Something to get rid of cyano?

[MikeP]

Can someone suggest a product that will help rid my tank of cyano? I've read of something called red slime remover and chemi-clean. Do these products work? Are they reef/invert safe? I have done what I can with adjusting flow and lighting but I fear it will not be enough.

Any info would be great

[niloc16]

chemi-clean works really good. i've used in my 10gal a few times and it rocks

[MikeP]

Excellent, thanks. I will try to find some.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Seems like a better, less invasive solution must be available. All the commercial products I've reviewed for the eradication of cynobacteria come with a list of warnings and cautions. That would scare me a bit!

Perhaps doing what you can do reduce your nitrate and ammonia levels (what are they?) would be a first step. As well, reduce the amounts of nutrient content in your water. Feed less?

[Farrmanchu]

I just got over a Cyano outbreak. I did not want to use any chemicals, so I did %20 water changes twice in a week, and dropped the feeding by half. Man, those fish are HUNGRY, but I'm slowly increasing feeding now that the Cyano is pretty well gone. I aslo used a Turkey Baster to blast the stuff out of low flow areas. Took about a week and a half to get rid of it.

[Richy44]

I think Chemi-Clean is the best solution for cyano(besides maitaining your tank correctly). Use as directed and follow the instuctions to the tee. DO NOT OVERDOSE. Be sure to account for volume of rock,sand tubing etc. Make sure to have at least 20% water made up prior to dosing. Works great if used correctly!!

Richy....

[MikeP]

The guy at Elite Aquariums told me about something called Canaplex? I called to ask about Chemi-clean but he told me that Canaplex is even better. Anybody ever try it or hear of it?

[Manny]

Water changes works for me. IMO I would try increasing your water changes first befor adding chemicals to your tank. I try and stay away from chemichals as much as possible.

[JOSH]

i did alot of changes when i had this problem and no luck, chemiclean is good because it doesnt effect the bio materials in your tank, as some other treatments are stronger, they work better but might harm the bio balance in your tank, and thats why i went with chemi clean

[Joe Reefer]

Water changes works for me. IMO I would try increasing your water changes first befor adding chemicals to your tank. I try and stay away from chemichals as much as possible.

IME chemiclean just masks the problem, I used chemiclean twice with mixed results and the cyano always came back. Doing water changes and letting cyano take its course seemed to work for me, the only problem was it took about 6 months to work itself out of my system. You know what they say "nothing good happens fast".

[Reefer Rob]

Is the cyano hurting anything in your tank? If not, time will take care of it for you. Your system just needs to find a ballance.

[Reefer Rob]

Also, reduce your photoperiod by 25% untill you get a handle on it, then gradually bring it back up again. You'll notice that it is always heavier near the end of the day, with very little or none at all in the morning. Shut your lights off each day before it gets too heavy. Bacteria, algae, etc will naturally increase to take up the nutrients the cyano in no longer consuming.

[MikeP]

Is the cyano hurting anything in your tank? If not, time will take care of it for you. Your system just needs to find a ballance.

It is starting to get onto my zoo's so they aren't all opening anymore but thats all right now. Other than looking ugly it's not really causing any trouble. I increased flow and reduced lighting and that did get rid of some of the really bad area's. It just seems to find new spots with less flow to start growing again. That's why I figured chemi-clean or red slime remover would finish the job.

[Reefer Rob]

I've beat it a couple of times just by reducing my photo peroid; once when my tank was new and again when I switched from PC to T5 lighting. Cyanobacteria is in all aquariums, but it's just not visible. It's only when it gets out of hand and forms matts that it becomes a problem.

[danny zubot]

I've used Red Slime remover on my old 54 corner before, works like a charm if you follow the directions properly.

In my newer 65 gallon setup I had cyano early on, and simply blasted it with scolding hot water from a turky baster. This kills it instantly. Recently, I had a patch start to accumulate on the sandbed so I tried to blast it again. It came back so I mixed the boiling water with a bit of Kalk and tried again. So far it hasn't returned.

So after all is said and done, small outbreaks can be eliminated, but large infestations need a bit of help.

[Waxx]

Howdy,

I don't recommend this to everyone, but here is what I did to completly erradicate red slime from my system. Before I outline the details, you should know that I added a Vortech pump (as well as removed some fish that were way to big for my tank) immediatly after treatment so this could have had an impact on weather or not the cyano would return or the validity of this treatment method.

Anyway, here are the steps:

1. Go to Petland and get Maracyn (freshwater). made by a company called Mardel, it is used to treat bacterial infection in fresh water fish, comes in a blue box. Basically it's an antibiotic.

2. Get about 500 ml of RO/DI water and crush up and mix 1 tablet for every 10 gallons of tank volume (inclding sump and fuge).

3. Turn off your skimmer and fluadized reactor (remove GAC)

4. Add the treatment to a high flow area of the sump over about a 4 hour period.

5. Do not turn on your skimmer for 36 hours.

6. Turn your skimmer back on and prepare for a battle because it will be overflowing like crazy for a while. Make sure you add some nice fresh carbon at this time as well.

7. Do 5 water changes of 10-15% total system volume over the next 5 days.

I had a really bad case of RS and this was like a miracle cure. This combined with the addition of the Vortech pump and my tank is doing fantastic. There has been no trace of cyano since I treated the tank and I don't suspect I'll ever get it again.

I did not loose any livestock at all (inverts, corals, pods and all). As a matter of fact, it looked to me like the animals couldn't even tell I was treating the tank.

A fellow reefer in my area has tried this method with sucess. Please use this method at your own risk. I find the off the shelf red slime remover to be very abrassive and the red slime just comes back.

Remember that the best cure for red slime is low phosphates and good husbandry. Chemical treatment should only be used as a last resort.

Happy Reefing!
Tyler

[Farrmanchu]

Mine kept returning until I did the Treatment Tyler posted above, it really works.

[adidas]

chemi-clean works awesome... i used it once about 3 months ago.. have not seen a spec of cyano since