Cyano product reef safe???

[Berger9953]

For red slime and cyano, people have recommended me this product:

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?&vendor=&idProduct=BE1115&child=BE1115&tab=4&size=2%20grams

 

But is it reef safe?? Many reviews state that their inverts all died in 24hrs(scary) Should I go with it? Has anyone used this in a reef tank?????

[reefcam]

From my experience with cyano or red slime removing product, I have had bad side effects. I recommend putting an air stone in the tank or sump. Those product have been known to reduce oxygen level in tanks. Now I just remove as much through siphon and frequent water changes. And now I added a UV to my tank. Good luck.

[jgf86123]

water changes, carbon, and reduced feeding are much better than using chemicals

[Arsonmfg]

Like most have said, cut your feedings back syphon out as much as you can. If you've got it on rocks use a powerhead to blow it off.

 

You can use a fine fish net to remove it from the water column after you blow it off of the rocks.

 

After you've done that turn all of your lights out completely for five days while doing water changes. Having your lights out for five days won't harm your corals.

 

You obviously have a nutrient problem that you need to address, if you don't find the source of the problem the cyano will just return and you'll be spinning your wheels.

 

There are plenty of ways to deal with tank issues without chemicals. Personally I refuse to put chemicals in any of my tanks.

[andy]

You obviously have a nutrient problem that you need to address' date=' if you don't find the source of the problem the cyano will just return and you'll be spinning your wheels.[/quote']

 

+1, agree completely.

[Berger9953]

Thanks for all of the advice everyone!

 

I have been cutting back on food, and yesterday I had my light off completely, I religiously siphon the sand and do water changes, but I keeps coming back(threaten)

[CA2OR]

Re: Cyano product reef safe???

 

are you using tap water or some stuff from a water machine? that is what I was doing when I had the same problem you are....I used red slime control and all was gone within 2 doses and had no side affects....

 

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[Berger9953]

I use conditioned tap water. I see plenty of people that use ro/di water and still have this problem, so I'm not sure it's even worth using special water....So you had a reef tank and nothing died correct? That's interesting, I don't know if I should take the chance(scratch)

[CA2OR]

Re: Cyano product reef safe???

 

correct. The decision is yours, so do what you feel is right...everyone has different experiences with different products, and results will differ from system to system

 

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[Arsonmfg]

Well, all we can do is give your our best advise, what you choose to do is up to you.

 

Conditioned tap water will remove chlorine from your tap and "buff" the water but your still not removing other desolved solids from your water. You need to be running water from an RO. YES people have done it with tap water and had success BUT everyones individual tds readings are going to be different depending on where you live and the waters origin.

 

Conditioned tap water would be suitable if you were running a FOWLR but no way for a reef.

 

What are your waters perams?

 

There really needs to be a sticky around here for people asking advice on problems with their tanks to post the results of a current water test, their water source etc. when asking for help. It just makes it A LOT easier to give good advise.

 

How big if your tank? What are you running for a skimmer?

 

Cyano can be a real pain to get rid of... Do a full water test and post the results along with some info on your system, this will give people a better idea of how to help you address the problem. Cyano will die back without light, you need to stay consistent for five days without light though, if you need to close any blinds that shoot direct sunlight into the tank as well.

[dsoz]

I used red slime remover before. It worked great. It is more an antibiotic than a chemical (but in the strictest sense, everything is a chemical. Even salt...)

 

Two doses, run a skimmer on maximum bubbles and use one of the powerheads to make "ripples" on the surface of the water (to help oxygenate the water). Run carbon after and a large water change. I didn't have anything in my reef tank die from adding red slime remover.

 

Yes, you also need to take care of any nutrient issues. The red slime remover is only ONE STEP in the process to cleaning it out of your tank. If it is all you do, you are only putting a band-aid on an arterial wound.

 

dsoz

[reefnjunkie]

Siphoning-bad?

 

I have used red slime control by blue vet I believe.

 

Hey I read something here and I think I replied to a post of your-about a FS receding???

you wrote;

 

Thanks for all of the advice everyone!

 

I have been cutting back on food, and yesterday I had my light off completely, I religiously siphon the sand and do water changes, but I keeps coming back(threaten)

 

If you are siphoning your sand like we did when we owned fresh water-STOP.

You are potentially releasing al kinds of nasty bacteria and your water will go to crap-spikes in Nitrates, phosphates- everything going nuts.

 

Nitrates could be the GFS issue, Phosphate could be the cyno issue.

 

Hopefully you are not doing as it read-never siphon sand-if you want to blow a power head over it to stir it up-or add a good CUC.

