How to beat Cyanobacteria

JVC

JVC

New member
Well, as I had shown in my build thread, looks like I have some red slime algae starting to grow in my tank, I read that it can be caused by issues such as overfeeding (which I have tapped back significantly on) and low flow (so I put my powerhead back in to get the water moving a bit better).

Has anyone conquered cyanobacteria and has any suggestions? I siphoned a large clump out last night and today when I woke up it was in a few more places in small quantities in my tank. I also did a 2 gallon water change last weekend, and then a 1.5 gallon one last night while siphoning out what I could see of the bacteria.

Do you think it could be caused by older compact flourescent lights and I should try to replace those and see if that solves the problem? The lights are only 5 months old at most, probably more like 3-4.

Thanks in advance!
-John
 
The only way to really beat it is to improve nutrient export or reduce the nutrients that you put into the tank. Older lighting can play a part, but the bottom line is that any pest algae (or bacteria) needs nutrients to live and grow.
 
From what I hear u can put a fresh bag of chemipure elite. Add more flow and do a wc and siphon as much of it out. Idk if the lights is an issue but if it's old than u should change them cuz I read they can cause and algea problem if there old.
 
I've personally had luck with Red slime remover. But like Ted said you need to improve nutrient export or reduce. I think something about those PC have something to do with it. When I had my BC up it was the tank I had most problems with towards Cyano. It might've just been old bulbs though.
 
I don't know what kind of salt you are using, but people have also reported Cyno problems when using reef crystals due to perceived phosphate issues. Phosphate is the number one cause of Cyno.
 
When i had a cyano outbreak i used some cheato algea in the middle chamber with a submersible light to help with the extra nutrients in my tank.. Plus i cut back feeding in my tank, do a weekly water change and added extra flow... Thats what i did.. Its different for everyone.. Hope this helps.

Jeff
 
Using whatever MCF uses... I get my water from them since I don't have an RODI Unit myself.

Might go grab a new bag of chemipure tomorrow and see if that will solve my problem. I think I'm gonna stick to 1-1.5 gallon water changes every other day and siphoning out whatever cyano i can see when I do the water change.
 
jeppun21 said:
When i had a cyano outbreak i used some cheato algea in the middle chamber with a submersible light to help with the extra nutrients in my tank.. Plus i cut back feeding in my tank, do a weekly water change and added extra flow... Thats what i did.. Its different for everyone.. Hope this helps.

Jeff
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Thought about just getting one of those little dishes to put some cheato in and putting it in my tank for the time being, where did you buy the submersible light so you could put it in the back chamber?
 
U should also check ur tank if theres a fish or something dead in their rotting.... Sometimes that myte be the cause of cyano..
 
Got it from mediabaskets.com.. Its a 10 wat light.. I put 2 in the back with the cheato... But i upgraded to a mini coralife t5 for the back of my 14 biocube..
 
jeppun21 said:
U should also check ur tank if theres a fish or something dead in their rotting.... Sometimes that myte be the cause of cyano..
Click to expand...

Well... I had a bunch of fish die before (six line, bangaii and a chromis), couldn't find any of them so I figured all had been eaten...

I also was reading crushed coral isn't good for the bottom of a tank, any recommendations on the best way to swap it out with something else? I have crushed coral down there now and just picked up a big bucket of sand yesterday. I have fish in there, would you recommend just trying to scoop/siphon out as much of the crushed coral as possible then replace with finer grade sand?

-John
 
Yea u can siphon ur sand out. But make sure u wash te new sand with rodi first to get rid of all the dust. Ive seen ppl add it slow and others add it all in. So I'm not sure about that. And with all those fish that died ur levels r probably a lil bit off. If I were u I would do atleast a 5 g wc to get alot of the nutrients out of the water.
 
Increase flow and change your lights if they are old.

Staying on top of the water changes including vacuuming the cyano off the sand bed each time.

Change the protein skimmer to run more 'wet'. I opened the gate valve to remove about a skimmer cup full a week and increased flow in my sump. Before it was 'dry' skim.

Add a few more snails and a shrimp to the CUC to help eat any food my fish missed. Additionally, I rinse the mysis in RODI water to remove the binders (algae fuel) and have changed my feedings to every other day.

Run Phosban or similar in the meantime to help keep phosphates in check so my husbandry habits will be more effective.

It takes 1~2 months... but it will eventually go away with good husbandry
 
Since you have a super small system,it's way easy to rid of your cyano issues.Here's a quick list of how to do it:

~Run chemipure at all times,change once a month for first 3months.

~Use Kent Magnesium supplement to keep levels ultra high like ~1600PPM or more

~25% water changes weekly


Sit back and wait for the cyano to disappear from your system.Works great on nanos,it's a nightmare and super expensive on larger systems.
 
For me what i did was i bought some of the live sand that MCF sold.. siphoned out all the water from my tank and put it in 5 gallon buckets.. put my LS in a bucket of its own.. siphoned out about 3/4 of my sand leaving some of the old sand to help through with the mini cycle that will happen when adding new sand.. i put back my old water in the tank.. threw out the old sand i had.. i left the tank clear up for about 2-3 hours and then i put my LS back in.. this i kinda the fast version of explaining.. but u should check the thread i had about changing sand out.. i did what ted wrote in there and it worked out great... its the samething i did its just explains it better lol hope this helps

jeff
 
Yea usually when adding new sand ull get a small diatom bloom. But it will go away. I just added around 10lbs of sand and the diatoms r dying off already.
 
Tangency said:
Increase flow and change your lights if they are old.

Staying on top of the water changes including vacuuming the cyano off the sand bed each time.

Change the protein skimmer to run more 'wet'. I opened the gate valve to remove about a skimmer cup full a week and increased flow in my sump. Before it was 'dry' skim.

Add a few more snails and a shrimp to the CUC to help eat any food my fish missed. Additionally, I rinse the mysis in RODI water to remove the binders (algae fuel) and have changed my feedings to every other day.

Run Phosban or similar in the meantime to help keep phosphates in check so my husbandry habits will be more effective.

It takes 1~2 months... but it will eventually go away with good husbandry
Click to expand...

I only have a 12 gallon nanocube... I don't have a skimmer.
 
I have the biocube skimmer I told u about. It's not the best skimmer but it's better to take out what it can then leave it in ur tank. But I think ull b ok with a couple wc and less feedings. But get new lights on ur tank. Mayb Here is the time to go led. Lol.
 
Picked up some more water and did a 2 gallon waterchange and replaced my chemipure in hopes to help beat the cyano. Also got some dry food to stop feeding rods in an effort to decrease my bio load waste. Hope I can beat this!
 
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