Fighting cyano

[richarddeweerd]

I'm currently fighting some cyano and I need some tips how to fight this battle

My aquarium is quite young, about 4 months (but it's a continuation of my 3 year old 8 gallon nano)

Its is a 100 gallon tank it's stocked with:

2 Clown Fish (mature, 3 years old)
1 yellow tang (very small)
1 blue tang (very small)
1 Orchid dotyback
1 Starry blenny
6 Blue green damsels

2 cleaning shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp
2 Sea urchins
8 adult snails and at least 2 dozen baby turbo snails

1 Bubble tip
A couple of mushrooms and zoa's
1 hammer coral
1 Leather (Sinularia Polydactyle)

I tried a few LPS corals but they died in the last few weeks

Technical:
RS Reefer 600 skimmer
Flow: RS Reefwave 45 and a jebao for a dead corner
18 watt UV
Tunze Chaeto reactor (on for 12 hours a day)
2 AI Hydra 32's

I did a ATI test last week and these are the condensed results:

Salinity: 1.025​

Alkalinity: 9.25​

Iodine: 21 ug/l (a bit low)​

Nitrate: 8.34 mg/l​

Phosphorus: 3.03 ug/l (a bit low)​

Phosphate: 0.01 mg/l​

So I see that my phosforus is a bit low compared to my nitrates so I want to restore that balance.

Done so far:

• Im starting to do more water changes now back to every week 15%
• Sucking of the cyano from the rocks
• I turned my acclimatisation mode on of my lights, to lower the output.
• I ordered a ULR phosphorus test

Should I:

• Turn down the cheato light a bit? But I'm afraid that my nitrates are going up too
• Add Po4
• Add more bacteria
• Change more water
• Set my skimmer more wet?

 

[Biglew11]

i would keep doing what you're doing for now, and dose phosphates to maybe .03 - .07 ppm

 

[richarddeweerd]

I just got my ULR phosphorus test in and it showed absolute 0 so I raised it to 20 ppb (0.61 ppm phosphate)

 

[richarddeweerd]

A little over a week I'm completely Cyano free.

This is what it did:
Lowered the light intensity
Went from 12 to 10 hours of light on my chaeto
I cleaned as much cyano as possible
I used Red Cyano RX at about 1/3 of the described dose
Removed my skimmer cup (it was completely over cooking but I wanted the gas exchange)
After 2 days I did a water change like this:

• Turned of the ATO
• I put the skimmer on the lowest position, put the drain hose in a bucket
• I slowly added 25 gallons of water while I drained the "old" water from the skimmer
• For the next 5 days I skimmed extra wet

Now it is completely gone

 

[CMMorgan]

That is brilliant. I always have a drain hose attached to my skimmer. I never thought of using it to drain water deliberately. Thanks for the inspiration.
Regarding removing the skimmer cup... doesn't that just dump the skimmate back into the sump? How is that helping remove the yuck?

 

[Biglew11]

Regarding removing the skimmer cup... doesn't that just dump the skimmate back into the sump? How is that helping remove the yuck?

when using any chemicals to get rid of cyano, skimmers go nuts to the point you'd have to top off with saltwater like twice a day thus removing the medication you want in the tank. it's best to just let the skimmate drane back into the tank for the 3 days, using the skimmer for aeration.

 

[richarddeweerd]

when using any chemicals to get rid of cyano, skimmers go nuts to the point you'd have to top off with saltwater like twice a day thus removing the medication you want in the tank. it's best to just let the skimmate drane back into the tank for the 3 days, using the skimmer for aeration.

Exactly, that was also my point of view, I did not want to remove the medicine directly, but I did want to have the gas exchange (A skimmer is not only removing proteins, it also controls oxygen and CO2 levels in the water)

 

[HuduVudu]

Fight it with time. You will never win this fight with chemicals, you are wasting your time and energy following this path, even though it is a well worn path.

Biological diversity is the long term answer and the one that you should be striving for.

 

[CMMorgan]

when using any chemicals to get rid of cyano, skimmers go nuts to the point you'd have to top off with saltwater like twice a day thus removing the medication you want in the tank. it's best to just let the skimmate drain back into the tank for the 3 days, using the skimmer for aeration.

Such a good point. I was winning the fight day one. I had a huge top off that night and I started losing ground day 2. I think I'll do a 10% water change, redose the chemiclean, leave the supplemental oxygen a few more days and manually remove the rock and brush off before returning to the tank. The aquascape is completely collapsed anyway, so I know that there are places the flow is just not reaching effectively. If I control the top off, as you suggest... I may have a fighting chance.
Thank you for elaborating!! That was so very inciteful. Much appreciated. Hopefully, I'll be able to do another water change at the end of the week and call it a victory - drain the swamp.

 

[HuduVudu]

drain the swamp

ROFL ... problem is the swamp grows back.

 

[richarddeweerd]

Fight it with time. You will never win this fight with chemicals, you are wasting your time and energy following this path, even though it is a well worn path.

Biological diversity is the long term answer and the one that you should be striving for.

I agree with that but lately it was going up and down with the cyano (i had it lightly an mainly on the rocks that I transferred from my old nano.) It just needed a tiny push in the right direction.

 

[HuduVudu]

I agree with that but lately it was going up and down with the cyano (i had it lightly an mainly on the rocks that I transferred from my old nano.) It just needed a tiny push in the right direction.

Look at things in an aquarium from the long view. We think that companies that operate quarter to quarter as short sighted. How more so in a reef tank. Best of luck

 

[Miguel Negron]

Chemi Clean is your friend

 

[richarddeweerd]

Chemi Clean is your friend

That name alone is for me a reason not to use it.