cyano problems..

tautog83 · Feb 27, 2015

my tank about 5 months old now, nitrates and phosphates are pretty much non existent .. Im running eco bak plus bio pellets and just recently starting to get cyano just on the sand . I have 2j ebao r'8s , , same lighting cycle , same amount of fish . I was target feeding with some coral frenzy and dosing acropower like every 4 days so I wasn't sure if that was causing it or not . Since then I stopped feeding and dosing and im still getting it to come back but strictly on the sand. Corals and everythin as happy as can be. I Read that sometimes you need a diverse amount of bacteria so I tried zeobak in hopes it would help the situation, I only have dosed that twice and it doesn't seem to be helping . Trying to avoid chemicals at all costs and a blackout if it all possible... any thoughts??

saltwaterpicaso · Feb 27, 2015

the biopellets are feeding the cyano

tautog83 · Feb 27, 2015

so whats the best course of action?? unplug the pellets??

5Bucks · Feb 27, 2015

I had continuing Cyano problems on substrate (and substrate only) with near zero nutrient readings in water like you. I can't speak to the pellets as I don't use. I'm convinced nutrients bound to substrate were feeding the Cyano. Removed the offending layer of substrate about a week ago and the Cyano has not returned. I was advised to give removed substrate a 3 minute vinegar bath to remove nutrients, followed by heavy tap water rinsing and complete drying before returning to tank. Prior to that, I had vacuumed substrate with weekly water changes. Cyano would be gone for a day but always come back. I went through a few weeks with high PO4 end of last summer. Got that under control but kept having the outbreaks on the substrate and mostly in areas of lower flow. Drove me nuts!

tautog83 · Feb 27, 2015

well every wc I do I vacuum some sand out but it doesn't seem to help .. im sure it has something to do with the pellets I was just hoping for a more detailed answer to solve the problem

saltwaterpicaso · Feb 28, 2015

there are numerous threads stating that bio pellets are a problem when it comes to cyano. cyano is a bacteria and because its present in you tank it is the dominate bacteria and the pellets are feeding it. I had a cyano problem for years I tried everything including chemi clean and other products. I was always told I had other issues In the tank that was the couse of it. I have a 90 gallon tank with a 45 sump. a reef octopus skimmer ratted for 500 gallons I run gfo with carbon.. I tried everything nothing worked. im convinced once its in the tank its there to stay. so what I did was took all the rock out slowely. then the sand then slowely replaced all the water while keeping the lights out for 2 weeks. put new sand back in only2 bags if I didn't have wrasses that live in the sand I would of went bare bottom then I replaced all the rock with new pukani dry rock from brs after I cooked them for 2 weeks. this was over 2 years ago and have never had cyano ever since and now when I make a purchase from a lfs I look to make sure there is no cyano in any of there tanks if there is I wont purchase anything.. im convinced cyano got in my tank from a purchase and it was a nightmare after that. I also got rid of my refugium and added a uv sterilizer. I believe the cleaner the sump and tank the cleaner the system hope this helps good luck

JerryO · Mar 2, 2015

I used Ultra Life's Red Slime Remover and had luck with it. Lately I've been seeing a online place selling Cyano eating hermit crabs. Has anyone heard or used these> Noy sure I believe it.

Kennyb1 · Mar 2, 2015

Did you add a large amount of biopoellets at once? From my experience adding biopellets to quickly will cause the cyano out break. Also it seems like adding pellets to a newer tank can allow the cyano to take hold before your beneficial gets a chance to culture. I would regularly disturb the cyano beds, back down slightly on the biopellets and make sure large amounts of detritus aren't settling in these locations until the cyano starts to slow down this should allow for your beneficals to take hold over the cyano.

