Cyano Driving Me Crazy

[MarkoD]

Ok so id say now 70% of everything that is touched by light in my tank is covered in cyano. rock, glass, sand.

Over the past 2 weeks its gotten worse and worse.

I've been using Cyano Starver everyday for the past 6-7 days. skimmer is pulling like crazy.

I have increased flow in my refugium.

I have changed carbon

I have done a partial waterchange

I stopped using Kalk

I changed DI resin

i have all powerheads including MP40 running on full blast (i also stop them and restart them few times a day to create a huge surge that seems to blow a bunch of stuff everywhere)

I dosed Magnesium and alk because both were a little low.

Phosphates and nitrates are still testing 0

Even with all of this im still noticing coral growth and all polyps are extended (my torch coral actually started splitting for the first time and i've had it 10 months)


Nothing is helping!!!! what else can i do?

[Cal_stir]

physically remove it, use filter socks on your drains(if you don't) and change daily, reduce your photo-period, your PO4 and NO3 are zero because the cyano is exporting it, reduce feeding, continue kalk and keep the PH up, alk about 10dkh(raise it slowly)

[Raf]

have you tried chemi clean at all?

[1eyedjyde]

+1 on reducing photo period, and reduce feedings if possible

[evaneatspie555]

i was wondering if a lawnmower blennie would help that cuz i have a bit of the same problem but in a smaller tank

[Cal_stir]

i was wondering if a lawnmower blennie would help that cuz i have a bit of the same problem but in a smaller tank

cyano is actually a bacteria not algae

[evaneatspie555]

thanks for the lessons im always trying to learn more

[Aquaria]

Double post

[Aquaria]

Before I moved I had bad cyno as well and I got rid of it by decreasing photo period for 3-4 days also reduced feedings and increased my w/c's Also manual removal of cyno during w/c about 1 month later things were starting to look really good. never add chemicals if u don't have to I mean w/c do the same thing

[fishytime]

chemicals work but are kind of a band-aid solution.....you need to figure out what the root of the problem is....... what size tank is it?.....how many fish?.....how much live rock?.......what do you feed?..... how often do you feed?.....if you feed a frozen food, do you melt then strain off dirty water or do you add the frozen to the tank?.....How old are your bulbs?.....all these things can be contributing factors.....

[MarkoD]

The cause of the problem was that I was on vacation and the auto feeders were over feeding for a month

[babyreef]

BLANK

[MarkoD]

thanks. my lights are 14000K and fairly new bulbs so i dont think thats it.

im gonna be trying to run 2 x 250 watt lights instead of the 3 i usually run, to see if there is any change on that section of the tank

[bignose]

Do you have reactors on your tank?

[MarkoD]

No reactors

[pscott99]

I have been through two outbreaks. Never cleaned or treated. It goes away on it's own after a couple weeks. The best thing is flow. From what I read, you are doing all the right things, even more than I have. It's a bacteria outbreak that has to run it's course. Whatever nutrient it feeds on it seems to use up or perhaps another bacteria overruns it. I wish we could test for what "feeds" the various outbreaks. I am not a clean tank freak, I like a little and have various algae on the back glass and rock. A stable healthy tanks fights off a "cold". My theory for what it's worth.

[MarkoD]

Once this stuff starts dying, will it release everything it absorbed back into the water?

[pscott99]

The cause of the problem was that I was on vacation and the auto feeders were over feeding for a month


I doubt it, not with phos at 0 and proper sump and skimming. The other suggestion would be to NOT stir up your sandbed to any depth.

[ponokareefer]

Reduce your feedings, manually remove it, reduce your photo period, keep powerheads on full and, be patient. I had an issue for about a year and I did all of the above and it slowly went away. As others have posted, chemicals are a short term solution. Reducing your bioload until it is gone will also help. I ended up getting rid of a few fish. If you take a quick approach, it will most likely come back. If you don't manually remove it, it can die off and affect your tank. I don't remember exactly what that does, but I wouldn't risk it.

It is a long, slow process. Good luck with staying patient. :) I know it got the better of me sometimes.

[babyreef]

BLANK

[Aquaria]

I doubt it, not with phos at 0 and proper sump and skimming. The other suggestion would be to NOT stir up your sandbed to any depth.

His phos is at zero because it's being used up by the cyno if it dies off it will release back into the tank. Iv never heard of cyano going away on it's own sure wish mine had

[Aquattro]

Feeling lucky with mine, I cleaned my Tunzes so that water actually came out of them, and replaced my bulbs, no more cyano.

