Tired of Cyano, thinking about trying Red Slime Remover

[RoxannaBanana]

I feel you, buddy! I had a cyano issue and hesitated with a chemical treatment. I used the Ultralife Red Slime remover. Fish and corals seemed unaffected, but clean up crew significantly affected. Cyano gone, but go by the instructions, and be sure you do the two treatments instead of one, or it will grow back more ferocious. Good luck to you! Cyano sucks! I was able to contain it by reducing my light cycle to 6-8 hours during treatment, as cyano feeds off the light and a nutrient rich environment.... Turn off your skimmer!!! Bubble city!

 

[davocean]

I followed the directions when I used it last, and my sps browned out, though it did remove the cyano.

 

[lionfish300]

I upgrade from 180 to 375 and have cyano. Try to manual remove it, light out for three days but they just came back. Believe or not I took someone advice on here and use UltraLife red Slime stain remover and that what it took. Three weeks went by and no cyano.

 

[RoxannaBanana]

Oh, another thing... In addition to treatment... If it's more prominent on your sand bed, you can dump some new sand on top of it to starve it of light, but you need to sift the sand after a day or two after its death. But if it's more prominent in your rock, cyano HATES flow... Blow your Powerheads directly on the heavy cyano areas and watch it die. Man, I hate cyano.

 

[lespaul339]

I wanted to update this thread. I adjusted my LED lighting and after a week the cyano growth has pretty much gone away. Before it would be back within a week, really thick on my sand bed. Now, after a week there's a little bit on the sand, but it's manageable and adjusting the lighting has pretty much eliminated my problem. What I did was make my lighting more blue than white. I had my whites up pretty high, and I think that's what was contributing to my cyano problem. Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone else is having the same problem I was. It could be light related. Check your lighting spectrum.

 

[Mussin]

Red slime remover works like a charm. I don't see why people don't like it?

 

[RTab619]

Following

 

[Bono]

Can you give more details about your LED's ie: manufacturer, light cycle and settings?

 

[lespaul339]

Its a Reef Breeder Photon 48. I don't remember my old settings, but here are my new ones. Right now my blues max out at 70% and my whites at 34%. I have the blues coming on at 7 in the morning and gradually ramping up to 50%. Then the whites come on about 10 a.m. and ramp up till they get to 34% in the afternoon. The blues and whites are then on Blue 70% and white 34% for four hours before they start ramping down. My whites kick off at 8 p.m. My blues on are 60% and slowly ramping down till lights out at 12 a.m.

 

[Johnseye]

Products like chemiclean and Red Slime Remover always get a bad rap but they almost always work and I've personally never seen a negative response when the directions are followed.

It's common for people to say they are a bandaid to a real issue and that might be true but if the tank is otherwise healthy, maintained well and has decent flow that might not be the case.

Chemiclean worked for me in the past as a last resort. I do also agree there was a reason why the cyano got a foothold in the first place.

I started up a new tank a couple months ago and despite low nutrients have a dino issue. Similar struggle to cyano. I reduced the hours of light per day and discontinued use of KZ Spongepower and Amino. Then I increased the flow in the tank. I had been using ZEObak since starting the tank, but without a reactor, ZEOvit, ZEOfood and ZEOstart. I removed my GFO, added a reactor and added the rocks, Food and Start. Going full Zeovit was just coincidental timing but I thought I should bring it up. I bought a bottle of Dino-X just in case, but it appears the dinos are subsiding. We'll see what happens before I go nuclear with the Dino-X. That's a last resort for me.

 

[Snarkys]

Chemiclean worked for me in the past as a last resort. I do also agree there was a reason why the cyano got a foothold in the first place.

I started up a new tank a couple months ago and despite low nutrients have a dino issue. Similar struggle to cyano. I reduced the hours of light per day and discontinued use of KZ Spongepower and Amino. Then I increased the flow in the tank. I had been using ZEObak since starting the tank, but without a reactor, ZEOvit, ZEOfood and ZEOstart. I removed my GFO, added a reactor and added the rocks, Food and Start. Going full Zeovit was just coincidental timing but I thought I should bring it up. I bought a bottle of Dino-X just in case, but it appears the dinos are subsiding. We'll see what happens before I go nuclear with the Dino-X. That's a last resort for me.

A lot of the guys here have had luck with raising the PH to 8.3+ with kalk or c02 scrubber media on their skimmers and then going completely dark for 72 hours. meaning black out the room or put something over the tank to black it out.

 

[Johnseye]

A lot of the guys here have had luck with raising the PH to 8.3+ with kalk or c02 scrubber media on their skimmers and then going completely dark for 72 hours. meaning black out the room or put something over the tank to black it out.

I use kalk and the tank's pH stays fairly constant at 8 other than typical day and night variations. I did add 2 tsp per gallon to my ato water this time around so without adding vinegar it should be saturated. Hadn't thought of co2 scrubber media. Will look into that, thanks.

 

[brett559]

Had it terrible a few years ago. Used Chemi-Clean. Never came back. Use it.

 

[oseymour]

I used it a few months ago. I followed the instructions and did the follow-up treatment a few days later.

Works like a charm, removed the cyano completely and it never came back. The only ill effect is that my skimmer went nuts. I connected the cup to a bucket and let it drain into the bucket, turned my ATO off and replace whatever was in the bucket with freshly mixed saltwater. Took about 10 gallons for the skimmer to calm down.