How To Rid Cyano And Other Pest Algaes

[glaspak845]

New and Old aquarists may find this post helpful when you want immediate answers.


One major problem in tanks is cyano. This is especially true in new unestablished tanks. First lets state the reasons for that.

1) New tanks often have live rock cured in them before adding any fish to the tank; this leaves dead decaying matter in the tank to fuel cyano growth.

2) New tanks also aren't as stable on the chemical level as older more established tanks. Given time and careful water maintenance your water parameters will become more stable as well.

3) Other things I have heard help fuel cyano is low pH, how true this is I'm not sure, but low pH can cause many other problems as well.


Now to actually curing the cyano problem. There are many products on the market designed to kill cyano but I'm not a fan of dumping all sorts of chemicals into my tank. This usually involves checking if its ok with inverts, corals and fish. I choose to use a more natural way to rid the cyano which is just as easy.

Before doing any of the steps check for phosphates and nitrates. High phosphates and nitrates are notorious for helping to grow this stuff. High levels of phosphates are considered more than 0.03ppm while high nitrates are over 20ppm. If any of these are your problem, simple weekly water changes with RO water will help with your fix.

After Checking for phosphates here are your steps.

1) Weekly water changes using RO water. RO water eliminates an excess nutrient problem from even entering the water.

2) Increase Circulation in the tank. Cyano is known to thrive in areas of low circulation. (General Rule is 10x more circulation than tank volume)

3) Good Skimmer and skimmer maintenance. (Cleaning the collection cup often, and cleaning the skimmer itself once a month if possible)

4) Dripping kalk at night will help to precipitate out CaPO4, which can then be collected by the skimmer

5) Suck out any large patches of cyano with a turkey baster, this will completely remove the nutrients from the water column.


Other notes

-Over feeding will also help to raise nutrient levels.
-Cutting back on lighting period can help to reduce cyano (not preferred in my eyes)
-Growing macro algae will take up excess nutrients before cyano can use them.


Hope this helps and I hope you can avoid using those needless chemicals. They are only temporary fixes they will not solve your problem. Curing cyano is more than just making it disappear, it’s correcting the entire problem.

Good Luck!

[bori]

thanks for the tips Glaspak845!

[kmk2307]

Very informative and very thorough. I'm gonna rate this thread w/ 5 stars.

Here's a question. What did you mean by this?

(General Rule is 10x more circulation than tank volume)

Thanks,
Kevin

[glaspak845]

Heres an example I maybe should have put it in the original post, sorry to be confusing.

Say your tank is 30 gallons in volume.

You would want 300 gallons/hour of circulation.

Have a good one,

Mike

[Cape Cod]

Is Cyano algee look like brown on the glass and a film on pic up tubes etc.....?

[serjuanca88]

They cyano in my tank is a red filmlike substance. I can actually peel it off in large peices.

[ez1ez]

I have a 150g reef tank with red Cyano growing in spots. The tank has been up for a year and cyano started 3 months ago. I rinse it off in saltwater but it comes back. I ask everyone but no one knew how to rid cyano. Thank you. Off I go to buy an RO unit.

[getoutofmyway]

cape what you have is diatom algea brown and grows like madddddddddd!!!!!!!!

[Cape Cod]

So Getoutofmyway, is this diatom algea something I should worry about or is it just an early stage type of problem?

[Harbour]

After doing all of this then add Red Slime Remover by Ultralife! LOL!

When I got the slime I did a search and found that many with the best equipment in the hobby were still getting the red slime.

Nothing worked for me until I added the slime remover. The hobby had almost lost it's fun for me. I too was once against adding chemicals like this. Next time it will be the slime remover right off the bat.

Just my experience!

BTW, great post on potential prevention and removal. This will leave it in a one stop source for those in the future.

Harbour

Harbour

[glaspak845]

[glaspak845]

Well I post this imformation mostly from when I was doing the research when my tank had it. Its nice to have answers immediatly when you want them. However, after I cycled my 20 gallon with the LR in the tank the cyano was all over the tank, literally covering all of the live rock and most of the sand, with time and water changes I got rid of it. The important thing out of all of that is this...weekly water changes and even if you dont have cyano good maintence habits prevent problems of all sorts. Water changes are important and sometimes bypassed.

I dont want to sound like I'm scholding you for using slime remover, but it does nothing to completely fix the problem, its only a temproary fix to an ongoing problem you may have. Its best to find the source of the problem so it can be completely and accuratly be corrected.

Mike

[dupontsniper]

maybe its just my tank, but I experimented with a closed high pressure sytem, outlets being much smaller than outlet capacity. I run a 72 on this system with a 20, prob 15 gal at capacity and 60 on main. I run a 400gph pump and have np w/ circulation.. Just like holding your finger over the end of a hose. Never had any bad algaes and soft and hard corals are unchanged.the 10 1/4" nipples I have buried under the sand, are barbed, and if I need flow behind my rocks, I simply run a hose from my fittings(completely unseen) and aim at the area needed. This sytem does work, I was curious the first 6-8 monthes, now over 2 years. Shane

[rfoote]

For what its worth the following is what I did to get rid of a very bad case of cyano. To start just a background - I've had my tank up now for about 14 months and things were saling smooth. All my levels were good, but one day I all the sudden had this patch of red crap on my sand. Well not understanding - on my next water change I did a deep sand cleaning in that area. I kid you not within two days 1/3 of my tank was covered in Cyano. I tried numerous things over the next month with no success. The following is what I did to finally resolve the problem.