JSeward · Mar 3, 2015

The bio pellet reactor doesn't feed the cyano. It's localizing the growth of the good, beneficial bacteria within the reactor itself. So, the photosynthetic cyano bacteria now has a competition free environment in your display tank with plenty of light and nutrients to feed on. Suddenly taking a bio pellet reactor offline will usually cause a tank crash since there isn't much, if any, nitrifying bacteria in the rest of the system. Also, testing zero or near zero nitrates and phosphates when there is a nuisance algae and/or bacteria outbreak is to be expected because the nuisance organism is aggressively consuming it. A healthy, well established tank will have plenty of nitrates and phosphates present. Forgetting the bio pellets for a moment, cyano outbreaks are common in new tanks anyway. There isn't large colonies of good, nutrient consuming bacteria established yet. A 5 month old tank is still a very new tank.

I've gotten rid of large, coral killing cyano outbreaks with very little effort in the past. I manually removed as much cyano as possible with a turkey baster and a net, lowered tank temps to 76-77 deg F (where I now keep them permanently), and followed that up with 2 consecutive days of lights out. I also tried a beneficial bacteria product called CyanoClean. I don't think it helped get rid of the outbreak, but it may have helped prevent it from coming back. However, I haven't used it in 6 months and still no sign of cyano. It could be snake oil, who knows. Anyway, I completely got rid of the cyano without a single water change and without any chemical or mechanical filtration in a heavily fed, very nutrient rich system. I think the key is lowering the temp to slow down bacteria growth.

I know you said you wanted to avoid a blackout, but it really is effective. You'll only need to do it a day or two at a time. It's not always open skies and sunshine over the reefs, the coral can handle it just fine. You don't have to cover the tank either. Just leave the lights off. I actually found it better to allow ambient room light to enter the tank during the day so the fish will come out of hiding and eat.

zoasaholic · Mar 3, 2015

I have the same problem after i added more flow & remove some off the sand during wc the cyano gone

tautog83 · Mar 3, 2015

alright cool, like I said its just the sand really but obviously annoying. Ive had the same amt of biopellets in the reactor for about 2 months now . I started with about a 1/5 of the actual dosage and now im at like 80% of the recommended dosage and haven't added anymore in months. I can try to ramp up the r8's a little just need to watch it so I don't have a tsunami wave coming out of tank . Ill try a blackout for a day or 2 and manually remove what I can from a small wc . my tank runs at 77-78 usually anyways and I was testing no phosphates before the issues . Im gonna run a little chemi pure elite after this wc in case there is some phosphates in the stuff itself and go from there..

cginter · Mar 3, 2015

+1 on more flow and adding some kind of benifical bacteria would help boost your system. I have used Microbacter7 in the past, and it worked for me, I did only use it till my algae problems were starting to fade. since then my 120 has been looking and running awesome!

beaslbob · Mar 3, 2015

Kill the lights and suspend feeding until the cyano dies off.
The resume with less feeding the lights and adjust.
(if you don't have a refugium with macros or an Algae truf scrubber, then add one)

M3ace9 · Mar 3, 2015

tautog83 said:
my tank about 5 months old now, nitrates and phosphates are pretty much non existent .. Im running eco bak plus bio pellets and just recently starting to get cyano just on the sand . I have 2j ebao r'8s , , same lighting cycle , same amount of fish . I was target feeding with some coral frenzy and dosing acropower like every 4 days so I wasn't sure if that was causing it or not . Since then I stopped feeding and dosing and im still getting it to come back but strictly on the sand. Corals and everythin as happy as can be. I Read that sometimes you need a diverse amount of bacteria so I tried zeobak in hopes it would help the situation, I only have dosed that twice and it doesn't seem to be helping . Trying to avoid chemicals at all costs and a blackout if it all possible... any thoughts??

