Cyano getting out of control

[Rick's Reviews]

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.

I'm so... Confused, so should we stop planting trees and instead enrich our life's with creating cyano bacteria?

 

[Gedxin]

I've got a cyano problem as well, but have completely opposite nutrient issues. My nitrate is 10 and my phophates are 0. I find some of these responses hilarious because they point to phosphate being the problem, when I don't have any of it and have the same cyano on my sand and some on my rock.

That said, I just can't justify a rip clean to get rid of it like Brandon suggests. Cyano is everywhere, in the air and whatnot, so I don't see how taking the ultimate approach, ripping out the entire tank and 'starting fresh' is a practical solution when there's nothing treating the actual problem. Why wouldn't it just come back in the future? Is the only solution always a rip clean? Ugh

Also not down to treat with chemiclean yet. I see tons of success stories, but also quite a few horror stories of coral dying even when following directions.

I'll continue struggling with it and hope there are better strategies to combat in the future.

 

[t5Nitro]

I've lost a few corals in the past with chemiclean, generally things do well with it, but I'm avoiding it this round because it ultimately just comes back. I agree that a dramatic cleaning like rip clean as described will certainly clean the tank but is also just a temporizing measure, a more dramatic version of siphoning.

Interesting to see that you've the opposite nutrient trend as my tank. I'm not sure how to go about getting nitrates measurable w/o GHA proliferation, and then needing to c/w phos dosing to keep coral tissue happy but also feeds GHA/cyano apparently.

 

[Tired]

I'm so... Confused, so should we stop planting trees and instead enrich our life's with creating cyano bacteria?

We should maintain and restore places that already had forests, stop planting saplings randomly in places they're just going to die (doesn't do any good, wastes money, pulls attention away from actual useful things), restore prairies, and try to stop mucking up the oceans so badly. Cyanobacteria are in fact useful, we just wouldn't want to cover the planet in them. Saving natural ecosystems that already exist, or restoring ones that were destroyed, is way more useful than randomly planting "helpful" organisms like every plant in every ecosystem is one-size-fits-all.

So, if you can find a part of the world where cyanobacteria is suffering, then yes. You should try to encourage it. If not, don't do that.

 

[Craig085]

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.

Sometimes dosing nitrate can help. I found my refugium would strip the tank completely of Nitrate. Any attempt to rise nitrate levels alone thorough feeding methods had an adverse effect on PO4 levels, causing it to rise & almost run away. I found dosing nitrate clean and measurable. In my case of battling with cyano, I’m 6 months permanently clear, thanks to this approach, after months & months (9 to be specific ) of head scratching, trying to pin point the source of the problem. For me, the balance of No3 & PO4 was definitely to blame specifically my no3 bottoming out. Now I’m balancing NoPoX, refugium, lighting & nitrate dosing to ride the line of PO4 @0.5ppm & no3 @2ppm. The tank is a 175 gallon. So I didn’t want to go down the road of a full break down with tap water sand rinse, also because I’m of the opinion that it would just simply come back regardless after the natural balance is restored. Without a reasonable change in methodology anyway. That’s just my two cents. ✌

 

[AMG63Addison]

I've got a cyano problem as well, but have completely opposite nutrient issues. My nitrate is 10 and my phophates are 0. I find some of these responses hilarious because they point to phosphate being the problem, when I don't have any of it and have the same cyano on my sand and some on my rock.

That said, I just can't justify a rip clean to get rid of it like Brandon suggests. Cyano is everywhere, in the air and whatnot, so I don't see how taking the ultimate approach, ripping out the entire tank and 'starting fresh' is a practical solution when there's nothing treating the actual problem. Why wouldn't it just come back in the future? Is the only solution always a rip clean? Ugh

Also not down to treat with chemiclean yet. I see tons of success stories, but also quite a few horror stories of coral dying even when following directions.

I'll continue struggling with it and hope there are better strategies to combat in the future.

Ever figure out what was causing your cyano? Been trying to get rid of it for about a month my nitrates are always around 20 and phosphates un detectable. Started slowly dosing neo phos about 3-4 days ago to try and get a read on phosphates

 

[Gedxin]

Ever figure out what was causing your cyano? Been trying to get rid of it for about a month my nitrates are always around 20 and phosphates un detectable. Started slowly dosing neo phos about 3-4 days ago to try and get a read on phosphates

Honestly I just gave up and dosed Chemiclean, following the instructions exactly. Haven't seen Cyano in months since. Plenty of other things to deal with and it with an easy win after so much frustration.

 

[AMG63Addison]

Honestly I just gave up and dosed Chemiclean, following the instructions exactly. Haven't seen Cyano in months since. Plenty of other things to deal with and it with an easy win after so much frustration.

Thanks, I am almost to that point. I tried the Dr. Tims waste away/refresh and did not seem to help at all. The majority of it is on my sand. Looks like chemiclean is in My future lol