Cyanobacteria - Let's break it down. Pure erythromycin study

[twilliard]

Well guys after so many questions about cyanobacteria I had to start digging in further. I will not get into how or why they grow as I have covered this extensively and a good search will answer a lot of questions about that.
Now we know that there are thousands of different species. What we typically get in our tanks comes down to about 4-5 species. Some are more tolerant than others during certain treatments such as H2O2, chemiclean.
Let's talk about Spirulina. Now this is the best of the best when it comes to cyanobacteria. It is my absolute favorite. Did you know it's a food source? But wait at the same time a nuisance! They are the most mobile that I have found. That corkscrew formation gets them in and out of each other or they group up closer depending on the lighting intensity. This cyanobacteria is a bugger to eradicate and chemiclean is my only control.
Now lets look at another cyanobacteria. Phormidium. I can't stand this species. They are tolerant to most control methods I know of and have used. They are tough to rid of even with the internet's common controls. H2O2 does have the effect I look for but only about 80% is controlled.
So I have started a NEW study. I will be using 100% Erythromycin Estolate for this. I know people do not like that compound. We hear about this in chemiclean. I have not liked chemiclean for YEARS as I do not know exactly what it contains. This is where my hunt started for the erythromycin compound (I found it!). My hypothesis is - The Erythromycin compound is safe for marine aquaria bacterial population and effective against Spirulina and Phormidium.

I will be adding to this original post as I move along with this.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Good stuff, gonna be following this for sure!!!

 

[Bokeron_84]

Well guys after so many questions about cyanobacteria I had to start digging in further. I will not get into how or why they grow as I have covered this extensively and a good search will answer a lot of questions about that.
Now we know that there are thousands of different species. What we typically get in our tanks comes down to about 4-5 species. Some are more tolerant than others during certain treatments such as H2O2, chemiclean.
Let's talk about Spirulina. Now this is the best of the best when it comes to cyanobacteria. It is my absolute favorite. Did you know it's a food source? But wait at the same time a nuisance! They are the most mobile that I have found. That corkscrew formation gets them in and out of each other or they group up closer depending on the lighting intensity. This cyanobacteria is a bugger to eradicate and chemiclean is my only control.
Now lets look at another cyanobacteria. Phormidium. I can't stand this species. They are tolerant to most control methods I know of and have used. They are tough to rid of even with the internet's common controls. H2O2 does have the effect I look for but only about 80% is controlled.
So I have started a NEW study. I will be using 100% Erythromycin Estolate for this. I know people do not like that compound. We hear about this in chemiclean. I have not liked chemiclean for YEARS as I do not know exactly what it contains. This is where my hunt started for the erythromycin compound (I found it!). My hypothesis is - The Erythromycin compound is safe for marine aquaria bacterial population and effective against Spirulina and Phormidium.

I will be adding to this original post as I move along with this.

Then, is erythromycin effective for spirulina and phormidium? What dosage do you recommend? I encourage you to try. My tank is 200 liters. a greeting

 

[TheEngineer]

Following

 

[DeepBrew]

I'm following as well. @twilliard has been helping me with a cyano problem which may be phormidium in my 75 gallon tank here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cyano-not-responding-to-h2o2-treatment.286046/

I thought we finally had the H2O2 dose correct and were making progress last week but it is starting to come back even with continued H2O2 dosing. I have Chemiclean and have been considering giving it a try.

 

[BlueCursor]

Not to side track your erythromycin solution, but I want to add some observations of my own to assist in isolating eradication methods.

I had a terrible outbreak of the red stuff in my refugium. H202 test confirmed it was not cyano. It started when I decided my macro was a little bleached and dropped my lighting from 2 100 W LED, 5000k, PAR 38 bulbs to 2 75 100 W LED, 5000k, PAR 32 bulbs. After a month I figured out that maybe it was because of the decrease in light. The stuff was growing best in the lower light areas. There had been no other changes in my system but this light change.

The red spirulina never showed up in my display tank at any time. I suspected CUC/fish at first. I had snails and hermits in my refugium. I had no fish and no urchin in my refugium and did in my DT. I moved an urchin to my refugium but he never touched the spirulina. I moved on to lighting as the only significant difference between my refugium and DT.

To confirm, I went back to my 2 100 W LED, 5000k, PAR 38 bulbs. This definitely slowed it down quite a bit but it didn't die. After a month I switched to 2 100 W LED, 6500K, PAR 38 bulbs. The stuff died completely in about 2 weeks!

Take this experience for what it is worth . . . my experience. I look forward to seeing your results.

 

[jkobel]

Twilliard, any progress with these experiments? I am having a lot of trouble with the red stuff and have tried dosing Chemiclean for Cyano (two times) and then after the h2o2 test I dosed h2o2 2x per day 10 day. Both treatments had zero results so I'm stumped.

Any otherthoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Fish Werx]

Following along! Thanks for all your research!

 

[Lifer]

Any updates?

 

[CubanHogFish]

Following along for are the info..

 

[niQo]

This needs an update

 

[Lifer]

This needs an update

Don't hold your breath. I asked a year ago and never received a response!

 

[BlackSunshine]

Man this was staging up to be a great article. Let me summarize my findings for you, as I've used ertho in my tanks, fresh and salt to rid of cyano. It works great. I used a half dose last week on my 180 and it browned 90% of the cyano. I just hit it with another dose and I expect that it will be totally gone in 2 days. I get the packets from API and just follow the instructions. The only reason I only hit it with a half dose cause 200 gallons takes 20 packets to treat and I only had one box on hand. The main tank only has a couple corals in it and they are doing alright. But one was suffering due to the cyano covering it. So if they survive cool.
My smaller tank that has acans, zoa, and other stuff is doing fine and I haven't seen any cyano since my ertho treatment there. This is the only logical treatment I've seen. Chemiclean on the box indicates clearly it has no antibiotic in it. It's an oxidizer. Knowing that cyano is a bacteria that seems the logical way to treat it is with an antibiotic.

 

[Saltyreef]

I too have had great luck with using api EM to control red slime.
I use 1 pack per 20gal of water which i think is a little more than directions call for. I then wait 48 hours and do a 50% WC and the stuff never comes back. Cant comment on which cyano it is but definately red slime that was knocked out with one treatment of EM.
Ive blacked out the lights during a couple past treatments in previous tanks with quicker sucess.

 

[Dan_P]

Chemiclean is erythromycin estolate. The estolate is likely the soap-like molecule that will cause a skimmer to foam over. Detergents are known to disrupt cell walls. The estolate alone might be a useful cyanobacteria mat disrupter. Anyone ever try just estolate?

 

[CwStrife]

Chemiclean is erythromycin estolate. The estolate is likely the soap-like molecule that will cause a skimmer to foam over. Detergents are known to disrupt cell walls. The estolate alone might be a useful cyanobacteria mat disrupter. Anyone ever try just estolate?

How could we go about getting these kind of products to test with inside the USA though? I can't find these kind of things under fish or purchasing online without needing a prescription from a RX