For those who like to hear a good story on battling Cyano. I have a BC8 and I started getting the Red Cyano build up on the sand. I read a lot about it on this forum and decided to do the following:

I sucked up all I could with turkey baster (I will have a laugh at Thanksgiving, just kidding, have 2 of them)
Did 15% water change every other day
Added Koralia Nano to increase flow
Usually feed every other day but went 2 days with no food then just a tad
Shut off lights for 1.5 days and covered glass with blanket

Checked status after having it covered for 1.5 days and all Cyano on sand was gone but I did notice some just below the sand around the glass line.

As a test I turned on Actinic lights for 1 hour then other light and ran them both for 4 hours. I noticed the Cyano starting to creep back into the picture so I did another water change, covered the tank with lights off and that little bit went away.

I will keep it covered for 2 full days and will post results. I am excited as this is the best luck I have had with this junk!

cool story bro

FWIW, I was battling Cyano in my BC14, doing 20% water changes every day for like a week trying to rid of whatever was causing it. Ultimately, I failed ... the Cyano kept getting worse.

Then I used Chemi-Clean. It worked fantastic, and my corals are all fine.

i had a major run in with this stuff. i mean baaaaad. i can find the pic or i would prove it.. so... what i did was..
1. i caught the algae in full bloom right before lights went out. at this point it had done a real good job of absorbing alot of the nutrients in the tank. (considering your coral list, i wouldnt recomend this with sps) i did a 50% water change. i pulled out every rick and blasted it off as well as vaccuumed the top layer of sand (dont worry, you can rinse it out real good with fresh make-up water and return it to the tank).
2. i waited for 2 days and on the third day, right before lights went out and the cyano was at its peak, i hit it again. did a 40% water change and once again blasted all the rocks out and vac'd the top of the sand.
3. waited 3 days this time and on the fourt, just before lights out, (by this time i had relieved my system of 90% of the cyano infestation), i did another 40% water change this time leaving the rocks just vac'ing over them and the sand.
4. i cut my feedings down to every other day and i feed little. just enough to satisfy my clownfish. i see him all the time catching pods so im not worried about it.
5. i also built a small skimmer (counter current) it helps some. about $15
6. and after all that was done.... i stared at my tank in anger and waited for more it didnt happen like that again


good luck.. oh and do some questioning about your water, where ever you get it from.. make sure they change the filters regularly and dont be afraid to ask for their TDS reading.

The little bit I saw on the sands surface is gone again this morning and all that remains in the little bit below the sand.

I see that "over feeding" is a listed cause of Cyano. That may be true but this is my second tank that I have had over the past 3-4 years and I have always fed minimal amounts of food and have always fed only every other day.

Hopefully when this little bit clears up, it won't come back! Will let you know.

So, over the last several days I have been being extra cautious. 3 days ago I turned lights back on for about 2 hours, lightly fed, changed water and rinsed filters. In that time a very small amount of Cyano came back so back off with the lights and on with the cover. I will be pretty busy this week so I plan on uncovering at night and will feed 1-2 between now and Saturday. I will run lights Saturday and we'll see what happens.

Run a bigger CUC...

I was never a big fan of hermits, but scarlet hermits pack a big punch against cyano. Snails like cerith/nassarius/astrea will also help clean up detritus/algae and mix the sand a bit so you won't get that nasty carpet.

Also, I threw in a bag of Chemi-Pure Elite (removes phosphates) which will help with some nutrient export. I thought it wouldn't do much, but I believe the Chemi-Pure Elite also did a lot of good in helping the cyano disappear in my tank.

I had an alage problem bad too it seemed like the more work i did to get it better the worse it got feel like giving up and just walking away but stuck through the problem and then when you starting seeing results untill you wake up and look at your tank and see it is really almost all gone thats the best feeling knowing you worked your butt of and got the results nothing better than a clean tank that you worked hard at get acomplished.... just dont give up and stick through it all and good things really will come well good luck to all and were always here for free good advise .....



chemi-pure elite is the best stuff ever hands down

fiddly is right... there's no greater feeling of accomplishment when you start seeing results in your tank! i.e. beating algae, growing corals, keeping everything healthy!

I just ordered some Chemi-Pure Elite so we will see how it goes. So far so good.

Thanks.

my solution= mp10

a cuc and turning off the lights is a way to get rid of the cyano, but it not taking care of the root of the problem which is either excess nutrients or phosphates. do you have a test kit for phosphates? you want to get rid of the excess and thats when you will really be over the problem. i've been fighting it in my tank for a week or so now.

I am seeing a little starting on my rock. The brown diatoms went away so If figured the tank was cycled but saw the red on a few spots tonight. I will try the turkey baster thing and a water change and hopefully it will not fight back. It may be because I cycled the tank with Coral Frenzy and think I over did it. Probably only needed to put a little bit couple times a week instead of every day. I always over do things it seems.

UPDATE:

I ran lights on my normal cycle which is on for 5 hours off for 1 and then back on for 4 hours both Saturday and Sunday and NO CYANO came back at all!!!!

BTW, I do have a phosphate test kit and it is in check but I went ahead and ordered the Chemi Pure just in case. Feeding is minimal too.

Thanks everyone!

Nice bro

i like to use chemi clean, works well.

Thats good to here now that everything is all undercontrol in my tank I wanna start to take out some of the cuc like i have 2 emerald crabs that sometimes harrase my duncans and hammer and frogspawn and even wanna thin out a couple of my blue dwarf herrmits but those emeralds are a pain to get out. Well good to here on your sucess of cyno it might come back when it gets hot out again and theres a major temp change but just hit hard right away Later

Another Update:

Tank has been running on it's normal light cycle since Saturday and NO CYANO to be found!

I put the Chemi-Pure Elite in 2 days ago and I can see a difference in my water clarity.

I have discovered 1 mystery snail looking thing that I didn't put in there and some green spots on my live rock and 1 spot on back of tank, circular in shape. Any ideas on either of these?

The "snail" looking thing doesn't appear to have a shell.
The green spots are a little hard to see on the pic but the one on the back is rough in texture.

I am posting pics under the ID forum as well.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Thanks