Cyano going to cause me to shut down my tank

[Potatohead]

Im currently in the process of converting my RSR250 sump into a refugium to add the fiji mud. Im sectioning off a compartment to add mud. This is the recipe to success IMO. @Salty....you are absolutely right about mud.

In my past tanks ive used mud and it was amazing for diversity. Unfortunately i got caught up in this whole new "clean tanks" and added all dead rock and sand and its been nothing but a DISASTER!! For the life of me i dont understand why reefers strayed away from the live stuff that worked and helps prevent all these nasty algae. Hitchhikers on LR IMO is not half as scary as dealing with DINO's.

This was my problem. In the past I dealt with other things like bristle worms or an aiptasia here and there, wanted to avoid that. Yeaaahhhhh this is WAY worse. I will never start another tank without rock that has been cycled and "live" for at least three or four months. Never again.

I went to LFS and they gave me a softball sized chunk of chaeto. Going to set it up tonight on 12 hour reverse schedule, slowly back down on gfo and carbon dosing, and let it run for a few weeks and see what happens.

The mud seems like a good idea but I have four litres of Matrix in my sump, I don't know if I'll see much benefit or not.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

This was my problem. In the past I dealt with other things like bristle worms or an aiptasia here and there, wanted to avoid that. Yeaaahhhhh this is WAY worse. I will never start another tank without rock that has been cycled and "live" for at least three or four months. Never again.

I went to LFS and they gave me a softball sized chunk of chaeto. Going to set it up tonight on 12 hour reverse schedule, slowly back down on gfo and carbon dosing, and let it run for a few weeks and see what happens.

The mud seems like a good idea but I have four litres of Matrix in my sump, I don't know if I'll see much benefit or not.

Matrix is different.
Mud is actually sponges corraline bacteria diatoms etc and a plethora of other microfauna. It's biological competition. It's the tiniest mouths battelling against other tiny mouths for resources. The end run being none of them came become dominant. It doesn't take 20lbs to do it.
In a dry rock tank none of that stuff is there sonyou have to wait for it to hitchhike in on rock coral skins and in thier guts.
IMO it's what back in the day wthey meant by mature. A solid diverse microfaunal back bone in witch to build the rest of the biotope on.

Did dosing diatoms scare anyone?
Everyone quotes Randy Farley on his parameters and chemistry , yet few read his thoughts on Bactreria and not killing them, and his experiments on diatoms, using them to replace problem algaes. ESP , he notes , the green alge glass.

IMO , in today's fear of everything, and diatoms etc etc etc , are "bad" or "dirty" , we've forgotten that they serve a purpose and can be manipulated Wisely into to doing what we want and need them to do.

Kinda funny when you consider we love these animals that by nature eat poop, in a glass machine that is powered by bacteria.

 

[Jose Mayo]

Matrix is different.
Mud is actually sponges corraline bacteria diatoms etc and a plethora of other microfauna. It's biological competition. It's the tiniest mouths battelling against other tiny mouths for resources. The end run being none of them came become dominant. It doesn't take 20lbs to do it.
In a dry rock tank none of that stuff is there sonyou have to wait for it to hitchhike in on rock coral skins and in thier guts.
IMO it's what back in the day wthey meant by mature. A solid diverse microfaunal back bone in witch to build the rest of the biotope on.

Did dosing diatoms scare anyone?
Everyone quotes Randy Farley on his parameters and chemistry , yet few read his thoughts on Bactreria and not killing them, and his experiments on diatoms, using them to replace problem algaes. ESP , he notes , the green alge glass.

IMO , in today's fear of everything, and diatoms etc etc etc , are "bad" or "dirty" , we've forgotten that they serve a purpose and can be manipulated Wisely into to doing what we want and need them to do.

Kinda funny when you consider we love these animals that by nature eat poop, in a glass machine that is powered by bacteria.

I believe it, and I also believe that when the imbalance reaches the point of no return, it becomes disease. Diseases sometimes require us to use drugs to be controlled and for balance to re-establish... when the enemies to face are the "most prepared", by their very nature, it may be that just adding "soldiers" to the war does not favor us , other weapons are sometimes necessary for victory to be established.

Best regards

 

[Terry Brown]

I used Red slime Stain remover from ultralife. The cyno disappeared in about a week. I did notice when it died off my nitrates spiked to 12 ppm. They usually run 3-4 ppm. That freaked my out a bit so I upgraded my refugium to a larger model. BRS says a refugium should be about 10% of the volume of you tank. After I upgraded the refugium my Nitrates dropped to undetectable levels using a RedSea Nitrate test and the cyno has never come back.

I feel that a healthy refugium properly sized will keep that balance, so cyno does not become an issue.

 

[brandon429]

This cyano thread was a dogpile heh. that's awesome. sixteen people wanna fight cyano and that's good, there's no holding back here, either way an invader is about to get it.

imagine combining every method posted to you in one fell swoop

starting with the bottom up, of course, since any other reference pales in comparison to actual cyano cures

that combo of anti cyano actions would be a something-fecta of doom for the target.


