Extreme Water Clarity and Cyano Eradication, Made Easy!

[tbrown]

wow. you'll never need to buy it again.

My wife uses it in toothpaste so she gets irritated at me when I use it for the aquarium. I told her to buy a big bag of Amazon.

 

[SunnyX]

Hello all! I am happy to announce that I will be a guest tomorrow on the Rappin with Reefbum podcast.

The stream will start at 19:00EST. Pop in, check it out ,ask some questions and see my silly mug.

I am happy to discuss just about anything, including the Coral Snow treatment and bacteria driven systems.

Link here for the @ReefBum podcast ReefBum Channel

 

[trainbob]

Great will enjoy your interview with reef bum although I doubt if I will watch it live

 

[ctopherl]

Coral Snow Link: Coral Snow

Hello all!

I have been reefing now for about 25 years, and over those many years I have picked up many tips, tricks, and best habits/practices. From a hobbyist and even a coral vendors perspective, I have gained quite a bit of valuable information. Many of you likely even have a coral that came from company, Pro Corals. The most popular of which being the PC Rainbow Acro.,

Over those years I attempted to pass on as much information and knowledge as possible. Now, I am compiling all the knowledge into one area and will be releasing articles and likely some YouTube guides on a weekly basis.

This is a great hobby and what makes it great is the wonderful community of reefers. Almost all are extremely helpful and it is our duty to aid one another and when we can, impart the little knowledge that we pickup along the way to aid others in their journey. We, and myself included, can easily forget what it was like entering the hobby. Its a minefield and much livestock and funds can be wasted. For someone like myself, books and online forums were my only sanctuary as I did not have any local hobbyist to gather knowledge from. There were many issues, losses and way too much money needlessly spent. Hopefully this series of guides will help those just entering the hobby and perhaps even help some reefing veterans to polish up their game.

The articles will be posted on my blog and right here on Reef2Reef. I am slowly building up my online presence through FB, Instagram and YouTube. If you'd like to follow along and receive the most up to date information please feel free to follow. I will try and keep the articles and video brief. We all have busy lives so I will attempt to post only the cliff notes.

www.ReefSite.com
Instagram: @Reefsite
Fb: @ReefSites
Twitter: @RimlessReef
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SonnyM63



Now, enough yammering. Onto the article!


Extreme Water Clarity and Cyano Eradication, Made Easy!

One of the most frequent questions I receive is how do I have such amazing water clarity and an overall clean looking setup. Well, it quite simple and you can easily do the same while also helping rid yourself of cyano or and the very least not allowing it to gain a foothold in your system. While this is not a cure-all, it will help you achieve your goals and help maintain a healthy aquarium.


For a number of years I had purchased branded products of Coral Snow to help achieve water clarity. That is, until I asked around and found that you can simply make you own Coral Snow solution, saving you hundreds of dollars.

What is Coral Snow?

At its simplest, Coral Snow is a Flocculant.

Flocculant’s work by binding small particles together into a larger mass that can be easily removed via filter socks or a proteins skimmer. The Coral Snow can also help to removal yellowing compounds such as phenols while at the same time helping neutralizes some undesirable chemicals in the system.

Personally, I use this powder Coral Snow and one jar should last you years. Creating the solution couldn't be any simpler.

• Select a clean container, one that is resealable and able to be shaken. I use an old creatine bottle.(Yes, I am on the GAIN TRAIN)
• For 500ML of solution, add 10 level tablespoons of powder to roughly 425-450ML of RO/DI water.
• Shake the bottle up, and let it sit for two hours. After which, it will be ready to use.
• Now, I don’t believe that you can overdose with this product, but a good recommended dose is 5ml per 50gl of aquarium volume.
• Be sure to shake up the bottle prior to each use as the powder can settle.

The best time to add the solution to you aquarium is after conducting maintenance such as blowing off the rocks, cleaning the glass, siphoning the sand or conducting a water change. Ideally, you should be doing all of the aforementioned maintenance items during a water change, but that discussion is for another time.

Now, on to my personal favorite use of the product: preventing and getting rid of Cyano!

Cyano Solution

Cyano, in all its forms, has been the bane of many a reefers existence. Nothing can upset or ruin the appearance of an aquarium display like that nasty, slimy cyano! The algae is present in all systems, and dates back to the dawn of planet but you can keep it from taking over your aquarium and causing you heartache.

