How to get rid of Lyngbya

[stacksoner]

My tap water is treated with both chlorine and chloramines and I run a 6-stage Spectrapure with all of their best filters. So in my case, I don’t think it was from my water.

It's a hellish battle to fight. Like every other problem in this hobby, it can always be avoided by religiously keeping parameters stable, ensuring good husbandry, following flow/lighting/turnover best practices, and doing water changes.

The most successful folks in this hobby are rarely surprised by what's going on in their tanks. They know how much alk, call, mg it consumes per day, how much water evaporates, when their last water change was, when their next water change is, and how much water they'll be changing out. Their results aren't accidental or unexplainable, they're simply a product of habit.

 

[ryshark]

It's a hellish battle to fight. Like every other problem in this hobby, it can always be avoided by religiously keeping parameters stable, ensuring good husbandry, following flow/lighting/turnover best practices, and doing water changes.

The most successful folks in this hobby are rarely surprised by what's going on in their tanks. They know how much alk, call, mg it consumes per day, how much water evaporates, when their last water change was, when their next water change is, and how much water they'll be changing out. Their results aren't accidental or unexplainable, they're simply a product of habit.

I ended up doing the same as you and started the tank over after a losing battle. So far to so good with the reboot, going on about 8-months.

I agree with you on trying to avoid problems before they start, my husbandry wasn't great before the reboot when I got what may have been lyngbya, I was doing my water changes but nothing really for detritus removal. Now I'm on top of detritus removal by going barebottom, basting rocks and running mechanical filtration.

 

[paintman]

I ended up doing the same as you and started the tank over after a losing battle. So far to so good with the reboot, going on about 8-months.

I agree with you on trying to avoid problems before they start, my husbandry wasn't great before the reboot when I got what may have been lyngbya, I was doing my water changes but nothing really for detritus removal. Now I'm on top of detritus removal by going barebottom, basting rocks and running mechanical filtration.

My biggest mistake was setting up my current tank with sand in it. Never again!

 

[ryshark]

My biggest mistake was setting up my current tank with sand in it. Never again!

Yeah so far I'm liking barebottom, this is my first time. As I type this I have my Vortechs are on at 100% Constant. I have this programmed in Mobius for 15-minutes per day to stir up detritus. Could never run 100% Constant when I had sand.

 

[wareagle]

It's actually easy to beat with physical removal, and the easiest way to do that is to run a power filter in the main display. Stop using bottles of bacteria, H2O2 and other garbage.
Buy a cheap Jebao return pump that you can turn into a power filter and two bags of Sera filter media.
Build the power filter and turkey baste/toothbrush the rocks, glass, and anything it grows on 2x per day. Change the filter media 2x a day, and you'll soon notice that it only needs changing once a day, then every other day etc.
You can do the initial cleaning with a massive water change, especially if you have lots of it on the glass.

 

[wareagle]

 

[wareagle]

You can literally just chuck the thing in the tank, it does seem to do better on the bottom. I got Lynbya in that FOWLR after serious neglect after our most recent hurricane. I initially used a house filter with a pleated filter and pump, but the price of those has gone up to $3 per filter, which led me to find the power filter. The filter cartridge will work and be even easier, but more expensive, it's what I use for DINOs. You have to wash the Sera filter media in hot water and let it dry before use or else it will make your skimmer go crazy.
I wish I had pictures of when it was bad, but you can still see the brown on that filter. Using H202 on your rocks will only lead to it repopulating those rocks first and being more stubborn to get rid of. I also experimented with a roll of 100 micron fabric and the Sera filter media was noticeably better. My Power filter is a Jebao DCP 2500 with a 3/4" pvc pipe that has holes drilled in it, I cut the Sera filter into 7" sections and wrap it around the 3/4" pipe, then secure with rubber bands.

 

[ReefSlice]

I had this horrible horrible plague in my reef tank and it almost caused me to throw in the towel once and for all.

I'd be willing to bet that the problem is with your RODI water and inadequate filtration. I went from a 4 stage under sink RODI system to an 8 stage system that I configured after better understanding the composition of my tap water. No more lyngbya!!

I actually have a 7 stage that I am religious about staying on top of when it comes to changing out filters! ICP test always shows perfect water from my RO/DI, but I do agree that this stuff probably gets brought in via external means. I think a frag brought it in back in february.
Good news! Since my last update, the lyngbya has really been taking a hit. I increased my po4 dosage by double to keep a measurable reading every day, as well as kept up with the Microbacter Clean and the tank has been showing signs of progress day by day. I know a lot of guys are against the bottled bacteria "cures", and I am always skeptical, but I really do think this stuff slowly eats away at any algae or bacteria in the tank. I have no cyano, no filamentous algae, and the lyngbya is changing growth patterns and slowly withering away day by day. Some quick updated photos to show how it's looking today compared to my original post, as well as my new juvenile trochus army. You can see a lot of rocks are nearly 100% clear, especially the large flat rock on the top of my rockwork. Even getting coralline growth on my back glass and powerheads in the last 2 weeks, as well as some color returning to corals, especially my anacropora. Hopefully the trend continues, slow and steady. The remaining lyngbya has taken on a short filament, mat type appearance. It's ticking off some zoa frags, but I'm hopeful it will soon all wither away.

