Best way to beat Cyano bacteria

[Daniel@R2R]

What in your experience has been the best way to beat cyano bacteria in your tank?

 

[Crabby48]

I like the natural way. Blow it off rocks and sand bed. Keep your sand bed clean and make sure you have good flow. Other then that some time.
I don’t like using chemicals if I don’t have to

 

[andrewkw]

Red slime remover and done. Obviously long term you have to fix the problem as to what's causing it, but this is a proven product on the market for years. I haven't actually had cyano in years but when I did I dosed this and it was gone never to return.

 

[lion king]

For me it has been a 3 step solution. 1st manual removal. Test your nitrates and phosphates, the only way to get an accurate phosphate reading is by using the Hanna ULR test. You will in many cases find your nitrate level to be too low in comparison to your phosphates. As an example of those keeping an ULN system, if your nitrtaes are 10, your phosphates would have to close to undetectable for it not to cause a problem. So usually ths next step is to lower your phosphates, sometimes initially by using Brightwell phosphate-e or similar, then by using gfo or your choice to maintain. Find out your source of phosphates, many reef additives like reef energy are a big culprit, react accordingly. Finally turn down or even off your red spectrum of lights, the cotals do not need them and have been known to feed cyano. Tbis has 100% worked for me.

 

[Kremis]

chemiclean

 

[Greybeard]

Dr. Tim's has a plan... I'm hearing good things about it. Going to try it.

 

[EmdeReef]

Hydrogen peroxide 1-10ml per 10gal twice a day, takes about 2 weeks to beat. You can inject directly into thicker mats to burn them.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Chemi clean except for how it drives the skimmer crazy.
My Plan B is loosening with a turkey baster, siphoning it up, adding hydrogen peroxide and reducing brightness of tank

 

[CALI2949]

CHEMICLEAN WORKS EVERYTIME DOESN'T HARM LIVESTOCK.

 

[brandon429]

many of my friends like to:

take apart the whole tank, access the sandbed outside the aquarium, rinse it out with tap water until its clear (an hour or better work, price of storing waste) then with saltwater.

they then swish the rocks around in buckets of saltwater to eject the waste from the rocks they've stored or they jet it out of the rock with saltwater using creative means, either way they rid their tank of cyano food as steps one through nine

step ten is reassembling a cyano free tank placing cloudless rocks and sand back together, both retained their bacteria, and then posting us a pic.

I have more than seven friends who do this not a joke

 

[lion king]

Chemiclean will get rid of it, temporarily, but will not beat it, it will come back. It does work but can be dangerous, it greatly effects O2 and can cause undue stress, i have many times seen it spur fish disease like ick because of stress due to lower O2.

 

[Shaummy]

FWIW...I battled Cyano on my sandbed for years..doing the manual removal and limiting Nitrates the whole 9 yards. I could somewhat keep it in check, meaning it didn't spread to my rocks and corals but it was always there. I don't like adding chemicals to the tank, but I had tried all the methods. Reluctantly, I finally decided it was time to try Chemiclean to see if I could get it gone. It worked perfectly, and no impacts to the corals or fish, and it has stayed gone.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Added a poll just now

 

[Ruben's Reef]

I got Cyano a while back and did nothing, just a water change and let it go out by itself. Wasn't that much anyway.

 

[jsker]

I was going to say, blow the tank up and walk away ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

For me it has been a 3 step solution. 1st manual removal. Test your nitrates and phosphates, the only way to get an accurate phosphate reading is by using the Hanna ULR test. You will in many cases find your nitrate level to be too low in comparison to your phosphates. As an example of those keeping an ULN system, if your nitrtaes are 10, your phosphates would have to close to undetectable for it not to cause a problem. So usually ths next step is to lower your phosphates, sometimes initially by using Brightwell phosphate-e or similar, then by using gfo or your choice to maintain. Find out your source of phosphates, many reef additives like reef energy are a big culprit, react accordingly. Finally turn down or even off your red spectrum of lights, the cotals do not need them and have been known to feed cyano. Tbis has 100% worked for me.

Chemiclean will get rid of it, temporarily, but will not beat it, it will come back. It does work but can be dangerous, it greatly effects O2 and can cause undue stress, i have many times seen it spur fish disease like ick because of stress due to lower O2.

This is the best corse of action after being told by others, and self discovery.

To summaries balance you're nutrients to were the nutrients are low but not to the point that the corals starve, Have the nitrates a couple of ppm higher then the phosphates for example 02 to for the phosphates and 5ppm for the nitrates. I have dealt with cayno on many accations. The exact ratio is still a unknown for what I have found

 

[Beardo]

As much physical removal followed by chemiclean.

 

[lmm1967]

chemical solutions - IMO - are temporary, it almost always comes back and then you're treating again. Plus there are side affects to chemical additions to your tank.

Solve it as naturally as you can and you have a permanent solution.

Water quality, flow, substrate movement / stirring (either you or creatures in your tank) and time. If you solve it using those tools - you've conquered it and have a long term solution.

 

[AcanthurusRex]

Using ChemiClean is the single worst thing I have done. It did not kill the corals or fish. I did eliminate the cyano.
Soon after the cyano disappeared turf algae started up and took over. Nothing eats it; at least trochus snails and pincushion urchins do not. None of the tangs touch it either. Countless hours spent pulling it off the rocks; pulling all the rocks out and scrubbing them clean. Covers them back up in a few days.
Cyano was not really that big of a deal compared to the disaster treating it created.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

many of my friends like to:

take apart the whole tank, access the sandbed outside the aquarium, rinse it out with tap water until its clear (an hour or better work, price of storing waste) then with saltwater.

they then swish the rocks around in buckets of saltwater to eject the waste from the rocks they've stored or they jet it out of the rock with saltwater using creative means, either way they rid their tank of cyano food as steps one through nine

step ten is reassembling a cyano free tank placing cloudless rocks and sand back together, both retained their bacteria, and then posting us a pic.

I have more than seven friends who do this not a joke

Might want to mention that this process is done for nano and pico tanks if I remember from your other posts, right? This process isn't feasible for some people, especially with larger tanks which may require a solution that allows for leaving rock and sand inside the aquarium.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

Using ChemiClean is the single worst thing I have done. It did not kill the corals or fish. I did eliminate the cyano.
Soon after the cyano disappeared turf algae started up and took over. Nothing eats it; at least trochus snails and pincushion urchins do not. None of the tangs touch it either. Countless hours spent pulling it off the rocks; pulling all the rocks out and scrubbing them clean. Covers them back up in a few days.
Cyano was not really that big of a deal compared to the disaster treating it created.

No, don't blame chemi-clean. Blame yourself for not taking care of the root cause of the issue and letting it get out of control after the cyano was gone.