OKay got cyano now what?

[findingnemo1]

HI there.

First post and what a crappy way to start off. I have cyano covering my sand. Not on the rocks just a nice pretty blanket on the sand. Have been sucking it out daily and have done 3 20 percent water changes for the last 3 days. Nitrates are at 30 and everything else is 0. Salinity is 1.026, calcium is 400 and dkh is 10.
No sponges to trap the nitrates and the skimmer is going. This is a 130 gallon system. I saw poly ox i believe at a store the toher night but am a little hesitant on putting anything un naturral in the tank. So what am i to do? Everything is thriving and healthy it is just this really ugly stuff ruining my sand.
Oh yes iand i am running rowaphos in a reactor. The rowaphos is only a week old.
Any suggestions would be welcomed.

C&L

[Joe Reefer]

Welcome to canreef! I would just suck out the sand as your sucking out the cyano, then go BB. :mrgreen:

[krisalexander]

Hey,
I have had a couple of cyano outbreaks, and they have disappeared by using Chemi-Clean.. I turn off my skimmer for a couple of minutes while i dump it in, it is reef safe as far as my experiences have gone. I would make sure to feed your livestock before adding it in. I have found my fish try to eat it if they are hungry. Chemi-Clean is about $15 at LFS..I do a 20% water change while using a siphon and siphon up all the cyano on the sand. and just stir things up a little. Hope it works for you!

Kris

[Ruth]

Hi and welcome to Canreef. Sorry to hear about your cyano problem - I think most of us here can relate to having had this same problem in the past.
You don't say how long your tank has been set up but if it is new a cyano outbreak is not that uncommon. However even in a new set up it is being fed by something - usually phosphates so the trick is to find out where the phosphates are coming from. Lighting can also play a role in fuelling this stuff. If you are leaving your lights on for too long or if your bulbs are old this can fuel it.
IME the usual culprit is either overfeeding or feeding foods such a mysid shrimp without rinsing it first.
Soooo with that being said I would suggest cutting back on feeding and light time - rinse any frozen food before you feed it - Use only RODI water - get new light bulbs if your are old and keep doing regular water changes siphoning out as much of the stuff as you can. If you have any sponges in your filters (or anywhere else for that matter) either rinse them daily in RO water or just ditch them.
You can use a chemical to get rid of cyano but unless you identify the source that is fuelling it in the first place it is just going to come back.
Hope that helps some.

[findingnemo1]

Thanks for the replies.

I have seen chemi clean but have heard mixed responses from it. I have 2 very large anemones in this tank and a really nice regal angel that i actually think caused this:)But it scares me that i am going to kill of this tank:(
When i got her i have been feeding more than usual just to keep her eating. Although i can slow down now as she eats pretty much anything.
The tank has been up a year and a bit now. My nitrates are my biggest issues but honestly they have never been below 20.

Lights are only about 3 months old and are on from 9.30am to 8.30 pm
I just can't seem to fight the nitrates. I am feeding 2 times a day. Once with peletts only the second with some mysis and brine. All is eaten as fast as i can put it in so there is no strays left over.
I guess i just need to keep sucking it out.
How often should i be doing a water change? I did 20 percent everyday for 3 days and it really didn't make a difference so it would be good to save a few bucks on the salt issue:)

Thanks again

[Reefhawk1]

Sounds to me like you are overfeeding. I feed every other day once a day. You can feed your Regal Tang some sea veggies if you think you are going to starve her. I also only feed mysis shrimp and ocean plankton (krill). I installed a Phosban reactor on my 120 gallon and found it took a couple of weeks to start working well. A little patience is needed with the Phosban system.

I do 20% water changes every two weeks. At that time I make sure all debris are mixed up and removed from my sump and any algae on the hard to reach areas on the glass are cleaned.

Are you using a sump or a canister filter system?

Also What type of lighting are you using halides or fluorescent?

By the way welcome to canreef :biggrin:

[bullit67]

Try cutting back on the lights 11 hours is a lot of light try about 8 hours

[findingnemo1]

What are sea veggies?:) Never seen them here. I agree they are being overfed. But i am scared she will waste away on me

I am using h/o t5's and i am using a sump with cheato in it. Go figure:)
I am going to upgrade my clean up crew as we'll this weekend and i will try cuting back on my lights and see if that helps.

If i didn't have to lta's in the tank i would seriously contemplate sucking all the sand out

[krisalexander]

By sea-veggies he means nori a.k.a seaweed. You can buy this at any store a money saving tip is dont buy it from an LFS by it from a asian supermarket. Just make sure it is not flavoured. And get a feeding clip or an elastic band around a rock and put in a quarter sheet or something and you are good to go. Where abouts are you from by the way?

Kris

[Reefer Rob]

Cyano is natural, and a part of all reef tanks. At some point (or points) it will "bloom" and become visible. You need to get your tank balanced with other organisms that out-compete it.

The first thing to do is reduce your photo period by 25% temporarily, then increase it slowly once the cyano has disappeared.

Carbon dosing of some type will help with the nitrates, but the root of the problem is overstocking of nitrate producing organisms (fish) relative to your tanks ability to process them. It's that simple IMO

I don't think your your nitrates have anything to do with the cyano, these are mysterious little beasties. I've had had no cyano at 20ppm, and tons of it with nitrates near 0, just because I changed something that caused an imbalance in my tank.

[findingnemo1]

By sea-veggies he means nori a.k.a seaweed. You can buy this at any store a money saving tip is dont buy it from an LFS by it from a asian supermarket. Just make sure it is not flavoured. And get a feeding clip or an elastic band around a rock and put in a quarter sheet or something and you are good to go. Where abouts are you from by the way?

