red cyano

Correction; Sorry John, flow does nothing to eliminate cyano and as a matter of experience I have seen it make worse.

 

Try some chemiclean. I have used it before and after a couple days, it turns the cyno into this grey ashy looking substance. Of course, you have to clean your tank of all of that. then do a 20% water change, or whatever the instructions say.

 

So what exactly does this red cyano look like? Is this the red patches that are on the glass and some of it goes under the sand too. Then there are these little red blister-lookin' things on my LR. The FSG said that he thinks it's red slime algae but when I read in my book, they call it cyano rather than red slime algae. Is it the same thing? (Yup! I'm a newbie!)

 

yup its the same thing, nip it in the bud quick, after I cleaned all my lr it came back on my base. This weekend im goign to blow off the rock with a turkey baster. I tested it tonite when i came home from work and the turkey blaster method is actually pretty good. I used the chemiclean and it made it into friggin long red cyano algea crap. I will re dose if I cant get it under control this weekend but I think it showed on my base due to the fact the wasted food floats on it. I seriosuly suggest turkey bastering the rocks slighty every water change to remove the debris unless you got grubbing ass fish but Ill keep you guys updated

 

OK so do I need to buy some chemical to use in the "turkey blaster"? (love the name!) Or do I just use a blaster with the water from teh tank or do I pick it off or scrub it or what? I am not ready for any new children in my tank at present so it needs to be something else.

 

Ya i did the chemiclean and wish I didnt cuz it didnt do much. Turkey blaster it all and get all of it off the rocks then siphon a good portion of it up. Use the chemicals as a last resort. Only scrub if you cant get it with the blaster but truthfully you should be able to get it with the blaster.

 

I'm battling cyano right now as well. Bought a phosphate reactor, stepped up skimming and doing water change every 2-3 days. I am gaining ground on it, but after I suction it off during the water changes...it literally came back within hours. It's soooo annoying, but nothing in this hobby comes fast.

 

I never liked the turkey baster method, it just spreads out your problem instead of removing it. Get yourself a big filter sock and put it in your sump, then start a siphon with a good sized hose and siphon the red slime off the rocks / sand into the sock in the sump. when your done, remove the sock and clean it out. do this as many times as needed while reducing your nutrients (your fish will be fine eating once every 2 days) and perform smaller water changes 2x week.

That has worked for me in the past, along with reducing your photoperiod . . . good luck!

~Will.

 

Thanks

Thanks for your suggestion of just peeling off this unsightly stuff. For some reason I had just not thought of that. It does work ! I like to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible so I'd say I got 3/4 of it today & more tomorrow. It does cloud the water, but I'm sure the filter will soon take care of that. My only problem is, there is some of this stuff between my glass & the rock that I can't get @. Other than that, it works great ! Thanks Pal !