Fighting Cyano

[Capsle]

Hello Reefers,

Its been a few months since my last post. Been enjoying the hobby and continually learning and researching everything that goes on in my tank.

My tank is 7 months old. Everything has been pretty close to spot on since day one. I have had not real algae issues and surprising enough I have been able to keep my water parameters stable. Water changes are done every 2 weeks, approximately 40%.

My water parameters have always been the following
Salinity 1.025
PH 8.1
NO3 5-10
P04 less than 0.03
Ca 450
Mg 1350
Alk 9.3

I have always used RODI water and Red Sea Coral Pro salt.

I noticed about 3 weeks ago, that I started to have a little cyano growing on some rock work. I cleaned it up, vacuumed it out and increased the flow in my tank slightly (turned my grye up 2 points). The next week it was back.

So i started reading up on it and fell upon the Redfield ration and asked about it on a saltwater group I am in on Facebook. A few hobbyist mentioned that my Nitrate to P04 should be about 10:1 ratio and keeping this ratio will help with all algae types. So I removed my GFO and let my P04 creep up.

Well, that was not the way to go. Nitrates are now at 10 and P04 1. The cyano has spread like wild fire, and although it doesn;t hurt anything, it looks like crap.

I am currently in day 3 of a 5 day blackout that I am doing. It has gone mostly away. I have started running GFO again yesterday and I will do a 50% water change at the end of my 5 day black out. I plan on getting my P04 down to acceptable levels again.

Any other information would be helpful.

 

[RobZilla04]

Cyano is a pain. I've had it twice in my first year. I tried the usual methods (manual removal, black outs, skimming & reduced feeding). What worked both times; Chemiclean. This product comes with controversy yes, but it does work. Follow the instructions exactly and it kicks the cyano out in three days flat.

Some tips; manually remove as much as possible before using. Ensure increased O2. Do a second WC 48 to 72 hours after the instructed 20%.

Good luck.

 

[Sk8r]

If slanted sunlight is reaching your tank, that is one trigger---as the earth goes round the sun.

 

[C5Chad]

I've struggled with this as well as the green hair algae. I used chemiclean as someone else stated before and it does work. But my tank eventually got out of control with algae and am now in the process of starting over with a new tank. But I do believe the chemiclean works. Worked well for me when I only had small amounts of cyano and algae in my tank.

 

[mcgyvr]

Redfield ratio..... Nitrate to P04 should be about 10:1 ratio and keeping this ratio will help with all algae types. .

Technically I think its 7.2:1 by mass or 16:1 atoms...

And I think it would have been better to lower your nitrates vs increasing phosphate.. I don't believe that the beliefs on the redfield ratio extend beyond very low nitrate/phosphate numbers nor that it can really be used in closed systems like ours..

Staying in the redfield ratio is very interesting to me though and something I am going to be trying to maintain in the future and see how it does.. but I'm going much..much lower than 10 Nitrate to 1 Phosphate.

Not that I think our test kits are capable of being accurate enough either..

And FWIW.. I'm currently at 3 NO3 and .01 PO4 and am fighting a bit of cyano myself.. Done 2 red slime remover treatments in the past week with little to no impact on the cyano.. It seemed to slow after the first treatment but the second had no effect that I could tell..

 

[Reincarnate]

Just how much Cyanobacteria are we talking about here? While it's definitely unsightly it's not necessarily bad, especially for a tank that's only 7 months old. Maintain good water parameters, manually remove what you can, maybe step up the flow a little more and just wait it out. This 5 day blackout sounds a little drastic to me.
FWIW my tank is about 8 years old and there's been a few times recently where I was seeing a little Cyanobacteria on my frag rack. I followed the steps outlined above and now it's gone.

 

[zsuman101]

Cyano is all part of the fun the first year or two in reefing. It will pass, good skimmer, carbon,flow. Ggood luck.....zsu

 

[bella123]

We have just got over a massive outbreak, the tank was covered. The only thing that worked for us was Dr Tim's Refresh.