Ideally, you want to be taking preventative measures to ensure that cyano does not gain any real estate in your reef. Prevention is always easier than treatment, but if you can always treat it too.

To amplify the Coral Snow, you will need a bacterial solution. Most will do, but I like Microbacter7 by Brightwell Aquatics. What we are doing here is mixing the bacteria with the Coral Snow, allowing it to bond and adhere to the surface of sand and rock. Basically, we’re trying to eliminate land for the cyano to stake its claim. While most of the Coral Snow will be removed via filtration, there will be a bit that coats you aquariums surfaces, in this case with bacteria that will out compete algae.

The Mix

Take your measured solution of Coral Snow and add it to a small container.

• A plastic or glass cup will suffice.
• Next, add 10 drops of Microbacter7 per 5ML of Coral Snow.
• Allow 5 minutes for the solution to sit and then dose into your aquarium.

Note that Coral Snow will cloud your aquarium for at least two hours. Filter socks and Protein Skimmer(s) should be left on.

Application

I use a DIY mixture of Calcium Carbonate to clarify the water. The solution acts as a flocculant, helping to export tiny free floating matter.

Now, you could just stop right there, and use this solution simply for water clarity, but, you would be missing out on some of the greatest benefits that the complete formula has to offer.

Combining the Coral Snow with bacteria has an outsized effect on undesirable things such as Cyano slime.

• To get the full effect, you’re going to want to take a turkey baster and manually remove or blow off all cyano and other desirable organisms off of the rockwork and sand.

• If you’re able to, run some filter socks in the sump to help capture any large free floating waste.

Now, your going to want to add the Coral Snow solution in a cup and then add the bacteria. You can go a little on the bacteria, slightly more than the manufacturers recommendation.

• Allow the solution to sit for five minutes and then administer it to the aquarium.

• For the full effect, I will turn off the main system pump and allow the solution to have time to coat the surfaces of the aquarium. Generally, I will let process play out for an hour before turning on my main pump and filtration.

• After the hour is up, the main pump is turned on, filter socks setup, and skimmer turned on. The skimmer is going to play a key roll here in helping to remove the particles that have bonded to the coral snow.

Enhancing Coral Snow to Feed Corals

After some weeks, and the system is clean and clear you can then move on to some more advanced methods and mixtures.

I like to add bacteria, Zeofood, and Selcon to my mix.

The Coral Snow will help to distribute the nutrition directly to the corals. When dosed correctly, you should see a feeding response from corals, especially SPS who will extend feeding tentacles.

Now, not all corals will immediately go into feeding mode during the day. It will take some time but eventually they will be conditioned to do so. All things considered, the feeding mix has done very to aid with growth of corals in my system.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you find this Coral Snow solution to be advantageous. I have used it for years with great results. My aquariums are devoid of cyano and nuisance algae. The fish look like their floating in mid air and the true colors of the corals are allowed to shine through.

I dose once a week but there is no issue dosing it daily if you are dealing with a particularly bad breakout of cyano. For best results, siphon out as much cyano as possible before dosing Coral Snow.

Good luck and if you need any additional help please feel free to reach out.

Sonny [email protected]

Are the clumps of particles just going to settle back down in the sand? Do you need to really blast the tank with flow to make sure they go up and down the overflow to be filtered out?

 

[taricha]

@SunnyX Just listened to your discussion with reefbum. Really enjoyed it, thanks for sharing.
https://www.youtube.com/live/19HTeqDQBnY?feature=share

 

[19Mateo83]

How does this look? Much better price overall.

So this will work? Same recipe?

 

[tbrown]

So this will work? Same recipe?

It should. I use similar.

https://a.co/d/hxQKnvv

 

[SunnyX]

DELETED

 

[TLO45]

So this may have already been discussed but I’m curious if you use this method for Cyano how long do you think it takes before one sees results?

 

[Lebowski_]

So this may have already been discussed but I’m curious if you use this method for Cyano how long do you think it takes before one sees results?

I found hydrogen peroxide + adjusted light schedule worked better for me. Didn’t notice much change using this method.

It does clarify the water, though.

 

[shakacuz]

All of the fresh calcium carbonate surface area will act as seed crystals for precipitation of calcium and magnesium carbonate. You won't be able to readily detect the magnesium drop, and calcium too may be harder after just one addition, but alk dropping may be significant, especially in high alk, high pH aquaria.

how significant of an ALK drop in a roughly 40G water volume 8.3-8.5 alk system? if i dose 5ml of the snow weekly?