 

[ryshark]

I actually have a 7 stage that I am religious about staying on top of when it comes to changing out filters! ICP test always shows perfect water from my RO/DI, but I do agree that this stuff probably gets brought in via external means. I think a frag brought it in back in february.
Good news! Since my last update, the lyngbya has really been taking a hit. I increased my po4 dosage by double to keep a measurable reading every day, as well as kept up with the Microbacter Clean and the tank has been showing signs of progress day by day. I know a lot of guys are against the bottled bacteria "cures", and I am always skeptical, but I really do think this stuff slowly eats away at any algae or bacteria in the tank. I have no cyano, no filamentous algae, and the lyngbya is changing growth patterns and slowly withering away day by day. Some quick updated photos to show how it's looking today compared to my original post, as well as my new juvenile trochus army. You can see a lot of rocks are nearly 100% clear, especially the large flat rock on the top of my rockwork. Even getting coralline growth on my back glass and powerheads in the last 2 weeks, as well as some color returning to corals, especially my anacropora. Hopefully the trend continues, slow and steady. The remaining lyngbya has taken on a short filament, mat type appearance. It's ticking off some zoa frags, but I'm hopeful it will soon all wither away.

Great news! I agree with you about MB Clean bottled bacteria. I started my tank with 100% dry rock and 8-months later still no Dino’s, no Cyano, no algae issues. I did get some GHA at one point during the ugly stage but I went to daily dosing on MB Clean and the GHA went away.

 

[ReefSlice]

The lyngbya continues to dissipate day by day. The only places the fuzzy mat is holding onto are the small frag rocks I have some zoas on, and it shrinks little by little every day. It is completely gone on the 95% of rockwork and the glass. I have been getting a tiny bit of what may be dinos or some sort of bacteria growing low down in the tank that's been ticking off a few corals a bit, but that too is gradually disappearing and I think was just a result of the lyngbya dying off. Coralline is slowly taking hold on a few rocks and on my powerheads and coral colors keep getting better, so I'm on the right track! Here's a quick FTS before my water change today. Little early in the day so not everything is opened up but the rocks are clean and the tank is getting in it's groove at 6 months old. Very happy with the microbacter clean dosing. Also amazed at how many trochus snails I have now! I will have to rehome some as they mature to full size.

 

[Cool Ethan]

I have recently had success against lynching as well. I was dosing with some Bacter7 instead of Clean, but saw success combined with manual removal. (I'm not sure what the difference is between the two)

Do you have any Mexican Turbo Snails? Once I had stopped the growth, I added a few a couple days ago and they have been plowing throw the remaining buildup.

 

[ReefSlice]

I have recently had success against lynching as well. I was dosing with some Bacter7 instead of Clean, but saw success combined with manual removal. (I'm not sure what the difference is between the two)

Do you have any Mexican Turbo Snails? Once I had stopped the growth, I added a few a couple days ago and they have been plowing throw the remaining buildup.

Way over my head but from what I saw on an interview with brightwell, microbacter clean is a much newer bacterial blend that specifically targets algaes and waste buildup, while microbacter 7 has been around a long time and just aims at supplementing bacteria in the tank to prevent bacterial problems, which theoretically means it's more effective on cyano forms, but microbacter clean certainly made short work of any cyano and chiseled away at my lyngbya, as well as eating up any tufts of algae within 2 weeks.
I do not have any turbo snails as I don't want to be bothered fixing unmounted frags or flipping over snails daily, but they certainly do a great job of cleaning up. I think my newly acquired army of trochus snails has certainly done a good job of cleaning up the dying lyngbya and anything else!

 

[Cool Ethan]

Way over my head but from what I saw on an interview with brightwell, microbacter clean is a much newer bacterial blend that specifically targets algaes and waste buildup, while microbacter 7 has been around a long time and just aims at supplementing bacteria in the tank to prevent bacterial problems, which theoretically means it's more effective on cyano forms, but microbacter clean certainly made short work of any cyano and chiseled away at my lyngbya, as well as eating up any tufts of algae within 2 weeks.
I do not have any turbo snails as I don't want to be bothered fixing unmounted frags or flipping over snails daily, but they certainly do a great job of cleaning up. I think my newly acquired army of trochus snails has certainly done a good job of cleaning up the dying lyngbya and anything else!

Will have to check out that in the future. I had looked for it but my LFS did not have it in stock. And ultimately my outbreak started to become resoled before I needed to start special ordering anything.

Funny enough, all my tiny snails are the one knocking things over. The turbos haven't moved a thing yet. I haven't glued anything down yet since I've still been messing with the aquascape too much.

Glad to hear you had success too. When researching, many of the old posts I found made it sound pretty doomsday scenario.