• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

Cyano

Tazmaniancowboy

Tazmaniancowboy

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
OK, Interesting observances these past few days. I picked up my bulbs on Thursday. I cleaned 1 fixture's reflectors and replaced its 4 bulbs during lights out. Friday there was less cyano visible on sand in the front under the lights and about the same as always in the back. Saturday morning I cleaned the other fixture's reflectors and changed its 4 bulbs. Checked periodically throughout the day again less cyano than before throughout the tank and actually had a piece of about 2" x 2" float off of a rock. Today, Sunday, my father came over and commented on how clean the tank looked and the "carpet", as he called it, was not there and asked me if I had finally broke down and used Chemiclean(as I have directed him in the past). LOL

Now the other tank (remember on the same system) is starting to look really crappy and loading up with cyano. I did not change bulbs there yet and I am going to take Pics tomorrow to document it.

Unfortunately through this, my tank temp dipped to 74 degrees with the cold snap outside. I was beginning to believe that temp played a part in cyano seeing it show up around the same time for a few people around the same time as seasonal temp changes, but I guess this may have shot that theory seeing that one tank cleared up and the other one didn't.

During this period since I last posted that I would await my bulbs, I did no water changes. Only topoffs and replacement of skimmer water(5 gal every week or two)were performed as usual. and I have not dosed anything except my 2-part as I always have...Nothing changed, I didn't even blow or siphon any crap off of the rock as I have in the past except for 3 corals that I blew off with a turkey baster for fear that they were being damaged by it.

Again, let me reiterate, this was no special scientific experiment, just taking notes of my observations. Does it prove anything? I don't know, you tell me! ;D

I will keep posted here with results and observations until I get rid of it!

Taz
 
Tazmaniancowboy

Tazmaniancowboy

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
OK, I am tired of looking at this stuff. I do not think that the current conditions or going to improve any more than it has. With nothing changed except my bulbs the 200g definitely has less than when I started, while the 120 is still loading up. I did take pics of it, but have not changed its bulbs yet. I have no more patience to wait any longer to attack. To wait longer, I think I'd only be fooling myself. I do believe that cyano is definitely attracted to older lights, change of spectrum, whatever you want to call it, but I HIGHLY doubt that I will get rid of it completely without attacking it.

I have been following a thread over on RC where a few fellow reefers who have beautiful tanks are convinced that Microbe Lift's Special Blend beats cyano without being a chemical. I actually bought and was going to use Brightwell's, but following the success stories over there, I can't pass up the opportunity to prove it's success.

So My game plan is to make about 100g water, siphon as much as I can, blow the rest off with a powerhead,drain whatever more water I need to make room for and replace the 100g as if it was just a reg water change. Then I will Dose the special blend "bacteria" as directed.


If you would like to follow the original thread that informed me of this product here is the link. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1767673
 
J

jamman

I had a huge problem with the cyano and tried all the usual stuff, water changes turkey basting. Nothing worked. I stopped at Red Sand in Dunellen and told Feng about my problem. I told him what I was doing and he laughed and sold me a small tube of red slime remover. I read the directions and it claims not to harm any aquarium inhabitants. I put it in my tank. I noticed it turned the water slightly yellow. The next morning all of the red slime was gone and none of my fish, inverts or corals were affected. It has been about 7 months now and I have had no more outbreaks of cyano. Might be worth taking a look at.
 
R

reseter5

Guest
that red slime algae remover works great.. but you still have to find the source of the nutrients feeding it... if it didnt turn the tank yellow id dose it every week...lol
 
D

Dave

I picked up Calfo's coral propagation book recently, and he was very direct about cyano.

Paraphrasing, he says:

Cyano is not at all influenced by illumination.

There is no mystery as to the cause and cure of Cyano.

It is caused by nutrients in the system, and is best treated through aggressive skimming.
 
R

reeferwanabe

I know I have a pretty crapy skimmer. How about you Taz.
By the way since dosing speacial blend I have no signs of cyno at all.took about 2 weeks
 
Tazmaniancowboy

Tazmaniancowboy

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Dave, My skimmer is not bad. I know of many that have successful reefs using the same skimmer. It is pulling some nasty stuff out.

