Losing battle to Cyano.

CanesReef · Jul 22, 2019

Morning everyone,

I've been dealing with an outbreak of cyano for about 2 months now and im growing increasingly frustrated with the situation. At first i wasn't sure if what i was dealing with was in fact cyano so i visited serveral of my LFS. Every single person said it was cyano and recommended red slime remover. Well, since then ive gone through about 4 different treatments as well as weekly water changes and there has been ZERO impact. I turned the skimmer off as well as removed my carbon filtration and still nothing. Im starting to entertain the idea of gradually removing my sand bed as well as blacking out my tank. Im here to ask for any advice you guys can give. Will have my parameters up later tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Forgot to mention above that my tank is about 8-10 months old.

Equipment:
IceCap 1k Gyre (40%)
Hydor koralia nano 240
Stock RSM130 Protein skimmer
Stock RSM130 Return pumps
Ai Prime HD
Tunze 3152 ATO

Heres a picture of the "Cyano" im dealing with.

CanesReef · Jul 22, 2019

Just adding some more info: I do make my own rodi water (0 TDS) and use red sea coral pro salt mix.

dwest · Jul 22, 2019

CanesReef said:
Morning everyone,

I've been dealing with an outbreak of cyano for about 2 months now and im growing increasingly frustrated with the situation. At first i wasn't sure if what i was dealing with was in fact cyano so i visited serveral of my LFS. Every single person said it was cyano and recommended red slime remover. Well, since then ive gone through about 4 different treatments as well as weekly water changes and there has been ZERO impact. I turned the skimmer off as well as removed my carbon filtration and still nothing. Im starting to entertain the idea of gradually removing my sand bed as well as blacking out my tank. Im here to ask for any advice you guys can give. Will have my parameters up later tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Forgot to mention above that my tank is about 8-10 months old.

Equipment:
IceCap 1k Gyre (40%)
Hydor koralia nano 240
Stock RSM130 Protein skimmer
Stock RSM130 Return pumps
Ai Prime HD
Tunze 3152 ATO

Heres a picture of the "Cyano" im dealing with.

Could be dinos. I would ID it with a microscope. If you don’t have a microscope you can likely ID it with a cheap one for about $10.

Amazon.com: IQCREW 100X-1200X LED Kids Beginner Microscope Toy Set + Slides Preparation Kit: Industrial & Scientific

Buy IQCREW 100X-1200X LED Kids Beginner Microscope Toy Set + Slides Preparation Kit: Microscopes - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

CanesReef · Jul 22, 2019

dwest said:
Could be dinos. I would ID it with a microscope. If you don’t have a microscope you can likely ID it with a cheap one for about $10.

This is what i was suspecting from the beginning but other told me cyano.. Lets say that this is a case of a dino outbreak. From what ive read, people have torn down their tanks bc of this. Or on the other hand some others suggest a UV Sterilizer. To be honest im leaning toward starting everything over. Unless theres a better way of dealing with this that im not aware of.

dwest · Jul 22, 2019

CanesReef said:
This is what i was suspecting from the beginning but other told me cyano.. Lets say that this is a case of a dino outbreak. From what ive read, people have torn down their tanks bc of this. Or on the other hand some others suggest a UV Sterilizer. To be honest im leaning toward starting everything over. Unless theres a better way of dealing with this that im not aware of.

If I were you, I would want to know if it were dinos. You might be able to prevent it from happening again. If it is dinos, many species can be eradicated with UV. If you tear down your tank and it is dinos, they will likely find their way into your new system if you put anything from your old system in it.

I’ve been reefing for a long time. When I had dinos about a year ago, it really sucked. I lost animals that I had for a long time. But after dealing with them, l feel I learned a lot and am ready to tackle them if they ever rear up again. More importantly I feel I can prevent them now.

Whatever you do, good luck!

Bayareareefer18 · Jul 22, 2019

There are some good threads on fighting dino but they are loooooong.

I've been trying to find a link to Cruz Arias' method but can't seem to find it. Anyone know where to find it? Starting to think it may only be in FB

I do know that it involves battling with bacteria and bubble scrubbing.

I'm fighting cyanobacteria at the moment. Manual removal, bubble scrubbing and bacterial dosing has started to knock it back pretty well

CanesReef · Jul 22, 2019

@Bayareareefer18 What bacterial dosing are you doing exactly?

Colin_S · Jul 22, 2019

How old is your tank? if it is red slime, i used Chemi-Clean, works a treat and mine never returned (youtube it).
If its brown i just got a few turbo snails and they cleaned it up nice and good within a few days. after a year of having my tank i don't get brown or red algae anymore. its part of the cycle. if your tanks is over a year you probably already know this.
hope this helps

CanesReef · Jul 22, 2019

Colin_S said:
How old is your tank? if it is red slime, i used Chemi-Clean, works a treat and mine never returned (youtube it).
If its brown i just got a few turbo snails and they cleaned it up nice and good within a few days. after a year of having my tank i don't get brown or red algae anymore. its part of the cycle. if your tanks is over a year you probably already know this.
hope this helps

My tank is 8-10 months old, i have a full clean up crew of turbos, hermits, and nas snails. I havent tried Chemi-Clean but i did try the Red Slime Remover. Did about 4 rounds of that treatment and nothing happened, thats why im stumped.

Bayareareefer18 · Jul 22, 2019

CanesReef said:
@Bayareareefer18 What bacterial dosing are you doing exactly?

MB7 weekly and fritz 460 twice a month

I believe in Cruz method he is using dr Tim's waste away which is similar to the fritz I believe

Bayareareefer18 · Jul 22, 2019

CanesReef said:
My tank is 8-10 months old, i have a full clean up crew of turbos, hermits, and nas snails. I havent tried Chemi-Clean but i did try the Red Slime Remover. Did about 4 rounds of that treatment and nothing happened, thats why im stumped.

That may be the issue is that it isn't cyano. I'm more expert but to me looks more like dino

CanesReef · Jul 22, 2019

Welp, seems like i need to get my hands on a microscope!

CanesReef · Jul 31, 2019

Thought I’d give an update on this... UV sterilizer for the win!!!! Within a couple days it kicked the Dino’s a**.

dwest · Jul 31, 2019

CanesReef said:
Thought I’d give an update on this... UV sterilizer for the win!!!! Within a couple days it kicked the Dino’s a**.

Did you ever ID them or just whack ‘em with UV?

Sparky88 · Jul 31, 2019

Chem clean is a nuke to cyano, like one of the few magic in a bottle treatments.

CanesReef · Jul 31, 2019

dwest said:
Did you ever ID them or just whack ‘em with UV?

I didn’t ID them with a microscope but I did do the coffee filter test. Def was Dino and I had it bad. Only reason why I pulled the trigger on the UV was because they’d “disappear” during lights out. They’d suspend into the water column so decided to zap them with the UV and luckily it wiped them out.

CanesReef · Jul 31, 2019

Sparky88 said:
Chem clean is a nuke to cyano, like one of the few magic in a bottle treatments.

I originally thought that it was Cyano and went through 4 treatments of red slime remover. Turns out I was completely wrong and attacking the wrong things.