Poll: How Have You Battled Cyano?

[dbl]

It's a question often asked on the forum - How do I get rid of Cyanobacteria? There are many options offered on how to battle the algae, so I'm curious to see what you've done in the past to get rid of an outbreak. The ultimate goal is to determine the root cause of the problem, but while we're doing that, what have you found to work for removal?

 

[Servillius]

It's a question often asked on the forum - How do I get rid of Cyanobacteria? There are many options offered on how to battle the algae, so I'm curious to see what you've done in the past to get rid of an outbreak. The ultimate goal is to determine the root cause of the problem, but while we're doing that, what have you found to work for removal?

There is an option missing. Systematic nutrient control, good husbandry and patience. I’ve had some success with other methods, but this is the only long term solution I’ve found.

 

[rich nyc]

I actually do a lights out or decrease lights on time

 

[Dsnakes]

I've been working on ridding some in my system lately. I'm almost positive it's from my sandbed that I let stirring go by the wayside. I'm manually removing it with water changes and it's losing its grip finally

 

[David Bell]

Vibrant and syphoning. My root problem was higher nutrients levels, increased bio-pellets, and increased light intensity.

 

[jsker]

It not on the poll but adjusting my lights. Here is my battle with cyano thread and nothing worker until finally I adjusted my light white spectrum 5 hours at 31% for the high. No light out and I still run my lights 12 hrs

 

[143MPCo]

What I do, depending on how much of it I see.

Increased bulb change out on my T5 lights
Larger water changes
Added GFO reactor

 

[Myk]

Also not on the poll, but the only change that I implement in my tanks and in my clients tanks is increasing CO2 scrubbing and possibly more kalkwasser. In both cases it is something we already have in place, but tend to just burn up more material this time of year.

With that said from the poll options we already use GFO and dose daily H2O2, but there is no change made or noticed in "cyano season" though we do siphon the little bit of cyano from the surface of the sand if we see it develop in a tank.

 

[Brew12]

It's a question often asked on the forum - How do I get rid of Cyanobacteria? There are many options offered on how to battle the algae, so I'm curious to see what you've done in the past to get rid of an outbreak. The ultimate goal is to determine the root cause of the problem, but while we're doing that, what have you found to work for removal?

I found that the best way to get rid of it in my tank is to dose nitrates. I also improved the lighting on my chaeto fuge and dosed iron. Haven't seen cyano since. Prior to the fuge upgrade I could turn cyano on and off via carbon dosing and nitrate dosing.

 

[Rakie]

Cyano happens, it's no big deal and I don't worry about it (paraphrased)

- Sanjay

 

[brandon429]

I think the cure for cyano challenges is missing from the options list~can we edit in sandbed rinse pls

its such a cure that no nano tank has to endure one hour of cyano problems given decent topoff water (though they may choose to keep the invasion for other reasons, some just want a natural cure only for example)

bed rinsing will stop a cyano invasion in any tank where the keeper is willing to access all surfaces for hand guiding.

All current selections so far are partial actions... to take apart a small reef, rinse the bed out, clean off the rocks, put back cyano-free also handles the root of the issue as well. works great for large tanks we show, no chems needed and cyano never beats this method. #1 documented cyano cure is missing from vote options.

The other main competitor to a direct control method is the balance of increasing nitrate or phosphate back to balanced levels vs nutrient restriction. nutrient balancing is gaining strength in 2018.

 

[koz04m3]

Following. Having a large cyano outbreak currently and have no idea where it is coming from.

 

[tsav87]

Increased flow is also not an option on the pole but it has helped in my outbreaks of the past.

 

[AdamNC]

ChemiClean treatment while total blackout wrapping the tank. 25% water change, wait a day or 2, then repeat ChemiClean treatment with another blackout. Then another 25% water change. In 4 years time I’ve had to do it twice.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

Chemi-clean with sand vacuum and partial water change in between two doses has always worked for me. If anyone is using chemi-clean for the first time it is incredibly important to know that you need to do your absolute best to determine your actual water volume after rock displacement and including your sump. Whenever I had customers who said they had a bad experience with it, it was always due to them not paying attention to dosing the correct amount. If you under dose, it won't work. If you overdose, or don't have good aeration, you could lose fish or coral.

 

[Cocugreek5]

Unfortunately it has become so easy to starve our tanks of nutrients, we are starting to see these nutrient imbalances and a “masking” of real issues occurbecause our numbers are not off the charts. Then the corals begin to suffer, we tinker and cyano rears it’s ugly head.

Carbon dosing put my tank on the brink. Tried Peroxide and then life happened. Pretty much have let it run it’s coarse and now I’m about attack the sand on a 125. Been reading Brandon’s method and will proceed with that and reboot my system and go back to old school.

No more carbon dosing and more hands on work. Less automation and more observation. My nutrients are more in check and the tank is looking better. I lost alomost everything except a group of utter chaos zoas, 2 anemones, a Derasa clam and a gonipora. A lot of sps and lps are gone. However here is my chance to start over. We are getting smarter with time and experience. This hobby is definitely a journey.

Over the last 4 months the cyano ran its course, my nutrient sky rocketed and then now have fallen back down. The few specimens I have look better and regaining their old brilliance. Took gfo off as well. I’m testing more and see where this goes. Want to try a chaeto reactor going forward for nutrient control on this sumpless system. We’ll see and I guess that’s half the fun.

 

[ca1ore]

I typically just make sure that all my tanks have adequate flow and that the carbon is not exhausted, and just let it run its course. I do siphon as much as I can during water changes.

 

[EricTheRed]

If it gets really bad, I'll usually use some Chemiclean and syphon. It has never worked in one dose for me. I then syphon off as much as possible and just learned that you can syphon it off more often by using a piece of rigid airline tubing as the vacuum. You get pinpoint accuracy and don't need a lot of water. The guy who turned me on to it only syphons 5g to cover his entire 180g. This way you can syphon daily and not spend a fortune on salt mix or pita water changes.

 

[vlangel]

I voted that I do nothing and let it run its course but that is not totally accurate.

I maintained a Fowler tank for a Dr office. It was a beautiful 256 gallon bowfront with gourgeous fish. Unfortunately the dr.s way overfed and my once a month visits could not compensate and it was the worst case of cyano I ever saw. Literally a blanket of maroon algae covering everything. I used Red Slime Remover, upped the percentage of my water change and posted a schedule of exactly what and how much to feed each day. That worked and it never returned.

In my own Seahorse tank I had a ittle light rust colored on the sand in places that looked worse as the day progressed. I faithfully syphoned the sand and tried to control nutrients with WCs. I never iradicated it until I removed the sandbed. I have never had it again.

 

[Hemlawk]

Yes.
Chemiclean is a miracle cure.