 

Good luck

[Berger9953]

My specs in DT right now:

 

20 gallon

15-20ish lbs of lr

30lbs of ls

bibcube skimmer with airstones

1 koralia nano

2x24 watt t5ho current nova extreme 1 10k 1 actinic

2 perc clowns

1 royal gramma

1 yellow clown goby

trumpet coral

Frogspawn

not sun coral, don't know the name but looks exactly like it

 

About the nitrates and vacuuming: Sorry, I know I don't know very much about cyano, but I do know that nitrates are removed by deep vacuuming in the sand bed. It removes wastes like poop, left over food and algae. And since my skimmer needs airstones I just put a new one in and everything is clearing up and the algae isn't growing AS fast, but still there. Thanks for all of the advice, comments and input everyone!!

[Algae]

There is a lot of difference between between a deep sand bed and a shallow sand bed. if you have 30lbs. of live sand in a 20 you are moving towards a deep sand bed. If I had a 1/2" of sand I would not be too worried about siphoning. With a deep sand bed, siphoning can really start a disaster.

I've used Red Slime Remover with good results. It is a Band Aid, but a pretty good one. IMHO. It does give you time to address the issue more globaly.

[Berger9953]

If the problem doesn't stop soon, I'll move towards the product, but for know I think I will do it chemical-free:) Thanks everyone!!!

[pledosophy]

IME using that product it works, at first. Then you have to re dose a month later. Then a couple months later you redose again, but the problem is not gone, so then you have to do the double dose you read about on the side of the package. That works, at first but a month later it pops up again. So you dose the product, do the re dose, then do a triple dose and now it is gone. A month later, I looked for another solution. For the record after each dose I did a 50% water change.

 

That product is an anti biotic, but it is not strong enough to completely kill off the bacteria, so it kills off all of the weak cells, leaving the strongest to multiply. Then repeats. After a few doses the cells are now resistant to that anto biotic and it has no effect. Now that you have anti biotic resistant bacteria things are much worse.

 

A light amount of research into cynaobacteria will reveal it is one of the oldest things on the earth. It can double itself in as little as 20 minutes given ideal conditions (which include a moist environment with a good temperature (78F range), with a food source (any nitrate). Our tanks are perfect for it.

 

The bacteria is completely photosynthetic. So if you remove the light source for 72 continious hours, you will kill what is present in your tank at that moment. . . mostly, but enough where what is left will not be a problem if you have your additional nutrient problems in check.

 

IME turning the lights off for that long of a period does have detremental affects on some species of corals especially acropora and caps. I have not experienced a problem with the other species I keep, which are plentiful.

 

After you do a period of 72 hours with no light you need to do at least a 50% water change, then follow it up a few days later with another change.

 

If you neglect to do the two major water changes a period of nussiance aglae will follow IME. Algaes will go sexual and release sopres after an extended time period with no light, so doing the change will remove much of these spores before they seed and cause a further headache IME.

 

There are many factors to cyano which include excessive nutrients and a low pH. Most hobbyists over feed, by a ton. Reading about your tank you are over stocked, by a bit IMO. The increased amount of bio waste created is contributing to your problem IMO. I would cut to feeding your fish a ridiculously small amount 2x a week for a couple weeks as well and see how that improves your situation.

 

IMO if you want to keep the fish you have you need to start looking at a larger system or a significant increase in filtration.

 

JMO

 

Hope That Helps.

[Berger9953]

Thanks pledosophy for your expert advice:) Since I don't have any anacorpia then I assume you mean the light technique is appropriate. Then a big water change then cut back on feeding...But really, 4 fish? you think that's an overload, they're all supposed to stay 3inch or less. The ycg right now is probably a half an inch, the clowns 2 inches and the gramma 1 inch, soon I was going to trade the ycg for a cherub angel, but that won't help or make an sort of a difference. Do you sugggest adding dead rock to the tank for extra bio filtration??(In the future once it does come alive of course)

 

THanks again!!

[pledosophy]

IMO you are over stocked. I do tend to stock fairly conservatively but IMO 2 clowns and the 20g is full, and if they are full grown the tank is over stocked.

 

With the fish you listed I say feed no more then twice a week. Also what are you feeding? How much? How often?

 

Adding more rock can help, sometimes. If there is to much rock and not enough flow it creates places where detritus can build up and this will contribute further to your problem. I don't know what your rock or flow situation is, so I can't really tell you for sure.

 

IME adding dead rock to established system is I always get an algae problem on that rock for a couple months at least. If you have the ability to "cook"the rock first I would. If you are unfamiliar with the term cooking rock I can explain it a bit better.

 

Thanks for the expert compliment. I am not an expert though. I am just a guy who has already been through what your going through, a few times. No biggie.

