I have Cyano bad

[Bastray]

So I recently got hit with Cyano bad. It's all over the rocks and starting to grow on the sand. Tank is 15 months old and have never had Cyano before.

Tank Params: All Tested Weekly/Alk tested daily
90 Gallon
8.5 dkh
400 Cal
1440 Mag
12 NO3
.13 PO4 (use PhosRx for control)
1.026 Salinity
79 Temp


Dose:
ESV B Ionic 2 part
Red Sea Coral Colors
Fuel
Acropower
10% weekly water changes (did 25% last 2 weeks to see if that helps with Cyano)
Refugium for nutrient control
Deltec Skimmer

Flow:
2x MP40 at 80% running reef crest
1 MP10 on back wall running back mode at 100%

Recent changes have been:
Stopped NOPOX about a month ago
Took GFO offline in December and switched to PhosRX
Phosphate rose to .34 before I started phosRx. Got it down to .04 and it's been rising again and I need to re dose.
Added Neptune Apex in Jan and switched to dosing with DOS pumps

My corals have never looked better. I'm increasing ALK almost weekly and have gone from 45ml a day to 60ml a day in the last 2 months. SPS dominant tank and growth is as good as I've ever had. Colors are as bright as I've had as well. So whatever is happening in my tank the corals like, but the Cyano does as well.

I have read that keeping nutrients low is key, but as I've lowered them the Cyano has gotten worse as well. I had no Cyano when my tank was at .34 PO4. Don't want to use chemicals.

Any advice from people who have beaten this? It's very frustrating to work so hard on the tank every day to then see it covered in Cyano.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Stop the Coral foods Red Sea stuff and nopox.

The nopox feeds is too.

Wait a few weeks before doing anything else.

Low nutrients aren’t really the prob. Dissolved organics. Ammona. Organic carbons. Aminos.

 

[Undertaker]

I believe cyano is pretty normal at 15 months. Your tank is still maturing. Just let it run its course it will go away. Every tank is different. For me I fought cyano for almost the whole second year my tank was maturing. Finally just went away. I stopped chasing numbers. My tank leveled off with nitrates at 7ppm and phosphate.0 to .04. It part of the maturing process. Hang in there, I know it sucks. But, it will pay off.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I am not a huge fan of bottled cures, but if you dont want to wait months for it to disappear there is always chemiclean. It is completely coral and fish safe. 2-3 days...gone.

sometimes it comes back, I never had that problem, once it was gone it was gone

 

[Undertaker]

I think Chemiclean is a waste of money. It will just come back. cyano, diatoms, gha is all part of the process of a tank maturing. Just clean out what you can and let it run out its course.

 

[Ragnar]

Acropower is cyano fuel; I had my first outbreak in a 5 year old reef the day after dosing the first time.

I’ve used Chemi Clean several times over 20 years with good results, get phosphate low.

 

[jd371]

I seem to get Cyano in my tank every Spring. If I wait it out it goes away in a month or two or I can do a round of Chemiclean and have it gone in a week.... I do the latter.

 

[Leadfooted]

I seem to get Cyano in my tank every Spring. If I wait it out it goes away in a month or two or I can do a round of Chemiclean and have it gone in a week.... I do the latter.

I have similar issues all winter, early spring. I just vacuum out what I can during water changes and lately I'm increasing my flow in the evenings. I do a tick under what ChemiClean suggest for dosage and still seems to keep it under control. I live with it though and I'm okay with that, I just keep it under control though annoying at time to blow off and suck up.

 

[MabuyaQ]

Stop dosing anything that contains aminos, ethanol or sugar. Bring down Po4 with Iron or Aluminium based PO4 removers to the 0.08-0.04 ppm range and keep it stable at that level. Once PO4 gets below 0.08 start dosing small amounts of vinegar to bring NO3 down to 10-8 ppm and keep it stable at this level. Only when PO4 gets in the 0.05-0.04 range should you add more vinegar to bring NO3 in the 5ppm range.

 

[Bastray]

Thanks for the replys. I have taken aminos off line for now. I've also increased flow quite a bit and upped water changes from 10% to 20%. My PO4 was .07 when I tested tonight. I also bought the AI Prime fuge light and increased the space I was giving to my fuge in the sump to see if that helps as well.

So far I am just trying to manually remove as much as I can through water changes. I do not want to use chemicals to reduce. It's good to hear others have gone through this around the same age as my tank and waiting it out is what worked. I will stay the course for now.

 

[Hitman]

Any updates? Did taking the aminos off line seem to effect the cyano at all?

 

[Bastray]

No. Not really. I am blowing off the rocks every 3-4 days and between the increased light in the fuge and the water changes my PO4 has dropped to .04 without and PO4 removing media or phosRx. I feel like the cyano had slowed a little bit, but it is also now growing well in my fuge. So that is better I guess. I am going to keep doing what I am doing and wait it out.

 

[Bastray]

Update here. My cyano is still alive and well. I am dosing microbacter7 and reef bio fuel and it has been great for my nitrates. My levels are currently .07 for PO4 and .5 NO3. This cyano just won't die though. Very frustrating.

 

[dwest]

My cyano growth has been crazy for about 6 months. This tank is about 3 years old and I fought dinos for almost a year until the cyano took over. I’m gonna ride it out. It’ll go away.

 

[MabuyaQ]

Update here. My cyano is still alive and well. I am dosing microbacter7 and reef bio fuel and it has been great for my nitrates. My levels are currently .07 for PO4 and .5 NO3. This cyano just won't die though. Very frustrating.

Your PO4 has moved in the right direction but your NO3 has moved in the wrong direction. At 0.5ppm it is to low to stimulate any good healthy algae and other bacterial growth that you want to outcompete the cyano.
Right now you are on the path where the only solution is to completely starve the cyano of PO4 by depleting it. In a system without animals that have to be fed that is going to take years because there is plenty available in rock and sand, in a system with animals that have to be fed that is never going to happen.

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

likely you wont have cyano after following those steps. that's literally a book of before and after shots.

if im not mistaken, that's 23 pages with a 98% cure rate using no meds.

We don't use param readings there= param readings are for prevention, not removal of the invasion.

we don't need to ID the invader, ID=hesitate longer before doing the steps we show works.

we don't take long to work either, a day or two. you can opt out of cyano like pressing a button, fast.

 

[Bastray]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

likely you wont have cyano after following those steps. that's literally a book of before and after shots.

if im not mistaken, that's 23 pages with a 98% cure rate using no meds.

We don't use param readings there= param readings are for prevention, not removal of the invasion.

we don't need to ID the invader, ID=hesitate longer before doing the steps we show works.

we don't take long to work either, a day or two. you can opt out of cyano like pressing a button, fast.

This is interesting and I have started reading it. I am currently 75% removed of my sand bed right now. I started pulling the sand out about 3 months ago and just have a little bit left. I like the look of bare bottom, plus I figured it would help my cyano issues.

 

[Bastray]

I tried a bunch of stuff to get cyano out of my tank. Pulled the sand (I wanted to anyways),replaced RO filters, tweaked what I was dosing, upped water changes, and on and on. The cyano would get better for a week or so and then come back worse. I was getting frustrated big time and started to feel all the changes I was making was worse for my tank than the cyano.

In the end I gave in and used chemiclean. Cyano was covering every rock surface in the tank and 2 days later, completely gone. Tank looks beautiful.

Wish I would have just done this in February.