Kill cyano!?!

I swept the entire tank a few weeks ago, minimized feeding and it's back.... sweeping tank again and going through fresh RO/DI w/salt water changes frequently and cannot seem to get rid of it. Any chemicals that would do the trick? Livestock is only 3 clowns and a few hermits... the rest of my cleanup crew died and I'm hesitant to spend money on more snails/hermits due because I'm afraid they won't survive... ammonia/nitrites/nitrates 0

 

1. have you always used RODI
2. what brand lights? and how old
3. how old is your tank now?

 

Have you tried GFO?

 

god I hate cyano I feel your pain. I battled it for a few months but beat it naturally. I always re-post my little tips so maybe they may help you as I don't expect to ever have to deal with it again. I also feel diatoms and cyano are a rite of passage in new tanks that is unavoidable (not sure if your tank is new, just wanted to mention that).

I had bought chemi-clean to dose, but the more I read, the more I believed that dosing chemicals to rid the cyano was like many have said, using a "band aid". You will get much better piece of mind when you find out what is the cause of the cyano and along the way you will gain better tank husbandry IMO.

Here are a few things I did to rid myself of the evil red slime:

- use RO/DI water only, that tests at 0 TDS
- cut back on your feeding, I went from once a day to every three days
- rinse any frozen foods prior to feeding (in RO water if you can)
- ramp up circulation in any dead areas of the tank
- pick out any clumps of red slime you can, use baster/siphon/tongs
- double your water changes to keep Nitrate down
- clean out all powerheads/skimmer/filters etc.
- make sure your bulbs are still good
- cut back your light cycle by maybe 40%
- make sure your tank isn't overstocked
- run a phosphate remover (I use a reactor with Chemi Pure Elite)

It seems like a lot of work, but it's much better getting rid of it naturally then wondering when it may come back if you dose with chemicals.

Best of luck & it will go away even though it seems like you're fighting uphill.

 

My tank has been up and running for about 6 months. I had my sump for 2 years as a DT and 6 months ago decided to get a reef ready tank and make my sump out of my old DT. Unfortunately I made a rookie mistake of rinsing ALL the sand when moving it to the new tank because I was trying to avoid the cloudy water and didn't even think about the consequences of killing everything in the sand while rinsing it. Then I made another mistake of using tap water in my new tank a few months ago because my RO/DI unit hadn't arrived yet and I was desperate for water and too lazy to make one last trip to wal mart for 30 gal. of distilled water. My tap water is 80 ppm nitrates/0 ammonia/0 nitrites so that was an issue. I have been using RO/DI water now for about a month and a half testing 0TDS out. I only feed once every week or two and have been doing more water changes over the past 2 weeks. I was just wondering if the cyano will eventually fade and no longer be a problem naturally or if I should dose the tank? Thanks for the input guys it is very appreciated!

 

Any chance it will just die out? my tank is about five months old, never had a problem before but recently had a phosphate spike and with it came orange algae with hair growing on it like moss. I can see it starting to spread. Even covering my coralline. Once my phosphates are under control will it eventually die off? As a natural process?
Cheers,

 

once it matures a little more it should fade on its own. also the tap in the beginning is just asking for GHA or cyano. It can take from a few weeks up to 3 months to fade naturally.

Also, if your bulbs are old or if they are some cheap brand, you will experience this spectrum shift and they will put out more red and yellow than quality bulbs. Cyano LOVES yellow light as they are one of the few organisms that has a photosystem adapted to that wavelength... so this leads directly to cyano

 

It sounds like Nitrates is your culprit, how much NA does the tank test out to now? I would think the cyano will ebb and slowly go away as you use the RO/DI water & frequent water changes. Also do you have any PO4 remover running?

I think the catalyst to my 2-month long cyano outbreak was the PO4 I had prior to the reactor I began running. + I had a linkia star die and begin decaying behind a rock for a few days before I realized it.

Once you can identify the problem it gets better, sounds like you're def doing the right things to combat it. Try your best not to dose if you can so you can naturally eradicate it.

 

sounds good, yeah nitrates have been 0 for weeks now and my lights are brand new 130W dual 6500k daylights. CurrentUSA

 

Oh ok cool on the 0 NA. Give it some time, even though it absolutely sucks when you're dealing with it seems like it'll never go away. Just keep the powerheads off when picking clumps out so it doesn't spread anymore.

How is the PO4 level or do you run GFO?