Red Cyano question

[Mitsie]

Dear Reef2Reef community,


I’m currently treating red cyanobacteria in my tank with Blue Life’s Red Cyano RX. After two weeks I’m still not seeing it clear up, although it’s less severe than when I started. I’ve done water changes totalling over 50% of the tank volume, as recommended when the treatment is working, and I plan to keep dosing until it’s completely gone.


I’m thinking about improving circulation by adding a second XF350 gyre pump, but two in a 35-gallon tank might be overkill. Are there any other options I should consider?


Kind regards,
Mitch

 

[hoffmeyerz]

What are your parameters and lighting schedule? Nutrients, light, and flow are the main drivers for cyano.
I struggled with cyano and had to lower my lighting period and intensity for awhile till it died off then carefully monitored parameters as I brought it back up.
Also, don't be fooled by possibly getting low Phos numbers on your testing as the cyano will be consuming it. I fell in this trap and kept trying to up phos which kicked off more cyano.
A lot of people use Chemiclean and swear by it but I preferred to not go the chemical route.

 

[Mitsie]

What are your parameters and lighting schedule? Nutrients, light, and flow are the main drivers for cyano.
I struggled with cyano and had to lower my lighting period and intensity for awhile till it died off then carefully monitored parameters as I brought it back up.
Also, don't be fooled by possibly getting low Phos numbers on your testing as the cyano will be consuming it. I fell in this trap and kept trying to up phos which kicked off more cyano.
A lot of people use Chemiclean and swear by it but I preferred to not go the chemical route.

My lighting schedule is 12 hours (7:00 AM–7:00 PM) at 80% intensity.
My phosphate was very low—around 0.03 ppm—but after feeding the fish a bit more, it’s now at 0.1 ppm.
I’ll upload a photo of my full tank parameters.
I’m also seeing nitrite, which I suspect is due to the loss of a fish. I haven’t been able to find the body—it’s been missing for a week or two—so I assume it died somewhere in the tank.

 

[hoffmeyerz]

Nitrite reading could be testing error but keep an eye on it, it should be 0.
Phos is high and nitrate is extremely low. That imbalance is most likely what has kicked off the cyano.
I would try and lower that Phos and raise your nitrate, and depending on what corals you have you can cut back the lighting period and intensity.

 

[Mitsie]

Nitrite reading could be testing error but keep an eye on it, it should be 0.
Phos is high and nitrate is extremely low. That imbalance is most likely what has kicked off the cyano.
I would try and lower that Phos and raise your nitrate, and depending on what corals you have you can cut back the lighting period and intensity.

Okay, I’ll take a look at that. I’ve reduced my lighting to 8 hours a day to see how that goes, and I’ll try to remove as much of the red cyano as possible before replacing the water—rather than doing a 25% change each time.
Thanks for your reply!

 

[hoffmeyerz]

Okay, I’ll take a look at that. I’ve reduced my lighting to 8 hours a day to see how that goes, and I’ll try to remove as much of the red cyano as possible before replacing the water—rather than doing a 25% change each time.
Thanks for your reply!

Sounds good. Be careful with the water change bottoming out nitrate. I would feed heavier to get nitrate up.
You can also use some bottled bacteria to out compete the cyano just make sure you're feeding heavy to keep that nitrate up!
Good luck and update us on how things go :)

 

[Mitsie]

Sounds good. Be careful with the water change bottoming out nitrate. I would feed heavier to get nitrate up.
You can also use some bottled bacteria to out compete the cyano just make sure you're feeding heavy to keep that nitrate up!
Good luck and update us on how things go :)

"I'll give you a small update. I'm starting to feel like it's not red cyano after all — it seems more like dinos now. Yesterday, I cleared the entire sandbed as much as I could. Within an hour (maybe even less), there was already a brownish layer forming again. I just got home from work, and this is what I see now

 

[JTP424]

How old is your tank? Dig the rock scape!

 

[hoffmeyerz]

Do you happen to have a microscope? Looking under the microscope would be the best way to identify for sure.y cyano fight would act much the same way, it's really frustrating!

 

[Mitsie]

How old is your tank? Dig the rock scape!

Thanks! The tank has been up and running for 7 months now. I was lucky with my previous tanks, but now I'm experiencing the downside of reefing myself still, we keep going!

 

[Mitsie]

Do you happen to have a microscope? Looking under the microscope would be the best way to identify for sure.y cyano fight would act much the same way, it's really frustrating!

Unfortunately not, but I'll bring a sample to my local fish store to check it under the microscope

 

[hoffmeyerz]

I had a nasty battle with green cyano. Sand bed would look like this the next day after cleaning it!

 

[Mitsie]

dang i got it more red but in 2 days i know for sure if its dino's .

 

[Reef.]

I had a nasty battle with green cyano. Sand bed would look like this the next day after cleaning it!

How did you clear that up.

 

[hoffmeyerz]

How did you clear that up.

Boy, that was a process, I tried a few different things and was on the verge of Chemiclean. I ended up lowering my lighting period down from 10hrs to 6hrs and dropping the intensity down from 75% to 50%. It immediately began dying off and took a few weeks before it was all gone. Once it was gone I was able to get my N and P numbers back in line and slowly bring the lights back up.

 

[Mitsie]

@hoffmeyerz I went to my LFS today and checked it under the microscope it's definitely dinos. Luckily, they told me I have one of the easier types to deal with. I'm starting a 6-hour daily light schedule now and running a UV filter. If that doesn't help, they recommended doing a total blackout for about 3 days, and then slowly ramping up the lighting again.And i added 10 bags of copepods since they also can help me reduce the dinos.

 

[hoffmeyerz]

@hoffmeyerz I went to my LFS today and checked it under the microscope it's definitely dinos. Luckily, they told me I have one of the easier types to deal with. I'm starting a 6-hour daily light schedule now and running a UV filter. If that doesn't help, they recommended doing a total blackout for about 3 days, and then slowly ramping up the lighting again.And i added 10 bags of copepods since they also can help me reduce the dinos.

Sounds like a good starting plan! I'm glad you got it identified and a solid plan, let us know how it goes :)

 

[Mitsie]

Hey @hoffmeyerz, okay, first I reduced the lighting as we discussed, but after a few days there were no more changes—it actually started to get worse again. In total, I added 30 bags of copepods and started a blackout two days ago. Today is the last day, and this is the result so far. I'm also adding plankton now—not sure if it's helping, but I’m pretty happy and curious to see how the tank will look tomorrow. I’m thinking of refreshing about 5 liters of water and cleaning out as much as I can from the sandbed

 

[hoffmeyerz]

Hey @hoffmeyerz, okay, first I reduced the lighting as we discussed, but after a few days there were no more changes—it actually started to get worse again. In total, I added 30 bags of copepods and started a blackout two days ago. Today is the last day, and this is the result so far. I'm also adding plankton now—not sure if it's helping, but I’m pretty happy and curious to see how the tank will look tomorrow. I’m thinking of refreshing about 5 liters of water and cleaning out as much as I can from the sandbed

I have not had to deal with Dinos (knocking on wood!). I know that treatment can very depending on the species, did your lfs ID the species when thet looked under the microscope?
Dino outbreaks typically occur when N or P bottoms out and leaves an opening for the Dinos to out compete everything else. How are your parameters reading after the blackout period?
Hopefully you're on the right track, I would for sure do a change and siphon as much as possible off the bottom. It does look a lot better than it did before!