Nasty case of red cyano and my battle

jsker · May 1, 2017

A bit of history
I have a 72 inch bowl front, with a total volume of 80 gallons of water. I have been messing with red cyanobacteria for the past year. I have treated the tank twice now, once with a different product and now with Chemi-Clean Pro liquid.
My questions:

I am about at 32 hours, and I still have Cyano in the tank. Do I add more Chemi-Clean order why wait the 48 hours, do the water change, and retreat?
Or do I wait the 48 hours and not to the water change in retreat?

Thank you for your input

KJ · May 1, 2017

Wait the 48 hrs do the water change and wait couple days and retreat.

Balz3352 · May 1, 2017

Add flow if possible

jsker · May 1, 2017

KJ said:
Wait the 48 hrs do the water change and wait couple days and retreat.

Thank you.

jsker · May 1, 2017

Balz3352 said:
Add flow if possible

I have a bunch of flow in the tank, the cyano has been able ongoing issue for a year.

KJ · May 1, 2017

jsker said:
Thank you.

YW

KJ · May 1, 2017

Try out the powder version of chemiclean?

saltyfilmfolks · May 1, 2017

what the heck is fueling it?

RyanCSGO · May 1, 2017

+1 to the powder. never tried any liquid. but the two times I've used to the powder it was very effective.

nervousmonkey · May 1, 2017

jsker said:
I have a bunch of flow in the tank, the cyano has been able ongoing issue for a year.

Why is there cyano? I had a bad case of it, but I was overfeeding my anthias and had high PO4. It was really not simply high PO4, but imbalanced NO3 along with it.
+1 to the powder ChemiClean. Works well.
Definitely just wait it out, then do a water change and see where you are. If the cyano is still all over, then I would repeat the treatment, but I wouldn't add the ChemiClean again straight away unless the cyano is still all over the place. You will see the cyano really start to die off in the last 12 hours, so keep the tank oxygenated (I just took the lid off my skimmer and let it run to oxygenate the water). I wouldn't add more ChemiClean right away because of the lack of oxygen in the tank that you get. Give your tank time to recover then do it again....

jsker · May 1, 2017

saltyfilmfolks said:
what the heck is fueling it?

Good question, having it in the system my nutrient numbers are off. I would say that I never really got it in the first place totally, and I is coming back

jsker · May 1, 2017

KJ said:
Try out the powder version of chemiclean?

I have used the powdered version before and wanted to give the liquid a try.

saltyfilmfolks · May 1, 2017

jsker said:
Good question, having it in the system my nutrient numbers are off. I would say that I never really got it in the first place totally, and I is coming back

so odd. my numbers have been up and down all year( some would faint), but I rarely get the cyano. so weird..

jsker · May 1, 2017

nervousmonkey said:
Why is there cyano? I had a bad case of it, but I was overfeeding my anthias and had high PO4. It was really not simply high PO4, but imbalanced NO3 along with it.
+1 to the powder ChemiClean. Works well.
Definitely just wait it out, then do a water change and see where you are. If the cyano is still all over, then I would repeat the treatment, but I wouldn't add the ChemiClean again straight away unless the cyano is still all over the place. You will see the cyano really start to die off in the last 12 hours, so keep the tank oxygenated (I just took the lid off my skimmer and let it run to oxygenate the water). I wouldn't add more ChemiClean right away because of the lack of oxygen in the tank that you get. Give your tank time to recover then do it again....

I have had about a %50 die off, just not all. I am pumping air into the system with a air pump. Here is a picture

jsker · May 1, 2017

saltyfilmfolks said:
so odd. my numbers have been up and down all year( some would faint), but I rarely get the cyano. so weird..

I usually run when there is not cyano present, .02 phosphates, and .08 nitrates.

I am also thinking it could be my water here adding to the problem. I just put in two active carbon filter and silica buster resin into the Ro/DI and I am going to change out the RO membrane this weekend.

jsker · May 1, 2017

saltyfilmfolks said:
so odd. my numbers have been up and down all year( some would faint), but I rarely get the cyano. so weird..

As you stated, figuring out what is causing it, is the question.

The tank is healthy, and to corals are growing.

saltyfilmfolks · May 1, 2017

jsker said:
As you stated, figuring out what is causing it, is the question.

The tank is healthy, and to corals are growing.

Tanks are sooo confounding at times.

my .25 Po4 should be a problem........Why doesn't my cyano like my .25;Cyclops The corals dont seem to mind.

Broadfield · May 1, 2017

... and you verified it's cyano with hydrogen peroxide? In my experience, Chemiclean does not work against cyano. But it works great against spirulina... which to the naked eye can look absolutely identical to cyano. Only being able to distinguish them apart under a microscope. I had a problem with cyano during my tank cycle. I wiped it out with a hydrogen peroxide dosing regiment. A couple of weeks later it came back. So I dosed again with hydrogen peroxide and it didn't touch it. I finally figured out that it was most likely spirulina... so I tried Chemiclean and it wiped it out in two days.

jsker · May 1, 2017

saltyfilmfolks said:
Tanks are sooo confounding at times.

my .25 Po4 should be a problem........Why doesn't my cyano like my .25;Cyclops The corals dont seem to mind.

I have read were systems have Po4's even higher and N03's in the 80's and the systems are spotless. It is finding a balance is the interesting part.;Smilie

jsker · May 1, 2017

Broadfield said:
... and you verified it's cyano with hydrogen peroxide? In my experience, Chemiclean does not work against cyano. But it works great against spirulina... which to the naked eye can look absolutely identical to cyano. Only being able to distinguish them apart under a microscope. I had a problem with cyano during my tank cycle. I wiped it out with a hydrogen peroxide dosing regiment. A couple of weeks later it came back. So I dosed again with hydrogen peroxide and it didn't touch it. I finally figured out that it was most likely spirulina... so I tried Chemiclean and it wiped it out in two days.

I tried the H2O2 last summer, no results. Tried Vibrent, it only got worse. Then tried Red slime remover around December 16, wiped it out, then back mid February. Did another dose of red slime remover, and it pretty much got it but not all. Spent ;Greedy on Zeovit products and really no results. I figured I would try the chemi-clean pro liquid, then after treatment go back to the zeovit products and see what happens long term.