cyano question

[reefreak29]

1. no inverts will eat cyano
2. chemiclean doesnt wipe the cyano out of your tank, cyano always lives in everyones tank it becomes problimatic when nutrients are out of control, so why do some people say ,well i have no nutrients in my tank and the cyano is out of control well thats because cyano and algae thrive on this stuff and consume it giving u a false reading.
CYANO BACTERIA: red slime algae has to be one of the most frustrating for new reefers.It usually breaks out on the surface of the sand substrate.2 ways that i know to remove the cyano is to firsti ncrease your water flow u want to remove any stagnent areas by the substrate. Two remove excess nutrients, I prefer to do a 10 to 20 percent weekly water change with ro di water or di water. (do not use tap water) while doing a water change syphon out as much red algae as possible,also dont be afraid to cut your light back and your feeding, I leave my light on for 10 hrs a day in my 90 gal tank its ok to cut back to 5 hrs for a couple of weeks.

 

[thud]

Originally Posted by Farslayer
If cyno is real bad, there is medicine you can add. You will need to do a 25% water change 48 hours after you first use it, and you can do a second treatment right away if need be. Also, reduce your lighting considerably for a short period of time (like a week or so) so that the cyno is starved to death.

Chemi Clean

 

[sjimmyh]

Ric,
Please tell us if we are dealing with RED slime here or BROWN. You said you have a "new" tank. I will tell you that shortly after your tanks initial cycle you almost always get the Brown cyanobacteria bloom to some extent. I cycled my tank with uncured live rock... lots of die off => lots of brown cyanobacteria growing. Its part of the natural establishment of a tank.
Red slime comes in an established tank that is building up nutrients. Many times in patches where water flow is lower and detritus can build up as stated by our fellow reefers here on this post. Media like carbon, phosban, chemi-clean can all assist in lowering a usually unknown disolved organic problem in a tank. I say unknown, because most of us have no way to measure disolved organics. Much like Nitrate and Phosphate, it too can lead to an algae bloom of green hair or red slime. IMO, more so than Nitrate and Phosphate because its easy to build it up and very difficult to tell you have it until its too late.
This is where the concept of the bottomless tank comes in. Greatly reducing areas detritis and debris can build up, greatly increasing flow around your live rock and greatly easing your ability to clean up anything at the bottom of the tank. All of these make keeping disolved organics much easier to control with your normal routine maintanence. You don't have to do this (I don't). Just using it to demonstrate a point.
For the red algae. A combination of cleaning your rock, increasing flow, siphoning your gravel, water changes, macroalgae farming and disolved organic absorbing media will work. You just have to find what your tank needs. There is no textbook answer. You need to do something though as this is a sign your tank maintanence is not enough for the tanks bio-load (number of fish, inverts, corals, feeding regime, etc.)
For the brown. Don't worry about it unless it gets so bad that its going to hurt something or you just get sick of looking at it. Wait for your cycle to be completely finished. Brush it off the surfaces just before you do a large water change. (this too will tell you what you have, the brown will seemingly disolve into the surrounding water when brushed while the red will come off in sheets) This should take care of it in most cases. Like I orginally said, in my case, with uncured live rock and still having die off on the rock even though my cycle ended yesterday... I expect to have to do another water change again. Maybe even more.
Eventually, the bown slime will go away to be replaced by the reds and purples we all love (or green hair and red slime if I don't keep it clean enough).

 

[trippkid]

Nice post SJimmyH, agree.

 

[farslayer]

The brown is not algae nor is it bacteria (cyano), it is a diatom outbreak. Phosban will remove silicates which prevent them from forming. I ran phos guard from the start and only had an outbreak of cyano about a year later when I changed lights, never had diatoms.

 

[sjimmyh]

Ok, maybe I am using the wrong name for it. From reading I classified it myself as cyano... but I am not a biologist. The description from my above post still describes each issue correctly, IMO. Just change the names.

 

[georgev845]

i really have baaad case of cyno in my tank and im considering using this chemi clean to
just a quick question (not to hijack thread but) can i leave my filter on with the venturi on so air bubbles will accumulate or shud all filtration be shut off?

 

[deltablack22]

Originally Posted by georgev845
i really have baaad case of cyno in my tank and im considering using this chemi clean to
just a quick question (not to hijack thread but) can i leave my filter on with the venturi on so air bubbles will accumulate or shud all filtration be shut off?
You arent supposed to run your skimmer during the 48 hour treatment period according to the box. After that time you should turn it back on. The box also recommends a water change at that time. After treating with chemiclean I just let my skimmer skim really wet (drain fitting on cup into bucket) and top of with premixed saltwater.

 

[georgev845]

o ok
but im talking about my power filter can i leave that running or just shut it off?

 

[farslayer]

You want to shut off your skimmer, your activated carbon filtration, and UV sterilization. If your filter uses carbon, you can either remove the carbon or shut off the filter, but make sure you leave your powerheads on so that you keep your water moving.

 

[deltablack22]

Originally Posted by Farslayer
You want to shut off your skimmer, your activated carbon filtration, and UV sterilization. If your filter uses carbon, you can either remove the carbon or shut off the filter, but make sure you leave your powerheads on so that you keep your water moving.

Def dont kill the flow...

 

[jms460]

I installed a new coralife pc fixture on my 55 when the odysea pc fixture gave out. Then the cyano broke out. I had red slime(cyano) on everything. I did a 20% water change once a week, I cleaned the rocks and all the lps and softies in the tank once a week I finally turned the lights off for three days as a last resort and the red slime is gone now. My water parameters are good and i adjusted the time on for the 10k's from 11 hours to 6 with the actinics on for 8 hours. The tank took a 2weeks to get used to the new lighting but the tank looks great now