Unfortunately Every day seems to be different as far as what I see the cyano doing in my tank. After two weeks it did go away a lot in my reef, but it has hit pretty hard in my FOWLR. I have chaeto, tons of halimeda, a coulpe of mangrove pods and old lighting in this tank temporarily until I get the fuge online so maybe this is drawing it near?

I continue to dose, but haven't had the time to dedicate to any export of the cyano manually lately. I disturbed the sump and left liverock out over night accidentally and decided to put them back in the next day so I did see some cyano come back. I tested Phos last night and was at .03 even though I stopped using phosban 2 weeks ago. I am hoping to get back on track this week.

The results you saw are typical of what I heard. after 2 weeks there is only minor traces but keep with the dosing to get rid of it all.
 
K

kalamata

Tazmaniancowboy said:
I am not sure exactly what I have going on in my tank I am suspicious to it being Diatoms. I had a few patches on a couple pieces of live rock. then it moved to the sandbed and occasionally to the glass. It is very stringy and plush like a carpet, dark brown in color.

IMG_3011.jpg


2 Hours later
IMG_3012.jpg


2 hrs after that it is even more intense. and then it lightens over night

Would Diatoms act like this?

Many questions and things going through my head right now. More thoughts, questions and pics later.

Help me ID and get rid of this carpet, Shag is out!

Taz
Click to expand...

I battle for a while with Cyano and I finally was done with it when I change the lighting on the tank. The compact flourecent light alway had my tank full of Cyano. I change to regular T8 lights (Atinic and 18,000k) and my proglem was gone. My cousin has the compact lighting that I was using on my tank and his tank is really ugly looking with cyano in it. If you are using the compart lighting I really recommend to change the lights or just get some T8 or T5 setup.
 
Tazmaniancowboy

Tazmaniancowboy

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Not quite sure what worked, but 98% of the cyano has gone away. My new t5 bulbs did not directly affect it.  tried MB7 and gave up, tried Special blend and it helped a little and then I ran out and gave that up,  I started wet skimming and did a 3 day lights out in preparation to use Chemi-clean as a last resort and on day 4 THE SAND WAS SPOTLESS!!! 8)

The only other things that changed during the last 2 months was a couple of splashes of hydrogen peroxide( which I do not recommend), half of my lighting was out for a month, and I've had a fuge online for about 2 months now.  Some combo of the above finally ran the cyano out.  Now I only have a few tufts of hair algae that I didn't have before and have have been falling off now.  I can say I am happy with the tank right now and the cyano has been away for almost 3 weeks

Will try to get a pic up tomorrow
 
B

boontonbob

Hey Taz - Congrats on your progress with the Cyano battle! I know that you were bewildered by it when we met up about a month ago. The reef looks awesome with that mountain of rock.
 
M

MU8ST7ANG

I have been having the same issue with my 90 gallon. I have 3 koralias plus the over flow and a rio so I have alot of flow but still continue to get cyno. Its very frustrating I have done everything from stop feeding for a week to leavin the lights off to 50% water changes. The only thing that works is leaving the lights off. I think my next step is a phosban reactor and see where that gets me. I cant point my flow towards the bottom because it stirs up the sand bed. Very frustrating!!!!!
 
The_Codfather

The_Codfather

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
MU8ST7ANG said:
I have been having the same issue with my 90 gallon. I have 3 koralias plus the over flow and a rio so I have alot of flow but still continue to get cyno. Its very frustrating I have done everything from stop feeding for a week to leavin the lights off to 50% water changes. The only thing that works is leaving the lights off. I think my next step is a phosban reactor and see where that gets me. I cant point my flow towards the bottom because it stirs up the sand bed. Very frustrating!!!!!
Click to expand...
Have you used chemi- clean yet?
 
M

MU8ST7ANG

No. I put a phosban pad in my fuge about 2 weeks ago. I have to clean it about every 3 days because the edges get red with cyno
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top