Wade Posted May 19, 2013 Share Posted May 19, 2013 I've got an outbreak of red hairlike algae all over my tank. Is this cyano? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted May 19, 2013 Share Posted May 19, 2013 looks like cyanobacteria to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 19, 2013 Author Share Posted May 19, 2013 Great. Will it kill the zoas? I'm getting ready to set up a QT tank so I'll be able to relocate them in a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted May 19, 2013 Share Posted May 19, 2013 Cyano is a bacteria that has too negative effects, besides being annoyingly ugly. It coverts oxygen into CO2 and can overgrow sessile creatures. The reduction in oxygen can suffocate fish, crustaceans, etc. The cyano can grow over coral and corallimorphs starving them out (of light), too. But if you do fairly frequent water changes and siphon it out, it's not too bad. It's not poisonous like dinoflagellates. There are powders than can wipe it out, too, but beware the phosphate jump that can kick start nastier things, like dino. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted May 19, 2013 Share Posted May 19, 2013 +1. Don't wipe it out over night. I've heard success stories from black outs and chemiclean use in eradicating cyano. That wasn't my own experience. When I killed my cyano overnight via a 3 day black out, the excessive phosphate caused a dinoflagellate and green hair algae explosion that dwarfed the annoyance of cyano. GHA and Dino are 100x harder to kill and do WAY more damage. Took me 6 months to get a handle on it. My advice. Increase your flow. Blast it daily with turkey bastera. Aggressively use mechanical filtration sponges and socks and clean them daily, and invest in a GFO reactor. That'll kill it at the source. It'll take a month or two but it'll be clean and effective. If you hit it with chemi clean or lights out, something far worse will likely bloom in its place. SOMETHING will consume the excessive phosphate. Best its gfo media rather than dinoflagellates and algae. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 19, 2013 Author Share Posted May 19, 2013 I've got a UV light I've been meaning to add to the system. Would that help any? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted May 19, 2013 Share Posted May 19, 2013 Just do chemiclean, do a water change 2 days afterwords and you will be just fine. I've had it about 3 times now and chemiclean always kills it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 19, 2013 Author Share Posted May 19, 2013 I added another powerhead to the tank today and I'm planning to do a water change tomorrow or Monday. I'll clean the filter sock daily as well. I should receive my new Tunze wavebox and Vortech powerhead sometime this week which should drastically improve the water flow. I'll also add the UV sterilizer to the system tomorrow. If things don't look better in a week, then I'll try the chemiclean next weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted May 19, 2013 Share Posted May 19, 2013 Doubt flow will do anything. Chemiclean is usually the only thing that will 100% get rid of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 20, 2013 Author Share Posted May 20, 2013 Will a CoralRX dip kill any cyano on the zoas? I would likw to move them to the QT, but don't want to bring the cyano with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 I'm not sure about the coral rx but I always have very good luck with the peroxide dips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SchnitzelReef Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 I would try chemiclean. Just make sure u read the directions and follow them to a T. Also u can take a turkey baster and blast the cyano right off the rocks or corals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+brian.srock Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 I run an algae scrubber in my sump. I'm basically growing GHA there so it starves out all the other nuisance algea. It's a very cheap fix idea since adding chemiclean doesn't guarantee it'll stay gone as long as you have a root problem that's causing it. Mine is usually due to overfeeding since i'm trying to make sure a specific fish eats enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 21, 2013 Author Share Posted May 21, 2013 Yeah I'm sure my two week vacation resulted in my house sitter overfeeding the fish. The tank was **** nasty when I returned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 25, 2013 Author Share Posted May 25, 2013 Ok, I received the Chemiclean this evening and plan to use it tomorrow. The directions read "For every 10 gallons of aquarium water, dissolve one level scoop of Chemiclean into one cup of water removed from the aquarium." So, if I have 80 total gallons of water (including refugium) do I dissolve 8 scoops in one cup of water or 8 scoops in 8 cups of water? I'm thinking its 8 cups of water, but thought I would see how other folks who have used it interpreted the directions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 It probably means 8 cups, but I think the point is just to dissolve it all before adding. Also, are you accounting for the displacement from your rocks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nwehrman Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 My tank is only 30 gallons - I did three scoops in a cup and and dissolved really well - added slowly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 25, 2013 Author Share Posted May 25, 2013 Good point KimP. I was not accounting for my rocks. Thanks. Also, the directions recommend heavy aeration during treatment. My protein skimmer should be sufficient I would think. Lots of aeration going on there. Well, time to take the plunge. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Good point KimP. I was not accounting for my rocks. Thanks. Also, the directions recommend heavy aeration during treatment. My protein skimmer should be sufficient I would think. Lots of aeration going on there. Well, time to take the plunge. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks all.Be prepared for your skimmer to go crazy! I think you're not supposed to run it until after the 48hrs. Maybe you can just throw in an airline? At least point a powerhead at the surface? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 You can run the skimmer without the collection cup and it will aerate your water. Just make sure you won't get too much splashing somewhere you don't want it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 25, 2013 Author Share Posted May 25, 2013 yeah there's no amount of turning it down that will keep it from overflowing. Going to take the cup off and use it to aerate. Thanks for the heads up. I just came in from the garden and read your note and when I checked it my cup had overfloweth:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 OK. So far no cyano after treatment. I did about a 25% water change yesterday fllowing the 2.5 day treatment. I also thoroughly cleaned the whole skimmer unit and vacuumed out the section where it was. Hopefullt I'll be good to go now. My new light is scheduled to arrive on Wednesay. I'm going to seed the HOB filter cartidges for my QT tank filter starting tonight. I guess I'll just put them in the refugium somewhere for about a week and then the next time I do a 10% water chnage, should be Sunday, I'll get my QT set up. I'm really ready to stop stressing over my tank and get it to a more enjoyable state:) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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