Extreme Water Clarity and Cyano Eradication, Made Easy!

Reefahholic

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New video today. This was created a couple hours after a Coral Snow treatment.

Crystal clear!



Looking real good in there! Sand is pristine. If I didn’t know any better I’d be wondering how you’re getting growth. It almost looks sterile, but then you see the corals have good color and growth.
 

Tuan’s Reef

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How long has your tank been running for?

Started my Red Sea 200XL on May 12 2022. 80 pounds of TBS live rock. 40 pounds base rock , 40 pounds premium live rock. I have 40 pounds of base rock in my tank right now. The other 40 is curing in my 20G that is fishless bare bottom. The below rocks is what i will use to aquascape my tank. Sorta just threw the base rocks in the tank to get it started. Its going to take some time before i can use the rocks below and form an aquascape i can live with.




1658635649645.png



Here's my tank before the dyi coral snow.


1658635886368.png



I'll take a pic tomorrow and can really see the difference. This stuff truly works. lol Sure beats paying $90 for 500ml when we can do it ourselves for far way cheaper.
 

Tuan’s Reef

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Do you have any Acropora in the tank?

I don't know about the other gent, but i do have 1 myagi tort acorpora on the top of my tank. No issues with it since i've began using coral snow. in fact it has colored up nicely, but that probably has to do with me moving from it the sand bed to the top of the tank. Just didn't want to glue it yet.
 

legionofdoon

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Do you have any Acropora in the tank?
No but do have monti. My peppermint shrimp eat everything. I was hoping this would get rid of them guilt free of my daughters. I literally watched those things eat Acan, Frogspawn, pociliapora, garf bonsai and tri valida. They don't kill zoas or favia in my tank but they do pick at them. BTW they still haven't eaten the last two aptasia in my tank, it's like they are keeping it in reserve in case I don't try anything new.
 

Reefahholic

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I don't know about the other gent, but i do have 1 myagi tort acorpora on the top of my tank. No issues with it since i've began using coral snow. in fact it has colored up nicely, but that probably has to do with me moving from it the sand bed to the top of the tank. Just didn't want to glue it yet.

I have a tank full of Acropora. 99% Acro’s and 1% LPS currently. I’ve dosed twice and nothing blinked. It will definitely affect nutrients if bacteria is used, but I’m curious how many times we could get away with just dosing the snow w/o bacteria and what the potential side effects would be. It will reduce the organics in the water column and probably on all surfaces so I’m thinking there will be a minimal drop in nutrients just using the snow alone. Doesn’t seem to affect pH at all.
 

legionofdoon

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I use the waste away gels, a fuge and am weening off Nopox. My nitrates were around 50 with nitrite being detected I've slowly dropped (except the first week of July when I wasn't home) Nopox from 10-6-4-2 ml per day and am now sitting around 20 nitrates (have not rechecked nitrites) So it definitely doesn't INCREASE nitrates. It does seem to smother surface algae and cyano (very little on my sand) but no inverts or otherwise seems to care. My filter socks did get clogged very quickly and my skimmer pulled out a lot of gray clay looking stuff.
 

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Would there be any benefit / backlash from starting this weekly dosing right after a new tank has cycled and has yet to encounter the "ugly phase"?
 

Reefahholic

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Would there be any benefit / backlash from starting this weekly dosing right after a new tank has cycled and has yet to encounter the "ugly phase"?

I don’t think so. Just watch your nutrients. Depending on the rock or methods used on the system your nutrients could bottom out (not necessarily from this method unless you’re using bacteria), but from a new tank standpoint. If that were to happen I’d avoid anything that removes organics from the water column except for the skimmer due to aeration/CO2 removal. You can always skim very dry.
 

Reefahholic

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I hate to say it. I have Cyano currently and I’ve dosed twice now. Once with bacteria and the 2nd time with just snow. I saw very little impact on the Cyano. For almost every pest or issue with reefing “manual removal” is always the best 1st choice IMO. We must take the bull by the horn’s. :) I think this method will work though, but I need to dose more.