What I did and learned;

1. Never do deep sand cleaning - You are bringing up crap you don't want to. Too many this is probably obvious, but I guess I just wasn't thinking. Although at my local Marine Store the guy says this is the culprit probably over 50% of the time.

2. After this for 4 straight weeks I did a 50% water change of 75 gal. w/out messing with the sand at all.

3. From a post by glaspak I pulled up everthing I could everytime I did a change with a turkey bastor.

4. I purchased the following; Two very large Queen Conchs, a Lawnmower Blenny, one white sand starfish, and 20 more each of crabs and turbo snails.

5. I bought the ESV B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System and added it on a nightly basis. This has helped I believe bring my Ph from around 7.8 to a steady 8.4.

6. During this time I held feeding to a minimum, especially any frozen type.

Thanks to everyone who answered my posts during this time, the large majority of what I did was right off posts!

[qvest4JC]

I read all the posts and was wondering if the slime had anything to do with new power compacts that I purchased for my 150 gal, I only light up half which is three feet, two feet deep. Its 196 watts total with two bulbs. One atinic and one daylight. Ever since I have been lighting my tank the slime began to grow. I turned them of recently but before I had them on for twelve hours a day. Do the lights have any effects on the slime growth??

[glaspak845]

I dont think lighting has much to do with cyano growth. Have you explored the excess nutrient problem, this is what will be the biggest cause of a possible problem.

Mike

P.S. If anyone has other ways to Rid other problematic algeas, feel free to post in this post, just add a new post subject, this is why I titled it how it is. Try to add ways that are proven, not just shots in the dark.

Good Luck All!

[rfoote]

I've read and heard that old MH Bulbs can cause an increase in algae and cyano. Is this true? Thanks!

[stan]

guys heres what i finnally did. my reef was up for about 2 years and one day this slime started popping up. i fought it for about 6 months without any success . it dam near got me out of the hobby. one night i went to my aquarium club meeting and talked to a guy about it. now i was never one to add chemicals to my reef to fight algae but i was at the end of the line. make it or break it. i was at that point. he told me to get some maracyn fresh water tablets and crush up 6 tablets for a 120 gal tank and shut my skimmer off and dump this stuff in wait a day and start doing some big water changes. guys believe me. within a couple hours i was seeing this red slime falling off the rocks, it was curling up on my sand. the next day i started with thee water changes and never have seen red algae in my tank again and that was about 2 years ago. so take it for what its worth, it worked for me.
happy reefin,
stan

[XDrewX]

The guy at my LFS told me the same thing. I was afraid to try it though.

[saltaholic]

There is some good info here, thanks all.

[bigfish_oz]

I have a new tank (my first) that I set up on Sunday. I used live rock from two sources. Several of the rocks from one source have now developed patches of white fuzzy growth which looks almost like mould (mold).

My books say remove the affected rock and re-cure it under low light with plenty of aeration for 1-3 weeks.

My questions:

1. Is that the corrcet procedure?
2. Do I need to do anything to prevent similar outbreaks from occurring elsewhere?
3. Any other advice relating to this?

Setup is 60G, Weipro Skimmer with 2000litres/hr, fluidized bed (sand) filter with 1400 litres/hr. I currently have two small powerheads in the tank at opposite ends pushing about 300 litres per hour each. I also have a sand filled sump with a powerhead that pushes 3200 litres/hr at 0 metres heads (2400 @ .95 metres (abt 3 feet)) that I'm not sure about... I want a reef tank, not a washing machine and it really pushes the water about!

Regards.

[MotoTrixMichael]

I'm having an algea problem at the moment also. I had to move my tank twice in a week. I think thats what caused the problem.

[DragonTamer]

my 30 gallon is about 7 months old, and everything has been stable so far.. I only add a tiny bit to it every month or so and do regular water changes.. there's only a single 4-striped damsel, a couple blue legged hermit crabs, live rock, live sand, and some turbo snails (and dark blue and green featherduster worms, bristle worms, etc that were on the live rock, of course).

I am noticing three distinct types of algae growin in my tank.. one is the brown stuff that gets on the glass, and seems to grow long, like hair algae or whatnot.

the second is red, but doesn't sound anything like what you're describing! it's only in tiny areas and has been in the tank for a good 3 or so months now... it's just flat to the ground, and there's barely any there... I think it came in with some rock (I only add a tiny bit every month or so with this tank.. I'm extremely new and I just want to do everything as slowly as possible so there isn't a huge change, and I can learn as I go along).

the third is green.. it grows in furry clumps. where it grows, it looks like a fuzz ball. I actually like this furry algae, it reminds me of tribbles

any clue what these are, and if they're good/bad/normal? can anyone point me to actual GOOD sites out there on this matter?

[slholmes]

Now I'm confused. A lot of post talks about how RO water is bad to have phosphates. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about what is good or bad. I used well water to start my reef and slowly changed over to distilled water. Now I have red algae. I'm new and very confused.

[KORE(67)]

OK....i have had a bad case of cyano algae in my 30gallon tank. I have tried Phosguard by Seachem, reducing feeding, reduced lighting etc. I need a quick effective way to remove it, and dont really want to resort to water changes....any ideas would be helpful.....