I Hate Cyano

No, I really do. Frustrates the TAR out of me.

So , I have been working to get my tank on track. it is slowly getting there. My nitrates are at 15ppm and Phosphate is .03. YAY. sorta. while the green that had coated my sand has gone away, in other areas, I am now getting some large patches of Cyano. On the sand. on the rocks. on my zoas.

UGH. this frustrates me.

 

use Chemi Clean, works wonders, it will get rid of your Cyano really fast. That is a quick fix, but only works as a bandaid, you need to get your phosphates under control, try GFO, or other phosphate type sponges, also macro algae gets rid of phosphates really well, and so would a bio pellet reactor.

 

do you know the cause of the phosphates??

 

OK.. so Phosphate of .03 is out of wack? WOW> thats a shocker to me. I thought anything under .04 was good. this is measured with my hannah.

1. I have about 1200 ML of pellets in a reactor. churning properly.
2. I have a Large ATS that is finally mature.

I have a little chemiclean I may give it a shot. May just siphon it out and do a few days of black.

Oh yea. cause of any phosphates would be food in. I have checked my Ro water and newly mixed saltwater and it checks out. I have 6 large fish in my tank. I do feed sparingly.

 

im in the same boat as you bud. Cyanno is a unique organism that it amazingly adept at trapping nutrients and organic carbon. I can literally thrive in a low nutrient environment that NOTHING ELSE CAN. Your PO4 is fine and you are getting the nitrates under control like me, you just go to keep siphoning it out and removing the colony.

Alot of people have suggested dosing other bacteria to compete. I've tried microbacter and probidio but has not cured it for me.

 

I have read that phosphates can be present in a tank and not actually be read on a meter or test kit because algae can be absorbing it. I would guess that something is fueling the cyano.....although it doesn't make sense that you are getting it like you are given that you have so many things in place to reduce phosphate.....

 

Not just because algae is absorbing. It can also be in organic form, which doesn't show up on tests, algae can't utilize and cyano can utilize. Siphoning, water changes, high flow, running GFO to remove phosphate and running lots of GAC to remove organics is pretty effective. Cyano can store a lot of phosphate for reserve use though, so, even if phosphate is low, it doesn't neccsarily die, but should stop growing. Siphoning, lights out and chemi-clean can help remove what's there, in my preferred order... Chemicals aren't always bad, but can have side effects, so, I prefer only as a last resort. I also like dosing silica ;D

 

it sjust very odd that it decided to make a serious re-emercence in the tank this past week. Ill admit that I am NOT a regimined water change believer. Never have and never will. just not me. But I have been working to get my nitrates back in order. my ATS is really pulling them down and overall, the tank is looking much better. I lost one of my favorite corals to th enitrate issue I had. phosphates have gone up and down but now with the ATS, they really dont show up much at all. 2 weeks ago, there was no cyano, but a light green growth on the sand. now, that is completely gone. and cyano showed up.

 

Battling the exact same thing.. Mind you I started off with dry sand and dry rock so I'm sure the rock has something to do with it. But right now I'm at about 4 month mark on my setup. How far along are you?

 

I just defeated cyano in another tank I'm maintaining. Bacteria worked the charm. 2 for 2 with it.

Here's a little info to chew on. Both tanks had flatworms. Both tanks were treated with flatworm exit and flatwork rx to kill them off. The medication seemed to kill off bristleworms and pods which leads me to believe it killed off lots of other stuff as well. Cyano showed up in the weeks after treatment. I fought cyano in both tanks using more flow, phospate reducers, gfo, syphoning, lights out, etc. Nothing worked until adding the bacteria. 3 weeks of bacteria treatment with syphoning cyano during water changes, was like magic. Re seeded pods from other tanks.