Cyano getting out of control

[Schraufabagel]

I am having an issue with my tank. I’m struggling with cyano. My tank is a 25 gallon AIO with a Tunze 9001 skimmer, filter floss, and chemi pure blue. My phos is currently 0.11 and my nitrate is 0.0. These parameters have been largely the same regardless of water changes. I’m currently up to a 5 gallon water change every 4 days to get rid of all the cyano on the sand. I have some macro algae (codium and halimeda). I feed reef nutrition TDO chroma boost every day. Every few days I feed reef nutrition Arcti pods, Red Sea AB+, and reef nutrition phyto feast.

I’m not sure what is causing the phos to jump so much and the nitrate to be stuck at 0. For reference, I used Hanna checkers to test both; specifically the new Nitrate HR. I have a picture of my lighting schedule and setting below. Lastly, I’m using an AI Nero 3 set to around 1300 gph. Flow is good around the whole tank.

Edit: having trouble uploading a picture. My lighting is UV 80% V 80% RY 65% B 65% G 10% DR 10% CW 40% and runs from 9am to 5pm

 

[LuizW13]

There was a video I saw on youtube, I can't remember exactly what video, but it was an online seminar by Mr. Saltwatertank on the saltwateraquarium youtube channel- they had Dr. Tim on, and if i remember correctly, he said that high phosphate + low or no nitrate, contributes to Cyano. That seems to be true with the "Nutrients out of balance" that everyone says is the cause to Cyano.

I believe this to be true because I recently had a battle with cyano in my 25 AIO- my phosphates were at .1 and my nitrates were at about 5. Another thing I think played a part in this was the RedSea AB, I too was dosing it only a daily basis at half the recommended dose. I heard and read on a number of occasions, that Red Sea AB was a factor in Cyano bloom. Which kind of makes sense, since AB has Carbohydrates in it, so, maybe it was carbon dosing the wrong kind of bacteria.

It took me about 4 weeks to get rid of the cyano, there's still some scattered on the sand, but not enough to bother me.

Here's what I did:

Stopped dosing Red Sea AB
Reduced my feeding just a tad bit- if I feed 3xa day, I fed 2x
Feed more pellets and dry food instead of frozen
stopped spot feeding corals ( have since started spot feeding, but way less frequently)
Dosed Chemi Clean.

With the Chemi clean, I did a water change big enough to siphon the sand of as much of the cyano as possible. I then dosed according to the instructions, at the 48 hours, the cyano was still there, so I dosed it again, following the directions and skipping the water change.
After two back to back treatments, I did a 5g water change, and waited a day to see the results. In my case, the chemi clean got rid of the green cyano on some of the rocks, but the red cyano was still present on the sand. So I dosed a back 2 back treatment again. This along with the water changes, and changes to feeding did it for me.

No ill affects at all (that I can see). They say Chemi Clean is an antibacterial product. So, I have since started to dose different bacteria products (not a lot), like MicroBacter 7, Dr Tims EcoBalance, and Vibrant for Reef Aquariums (make sure it says Reef on it).

Perhaps try reducing the lighting on the macro algae to increase your Nitrates a bit.

Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[Schraufabagel]

Would a 2-3 day blackout help kill some of it?

 

[LuizW13]

I'm not a fan of blackouts, but I suppose it might, or may not do anything entirely, not sure. It would make sense since in the morning ad late night when the lights are off, you see no Cyano. Maybe a long enough blackout would kill the cyano, or maybe they'll come as soon as the lights come back. To me it wouldn't be worth it sitting around with a dark tank, that may be doing more harm to the corals only for the cyano to come back.

I know that using chemicals isn't the cure all, and often frowned upon, but in this case, I don't see an issue with using them every once in a while. Now if you're having to use chemicals every other month, then I'd agree, that's not the solution.

How bad is it? Can you post a picture? If you use your phone browser, you can add a picture directly from your camera to the thread.