Kris i am in Calgary. Need to add that apparently. Okay got the sea veggies thing. I have tried nori with this angel every kind and she still won't touch it. I put it up everyday but the tangs are the ones who eat it all.

[QUOTE=Reefer Rob;235737]Cyano is natural, and a part of all reef tanks. At some point (or points) it will "bloom" and become visible. You need to get your tank balanced with other organisms that out-compete it.

The first thing to do is reduce your photo period by 25% temporarily, then increase it slowly once the cyano has disappeared.

Carbon dosing of some type will help with the nitrates, but the root of the problem is overstocking of nitrate producing organisms (fish) relative to your tanks ability to process them. It's that simple IMO

I don't think your your nitrates have anything to do with the cyano, these are mysterious little beasties. I've had had no cyano at 20ppm, and tons of it with nitrates near 0, just because I changed something that caused an imbalance in my tank.

I will cut back my lights starting today. I have heard about the sugar dosing and have considered it but do want to do a little more research on that. And overstocking with major waste producing fish is an extreme possibility. Although the angel was the last fish i added and that was boxing day and i haven't had a problem untill the last couple days. In this tank i have a male blonde naso tang who eats non stop if i will let him, And a regal tang who is the same and the regal. Time for a 180 or 220. I thought i would have another few months but it appears the naso is getting a little to big already. Its hard to try and figure out if you have done anything different to cause it. And in alll honesty nothing different in the last couple months. So i guess i will just take the advice here and see cross my fingers that it works:)

[Ruth]

I think you would be just fine to cut back on your feeding as well. You can always pick it back up again if you notice your fish seem to be getting skinny.
You will probably have to upgrade tank size if you plan on keeping the naso - they do get very big. I have mine in a 190g with 2 other fish and it is almost too small - my tang is probably 12-14" long and all he will eat is nori and calerpa.

[findingnemo1]

I agree. I always knew he would need a bigger tank:) Just thought i would have a little more time but i guess not. Oh we'll good excuse to buy a bigger one.
Although mine eats anything i put in the tank and he is alot plump:)

I will cut back on the food and see what happens. Maybe the angel will get desperate and eat the nori..lol
I don't think so but gees that would be nice.

[Reefer Rob]

Yes, a bigger tank, always a good idea :mrgreen: I have a 180 now and still wouldn't consider a Naso.

Tangs pollute! You will have to go bigger :wink:

[Raf]

RR is bang on with that response.
:)

And as for chemiclean, it is safe in reef tanks as long as you dose correctly....it WILL drive your skimmer mad for days if not weeks, so be prepared for that....also, it will get rid of the symptoms, but the overall problem will remain until you achieve that 'balance' that RR talked about.

[Johnny Reefer]

....IME the usual culprit is ...... or feeding foods such a mysid shrimp without rinsing it first. ....
I believe this has been a contributing factor to cyano problems I've had and finally just figured out a simple rinsing method using a small sieve (sp), small bowl and some tankwater.

....You need to get your tank balanced ....

I'm inclined to agree with this. IME, I upgraded from a 135g to a 180g 14 months ago. Twelve months ago, (okay...a year), cyano set in. It was a constant battle until around October/November when it finally showed signs of slowing down. I attributed this to the system being more stable and/or balanced. Perfect, just in time to be torn down again and be moved across town to start it all over again. The move was in December, and sure enough, just like last time, I have cyano again 1 1/2 months later. So everything being equal, I expect it to be a problem until the Fall again when the system reaches a stage of maturity that is not as conducive to cyano. Here's hoping, anyway. In the meantime I plan to approach the current cyano problem differently than last time. Last time I used Chemi-Clean about 5 or 6 times and it just kept coming back. One time it came back only 3 days after a treatment. This time I plan to avoid the Chemi-Clean and just manually remove the stuff and hope the stuff wanes come Autumn, as I suspect it will.

Seems the biggest test of patience is during the first year of a reef system.

HTH and cheers,

[Reefer Rob]

When I've battled cyano in the past, I always found it died back over night, only to come back the next day in the afternoon. I found that shutting the lights off as the bloom was just beginning each day would cause it to die back. Gradually the bloom gets later in the day, until you get no bloom with a normal photo period. I'm curious to know if this is what other people have found happens.

I'm 3 weeks into my my new tank, and I'm just starting to get diatoms. Next comes cyano. Bring it on :twised: ,I've beaten it before, and I know how easy it is to get rid of!

[andsoitgoes]

When I've battled cyano in the past, I always found it died back over night, only to come back the next day in the afternoon. I found that shutting the lights off as the bloom was just beginning each day would cause it to die back. Gradually the bloom gets later in the day, until you get no bloom with a normal photo period. I'm curious to know if this is what other people have found happens.

I'm 3 weeks into my my new tank, and I'm just starting to get diatoms. Next comes cyano. Bring it on :twised: ,I've beaten it before, and I know how easy it is to get rid of!

This is EXACTLY what I'm going through. I was so stressed initially, but I'm seeing improvement with a reduction and modification of my lighting period.

So instead of having Halides and Actinics at the same time of day, I alternate. So it starts with Actinics, moves to Halides with Actinics off, and then when the Halides go off, the actinics go back on. Usually there's a bit of an overlap, but I went from horrible everything-covered cyano to now there only being a few patches, and it's completely gone at night. All the diatoms are non-existent - it's taken longer than I was expecting and I RARELY feed anything other than Mysis with Selcon/Garlic (alternating) and MAYBE a few pellets, the more I reduce the food and high light, the better things seem to go.

I'm actually HAPPY with my tank again, huzzah. Now I just need to slowly remove the sand until I'm down to just a teensy bit and I'm good to go! :)