I had a terrible outbreak in mine which I briefly documented in my build thread. I took the advice of others despite not being convinced. Over several weeks:
Was it the decrease in nutrients due to change in feeding regimen that eventually allowed the system to reach some tipping point?
Was it the CUC stirring up the sand that allowed the cyano to lose its grip and break apart?
Was it the CUC actually eating the cyano?
Who knows?
These are all practices that together seem to work.
I have used ChemiClean in my old AIO as a final resort. It worked just fine when I followed the instructions to the T.
Why did the charges I made in my new tank work when they didn’t in the AIO?
I don’t know.
But I’m glad it did because at least for now it means that conditions aren’t favorable for cyano and that’s why it’s gone. Not because I dosed something that would take care of it while still ignoring the underlying conditions that helped it take hold and thrive in the first place.
- Increased flow. I noticed that one side of the tank was more impacted than the other. Increasing the flow did help, but I could only make small changes without blowing LPS too harshly.
- I reducing feeding. I use an @AVAST Marine plank feeder. It is awesome for keeping food in the water column. But I wondered if I feed too much. I reduced feeding by about 30 seconds per day. I saw an additional improvement in the reduction of cyano. But it was still there. The small patches that did remain thickened by a large magnitude.
- Finally, I added an appropriately sized and diverse CUC to augment the crew transferred from my smaller AIO. This is where I noticed the biggest difference. The crew was always on the mats and over time the mats started to loosen their hold. But I never observed them eating anything while on the mats so I began to get discouraged. But over a period of a few more weeks the cyano was gone.
Was it the decrease in nutrients due to change in feeding regimen that eventually allowed the system to reach some tipping point?
Was it the CUC stirring up the sand that allowed the cyano to lose its grip and break apart?
Was it the CUC actually eating the cyano?
Who knows?
These are all practices that together seem to work.
I have used ChemiClean in my old AIO as a final resort. It worked just fine when I followed the instructions to the T.
Why did the charges I made in my new tank work when they didn’t in the AIO?
I don’t know.
But I’m glad it did because at least for now it means that conditions aren’t favorable for cyano and that’s why it’s gone. Not because I dosed something that would take care of it while still ignoring the underlying conditions that helped it take hold and thrive in the first place.