 

[SunnyX]

So this may have already been discussed but I’m curious if you use this method for Cyano how long do you think it takes before one sees results?

Hello,

I have found the best results in eradicating cyano by siphoning out the cyano daily, and then treating the system with the snow formula. Once the cyano is under control, dose the snow once per week.

There could be a number of underlying issues and conditions leading to the cyano, so I would always suggest looking for the root cause. In my case, I will see small spots of it when my RO/DI filters are near exhaustion.

The most important thing in the hobby is to stay consistent with you maintenance, dosing, and feeding. It only takes a few weeks of neglect before the system can spiral into a tail spin, and one that is hard to correct out of.

-Sonny

 

[TLO45]

Hello,

I have found the best results in eradicating cyano by siphoning out the cyano daily, and then treating the system with the snow formula. Once the cyano is under control, dose the snow once per week.

There could be a number of underlying issues and conditions leading to the cyano, so I would always suggest looking for the root cause. In my case, I will see small spots of it when my RO/DI filters are near exhaustion.

The most important thing in the hobby is to stay consistent with you maintenance, dosing, and feeding. It only takes a few weeks of neglect before the system can spiral into a tail spin, and one that is hard to correct out of.

-Sonny

Appreciate your insight. I believe my lack of consistent maintenance has certainly contributed to my issues.
I do need to stay on top on my rodi unit for I burn resin quickly being on a very high tds private well. On top of dosing nitrates when I did not really need to and over feeding at times has led me to this point.
I have made a lot of progress with the Cyano and I hope to get to a good point soon!
Thanks so much for your help with this subject!

 

[AKL1950]

Hi everyone. My system is about 15 months old. Went through the normal startup problems but things moved along as expected. At about the 9 month point, I started getting a Cyano powder all over the rocks. Tank is bare bottom so the rocks is where I noticed it the most. Started using sonny’s marine snow formula, but also looked hard at tank cleanliness. I started a new procedure of blowing everything in the tank with a Turkey baster everyday. All rocks and since it’s bare bottom, that as well. Changed firter sock every two days. Within three weeks all the cyano was gone. Also, all the algae started disappearing as well. I was shocked at how much invisible food particles and poop were in the rock work, but finally got everything really clean and most of the bad stuff was gone. Can’t say mine is as clean as Sunny’s tank, but I’m getting there. These shots were taken yesterday from each end of the tank. It’s 6’ long.

 

[graziano]

Hello,

I have found the best results in eradicating cyano by siphoning out the cyano daily, and then treating the system with the snow formula. Once the cyano is under control, dose the snow once per week.

There could be a number of underlying issues and conditions leading to the cyano, so I would always suggest looking for the root cause. In my case, I will see small spots of it when my RO/DI filters are near exhaustion.

The most important thing in the hobby is to stay consistent with you maintenance, dosing, and feeding. It only takes a few weeks of neglect before the system can spiral into a tail spin, and one that is hard to correct out of.

-Sonny

Hi, after preparing the 250ml DY coral snow solution, should I put it in the fridge to store it? Thank you

 

[exnisstech]

Hi, after preparing the 250ml DY coral snow solution, should I put it in the fridge to store it? Thank you

I'm not Sunny but I have been using it for a few months stored in a sealed container at room temp with no ill effects. I don't think there is anything in it to spoil

 

[tbrown]

Hi, after preparing the 250ml DY coral snow solution, should I put it in the fridge to store it? Thank you

I usually just make a small dose and use it immediately. Like @exnisstech said, the Calcium Carbonate can be kept at room temperature and the MB7 (if you're adding it) doesn't require refrigeration so I didn't refrigerate mine when I was making larger batches.

 

[exnisstech]

I usually just make a small dose and use it immediately. Like @exnisstech said, the Calcium Carbonate can be kept at room temperature and the MB7 (if you're adding it) doesn't require refrigeration so I didn't refrigerate mine when I was making larger batches.

@graziano To clarify my previous post. I mix the coral snow in a one quart jar and pour into a squirt bottle. That is stored at room temp. I do refrigerate the mb7 because the label states it extends the shelf life. I mix the two right before using.

 

[graziano]

@exnisstech, @tbrown , Thanks for the reply

 

[Harpo]

For clear water why not ozone? I understand that it may not help with the cyano.