B

 

[rushbattle]

This cyano thread was a dogpile heh. that's awesome. sixteen people wanna fight cyano and that's good, there's no holding back here, either way an invader is about to get it.

imagine combining every method posted to you in one fell swoop

starting with the bottom up, of course, since any other reference pales in comparison to actual cyano cures

that combo would be a something fecta of doom.
B

No kidding! Just cleaning the sand would help immensely as you mentioned. Imagine all of it!

 

[Potatohead]

I mentioned in the first post that I have removed so much cyano from my sand bed that I literally only have half the sand I started with. It doesn't go more than two weeks max without being stirred up, and I also have a bunch of nassarius snails too.

 

[brandon429]

But still there's a different way. You are working in partials. Recirculating waste

Perhaps if fat UV was in place, all that relocation of goods could be wringered.

If you let me put it though the machine, a succession towards page eight results

Snails contribute to your problem. A sand sifting goby, by design, would not. But even he is put in place as preventative, after sandbed passes a drop test.



In the thread we never discuss po4 levels, nitrate levels, or invader identifications, because we find that to be part of the delay/hesitation/invader continues sequence. Blasting it out is so simple nobody ever really put it to the test like we did

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/

No other cyano thread tests microbiology like that or delivers after pics like that or spans all that work, with no loss. Bar is set.

How would a nano reef put through that ever, ever misbehave again

 

[Potatohead]

Well here goes nothing (sorry it's sideways)




I removed a bunch off the sand and blew it off the rocks, cut my carbon dose in half for now and slowed my gfo reactor to like 5 gph... So we'll see I guess.

 

[JUNICHI YAMASAKI]

• I try a seaweed tank and look. I use the active carbon and look.

 

[waxhawreefer]

Like someone else stated, I used chemi clean twice on my old tank for cyano and didn’t do anything, recently I was dealing with it again and I used red slime remover, removed it in three days, skimmer overflowed for almost two weeks but one step at a time, everyone luvs sand but I always had a problem with it holding nutrients and causing problems,so I recently removed mine again, just remember when u kill one thing that in turn put extra nutrients in the tank which can cause another, I think my cyano was caused from trying that floucasole, it helped with a funky algae that I had, it killed it, but then extra nutrients caused my cyano!!

 

[don_chuwish]

... I have removed so much cyano from my sand bed that I literally only have half the sand I started with. It doesn't go more than two weeks max without being stirred up, and I also have a bunch of nassarius snails too.

What I've gleaned from skimming brandon's sand rinse thread is that you can/should completely remove & clean the sand. Or just replace it with new clean & rinsed sand. Each time I've had to break down a tank (many different reasons) I've been amazed at how much crud was in the sand bed. Now my water changes are as much an opportunity to vacuum sand as anything.

 

[Potatohead]

What I've gleaned from skimming brandon's sand rinse thread is that you can/should completely remove & clean the sand. Or just replace it with new clean & rinsed sand. Each time I've had to break down a tank (many different reasons) I've been amazed at how much crud was in the sand bed. Now my water changes are as much an opportunity to vacuum sand as anything.

Well, that's what I gathered too. I'm halfway there already lol.

 

[Xandernfs]

I'm battling cynao right now. I realize that it is caused by an imbalance of NO3 and PO4 but I'm attributing mine to new tank syndrome as well (set up 10.31). I'm trying to grasp on what to do. I'm trying to take the KISS approach and not add anything to the tank other than new water. I have an ATS, but I don't think it's really growing well since the tank is still so new. I'm going to my LFS and get some algae to try to seed it this weekend. I'm thinking I'll vacuum the sand, go lighter on feeding, AND I'm going to ditch the filter socks and replace with cups (with pond matrix & filter floss). The last thing I'd like to do is treat the problem with chemicals.

 

[Joe Rice]

Now that you're starting a chaeto refugium consider dosing some iron, as sometimes chaeto fails to thrive if the iron levels are too low.

 

[gguertin145]

I didn’t read the whole thread but I had been fighting cyano for quite some time siphoning my sand with large water changes weekly for 3-4 months... I finally on the suggestion of someone pulled my sand out as much as possible and it went away. I have since added dry (dead)sand that I rinsed for 3-4 days in RO water changed daily and the cyano has not come back.

 

[Potatohead]

So... After four days or so of running the refugium, I am seeing some positives, I'm not 100% sure they are totally related to the chaeto but there is both less hair algae and cyano in the tank then there has been for a long time. The cyano that remains is thinner and really stringy. My phosphate has risen to .05 which is fine, the chaeto ball hasn't grown much but it seems more dense and it is a very dark, solid green.

Will continue forward, decent signs so far.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Rebuilt my tank with dry rock and it took at least 2 full years to get over the uglies. I say you just gotta ride it out..
Mine now finally behaves like a reef tank should.

 

[ncaldwell]

Mine refused to settle untill I added a uv sterilizer. I couldn't get to the uglies for over a year because dinoflaellettes and cyano wouldn't go away. Added a sterilizer and now the green algea is finally starting to grow on the rocks and combat the cyano naturally