lot of sand and want to salvage what I can.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I'm still learning. TIA.
 
had it in 2 tanks

in the 10 gallon I used the powder. worked great.

in my dual 55 gallon set up i cut the lighting. took longer but also worked.


Nathan
 
I do not know why but I aways get it about once or twice a year. I have 3 tanks and they get it during different times in the year. I have tried more flow, ect. Nothing seems to work except chemi-clean.

From my Experience it is safe and has never bothered fish, invert, or coral. Each of my tanks will get treated at least once every year.

PS-- Just had to treat my 100gal last month. The 120 and 75 is still clean and no signs of red yet......
 
I use the magnum 350 canister filter to vacuum the sand. The water it pulls in gets filtered and put back into the tank. I dont lose a lot of sand doing this, and it allows my to vacuum till my heart is content.
 
Chemi-Clean works every time!:strooper:
chemiclean.jpg
 
My 150 gallon is 3 months old also. I'm going through exactly the same thing. I believe this is just part of the new tank maturation process.

I've been blowing the stuff off the rocks and sucking it out with a turkey baster for 3 weeks now. I'm trying to reduce the amount of nutrients in the water. Other than that I think it just takes time for a tank to mature past this phase.

Why does it have to be such an ugly phase though. :mad2:
 
Mine did the cyano thing too at about that age. It quickly went away when I started using RO/DI water. I have always done 5% weekly water changes out of practice, but the RO/DI is what I credit to cleaning my tank up.
 
If you have a major cyano problem then you have a phosphate issue. Your focus should be on trying to limit importing phosphates into the tank while attempting to remove/export the maximum amt. of phosphates.

Prime sources of phosphate in a tank are tap water and food. If your using tap water you need to spend a $100 and purchase a good RO/DI device on EBay. All food has phosphates .. some food like "flake" are loaded with phosphate. If your using flake food then switch to frozen. If your using frozen food then make sure you thaw/rinse before feeding. Of course cutting back on feeding will also limit phosphates regardless of what your feeding.

Best methods for exporting phosphates include .. water changes (using phosphate free water), wet skimming, daily manual removal of phosphate laden cyano, phosphate binders (phosban etc), and kalkwasser may cause limited amts. of phosphate to precipitate out of the water column.

Other procedures that will help include .. maximizing water flow (keeps the crud that will release phosphates suspended within the water column so it can be skimmed or removed by filtration) as well as daily rinsing of any filter media until this problem is behind you.

Some people will resort to chemi clean and some will resort to use of antibiotics ... not something I would recommend but many have positive results ... if you go this route make sure you do your homework.

Hope this helps.
 
i used chemi as an aid to help me get a handle on it, i had to start vacuuming my dsb along with cut back on feeding.............my dsb leaching phos seems to be fueling it or was i should say.......................now that ive gotten a handle on it my chaeto has started to grow , i was wondering why it was dieng b4............turns out the cyano was consuming phos b4 the chaeto could......................i registered none and a remover would have done nothing at that point since it wasnt water born.......
 
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