OKay got cyano now what?

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by Ruth

....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.

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

....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 ,I've beaten it before, and I know how easy it is to get rid of!

[andsoitgoes]

Originally Posted by 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 ,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!