Beating Cyano algae - Join me on my adventure!

[banditpowdercoat]

Did the Cyano come back??? Ive tried lights out, lots of water changes. Still coming back. I'm real tempted to try Chemi-clean treatment

[tang daddy]

Have you tried sugar?

read a post on rc that said sugar reduces the cyano. We all know there are a few things cyano likes high nutrients, amino acids, lo flow and lets remember this is a bacteria a lights off for a few days may cure the cyano but even if there is a pinch in your tank thats all it needs to get back.

Traditionally in the past I have used red slime remover as I didn't have time to battle cyano however after killing a purple gorg I will never use an antibiotic again in my reef tanks. So theres got to be a natural cure anyhow report back to us on the lights out battle and I'll report here on the sugar dosing to rid this stuff.

So far I have a 50g skimmerless adequete flow feeding mysis and prawns once a week to my softies and lps which was probally a huge part to getting a tank with cyano. Since yesterday I put in 2 table spoons of sugar I will wait another 2 days and put in the same amount, because I dont have a skimmer I believe that the corals may uptake some sugar but not much anyhow I'll report back on my process here.

[scub steve]

get a 2 little fish phosban reactor there like 50 bucks +powerhead and phosphate removing media and run that it was the only thing i found that worked awsome on cyano

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by scub steve

get a 2 little fish phosban reactor there like 50 bucks +powerhead and phosphate removing media and run that it was the only thing i found that worked awsome on cyano

Yup, allready have. Nope, not working.... Phosphate allways reads 0 in my tank too.

I feed Mysis daily, but to my fish.

Flow, I belive is adequate,
Quiet one 3000
Mag 350
Koralia 2
All feed the circulation, so approx 1500GPH on a 45g tank

[Reef_kid]

Why don't you just treat with erythromycin for a few days and do a few water changes?

[marie]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

Yup, allready have. Nope, not working.... Phosphate allways reads 0 in my tank too.

I feed Mysis daily, but to my fish.

Flow, I belive is adequate,
Quiet one 3000
Mag 350
Koralia 2
All feed the circulation, so approx 1500GPH on a 45g tank

I've never had any luck using a phosban reactor on my tanks either, Patience has always been the best remedy for cyano in my tanks, usually by feb it seems to start to recede. Of course before I was diligently doing 25% water changes weekly, blowing all the cyano off the rocks daily and using phosphate removers. I'm not doing that this year, I'm sticking to my regular regime to see if it will go away on its own within the same timeframe

[lorenz0]

Personally i have had it a couple of times, and the best thing is.... chemiclean read slim remover. added it to my tank and 48 hours later it was gone. I did the light thing once and it just came back twice as bad. i highly reccomend this product to anyone and you don't get ****ed off coral cause they didn't get any light and its safe for fish. No deaths, besides getting rid of the cyano.

btw this was in my 10gal, aka the horror story. and not worth running a phosban reactor

[Drock169]

Chemiclean is a band aid, if you dont fix whats causing the cyano it will be back in a couple of weeks.

As for the sugar, adding sugar to the tank is a form of carbon dosing which feeds bateria to reduce nitrates to zero, it has its advantages and disadvantages.

[banditpowdercoat]

I want to know more about dosing sugar. I've t5ried lights out, Phos reactors, Lots of water changes, changed lighting scheduals, less feeding. I've removed a bunch of sand, added more.... Tank looks "OK" in morning, but by 5pm, the sand and rocks are covered again..

I used Chemiclean too - with great success on my 135. No problems with anything except the Cyano.

I was very reluctant to "throw in the towel" and try a product like Chemiclean, but I was also very frustrated by the Cyano - I was sucking out huge quantities weekly with my waterchanges, but it just kept coming back as quickly as I could get rid of it. I replaced lights, modified my husbandry, and none of it made any difference. My vision of a beautiful tank was transformed into this nightmare of a tank covered in red. The cyano killed several corals and zoos. My frustration level was extreme. I finally tried the Chemiclean in desperation, followed the directions "to a T", and 3 days later - no Cyano.

It seemed to be what I needed to break the cycle of the Cyano. It was totally gone for about a month, then started to come back in a very minor way. I never treated it again, and just kept up with my routine of waterchanges. After about another four weeks of very minor visibility, it disappeared, and I have not seen any signs of it in the last 6 months.

In minor cases, I would agree that siphoning, water changes, black-outs etc. are the way to go. But if it gets severe enough, you need to "knock" it back. For me, Chemiclean did that very rapidly and effectively. The fact that it didn't ever come back as significantly indicates to me that there was not really any big problem with my feeding regime or husbandry. But I would suspect it would have taken much longer to get rid of it without the chemical intervention, and that there would have been more "friendly" casualties along the way.