griss’ Battle with Cyano - all the Things I’ve Tried
- Thread starter griss
- Start date
Do you dose any coral foods/aminos that might be supporting it? I usually dose Aquavitro Fuel once a week but I skipped last week and I think my cyano is less now. I'm going to skip this week as well and see if it thins out more. In the past I used to dose Acropower but I found the cyano came on fast with that stuff, that's why I switched to Fuel which seemed good for a while..
No, I don’t dose any thing but the MB7 and Nitrate. I do feed frozen Mysis or brine shrimp daily. That’s my only nutrient input.
shred5
Premium Member
Well sense you dose nitrate it is getting a source of phosphate somewhere. For cyano there are things that it mainly needs: phosphate, nitrate, carbon source and light.
You remove one of these legs it stops growing. We focus on nitrate and phosphate since they are the easiest to manage.. I am guessing you have bound phosphates in you substrate either in live rock or sand bed or both and the cyano is up taking phosphate there. Phosphate can bind to calcium carbonate. I am guessing this tank was set up with dead rock? So that maybe the source. I mean this rock is mined rocks and we are not sure what died in them or what run off of fertilizer may have got into it.
It can also can bind when neglected, over fed or the tank is not taken care of over time. I think this happens to people allot who do not do water changes. Live rock can bind phosphate and some heavy metals so for a while everything seems great sometimes years depending on the amounts added. Sometimes it happens quickly or sometimes years and then release this stuff back.
Once phosphate is used up it will stop but sometimes it can take a very long time. I am dealing with dead rock and bound phosphates myself right now. I had a thick mat of it in my newly set up mangrove area and dead rock It took about 6 months and now it is 100 percent gone. I also have a stubborn algae not cyano in the lagoon and it has been longer but it is now starting to go away. I added some herbivores to help speed it up and some phosphate remover.
This is on of the reasons I hate dead rock. I have seen some of it take over a year to fully remove all this. This can happen to live rock too.
I guess I've been fortunate in the past. In 37 years in this hobby, I've never had such a problem with Cyano. Sure, I've had it here and there, but nothing this bad.
The tank was set up in 2017 with a mix of dry rock and KP Aquatics live rock and Caribsea live sand. And I never had Cyano until about 6 months ago. So, I guess the phosphate leaching is likely the issue.
Here's what I've tried:
1. Weekly (sometimes twice a week) 5 gallon water changes using RO/DI from a seven stage RO/DI system and Coralife or IO salt.
2. Running GFO and carbon in a BRS reactor.
3. Tried Dr. Tim's Cyano Treatment Bundle which worked to knock the Cyano back for a while.
4. Set up a 5 gallon fuge with Caulerpa and Cheato.
5. Added Nitrate (mine was flat out ZERO prior) to allow macros to compete with the Cyano.
6. Been using the Marine Snow/MB7 solution suggested earlier in the thread. (Note: my water is really clear since doing this).
I think I'll just need to continue running GFO, doing water changes and dosing the Marine Snow
You forgot you hit it with chemiclean too.
shred5
Premium Member
See here is another issue Chemiclean is erythromycin which actually not only kills cyano it kills the stuff that competes against cyano. Cyano is present in most reef aquariums so it will just be introduced again with a coral or fish etc. Solve the issues and not use a bandaid.
To me there is nothing wrong with a little cyano and it adds to biodiversity. It is only a problem when it gets bad and becomes unsightly but to me it is alerting you to a bigger issue at this point.
Also did chemiclean not kill it or did it just come back? It might be something completely different and not cyano.
Never been a issue for me either except when adding new dead rock. Matter of fact algae has never really been a issue for me either except with new dead rock. Well I did have a dino problem like 25 years ago.
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One of my lfs doses this in his sps system. He says it helps with coloration. What is your experience?
Ah, yes, I think at this point, I've tried just about everything.
These things are a hard call for me. I rarely do one thing and then sit back and watch so I never know what thing did what. I can say it doesn't make anything unhappy and the jury is still out on the cyano relationship, although fuel does have a carbon source in it as does Acropower. I just read people having positive results with both products so I thought I would give it a try. I've been adding one or the other for over a year. I think alot of poor advice comes from seeing a correlation and calling it causation. I saw recently that Than Thein (Tidal Gardens) has started using Fuel in his tanks and he sees a positive effect. I would say that's a trustworthy evaluation.
Me too
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Interesting. Thanks for your feedback Sean.
A couple of updates.
Noticed FW’s in the fuge again. Took the fuge offline and dosed 3x dose FWE. Let it sit 45 minutes, and did about a 3 gallon water change on the 5 gallon fuge.
DT, blew off the rocks with a PH again, scrubbed with toothbrush, changed out GFO and Carbon, did a 5 gallon water change and then hit it with marine snow/MB7 treatment.
Noticed FW’s in the fuge again. Took the fuge offline and dosed 3x dose FWE. Let it sit 45 minutes, and did about a 3 gallon water change on the 5 gallon fuge.
DT, blew off the rocks with a PH again, scrubbed with toothbrush, changed out GFO and Carbon, did a 5 gallon water change and then hit it with marine snow/MB7 treatment.
Cyano is like a cat, it just comes and goes as it pleases and we think it was something we did.
Vinny Kreyling
Premium Member
I jus follow Marc Levenson's advice.
"Dose Chemi-Clean".
"Dose Chemi-Clean".
Tried that at one point Vinny. It knocked the cyano back a bit, but didn't eliminate it. Then, it came back with a vengance.
Never dosed PO4. But, yes, I am dosing NO3 at 2 ml per day.
Couple of updates.
Took the fuge offline and hit it with 1.5 dose FWE for an hour as the FW’s are back. Tons of them died. I did a 3 gallon water change on the fuge and the remaining 2 gallons from the DT. A couple hours later, FW’s crawling all over the fuge glass
Haven’t tested water in a while and did that this morning.
Alk - 9.1 (Salifert)
Ca - 390 (Salifert)
Mg - 1125 (Salifert)
NO3 - 25 (Salifert)
PO4 - 0.00 (Hanna)
Guess I need to cut back in the nitrate dosing.
Took the fuge offline and hit it with 1.5 dose FWE for an hour as the FW’s are back. Tons of them died. I did a 3 gallon water change on the fuge and the remaining 2 gallons from the DT. A couple hours later, FW’s crawling all over the fuge glass
Haven’t tested water in a while and did that this morning.
Alk - 9.1 (Salifert)
Ca - 390 (Salifert)
Mg - 1125 (Salifert)
NO3 - 25 (Salifert)
PO4 - 0.00 (Hanna)
Guess I need to cut back in the nitrate dosing.
