reddish/brownish hair algea/ cyano

[NjOyRiD]

what may have cause that and what can i do to get rid of it
I just have a little patch
thanx for the help

[Tyler.L]

are you sure its hair algae and not something like red garcilaria?

[NjOyRiD]

humm, its not it...i think its Aquarium Cyanobacteria

I'll put some phosphate remover see whta it does

[Hookup]

I'm currently dealing with cyano... its a pain in the butt.

The current plan of attack is..

1st, change 50% of water - try to vacum/suck the cyano off the walls during the process.
2nd, black out tank for 2 days - using blankets to make it "light proof"
3rd, on day 3, 50% water change - try to vacum off any more cyano if possible.

Ive increased skimming as well and reduced feeding.  I've also added a fuge and I am keeping my Alk at 10.

I suggest you do all of the above, if possible.


I've done a lot of reading on dealing with this stuff and what causes it.  Unfortunately there are no clear facts as to why cyano occurs beyond it is present generally in all systems.  What causes the outbreak is a complete unknown, and honestly so is any guaranteed treatment.  For everyone who says do the following xxx, there are two dozen people who have tried the exact same thing and it didn't work.

This is not all doom and gloom, you just have to keep at it diligently to get rid of it.  Slacking off for a few days or a week will have your tank re-infested and then you're back at square one.  Get it under control using any/all of the above methods, then if you see it coming back, be quick to use those methods again to squash it.  Eventually it will stop coming back, or so i'm told...


Again, all of the above is from reading online, many, many threads and forums... i'm currently in battle round #2, the tank goes into black-out mode tonight.  The last time was last-week, and it has only come back about 20% of what it was.  This time I expect to wipe it out because of the uber-skimming and increased alk.

[Tsukiyomi-sakura]

Whatever you do don't use red slime remover on your tank.

[NjOyRiD]

do you think a uv stereliser would work with thsese?

[Hookup]

Mixed reviews on the UV Sterilizer.  More often than not it didn't help from what I read, but certainly if you look hard enough you'll find someone who was successful using a UV sterilizer.

As I do not know much about them I would do some research on any possible negitive effects of running them... like possibly killing or removing something you do not want killed or removed...

Again, please don't just take my word on this stuff... to date, I've not gotten rid of it, and been "dealing" for about 2 or 3 weeks... I just got pissed when the damn stuff wouldn't go away for good and read all of this stuff on line...   Also, from alot of photos I've seen, people in the "battle" have it quite bad... Lots of patches of this stuff covering almost everything that isn't under high-flow...

[NjOyRiD]

I'm gonna wake my Fighting conch (sleeping since 2 wekks under sand) see what he thinks haha

[Tyler.L]

i  have been battling cyano for a little while to but i got some of the fauna marin ultra lith system stuff, well just the amino acid.....and my cyano has poof gone and disappeared....i dont know if its a coincidence or not but been doing 20g waterchanges with it but....cyano was disappearing before the waterchanges so i dunno....and $30 for amino acid is nothing especially when it will improve your corals.....

[NjOyRiD]

thank you tyler!

[Hookup]

I've been dosing Ultra Lith Amino Acids for about 2 months...  LOL... Im not saying it didn't work/remove Cyano for Tyler, it might have been his silver bullet... However, it's doing nothing for my cyano... My corals look awesome however.. I love the stuff and going to use the entire system soon...

Someone would be a multi-millionaire if they could crack the Cyano problem and sell a cure...

[Tyler.L]

the lighting issue works well also...tank off for 2 days...then everythings good to go.......and more flow, lotsa flow is key!

but the amino acids i dunno maybe i just got lucky lol!

[NjOyRiD]

how long should i keep my lights on
i just have a biocube 29g with 1.2 wpg

[nissannx]

had cyno for 3 weeks. dosed vodka for one week everyday and now its gone. could be coincidence but its gone and water looks good

[Hookup]

had cyno for 3 weeks. dosed vodka for one week everyday and now its gone. could be coincidence but its gone and water looks good

How did you figure out the right dosage for vodka?  I have heard this has had some success for people as well.  If this round of "lights out + water changes + Vacu-sucking the stuff off" doesn't kill it, i'm going to resort to other methods... like the vodka.

[Tyler.L]

theres a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge thread on reef central about it....there will be a huge algea break out at first from everything ive read from it because the vodka is taking up all of the nutrients, dont remember what and exactly how much it is but theres a huge thread some where on rc for it ill try finding it

[nissannx]

i read teh thread on rc. i dosed 2ml for my 40gal everyday for a week. i noticed teh cyno got worse for 3 days then boom over night all gone. continued for a few days then stoped completly

[Hookup]

Just a few questions.. (Geesh srry, ok, quite a few questions...)

What was happening to your skimmer when you dosed?  Did skimtimate production increase?

Did you notice any change with your corals/livestock? 

Did you see any of the reported algae blooms that Vodka dosing can cause?

Did you ramp-up the dose or start with the full 2ml?

How long ago did you do the dosing? 

Has the Cyano returned at all since?

[kennyman]

These suggestions with Amino acids and Vodka are all ways of increasing activity of other tank inhabitants to compete with the cyano for resources. Sugar falls in the same category. It is known as Mutual Antagonism. You encourage preferred organisms or inoffensive organisms in order to to discourage undesirable ones.

Another way to deal with cyano is to use gac. I think Nyjord was using plain charcoal in his filter. I tried to explain the difference between it and gac in an earlier thread but I dont think i conviced anyone that it was more than a fancy name for charcoal. I found a good description of gac in Vol1 of The Reef Aquarium and thought I would try and relay that a bit better. Some of these products are more than just a money grab.

Many of us are familiar with the use of charcoal in the corner-box filters in freshwater aquariums. These usually consisted of small,shiny, irregularly-shaped pieces of bone or wood charcoal. This type of carbon in not really suitable for use in the marine aquariums, and has been replaced by "activated" carbon. In this forum the carbon has been subjected to extremely high pressures and temperatures to drive out all impurities and gasses leaving behind extremely porous and pure grains of carbon. Particle size,type of gas used, activation temperatures and, in some instances, inorganic salts of zinc, copper, phosphate, silicate and sulfate added before activation, provide carbon with specific adsorbtion characteristics. Therefore activated carbon can be tailored to the specific type of impurities that one wishes to remove.

[Hookup]

Thanks Kennyman... nice post.  FWIW; I've heard that there are some huge differences in carbon... even to the point that some have been shown to leach phosphates back into your system, if you can imagine...   So be careful with what you buy because just like diamonds, not all carbon is created equal!