Black Cyano Lots of Sunlight

[drmantistoboggan]

good morning everyone,

I have an 80 gallon waterbox frag tank and have been getting a bad outbreak of black Cyano carpeting my sand.
We recently moved into the 23rd floor of a skyscraper and our walls are windows, the tank is getting blasted by natural sunlight everyday. I’m unsure how to best tackle the problem. Adding to this I had velvet in my tank and all fish have been moved into a quarantine tank. I am about to finish the fallow period, 6 weeks on Saturday. During this time I have not turned on my lights at all (AP700) and have fed the tank twice during the fallow period to just keep the bacteria going. I’ve seen no improvement to the algae
In addition to the above, when I moved I decided for the first time to reuse my rock, I emptied the tank about a month prior to the move. Cleaned it with vinegar and let the rock dry in the sun for a month. I then bought dry sand and set up the tank in the new apartment.
flow wise I have an icecap gyre 3k running on the side of the tank.
I am unsure how to best tackle the problem right now. The stuff just makes the tank look bad. I was considering an algae scrubber or a macroalgae reactor but I don’t know if these will be effective enough to outcompete the sunlight coming in from the windows.
Does anyone have any advice?

 

[twilliard]

Take a good portion of that "mat" and put it in 1 cup of tank water. Add 20ml of peroxide (do not stir and no aeration) and report back in 24 hours with any changes in color.
That is the best starting point without a microscope.

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Take a good portion of that "mat" and put it in 1 cup of tank water. Add 20ml of peroxide (do not stir and no aeration) and report back in 24 hours with any changes in color.
That is the best starting point without a microscope.

thank you! I’ve been googling a few of your posts, do you have a link to a post where you breakdown what this process does?

 

[twilliard]

I have been gone for a few years and trying to catch up. Ironically I just removed the links to my threads in my signature with my H2O2, flucon, Fenbendazole threads.

 

[drmantistoboggan]

I have been gone for a few years and trying to catch up. Ironically I just removed the links to my threads in my signature with my H2O2, flucon, Fenbendazole threads.

I remember seeing you pop up a bit when I was searching ULN systems. Glad to see your back!

 

[twilliard]

Thank you! I have been contacted by people all over the world so I figured I better get my info together. Please don't hesitate with any questions.

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Having a hard time finding peroxide

 

[Dan_P]

good morning everyone,

I have an 80 gallon waterbox frag tank and have been getting a bad outbreak of black Cyano carpeting my sand.
We recently moved into the 23rd floor of a skyscraper and our walls are windows, the tank is getting blasted by natural sunlight everyday. I’m unsure how to best tackle the problem. Adding to this I had velvet in my tank and all fish have been moved into a quarantine tank. I am about to finish the fallow period, 6 weeks on Saturday. During this time I have not turned on my lights at all (AP700) and have fed the tank twice during the fallow period to just keep the bacteria going. I’ve seen no improvement to the algae
In addition to the above, when I moved I decided for the first time to reuse my rock, I emptied the tank about a month prior to the move. Cleaned it with vinegar and let the rock dry in the sun for a month. I then bought dry sand and set up the tank in the new apartment.
flow wise I have an icecap gyre 3k running on the side of the tank.
I am unsure how to best tackle the problem right now. The stuff just makes the tank look bad. I was considering an algae scrubber or a macroalgae reactor but I don’t know if these will be effective enough to outcompete the sunlight coming in from the windows.
Does anyone have any advice?

Sounds like you are thinking the sunlight might be a cause of the problem. If true, you will need to shade the system

Did you have this organism in the previous set up, before the move? I was wondering about the rationale for the destructive rock cleaning you performed. You don’t mention the nitrate or phosphate level of the current system.

Is the organism literally black or dark red?

Have you considered ChemiClean?

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Thank you! I have been contacted by people all over the world so I figured I better get my info together. Please don't hesitate with any questions.

Was able to get some peroxide last night. That black mat has turned green. It’s been about 12 hours.

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Sounds like you are thinking the sunlight might be a cause of the problem. If true, you will need to shade the system

Did you have this organism in the previous set up, before the move? I was wondering about the rationale for the destructive rock cleaning you performed. You don’t mention the nitrate or phosphate level of the current system.