 

[Schraufabagel]

This is 3 days after vacuuming the sand bed. It is mainly on the sand bed

 

[LuizW13]

That's about as bad as it was for me, maybe not as concentrated as yours in some parts. I think you should really go with the Chemi Clean approach. Melevsreef on youtube has a video/live stream about it, and I basically followed his protocol.

 

[brandon429]

Is thiz dinos?

Just started dosing phosphate, and will begin dino X tonight as I believe its dino algae? Battling few months now, and tried feeding heavier, lowering phosphates originally with GFO, and manual removal. Covering all rocks and coral ATM, so at this point it's time for dino x. Hanna phosphates...

www.reef2reef.com

read that thread it’ll fix cyano in any nano. Links show before and after proof, in a nano

 

[Schraufabagel]

Wanted to update the thread in case anyone else runs into this problem too. I used Chemi Clean. It worked wonders! The tank cleared up mostly in the first day and completely the second day. It's looking good after 4 days and I don't see any signs of the cyano returning yet

 

[RMS18]

Just FYI cyano thrives in low nitrate environments, especially when po4 is on the higher end. When it comes back, up your no3 and you will see it'll go away without the use of additives.

 

[Schraufabagel]

Just FYI cyano thrives in low nitrate environments, especially when po4 is on the higher end. When it comes back, up your no3 and you will see it'll go away without the use of additives.

That was something I saw in one of the BRS videos. I stopped dosing the Red Sea AB+ and up'd how much I fed of other foods and it has seemed to help keep my No3 at a better level. Hopefully it'll balance out

 

[RMS18]

That was something I saw in one of the BRS videos. I stopped dosing the Red Sea AB+ and up'd how much I fed of other foods and it has seemed to help keep my No3 at a better level. Hopefully it'll balance out

I hope it doesn't come back for you. My cousin decided to use cyano clean against what I advised him, tank looked like it was sterile after no signs of any algae. He even admitted it looked to clean. His po4 and no3 were not balanced, low no3 with higher po4. It's been 3 months and cyano is coming back. I have him cutting down on skimmer time and dosing a little no3. He is seeing the cyano thining out, it's been about 2 weeks.

 

[Spare time]

Raise nitrate, stop dosing aminos temporarily, add a phosphate remover, and dose chemiclean. I guarantee this will fix it.

 

[Schraufabagel]

I hope it doesn't come back for you. My cousin decided to use cyano clean against what I advised him, tank looked like it was sterile after no signs of any algae. He even admitted it looked to clean. His po4 and no3 were not balanced, low no3 with higher po4. It's been 3 months and cyano is coming back. I have him cutting down on skimmer time and dosing a little no3. He is seeing the cyano thining out, it's been about 2 weeks.

Hopefully the feeding adjustment helps. I do have NeoNitro and Neophos and will definitely dose if the imbalance seems to stay. I plan to test nitrates every day for a while to make sure

 

[Tired]

Raise nitrate, stop dosing aminos temporarily, add a phosphate remover, and dose chemiclean. I guarantee this will fix it.

I agree with half of this. That's a perfectly fine phosphate level, and will go down on its own once more nitrates are available for things to use up, since they use phosphates in the bargain. Too easy to get low phosphate and risk damaged corals and dinos. Also, Chemiclean can harm your tank's biodiversity, so better to avoid that unless absolutely needed.

Just get things better balanced, and it should go away on its own. Also, stop doing frequent water changes, that's driving the nitrates down. Use a turkey baster to blow the cyano off your corals, and leave the rest of it alone.

Also, where are you getting your water? If it's an RODI unit, when was the last time the carbon was changed? Last time I forgot to do that for too long, I got loads of cyano.

 

[Schraufabagel]

I agree with half of this. That's a perfectly fine phosphate level, and will go down on its own once more nitrates are available for things to use up, since they use phosphates in the bargain. Too easy to get low phosphate and risk damaged corals and dinos. Also, Chemiclean can harm your tank's biodiversity, so better to avoid that unless absolutely needed.