I have noticed that when I blow the rocks off or blow the sandbed to stir it…there is definitely something with the fine silt in the water column which lands on the rocks that helps suppress Dino’s and Cyano. I think it basically prevents their daily activities.

I wonder how big of a dose I can do with just the snow alone. If I had LPS or softies I wouldn’t be scared at all. I’d dose 100 mL’s right now. Seems pretty harmless even with all Acropora due to what the product is, but I have not researched it or dosed long enough to see any longterm effects. My 6 month old system is really hard to pinpoint or understand anything right now due to its instability. I’m almost over the hump, and the real testing will begin soon. For now I’ll have to rely on some of you brave souls to get more aggressive dosing your SPS systems. The next time I dose I’ll dose 20 mL of snow only.


Also, the solution I’m using is for 100/G total volume:

10 TBS product to 500 mL RODI
I add 20 drops of MB7 to 10 mL and dose (if bacteria is used)
 
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I may need custom directions to get this tank cleaned up. I’m on day five of this program and my rocks are still full of junk. I really don’t want to pull a “let’s go Brandon” but I don’t know if this tank is going to clean up without a rip clean. Thanks for any help!!

Hello,

I would recommend that you take a small powerhead or turkey baster and blow off the rockwork and sand just before dosing the Coral Snow. This way, you will have the particles in suspension for easier removal while at the same time freeing up areas on the rockwork for the MB7 and coral snow to adhere to.

The method as I described is exactly what I do. I will stir up everything in the tank and make sure that all the rocks have been blown clean before dosing. The tank will get clouded in muck but a couple hours after dosing the snow the tank will be crystal clear.

-Sonny
 
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I hate to say it. I have Cyano currently and I’ve dosed twice now. Once with bacteria and the 2nd time with just snow. I saw very little impact on the Cyano. For almost every pest or issue with reefing “manual removal” is always the best 1st choice IMO. We must take the bull by the horn’s. :) I think this method will work though, but I need to dose more.

I have noticed that when I blow the rocks off or blow the sandbed to stir it…there is definitely something with the fine silt in the water column which lands on the rocks that helps suppress Dino’s and Cyano. I think it basically prevents their daily activities.

I wonder how big of a dose I can do with just the snow alone. If I had LPS or softies I wouldn’t be scared at all. I’d dose 100 mL’s right now. Seems pretty harmless even with all Acropora due to what the product is, but I have not researched it or dosed long enough to see any longterm effects. My 6 month old system is really hard to pinpoint or understand anything right now due to its instability. I’m almost over the hump, and the real testing will begin soon. For now I’ll have to rely on some of you brave souls to get more aggressive dosing your SPS systems. The next time I dose I’ll dose 20 mL of snow only.


Also, the solution I’m using is for 100/G total volume:

10 TBS product to 500 mL RODI
I add 20 drops of MB7 to 10 mL and dose (if bacteria is used)

Yeah, the big take away here is that this method, if used against cyano is to PREVENT it and not kill it completely. You will need to siphon out as much cyano as possible before dosing. What we're trying to do here with the Snow+bacteria is outcompete the bad guys for surface space.

I like to attach a filter sock to hose so that I can siphon to my hearts content without having to change out the entire systems water. Just yesterday on my regularly schedule maintenance day I spent a good hour doing just that while siphoning out the entire sandbed. The water was twice filtered through filter socks before being added back into the sump.

We also have to factor that each system is different, and in some this method may not work completely due to organic levels and maintenance of the system. There is no replacement for good husbandry and nutrient control.

-Sonny
 
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Looking real good in there! Sand is pristine. If I didn’t know any better I’d be wondering how you’re getting growth. It almost looks sterile, but then you see the corals have good color and growth.

Thanks! The video was just after a cleaning. The sand had just been siphoned. I siphon the sandbed weekly, every Saturday.

