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Cultivated Reef

Cyano is kicking my butt- NO LONGER!- Now it is Hair Algae!


uwharrie

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So I removed all the red slime I could off the sand bed by hand. No luck syphoning as I can't get enough flow to pull it up and out. I moved the power head and turned it up. Blew off all the Rock and changed the floss

Stirring up the sand bed pretty much tells me where my issue with stored nutrients is. I am beginning to see why some like bare bottom tanks

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So day two of hand removing cyano from the bed, blowing detritus off the rocks several times a day, stirring up the sand bed and changing the floss. No where as much red slime. Not sure if I an really making headway but time will tell

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  • 3 weeks later...

Still kicking my butt. A tad less but still THERE! So I went to my LFS and was talking to one of the folks there, told then I was about to reset the tank and replace the sandbed. He told me to at least give the ChemiClean a try So here we are. Dosed it today, added a couple of airstones, took out the chempur and purgen and we shall see what happens. If this does not work will do the teardown next week. ( Surely HOPE I do not) I have read so many mixed reviews on the Chemi Clean but at this point is it way simpler to try than to break it all down

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It leaves all the fuel in place, then the next time a seed event happens with cyano its back...the med cycle :)

 

Disassembly cleaning is a pure fix and it is work intensive agreed

Making the light less white and more blue will help

 

If you took a test handful of sand and lifted/dropped in the tank and not much cloud followed then a topical only treatment has better chance

 

Chemi clean will likely knock it back.

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So how would I scrub the rocks and not damage the corrals attached? I I figured fresh water heavy rinsing would work but could potentially kill what is left. I also have a lot of GSP growing up the back wall. How long can the tank be empty and not kill it? ( ei how fast do I have to work to get the sandbed out.

right now I hope the chemiclean will knock stuff back for a while. We will be replacing floors possibly in the near future so that would be an excellent time for a reset but want to make sure I do not damage the few corals I have left.

I know the chemicals are just a bandaid. But I am still working on my Surgeons license :-)

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I would only salt rinse the rocks not freshwater

 

Rarely are rocks the source for the cyano it's the sandbed usually, and the drop test tells. The cyano casts about the tank including the rocks but usually is fed by pent up sand

 

We hardly ever see bare bottom tanks with cyano issues

 

You could also spot test some siphoned sand into a cup to see if nitrate or phosphate is spiked there relative to the top water.

 

Light rinsing of the rocks and total replacement or cleaning of the sand is what I do

 

My tank and corals can stay in the air half an hour and not die or recycle. You could keep your corals and attached rocks in a holding bucket of water

 

Right in the middle of this video shows my tank empty, the sandbed getting tap rinsed, and the corals out in the cold air on dinner plates. I'm not even nice to my setup.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UgonY5FXxVE

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Thanks! Yes my good friend who gave me the tank is an advocate of bare bottom tanks. I just hate the look. Guy at LFS said I could just replace with a very thin sand bed ( mine is currently less than 2 inches with just 20lbs of sand.)

I did the spot test with sand bed and the phosphates did spike a bit.

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Isn't it funny, I'm so mean to my six inch sandbed that it acts like no sandbed lol. Tap rinse = mean and no waste and certainly no cyano even if it was 20 inches deep lol

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Cyano is a pain but better than hair algae.

 

While using chemiclean is a bandaid, it may be a better option at this time for you but definitely work on the cause so you have less chance of a repeat. If you know its the sandbed, make vacuuming it part of your routine. Increase flow as well.

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There's some really good research over at Reef2Reef regarding Cyano vs. Spirinulina treatment. For true Cyano, they found that dosing hydrogen peroxide 3% (otc version) 1 ml per 10 gallons twice per day for 2 weeks will rid most tanks of it. It wont touch Spirinulina or dinos though...Sprin responds to Chemiclean.

 

An easy way to see if you might have cyano is to take some of the clumps, put it in a cup with a bit of tank water and add about 1 ml of Hydrogen peroxide. If the water looks like a Shirley Temple (pink/red/kool-aidish) after a few hours, it's likely cyano.

 

I did the hydrogen peroxide dosing for a couple weeks and did another couple week run of it a month or so ago. No ill effects and I have some higher end SPS.

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Now that you've killed the actual cells, I'd go in with 'waste away' or 'microbacter 7' or another bacterial supplement product while you work on keeping the sandbed clean. You want to make sure any remaining (and potentially chemiclean resistant) bacteria get outcompeted quickly.

 

As for siphoning: Make sure your tubing's 'end' is lower than the tank. The lower the better, because the larger height difference will make water siphon out more quickly. From there, pinch the tubing to slow it down when you're poking at the sand, and slowly speed up the water as you lift the vacuum side, leaving sand behind and picking up detritus. ...I hope that makes sense.

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So a week later and another 6 gal water change I think I am starting to get this stuff under control. I am changing the filter pad every other day. And with water changes aggressively vacuuming the sand bed. Also am blowing off the rocks daily. The Cyano I am getting now is web like but no where near what I was nor is it the thick mats of the stuff. I may still have to do a total breakdown but figured I would keep trying this for a few weeks first

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