Just get things better balanced, and it should go away on its own. Also, stop doing frequent water changes, that's driving the nitrates down. Use a turkey baster to blow the cyano off your corals, and leave the rest of it alone.

Also, where are you getting your water? If it's an RODI unit, when was the last time the carbon was changed? Last time I forgot to do that for too long, I got loads of cyano.

I use RODI. Just changed the carbon filter about 2 weeks ago. I think that has helped as well

 

[Tired]

It likely did, if it was old.

Cyano is nothing to worry about. It's easy to blow off of corals, and will politely fade away once you correct whatever let it flare up.

It's also neat stuff. Billions of years ago, there was little to no oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. This was fine with most inhabitants of Earth, to which oxygen was toxic. Then cyano started to proliferate, and as you might know, cyano releases oxygen as it goes about its business. Over the course of eons, cyanobacteria filled the atmosphere with oxygen, even more than we have today, and killed off most of the other life on this planet. Anaerobic bacteria is rare now, since it has to hide from oxygen. And, of course, we couldn't exist without an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Also, most life on this planet is thought to be descended from cyano. Say hello to your great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents, largely unchanged since then.

 

[Spare time]

I agree with half of this. That's a perfectly fine phosphate level, and will go down on its own once more nitrates are available for things to use up, since they use phosphates in the bargain. Too easy to get low phosphate and risk damaged corals and dinos. Also, Chemiclean can harm your tank's biodiversity, so better to avoid that unless absolutely needed.

Just get things better balanced, and it should go away on its own. Also, stop doing frequent water changes, that's driving the nitrates down. Use a turkey baster to blow the cyano off your corals, and leave the rest of it alone.

Also, where are you getting your water? If it's an RODI unit, when was the last time the carbon was changed? Last time I forgot to do that for too long, I got loads of cyano.

Chemiclean is not going to noticeably harm a tanks microdiversity. Even if it does (I've never seen anybody produce any evidence of this), it won't be noticeable.

Also 0.11 is on the higher end of the acceptable range, and 0 nitrate and high phosphate is likely bad for coral health (a lot of issues arise when either carbon, phosphate, or nitrate is elevated but not the) others

 

[Tired]

It's known to cause ammonia spikes, so it's killing /something/, and to lower the oxygen levels. The oxygen level in particular can be a serious issue- look up how many people have lost corals, or entire tanks, from dosing Chemiclean and having the oxygen crash. Plus, it kills bacteria- it's not precise enough to just hit the cyano.

To add to that, there's no need for it. Cyano is only present in large amounts when things are out of whack. Put things back in place, and the cyano fades out. No poisoning required.

 

[brandon429]

look how quickly we booted out cyano, see their updates too

Algae/Cyano Issue Not Improving, Help Please?

Hi all, I have a Red Sea Reefer 250 that has been up and running for 8 months now. My issue is a strange black algae\cyano growth that has plagued me for the last two months+. I have been treating as follows: cleaning gravel twice weekly 20% water changes twice a week Addition of beneficial...

www.reef2reef.com

by exporting mass + target vs just kill target and keep all mass for sinking, we just fixed their gha issues that were originally set for September but have now been pre suppressed.

we should post an after pics race here, and the method with the clearest and most after pic examples wins out for best procedure

chemiclean is the ultimate bandaid in reefing, above all, it’s kill cyano now and reap gha and or dinos in September.

 

[t5Nitro]

How do you all manage balanced levels of these nutrients without GHA problems?

If I dose NO3 I get crazy GHA, and expectedly still undetectable nitrates, because of the GHA.

My phos remains detectable by Hanna ULR at around 0.04ppm, that is with dosing 1ppm daily to my tank for its volume.

And certainly with nearly constant 0 nitrates and adequate phospahtes, I too have cyano issues in my tank that won't go away.

It seems like dosing sodium nitrate in small amounts, 1-2ppm sends GHA into proliferation and also has negative effects on snail health in the tank -- they seem to begin moving slower and slower before dying.