Helped me out big time with cyano

[andrewsky]

not sure if this is well known or common knowledge and ive just never been introduced to the idea:hmm3: however i noticed a huge difference with this method and would like to share it with the new guys or anyone who feels helpless fighting cyano, please give this a try and even continue it for regular water changes as it would help keep algae away.

So ive gotten cyano due to terribly high salinity levels due to a faulty cheap hydrometer as well as being a newby at the time and not knowing that refractometers were the real deal, however i fixed my salinity and conquered cyano. Now I have it again but all of my water levels are normal.

so normally In the morning when the lights first turn on there is only a tiny bit of cyano on my sand and rocks. but by 6 pm there are thick layers of cyano. so i did a little research and found that at night when the lights turn off cyano (not sure if other algae do this as well, im sure they do) some of the cyano tends to die and go away, when this happens it releases any of the nutrients it was feeding on into the water. So I figured if i did a water change in the morning right before the lights turned on a good amount of the cyano would have died and released a lot of nutrients into the water and therefore when i take that nutrient rich water out and put clean new water, there is a lot less nutrients for the cyano to feed on and grow.

Therefore if you are struggling with cyano or any algae, try this method because i did it today and i noticed a huge! difference, the amount of cyano on my sand and rock is the same as it was in the morning, where normally around this time it would be thick mats.

just my 2 cents! hope this helps anyone struggling with algae

 

[mcgyvr]

yes siphoning it out, water changes, a 2-3 day lights out period are all effective and recommended to reducing/eliminating cyano..

A simple 3 day lights out can take cyano from a 1/8" thick sheet covering everything to bright white sand again after the blackout.

It THRIVES on light/food... reduce both and voila magically gone .

 

[Ron Reefman]

So ive gotten cyano due to terribly high salinity levels due to a faulty cheap hydrometer as well as being a newby at the time and not knowing that refractometers were the real deal, however i fixed my salinity and conquered cyano. Now I have it again but all of my water levels are normal.

I'm not sure if you have learned yet, but high salinity does NOT cause cyanobacteria blooms.

And there is nothing wrong with hydrometers as long as the first thing you do is compare it's readings with that from a calibrated refractometer. If it reads a little off, make a label and stick it on the hydrometer. In almost 5 years I've checked my hydrometer every 6 months or so... well, I used to, and it was always EXACTLY off by the same amount. Now I don't even worry about checking it.

 

[andrewsky]

Well I wasn't specifying high salinity as the direct problem of the cyano bloom. But what does happen is that when salt levels are off of what they are suppose to be usually when salinity is higher is that all other parameters get thrown off which caused my cyano bloom the first time around. So I have learned a bit, I wasn't saying that high salinity was the direct problem, it was the main problem causing all other levels to be off

 

[Ron Reefman]

I've never seen a high salinity level have any affect on other water parameters. Unless it's that they just don't get checked.

How high was your salinity?

 

[andrewsky]

I thought the same, but high salinity was the problem of my cyano Blume at the time because once I got my salinity to normal level everything went away. So trust me from my experience of 7 years in the hobby it was high salinity causing my cyano Blume. I understand higher salinity was not the cause of cyano Blume but it definitely had to be throwing one of the parameters off. It was at 1.029-1.030 which is pretty high and I unfortunately didn't realize this until I brought it to the LFS to get everything checked.

 

[10GalReef]

I also had a cyano problem due to high salinity. I didn't calibrate my refractometer and had a HUGE cyano breakout. Salinity was about 1.029. As soon as I siphoned out the slime, got rid of a some sand bed, and did a 50% water change, got my water to 1.025 it died down.
Used an old tooth brush to scrub the rocks it really worked