che25
New member
After 2 months of tweaking and struggling, I think I've finally won the Cyano battle.
It was a cyano bloom that first brought me to RC. I would like to thank everybody that responded to my threads and all the advice that I received here. A special thanks goes out to sk8er and the Captain for all the information that they have posted.
It has been more than 48 hours since the completion of that last tweak, there is not a trace of the nasty red slimy anywhere. The major blooms began when I upgraded my lighting to MH's in early June.
Here is an outline of what worked and what failed.
1. I started out by using Chemi-Clear and other commercial red slime removers. My initial posts where questions about these additives and I was humbled by many members here that this is not a good remedy. I concur. These additives did nothing except take my skimmer off-line and probably did more harm than good.
2. Reading the post here at RC lead me to the installation of a refugium. Although it did not clear out the slime immediately, I feel that this was a necessary addition to my system. I think I'm starting to reap the benefits of it now.
3. What really seems to work is the 72 hour black-out period. My first attempt failed because, IMHO, the skimmer was still a little out of tune because of trace Chemi-Clear. I was still struggling with overflow issues. Although the first black-out cleared the slime, it started to come back after about six hours.
4. I learned here that, "If you have cyano, you have phosphates". Therefore, I added a phosban reactor, removed all bio-balls and foam media that the LFS sold me for my initial set-up.
5. I just finished the 2nd 72-hour black-out. This time however I made sure my protein skimmer was working well and covered the tank with dark sheets to keep out ambient light. I think I beat it, however, time will tell.
Also, for the first time I'm testing just trace amounts of Nitrates in my system.
Thanks again for all the help.
It was a cyano bloom that first brought me to RC. I would like to thank everybody that responded to my threads and all the advice that I received here. A special thanks goes out to sk8er and the Captain for all the information that they have posted.
It has been more than 48 hours since the completion of that last tweak, there is not a trace of the nasty red slimy anywhere. The major blooms began when I upgraded my lighting to MH's in early June.
Here is an outline of what worked and what failed.
1. I started out by using Chemi-Clear and other commercial red slime removers. My initial posts where questions about these additives and I was humbled by many members here that this is not a good remedy. I concur. These additives did nothing except take my skimmer off-line and probably did more harm than good.
2. Reading the post here at RC lead me to the installation of a refugium. Although it did not clear out the slime immediately, I feel that this was a necessary addition to my system. I think I'm starting to reap the benefits of it now.
3. What really seems to work is the 72 hour black-out period. My first attempt failed because, IMHO, the skimmer was still a little out of tune because of trace Chemi-Clear. I was still struggling with overflow issues. Although the first black-out cleared the slime, it started to come back after about six hours.
4. I learned here that, "If you have cyano, you have phosphates". Therefore, I added a phosban reactor, removed all bio-balls and foam media that the LFS sold me for my initial set-up.
5. I just finished the 2nd 72-hour black-out. This time however I made sure my protein skimmer was working well and covered the tank with dark sheets to keep out ambient light. I think I beat it, however, time will tell.
Also, for the first time I'm testing just trace amounts of Nitrates in my system.
Thanks again for all the help.