Yes, I do walk a fine line on the nutrients but I feed heavy. I'm going to jump back over to the bacteria thread I have posted as some are struggling due to the sole focus on nutrient export. The key with this method of reefing is that it is nutrition in, nutrients out. But yeah, lots of SPS growth going one right now and many of the corals are exhibiting growth tips. This heavy nutrient import and export is what I believe to have helped me grow SPS a bit faster than most. In less than a year from setup this tank will be jam packed. ;)

-Sonny
 

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Hello,

I would recommend that you take a small powerhead or turkey baster and blow off the rockwork and sand just before dosing the Coral Snow. This way, you will have the particles in suspension for easier removal while at the same time freeing up areas on the rockwork for the MB7 and coral snow to adhere to.

The method as I described is exactly what I do. I will stir up everything in the tank and make sure that all the rocks have been blown clean before dosing. The tank will get clouded in muck but a couple hours after dosing the snow the tank will be crystal clear.

-Sonny
Thanks for the reply. I have been using this method since last weekend daily. I have been doing a five gallon water change daily right before this to suck out Cyano and blowing the rocks. I’m using Dr. Tim’s One and Only bacteria. I don’t have a skimmer so I only add the bacteria every other day. I have a crushed coral sand bed that has been untouched for years. Do you recommend stirring it up?
 
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Thanks for the reply. I have been using this method since last weekend daily. I have been doing a five gallon water change daily right before this to suck out Cyano and blowing the rocks. I’m using Dr. Tim’s One and Only bacteria. I don’t have a skimmer so I only add the bacteria every other day. I have a crushed coral sand bed that has been untouched for years. Do you recommend stirring it up?

Well, if the sandbed has not been disturbed for years you may be inviting disaster if you stir it up. Potentially, the sandbed itself could have reached capacity and is leaching nutrients. If you did decide to siphon it, I would do small sections at a time and ensure that the contents of the sandbed be siphoned directly out of the system and not allowed to circulate. Its a tough call though because messing with the sand bed could unleash all sorts of things into the system if not done correctly.

The sandbeds can be nutrient sinks, which is why I siphon mine weekly.

-Sonny
 

CoralClasher

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Well, if the sandbed has not been disturbed for years you may be inviting disaster if you stir it up. Potentially, the sandbed itself could have reached capacity and is leaching nutrients. If you did decide to siphon it, I would do small sections at a time and ensure that the contents of the sandbed be siphoned directly out of the system and not allowed to circulate. Its a tough call though because messing with the sand bed could unleash all sorts of things into the system if not done correctly.

The sandbeds can be nutrient sinks, which is why I siphon mine weekly.

-Sonny
I have been watching the No3 for the last few weeks daily, if I skip coral feeding it will drop. Today’s No3 is 3.4ppm but phosphate is 0.76ppm. If I even walk by the tank with GFO the Dino get happy. I haven’t had a Dino outbreak in about a year.
 

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Does the way Cyano start effect the strategy for getting rid of it? Mine started I think because my dosing pumps went empty and when noticed things wrong I had ALK 4.1dkh.
 

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Yeah, the big take away here is that this method, if used against cyano is to PREVENT it and not kill it completely. You will need to siphon out as much cyano as possible before dosing. What we're trying to do here with the Snow+bacteria is outcompete the bad guys for surface space.

I like to attach a filter sock to hose so that I can siphon to my hearts content without having to change out the entire systems water. Just yesterday on my regularly schedule maintenance day I spent a good hour doing just that while siphoning out the entire sandbed. The water was twice filtered through filter socks before being added back into the sump.

We also have to factor that each system is different, and in some this method may not work completely due to organic levels and maintenance of the system. There is no replacement for good husbandry and nutrient control.

-Sonny
Exactly. I do the same. I use a large 1 micron sock in the sump and siphon for an hour if needed. I siphoned a lot of Cyano yesterday and today there’s a marked difference. A few patches popped back up, but 80% is completely gone. Dino’s have proven to be extremely consistent even with PO4 at 0.15 and NO3 at 15.
 

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