 

[Capsle]

Just how much Cyanobacteria are we talking about here? While it's definitely unsightly it's not necessarily bad, especially for a tank that's only 7 months old. Maintain good water parameters, manually remove what you can, maybe step up the flow a little more and just wait it out. This 5 day blackout sounds a little drastic to me.
FWIW my tank is about 8 years old and there's been a few times recently where I was seeing a little Cyanobacteria on my frag rack. I followed the steps outlined above and now it's gone.

I would say about 1/4 of my substrate got covered in a matter of days after the last cleaning. I have increased flow, turned my gyre up 2 points and added a second power head.

 

[Capsle]

Technically I think its 7.2:1 by mass or 16:1 atoms...

And I think it would have been better to lower your nitrates vs increasing phosphate.. I don't believe that the beliefs on the redfield ratio extend beyond very low nitrate/phosphate numbers nor that it can really be used in closed systems like ours..

Staying in the redfield ratio is very interesting to me though and something I am going to be trying to maintain in the future and see how it does.. but I'm going much..much lower than 10 Nitrate to 1 Phosphate.

Not that I think our test kits are capable of being accurate enough either..

And FWIW.. I'm currently at 3 NO3 and .01 PO4 and am fighting a bit of cyano myself.. Done 2 red slime remover treatments in the past week with little to no impact on the cyano.. It seemed to slow after the first treatment but the second had no effect that I could tell..

My initial No3 was at 5 and P04 less than .03. I was trying to get it up to .5 but overfeeding a bit much and spiked nitrates to 10 and p04 to 1.

 

[Brieninsac]

I have good water flow and feed lightly and I still had Cyno. After months of trying different remedies including lights out it still came back. Only after I did Chemi-clean did I get rid of it. In hindsight, I wish I would have done it right from the get go.

 

[afish70]

I am currently having a slight battle with Cyano myself. I unfortunately went right to the ChemiClean and it didn't work for me. The Cyano went away for like 2 days and its back. The ChemiClean did manage to make my skimmer overflow repeatedly and that was all. I did a 20% water change 2 days after putting the ChemiClean in and that was the only thing that mage my skimmer go back to normal. I am currently on day 2 of my 3 day blackout and it looks better. I am also going to be purchasing a Gyre to help with flow in my tank. I wish I had more insight for you but that's all i have right now. ut, i would nit use the Chemiclean.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I've used chemiclean a few times before and always had success. I normally have to use it twice in a row to really see it disappear though. As long as it's not smothering your coral it wouhn't hurt anything. I have a lot of deadspots on my birdsnest because of cyano. Keep at it and you'll find a way to get rid of it. the blackout should help. You're doing quite a lot of water changes. hopefully it subsides for you soon.

One other thing I do that helps is to siphon as much as I can out every day. It'll keep coming back, but after a week or so I noticed that how fast it comes back is much slower. Whatever the cyano is depleting from the water seems to get to a point where it'll limit its growth, as long as your physically removing it from the tank.

 

[jayball]

Technically I think its 7.2:1 by mass or 16:1 atoms...

And I think it would have been better to lower your nitrates vs increasing phosphate.. I don't believe that the beliefs on the redfield ratio extend beyond very low nitrate/phosphate numbers nor that it can really be used in closed systems like ours..

Staying in the redfield ratio is very interesting to me though and something I am going to be trying to maintain in the future and see how it does.. but I'm going much..much lower than 10 Nitrate to 1 Phosphate.

Not that I think our test kits are capable of being accurate enough either..

And FWIW.. I'm currently at 3 NO3 and .01 PO4 and am fighting a bit of cyano myself.. Done 2 red slime remover treatments in the past week with little to no impact on the cyano.. It seemed to slow after the first treatment but the second had no effect that I could tell..

Is it an antibiotic based treatment?