[reefwars]

patience,patience patience it was just last week you posted this give it some time buddy and it will dissappear.your lights being out will help but wont fix it.dont bother with your tests for nitrates or phos chances are they are undetectable because they are not there or are just 2 small to read up on our crappy tests especially phos.

it happens in all tanks at some point in time for different reasons some of which we will never know for me i had a bad problem with spawning from snails everytime a brew was hatched i had an outbreak i didnt notice the cause untill the snails were big enough to see and i finally put 2 and 2 together, so when ever i seen an outbreak i knew i was expecting baby snails.

decaying matter is a huge feul for cyano alot of time when a snail dies or shrimp or fish or what ever and doesnt get found it rots this feeds the cyano.the amount of nutrients these dieing animals produce is too small for our test(unless its a huge fish) or we dont have a test for it(like animal spawing/reproduction/birth)

one thing is for sure if you keep doing what your doing it will dissapear but it needs to be manually removed or your just playing a longer waiting game for something to starve.

chemicals work but remember that this isnt algae its a bacteria and a very resiliant bacteria at that and its only function is to survive and popuate...thats it ....and one thing weve learned about our world over the centuries is bacteria will find a way no matter what happens....nature finds a way;)

cyano is a magician it dissappears today for todays reasons just to appear tomorrow for tomorrows reasons.....best you can do is make it uncomfortable for it by keeping clean water,lots of flow and killing off its food source.

your doing all the right steps so it will dissappear and since this tank is only around a year old its still quite young in the reef sense and prob will battle lots of this stuff in its time to come.


running carbon and gfo aggressively in a reactor will also help your case and wouldnt hurt in the long run an yways against the battle for controlling nutrients.


give it a month or so and keep doing all you can cyano is battle thats easy to win but also gets the best of people by not being patient and trying to many "band aid " fixes.


cheers buddy:):) and good luck:)

[Aquaria]

patience,patience patience it was just last week you posted this give it some time buddy and it will dissappear.your lights being out will help but wont fix it.dont bother with your tests for nitrates or phos chances are they are undetectable because they are not there or are just 2 small to read up on our crappy tests especially phos.

it happens in all tanks at some point in time for different reasons some of which we will never know for me i had a bad problem with spawning from snails everytime a brew was hatched i had an outbreak i didnt notice the cause untill the snails were big enough to see and i finally put 2 and 2 together, so when ever i seen an outbreak i knew i was expecting baby snails.

decaying matter is a huge feul for cyano alot of time when a snail dies or shrimp or fish or what ever and doesnt get found it rots this feeds the cyano.the amount of nutrients these dieing animals produce is too small for our test(unless its a huge fish) or we dont have a test for it(like animal spawing/reproduction/birth)

one thing is for sure if you keep doing what your doing it will dissapear but it needs to be manually removed or your just playing a longer waiting game for something to starve.

chemicals work but remember that this isnt algae its a bacteria and a very resiliant bacteria at that and its only function is to survive and popuate...thats it ....and one thing weve learned about our world over the centuries is bacteria will find a way no matter what happens....nature finds a way;)

cyano is a magician it dissappears today for todays reasons just to appear tomorrow for tomorrows reasons.....best you can do is make it uncomfortable for it by keeping clean water,lots of flow and killing off its food source.

your doing all the right steps so it will dissappear and since this tank is only around a year old its still quite young in the reef sense and prob will battle lots of this stuff in its time to come.


running carbon and gfo aggressively in a reactor will also help your case and wouldnt hurt in the long run an yways against the battle for controlling nutrients.


give it a month or so and keep doing all you can cyano is battle thats easy to win but also gets the best of people by not being patient and trying to many "band aid " fixes.


cheers buddy:):) and good luck:)
+1 well said reefwars

[ElGuappo]

pretty long thread so i am not going to read it all, but my two cents..

i have always started fighting cyano with a 3 day blackout ... i find this to be far more effective than anything else. run your carbon etc like others have suggested... also have you considered more flow and and lowering your photo period?... sorry if someone has already mentioned this.

GOOD LUCK i hate this crap... had it all thie time before swithching to RODI water.

[Reef Pilot]

Had it in one of my tanks and for several months tried all the non-chemical suggestions here on this thread. Would get better, but never completely go away. Finally bit the bullet and bought some Chemi Clean. Cyano went away in 2 days, did a big water change a couple days later, and the tank has been clean ever since, going on about 2 months now.

[ponokareefer]

Had it in one of my tanks and for several months tried all the non-chemical suggestions here on this thread. Would get better, but never completely go away. Finally bit the bullet and bought some Chemi Clean. Cyano went away in 2 days, did a big water change a couple days later, and the tank has been clean ever since, going on about 2 months now.

I tried chemi-clean and it did nothing.