Is the organism literally black or dark red?

Have you considered ChemiClean?

it was not in the tank before the move. The reason for the rock cleaning was we we’re doing a long distance move and in temporary housing for a while. It made more sense to start from scratch so everything was removed and cleaned.

I tried two rounds of red slime remover, there was some red Cyano and that did get rid of that. Now it’s all black and growing.
There is no effective way to shade the system

 

[twilliard]

Was able to get some peroxide last night. That black mat has turned green. It’s been about 12 hours.

That is the result we were looking for. Just to let you know what you have (Spirulina) ChemiClean will not touch it.
Your best route to get rid of the Spirulina is H2O2 dosing.

 

[drmantistoboggan]

That is the result we were looking for. Just to let you know what you have (Spirulina) ChemiClean will not touch it.
Your best route to get rid of the Spirulina is H2O2 dosing.

Thank you! With dosing H2O2, do I do it until it’s eliminated or do I continually dose even after it is gone?

 

[drmantistoboggan]

That is the result we were looking for. Just to let you know what you have (Spirulina) ChemiClean will not touch it.
Your best route to get rid of the Spirulina is H2O2 dosing.

Hey twillard. I’ve been searching Spirulina and found this post from you as well as several others where you claim that chemiclean is the method you would use. I am NOT accusing you of lying or misleading but could please explain what has changed in your understanding of Spirulina from this post and why H2O2 would be effective?

 

[drmantistoboggan]

That is the result we were looking for. Just to let you know what you have (Spirulina) ChemiClean will not touch it.
Your best route to get rid of the Spirulina is H2O2 dosing.

Alright Twilliard. I do not mean to bombard you with posts but I have been reading your other threads. At this point, unless you have new knowledge that says otherwise, based on your posts it would appear that the Spirulina is actually a good source of natural fish food and maybe grew out of hand due to my tank running a 6 week fallow period for velvet. I intend to re-introduce my fish tomorrow to the tank, one of which is a yellow spot fox face. Now, if I understand correctly that fox face may just nibble down and keep that Spirulina in check. If not, I may resort to picking up a tang to help combat this. Would a lawnmower or starry blenny eat this as well? Love those guys and they are usually beneficial.
It does not seem necessary at this point to get a Chaeto reactor or an algae scrubber. It seems like I’m growing some nutritional food that the Aztecs used to use and I need some critters to start munching down on it.

 

[twilliard]

Im sorry I had that backwards!

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Im sorry I had that backwards!

Wait! What’s your recommended treatment then?!? I appreciate your input!

 

[twilliard]

H2O2 would be the route you would want to go to get rid of it as it is cyanobacteria. Spirulina will not change color in H2O2 but ChemiClean kills it.
Again sorry for the confusion!

 

[twilliard]

Here is the information that I had put together.
I am working on getting my notes and equipment out of storage.

Understanding Cyanobacteria

Mr. Todd Williard has helped answer many questions that we feel are substantial in understanding and combating cyano, and measurements to take if it does pop up in an aquarium setting.

reefnation.com

 

[GoVols]

H2O2 would be the route you would want to go to get rid of it as it is cyanobacteria. Spirulina will not change color in H2O2 but ChemiClean kills it.
Again sorry for the confusion!

It is so great to see you active again on R2R!!

Thanks for all that you have done (for all of us) with your long term studies.

Saw your post and just had to take the time to say hello.

You've been deeply missed and hope that you are doing fine.

TW:
My last battle with cyano was Jan. 2017, but it struck back again a few months ago.

So, on both occasions, I combed your H2O2 treatment while dosing the CC powder at the same time.

3% H2O2 every twelve hours as you state, then hit a 20% water change every 48 hours and re-dose the CC powder until the cyano is long gone.

In my case (both times), I have not seen any adverse reaction to fish or corals by running both treatments at the same time.

Just wanted to give you a shout out, and what has worked for me.

Freddie

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Did some more digging, thank you all for all your help! I am going to start dosing the hydrogen peroxide this evening. I will grab a photo tonight of the tank in it’s worse state and report back in about two weeks!