Cyano...After Vibrant

Brew12 · Jan 15, 2017

prsnlty said:
What stump remover are you using?

Spectracide from Lowes

I have a little bit of cyano coming back now, but nothing like it had been.

Mpierce · Jan 15, 2017

I always battle cyano it seems. I don't know why but every tank I have had it is my biggest headache. I was trying vibrant to see if it would get rid of it, no such luck so far (5 weeks of dosing every 5 days). However my film algae on the glass is very low and the back wall of my tank was getting a green tinge and is now clear. Now I am trying the h2o2 route at 1ml/10gal every 12 hours and see if I can get it taken care of. Then I will use KZ cyano clean and see if I can keep it gone. GAH!

prsnlty · Jan 15, 2017

I normally only get cyano in small doses when the seasons change and the house opens and closes. About 2x per year. I then dose 1/2 the recommended dose of chemiclean at night with normal light schedule and it's gone in a day or 2. However, while dosing Vibrant I have had the worst outbreak ever and am microbubbling nightly to keep it at a minimum.

Watevadog5 · Jan 15, 2017

I took out what rocks I could and scrubbed them. Have been doing 10 gallon changes on Mondays. Stopped running the vibrant few weeks ago . cyano still present in tank

Watevadog5 · Jan 15, 2017

Peroxide may be my next step but won't be jumping right into it just yet.

prsnlty · Jan 15, 2017

Watevadog5 said:
Peroxide may be my next step but won't be jumping right into it just yet.

Start low if you do and watch the corals. I had several that didn't do well with it. My Acans completely closed up as did many of the softies. A few acros began stn. I immediately stopped and with 3 wc later they began to come back except for the small acro frags. This is why I'm trying Vibrant

AllSignsPointToFish · Jan 15, 2017

Good information. Admittedly, i don't have a lot of SPS. My zoas close up a little bit when peroxide is added, but they recover quickly.

Osiel Alvarado · Jan 15, 2017

Yeah that vibrant gave me Cyano too. I added the chemiclean after 2 weeks of no results with the cyanoclean by KZ. Did a 30% water change after 24hours and cyano was gone. Didn't effect corals. Also idk if it's relevant, but my tank is only 3 months old. Others have had cyano when using vibrant on newer tanks.

prsnlty · Jan 15, 2017

Osiel Alvarado said:
Yeah that vibrant gave me Cyano too. I added the chemiclean after 2 weeks of no results with the cyanoclean by KZ. Did a 30% water change after 24hours and cyano was gone. Didn't effect corals. Also idk if it's relevant, but my tank is only 3 months old. Others have had cyano when using vibrant on newer tanks.

It happened to me too but my tank is over two-and-a-half years old.

Bamzam · Jan 16, 2017

So would you guys say the trade off was worth it? The bottle of Vibrant I just purchased just came in the other day and I've been debating on using it. I have a couple patches of bubble algae and some red slime on a 8 month old tank.

prsnlty · Jan 16, 2017

Bamzam said:
So would you guys say the trade off was worth it? The bottle of Vibrant I just purchased just came in the other day and I've been debating on using it. I have a couple patches of bubble algae and some red slime on a 8 month old tank.

It has good success with bubble algae. I would say to be prepared for cyano and expect it to take the longest to go away. It seems to me that commonly things get worse before they get better. Maybe if you dose h202 or microbubble from the start you won't even get the cyano at all.

Personally I am sticking with it since I know the outcome if I can't rid the 180 of gha and I don't even want to think about it no less deal with a tear down

brandon429 · Jan 16, 2017

Whatever I have a question, would your sandbed pass a drop test where you scoop up a handful and drop it into the tank and it doesn't cloud? I ask because cyano is so very rare in bare bottom tanks, or sb's that pass a drop test w no clounding. rarely is the live rock the locus for the nutrients fueling growth, usually the bed.

in my own tank with a passable sb, the lighting alone controls my cyano. white on the kessil, cyano. blue on the kessil, perfection.

Griff · Jan 16, 2017

My sand bed would not pass the drop test. I'm going to start turning over the sand bed 3 cups a day to help keep detritus out. In addition I do a 25-30 gallon water change siphoning the sand bed every 1-2 weeks. I know many say never stir the sand but I've read where many have success keeping the bed clean this way. And by doing such a small amount it should t cause a crash. Sandbed is 1-2 inches deep.

Vibrant was a miracle worker for me. Has completely taken out the GHA! I do have some cyano but it's not that bad. I'm dosing nitrate buffer from UWC as well as I've never been able to get a reading in nitrates. Finally I'm up to 2-4 ppm on nitrates from dosing their buffer. I firmly believe the cyano is feeding on all the dead algae material. I can see it most in the places where I had the GHA. It's fine with me as I know soon it will run out of fuel. I'm also going to scrub the rock with h202 when I get some time.

Bamzam · Jan 16, 2017

I'm currently doing 2 water changes a week so I'm hoping that would help with any cyano that pops up. Ok guess I'll give it a go!

cpvince · Jan 20, 2017

Watevadog5 said:
I took out what rocks I could and scrubbed them. Have been doing 10 gallon changes on Mondays. Stopped running the vibrant few weeks ago . cyano still present in tank

Keep up with those water changes and scrubbing. Do you have cyano on the sandbed too? I've battled cyano for months awhile back and after trying chemicals, blackouts, etc...I ended up going old school and went at it with a toothbrush, siphon, and gravel cleaner. Perhaps you could also look into the prodibio line of products for beefing up your beneficial bacteria population.

Watevadog5 · Jan 20, 2017

Ok water changes didn't improve it at all... I started the peroxide... I did 10ml for a 90 gallon tank and 40gal sump. I saw in an above post that I should dose ever 12 hours.. Any input on that? Should I run an airstone?

SantaMonica · Jan 20, 2017

A good test to see what might be causing cyano, is your glass cleaning. If you have to clean your glass twice a week or more, you simply don't have enough nutrient export. I've seen time and again how increasing export to the point where you only clean your glass once a week or even less, removes most cyano.

Osiel Alvarado · Jan 23, 2017

Bamzam said:
So would you guys say the trade off was worth it? The bottle of Vibrant I just purchased just came in the other day and I've been debating on using it. I have a couple patches of bubble algae and some red slime on a 8 month old tank.

Yes. It cleared up the sand well. Just keep chemi clean ready.

rockstarta78 · Jan 24, 2018

I have cyano after vibrant as well. I am going to keep the cyano at least for another week or so before I do anything, since it's growing where I had algae. I am going to test my theory and see if cyano goes away on its own once it consumes all the nutrients from the sandbed.

jgvergo · Oct 30, 2019

ChiCity said:
It's the dead/dying algae fueling cyano....
Once everything else is gone, the cyano starts dying back and completely goes away.
If you add new frags and or rocks it fuels an explosion of algaes ive noticed and they grow at breakneck speed!

So once everything is gone, don't add any new items to the tank and dial back the vibrant to once every 10-14 days and observe.
Your tank will look beautiful and crystal clear

I'm at week 8 of dosing Vibrant. My hair and bubble algae are just about completely eradicated. I've had a cyano outbreak for the last 4 weeks. I've just been blowing it off the rocks and corals and vacuuming the sand bed.

Any idea how long the cyan outbreak will last?