CYANO OUTBREAK

[T]

its rediculous how much of its in there. ive lowered my nutrients, ran active carbon, and fed my fish less.....is tehre anything that will stop this crap!?!? ive heard to leave the lights on less will help but i dont know what to do since i have mushrooms, button polyps and a brain coral....please help me its starting to grow on the mouths(or whatever it is) of the button polyps....im pretty sure its cyanobacteria....its redish purple and wavy

[Terry]

T,

I have had cyano in my tank but it hasn't been as bad as yours. From my experience manual removal has been the most effect but I only had a 5x5 patch of cyano. I have heard a few methods to use against it and other people can chime in with their two cents, too. I think that you will definetly have to remove it fromt he corals so that it doesn't suffocate them. I am just a beginner in the hobby but here is what I think (experts feel free to correct me or make any changes!)

I have heard that you need a lot of water movement, make sure you use RO\DI water and change the water more than you normally do. I personally don't have a fuge but I have read many times that fuges help a lot. Other than that skim, make sure you don't feed to much, and cut down on the photo period.

Also red slime algea could be a long battle... When I had a smaller patch of it I had to remove it almost every other day for about a month. I did water changes and stuff but it was a long process. It eventually went away. I think I was lucky in the aspect, but I do have a recent outbreak of green algea that I think I am getting under control.

Thats my two cents. Hopefully it helps you somehow and good luck with the cyano. Feel free to ask me if you have any more questions.

Greg

[FishinInTheDark]

Great advice Terry/Greg!

[T]

how long should i leave my lights on with the coral i have but trying to cut down on the cyano?

[Doctor_Reef]

Great advice Greg!!!

T - How long do you keep your lights on now???

[T]

from 7am to 10pm......15 hours i think......
is there anything i could add to the tank that would get rid of it so i could at least start to get rid of it?

[MikeS]

What kind of lights are we talking about on your tank? Typically, a 10-12 hour photoperiod is fine...15 is a little on the long side. How old are the lights?

Cyano is nutrient driven, lights are merely part of the equation. Likely you have elevated nitrate and phosphate levels in the tank. Remove as much of the cyano as you can manually, do some water changes, using RO/DI water, contiune using carbon, get a skimmer if you don't already have one, and phosphate removing filter media will help as well. It can take awhile to starve the cyano, so be paitent. DO NOT resort to chemical means or medications to combat the cyano!

Also...the stuff coming from the polyps mouth is probably not cyano, more likely it is simply the creature expelling wastes...

Mike

[funkybozu]

thinking the same as Mike
i would try some phosphate removing media. as well

[bigfoot]

baste your polyps just in case to clean them off. It's time for a mini fuge! ok do you have a little HOB filter?
if ya do you could always get one of those little flexible desk lights and take the cover off of the HOB filter and put some macro algae in the filter its ghetto but it can do nothing but help

[newtofish]

is there anything i could add to the tank that would get rid of it so i could at least start to get rid of it?

I totally rid my tank of cyano by introducing 2 fighting cochs. They cleaned it up in about a week and it has not come back.

[badnemo]

I have a 15 gallon nano tank and was looking for something that would eat detitus .. I read that fighting or queen cochs do ... Should I get a coch or something else???? I do have some snails in the tank with like 4 zebra and 2 blue hermits ... what do you think????

[newtofish]

Fighting conchs are neat to watch and in my experience do not have any bad habits. (At least mine don't) They mostly plow through the sand bed eating what they can find.

[FishinInTheDark]

A conch might soon starve in a 15 gallon. Your best bet would be a fighting conch, because the queens get huge. You might see if your LFS will exchange them for you when they get on the larger side anyway. That way, you can keep a smaller conch at all times, and maybe a little one won't go hungry.

[Doctor_Reef]

Agree with Mike on this... We all have had our day with Cyano...It is a nuisance but can be handled…I think your photo-period is to long but even so the nutrients are the major cause of Cyano out-breaks… Check your phosphates and nitrates…use a phosphate remover like PhosBan or something in that category and do some water changes with RO/DI water to reduce the Nitrates… A HOB fuge is a good idea also…. Be patient and you will get beyond this outbreak!!!

[T]

ok lol its getting so bad its stargting to grow on my mandarin...and ive seen the polyps release waste before and its not that because its red and purple just like the stuff everywehre else...no lfs carry any fighting conchs so im oging to have to buy them on the internet....please tell me more about the hob fuge...
thanks

A conch needs at least 2sqft of sand to live... they will not survive long in a small tank.

[funkybozu]

agreed, i wouldnt put then in anything less than a 100g.
there are smaller version. cant remember the name but they bacily do the same thing, and dont need so much room

[specsgirl]

I agree with the others suggestions. I would make sure you have plenty of water movement, regular water changes with ro/di water, skim...skim...and then skim some more. I used a turkey baster to suck off the cyano off the rocks when I did water changes. If it gets really bad you can also take the rocks out of the tank, scrub them(yes you'll lose some of your coraline algae if you have it) and then return them to the tank.
Good luck!

[JyMan]

T
I have used a product called chemi-clean with good results.This will not remove the main underlying problem but it will get rid of the exsisting slime.

[MikeS]

be careful, chemi-clean can be risky...

Basically, it's an oxidizer. Where this can be problematic is in tanks with a high amount of waste in them. The rapid oxidation of these wastes by the chemi-clean can plumet the dissolved O2 levels in the tank to dangerously low levels, potentially killing everything in the tank.

Granted, this is a worse case scenerio, but it can (and does) happen from time to time. It is not likely in most tanks, but as pointed out above, the chemi-clean will do nothing to solve the underlying problem that is causing the cyano, it may in fact actually worsen it...as the cyano dies off, it re-releases all those stored up nutrients back into the tank. Also, over time, the cyano may develop a resistance to the chemicals, I had this happen many years ago in an FO tank I had...I ended up with a "super cyano" that was resistiant to chemical treatment...

Beat it with nutrient export and patience...save the chemi-clean as a total last resort...

Mike

[Doctor_Reef]

Ditto's with Mike... !!!!!

[Whiskey]

I had cyano,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/whiskey27/cyano.jpg

Adding a fuge, and using phospate removing media, along with W/C with RO/DI water is the best thing I ever did for my tank. I have since stopped using the phospate removing media, the fuge deals with that now, but I do have a great RO/DI unit (tds = 0.08) so phospate is in manageable levels for the fuge.

NOW???? Well I have more corals than this pic, but my lights are off and I can't take a new pic.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/whiskey27/154-3.jpg

HTH,
Whiskey

[Whiskey]

hmm, it seems that the number 0.08 w/ ) showes up as a smiley face.... Sorry for the confusion.

Whiskey