Cyano is a bacteria and will compete with other bacterias. Pellets produce a carbon source for bacteria to grow and different bacterias don't have a choice to use it, they all use it. What does happen though is bacterial competes to become dominant. The cyano is out competing the beneficial bacteria in your tank right now. I run pellets and have had this problem in the past. When running pellets it believe it is crucial to have a weekly maintanance dose of beneficial bacteria like Bacter7 to keep this equilibrium. To rid cyano, start by dosing beneficial bacteria. This will begin a boost in your system. Next, you need to do water changes before your lights come on. If you notice cyano disappears when the lights go off. After research, I have found that it in fact just takes another from in your water column and when it is in this form a water change will put a dent in the population of cyano. Lastly, pick up Coral snow by Zeo. What this product does is it binds with unwanted waste and bacteria and allows the skimmer to skim with more effectiveness. Be sure to cut the flow to any media you are running as I have found it clogs it up in my opinion. Hope this helps

tautog83 · Mar 3, 2015

well ive been adding zeobak in there for a varied bacteria, gonna do a wc while the lights are out tmrw and see if that helps any.

tautog83 · Jul 9, 2015

well after a little success with the cyano on the sand im getting it back again.. Ive been using zeobak and coral snow in hopes to battle it, been about 2 weeks again and its still coming back.. Ive done water changes and not helping situation . still running pellets and I thought adding the different strains of bacteria via zeo stuff would make it outcompete the cyano . Its only been about 10 days with the zeobak and coral snow so maybe ill just stick with it for a little while longer and see .

M3ace9 · Jul 9, 2015

I run a hybrid pellet Zeo system and when initially doing my research I think I recall reading that zeobak is bacteria but with an additional carbon source. It takes time for the good bacteria to colonize and return to equilibrium in the tank but if the zeobak is providing more of a carbon source then it is just feeding the cyano further more. I suggest you dose another bacteria such as microbacter7. If you are going to be take your pellets offline you need to do it slowly or you risk crashing your tank. There will be no carbon source that has been feeding your bacteria to control your bioload. This will slow down your tanks ability to breakdown organic matter and will cause a swing in your system. Either way you need to get your tank balanced. I would keep the pellets running. Also, try restricting the output of your reactor and be sure the output is going right into your skimmer.

tautog83 · Jul 9, 2015

yea im not turning off my pellets , my reactor output goes is right next to skimmer intake .. ill take a look into the other bacteria and stop using zeobak

brandon429 · Jul 9, 2015

post a full tank shot

they give details about your cyano problem

also Ill tell you of a key detail im seeing here

the info so far is coming from what someone used to fix their tanks, not what they used to fix someone elses tank where they have a thread to show it happening, the long term fix of cyano, thats why things are progressing in an unpredictable way. its hard for you to harness the actions that worked in 1 other tank, but if you could find a thread where lets say 15 cyano problems are addressed, you'd see fixes coming in this order:

phosphate control and flow/detritus adjustment
po4 control can be done by ATS or refugia, or more bandaids to makeup for detritus in the tank like GFO in addition to the biopellets, which are there to offset detritus being left in the system. The full tank shot w show the sinks in the tank that require you to use biopellets, where cyano is a close associate with their use we can see across threads.

Its so very important to know that GFO, biopellets, and cyano are all optional inclusions in a reef tank. To me a reduction in complexity is your ideal goal, not experimenting with more dosers.

Those who are cyano free for years have things in common, and its easy to attain without stacking chemical cheats on top of one another, to me that leads to unnecessary cost. I have no doubt many tanks use the pellets successfully.

post full tank shot pls
B

Breakthecycle2 · Jul 9, 2015

Im curious as to what helps too. My tank is 3 months old and I am getting it on the sand only. I used red slime remover and chemiclaean. It took care of the rocks, but it is still coming back on the sand. It got better for a few weeks, but now its back the way it was when it started. I was doing daily and weekly water changes too. I only feed once a day. I have three G3 Radions that were on 70%. I lowered them to 50% yesterday after my LFS had the same issues in two tanks. They lowered the intensity of the lightning and all of a sudden it was gone. I am at my whits end with this crap.