I have tried to rid of this Cyano for a bit and it keeps taking over. Nitrates are a bit high due to a Sun Coral but everything else is where it should be. We are running t5HO lighting 4 bulbs. Water changes are not helping, We Chemicleaned the tank twice which resulted in a dead starfish :(. I am all out of ideas and am afraid the tank is going to be over run with Cyano soon. Help.
are you using RODI for water ? also what about flow Cyano does not like it…
Cyano for the most part is one of the easier outbreaks to clear up, just keep at it, make sure you are not over feeding or adding anything you don’t need to. Keep sphioning it out and make sure you are using RODI water for your water changes.
What are your phosphates? As far as the sun coral I have heard that taking the coral out and feeding it in a small container of tank water will reduce unwanted extra food which ultimately will end up feeding the cyano. Do you use ro/di for water changes? If so Have you tested the tds coming out of the unit? Also increasing flow and reducing dead spots in the tank will help. It also helps to manually siphon the algae out if you can. I know this can be annoying as cyano grows fast and keeps coming back. If you reduce your feeding impact, run a skimmer, in erase flow, make sure your water changes have near 0 tds and siphon out the cyano all of these things with much persistence will help. Depending on your phosphate level some sort of phosphate remover will help as well. Just my :TWOCENTS maybe some others will comment. Just be patience and persistent and it should pay off.
Thank you for responding. I am using RO water but I am thinking my source of where I am getting the water may be contaminated. I bought some Chemipure not sure if this will help but I figured it couldn’t hurt either. Flow in the tank is decent but I could add one more power head to make everything move a bit more. I added some extra oxygen also because I hear it isn’t a fan. I hope I can rid of this soon it’s driving me crazy
[quote=“ReefnBoxers, post:1, topic:5953”]
I have tried to rid of this Cyano for a bit and it keeps taking over. Nitrates are a bit high due to a Sun Coral but everything else is where it should be.[/quote]
My thoughts are if cyano is “taking over” then something is wrong, we all get patches of it from time to time though…
are you sure its cyano? which color is it? (not trying to be insulting with the questions)
and how high are the nitrates? and list any parameters you test for, including salinty, temp, sandbed, fuge etc… this info could help figure it out… any info, and pics of the setup would be helpful also.
Inhabitants? i’m wondering what’s not gobbling up, or even stealing food from a sun coral :
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great advice from Matt and Frank already though about treating it, it’s just figuring out why there’s so much of it?
I htink the advice that’s been given is dead on. Unfortuantely the biggest problem with cyano is the patience it takes to rid yourself of it.
Adding an extra power head is a good idea - I’m assuming it’s showing up on the sand bed, in which case I would place the power head very low in the tank, blowing across the surface of the sandbed.
Increase the frequency of your water changes, siphon as much of it out as possible when doing the water changes, add additional snails to churn the sandbed - some are known to feed on cyano - just not sure which at the moment - and use a turkey baster to blow off the rocks and dead spots where detritus collects prior to doing the water change which will ensure you’re getting as much gunk out as possible.
As SaltCreep says, we need some specs on your tank/filtration/livestock to give you a better diagnosis.
With the extra feeding of the sun coral you want to make sure you’re +1 on your skimmer. Maybe even try running some Purigen from Seachem to help remove nitrogenous organics, and use as a sidekick to water changes for the nitrate issue. Its like 12$ for a pouch that is good for 100gallons and you can renew it for continued use with a bleach bath too.