[Berger9953]

IMO you are over stocked. I do tend to stock fairly conservatively but IMO 2 clowns and the 20g is full, and if they are full grown the tank is over stocked.

 

With the fish you listed I say feed no more then twice a week. Also what are you feeding? How much? How often?

 

Adding more rock can help, sometimes. If there is to much rock and not enough flow it creates places where detritus can build up and this will contribute further to your problem. I don't know what your rock or flow situation is, so I can't really tell you for sure.

 

IME adding dead rock to established system is I always get an algae problem on that rock for a couple months at least. If you have the ability to "cook"the rock first I would. If you are unfamiliar with the term cooking rock I can explain it a bit better.

 

Thanks for the expert compliment. I am not an expert though. I am just a guy who has already been through what your going through, a few times. No biggie.

 

I use marine cuisine and cut it in half. Feed everyother day and once I come home during the week I put the cube in a cup of tank water and thaw it and conservatively feed throught until it's gone or when the light is off. I'll definetly cut back to twice weekDOH! That maybe a factor in the nitrates:)

 

I have a nano koralia, but I desperately need another one for some cross flow. I'm framilar with cooking rock, although it wasn't necassary for me to do it because I bought mine precultured. And I'm getting a ro/di unit soon!!

[Berger9953]

Hello again, I still have trouble with cyano and hair algae, id this just a 2-4 month long phase that a tank goes through? Or am I doing something drastically wrong? I'm using RO water now, but where are all of the nutrients coming from?? Thanks for the help already!

[Michael7979]

Just skimmed thru this thread again.

If you said it before I missed it.

 

How old are your bulbs?

 

Keep fighting! You will eventually win this battle.

[KMiller]

Re: Cyano product reef safe???

 

Are you using ro/di or dechlorinated tap water?

 

 

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[reef165]

About the nitrates and vacuuming: Sorry, I know I don't know very much about cyano, but I do know that nitrates are removed by deep vacuuming in the sand bed. It removes wastes like poop, left over food and algae. And since my skimmer needs airstones I just put a new one in and everything is clearing up and the algae isn't growing AS fast, but still there. Thanks for all of the advice, comments and input everyone!!

 

Although vacuming the sand in a freshwater setup just may do that, in a saltwater tank it dose more harm than good. Anirobic bacteria is what brakes down the nitrates and turns it into nytrogen gas and that it disapated out of the water. The anirobic bacteria lives within the live rock and bottom layer of your deep sandbed. It is called anirobic because it thrives in very low and no oxigen levels, so when you disturbe the deep sandbed you are basicaly killing off that bacteria.

although there are tons of ways to fix your cyano problem you will never know for sure who to trust. You need to know what causes it and take small steps in fixing it to understand why is was happening in your tank. Cyano is caused by, poor water quality, not enouph bio filtration, not enouph water movement. I would tackel the first one first, water quality. I would go to a LFS that sells water and get some salted water for water changes and some fresh water for topoff, then think about your skimmer, how well is it working? do you get allot of green slimmy gunk and need to clean it weekly? You said it was an airstone skimmer, how long has it been since replacing it? Do those things first, then if it still is there, or not drasticaly improving after a week, continue doing that and go to the next one, do you have enouph bio filtration ( ie, LR and sand) for the bio load you have in your tank? and so on.

I wouldnt use any chemicals in your tank, yes they are antibacterials and they arn't discriminating, they will kill off the good with the bad.

[KMiller]

Sorry I didn't realize someone already asked about the tap or RO/DI water. I was just going to say that I had a huge Cyano problem when I was using condition/dechlorinated tap water

[impur]

I had cyano about as bad as it gets. Covered my entire tank, pump outlets, frag racks, rocks.....EVERYTHING.

 

I used chemi-clean and it works really well for smaller outbreaks. I had used it on my 29gal several years ago, and it got rid of the cyano for good. It never came back.

 

Then i upgraded to my 75gal and it took over. I tried everything anyone has ever recommended. Then i just concentrated on my husbandry. I changed my RO/DI filters, increased flow, added GFO, and made sure i was doing my weekly WCs consistently. I would come home every day and use my turkey baster to suck up as much as i could, and each week when i did a WC i would syphon all the cyano out. I also added some extra rock to my tank. After about 2 months of this, i started to see some positive results. It slowely decreased then finally after about 4 months of this, it was gone. It didn't come back until i started dosing vodka, and now i've stopped that. I've still got a couple small patches that pop up from time to time, but i don't mind them. The go away after a WC.

 

My advice is to stay diligent, do weekly 25% WCs with RO/DI, syphon it out daily as much as you can and syphon all of it out the day you do your WC, add GFO, up your flow and make sure your bulbs are not old.

 

Good luck and keep at it, you'll beat it!!