Cyano :(

[KLKelly]

Our tank has been set up for three months.  We've had a ton of different kinds of algae but not cyano so I thought we avoided this part of a tank setup.

We put some mushrooms in a small tupperware with some rubble on the bottom of the tank.  I guess this disrupted the flow behind it.  A patch of cyano started forming.  We took out the container and now cyano is spreading all along the sand.  Even though its high flow. The greenstar polyp is blowing like crazy and the cyano is all around it.

I know you don't fix this with chemicals - the tank will probably balance out.

Is there something I can do in the meantime?  We are mixing water so that we can do small water changes each day to vacuum out some of it.

This sucks

[BigDaddy]

Turkey basters and patience...

[Heidi]

lots and lots of patience. You'd be amazed at how many different swear words you use or create about this stuff when staring at your tank.

It will be okay though - don't let it get you down. We've all been there at some point in time in varying degrees. At least you are trying to keep on top of it now before it gets out of hand.

[kennyman]

Water changes can help twofold.

A)they help to reduce organic compounds that cyano can feed on

B)they help dilute digestive enzymes cyano releases into the tank. I read somewhere cyano breaks down food outside its body to get what it wants. Nasty stuff. It can do more than just look ugly 

[KLKelly]

Thanks guys - I can't believe how much its spread in two days. 

Beginner questions.  I think the water change we tried to do two days ago spread it around.  We did a gravel vac and I hear thats a no no. 

The turkey baster - am I trying to actually get the sand itself out of the tank?  The red colour sticks to the sand and doesn't seem to come off of it.

We will keep up the water changes.

[Adam]

The only place I have cyano growing is inside of one of my koralia powerheads...

[groan]

"The turkey baster - am I trying to actually get the sand itself out of the tank?  The red colour sticks to the sand and doesn't seem to come off of it."

you wil need to suck up a bit of the gravel. cant avoid it.
As was already mentioned, patience adn adjust your flow to make sure ther eare no dead spots.

the tank will look terrible for a while but it will balance out.

[KLKelly]

Thanks guys.

[Cheebs]

Hang in there Kelly, I just went through the exact same thing a few weeks ago, brown stringy cyano would spring up everywhere, and it even started to grow over corals, so I was pretty worried.  It's looking great now though, it took a week or two to clear up.  It was nasty, I'll try and find a pic, but try not to let it get to you.

[kennyman]

Thanks guys - I can't believe how much its spread in two days. 

Beginner questions.  I think the water change we tried to do two days ago spread it around.  We did a gravel vac and I hear thats a no no. 

The turkey baster - am I trying to actually get the sand itself out of the tank?  The red colour sticks to the sand and doesn't seem to come off of it.

We will keep up the water changes.

Gravel vac will disturb the bacterial layering of a DSB and that can impede your tanks biological efficiency. It should only be done to remove heavy accumulation of sediments in very mature sandbeds where they are releasing nutrients back into the system. And only small sections at a time even then.

Have you tweaked your powerheads so that flow is stronger in that corner?

The concept of putting sugar water in the tank is to create a bloom of other bacteria that compete with cyano for nutrients and space (Mutual Antagonism). Waiting it out is a more passive approach to the same thing. The cyano draws on resources for this bloom and hopefully other organisms begin to compete with it eventually restoring balance. Directing the flow onto a patch of cyano seems to be a good way to limit sheeting and allow other organisms to catch up.

Is it starting to stink yet? That stuff smells soooo baddd 

[KLKelly]

Well he gravel vac'd again    I caught him half way through and he switched to the turkey baster. Guess I'll be testing the water.

It hasn't built up a lot of slime so I expect it will get a whole lot worse.

Finding a way to get the flow right in this tank is the most annoying thing about going salt water so far.  The gsp is blowing so I see a lot of flow.  The problem we have I guess is that where the cyano starts we couldn't point the hydor down to it.  The cyano starts after the first 5 inches of the tank and goes for three quarters of the length. (Right to left, the hydor points right to left).

Should we point it right down to the sand?

Or drop the hydor at the front down to mid level of the tank? Its towards the upper level right now. The tank is only a 15 gallon.

[Cheebs]

I wouldn't point the powerhead right at the sandbed, that could cause trouble.  I did tthree thigns to help get through my cyano bloom -  I converted to RO water from tap water,  I added a third Koralia 4, and I waited patiently.  It sucked getting home to look at a tank with a bunch of brown/red stuff all over.

Anyways,  what I think might help for flown, although it could be tricky in a 15 gallon, is having another source of flow.  In my tank, the powerheads' flow paths intersect eachother, which seems to make the flow spread more around the tank and get's rid of dead spots.

[groupie02]

you don't want to aim directly at the substrate as it will just make a mess in the tank (well, maybe OK with an Hydor). Just ensure that you have good flow and make extra water changes. I did 2 x >20% water changes per week in our 65g until my  cyano went away. I also added a couple of scarlet hermits as they are known to eat it (or move it at least).
After a couple of weeks it started to go away pretty quickly.

Good luck.

[groupie02]

I did not notice that this was in a 15g.  I guess that you could follow Anthony Calfo's advice and do a 100% water change 

[KLKelly]

Thanks for all the advice.  It really helps.

[rechaud]

maybeyou already know but i will say it, don't put tap water in your tank, buy culligan water, those bottle are on sale at wall mart or home depot. To take some word from a guy who know what he's talking about: Tap water is a NO NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I start my tank 6 weeks ago and since the begining, i have no algea and to have talk with Sniggir, just to use bottle water help a lot.

Hope it would help you. I'm new in SW but if i can help...
Réchaud...

[KLKelly]

I couldn't imagine getting into this hobby without a forum/resource like OVAS.  It would be stressful.

We were buying PC distilled the first month.  The past two months its been only Culligan.  Thanks for the recommendation just in case.

The cyano started because the tupperware blocked the flow.  I didn't expect it to spread.  I thought it would stay in that one tiny patch where the flow wasn't the best.  I'm sure its feeding off the nitrate blip we got a few weeks ago.  The new clowns have also decided to start eating the amphipods so I can't control how much they are eating. 

There are tons of amphipods.  The scarlet crabs and snails don't even venture onto this stuff. 

I watched an amphipod cleaning off individual pieces of sand and dropping them last night though - it was kind of cool.

[KLKelly]

I'm so glad we have you guys to ask advice from.  Please keep being patient.... 

Our live sand is not fine grained - its like crushed coral but a bit smaller  - the turkey baster was picking up a speck at a time and getting clogged at the end so he cut a bit off the end so the hole is a bit bigger.  I know picking out substrate is inevitable but over time it could mean a lot.  This stuff grows back overnight! CRAZY!  So if this goes on for weeks the sand that is picked up (stuck to the cyano) will add up.  We only have 15 pounds of sand in the tank.  He disrupted it big time doing gravel vac but ammonia is showing as zero.

Should we be rinsing off the sand and putting it back in?