Taking the battle to cyano! wish me luck.

well, after the battle with red bubble, little gha, and mainly cyano lately. Ive had enough. I've made improvements with water parms (nitrates/phos) starting with vodka dosing, once I got nitrates down, stopped vodka. installed some CFL w/ chaeto and mangroves in sump. running carbon and phos remover in bags. did many WCs with ro/di water (was using tap) and turkey basting cyano bi-weekly. overall its 80% better than a few months ago.. but I notice this cyano is pissing off my candy canes, frogspawn, zoas,etc.. as it creeps onto the fleshy parts. I got some chemiclean red slime remover a couple weeks back. I wasnt going to use it, but I did get some salt mix today so I figured lets give it a try.

following directions to a T.
1. turn off protein skimmer,uv,etc..
2. remove carbon,phos remover,etc.
3. add air stone
4. add 1 little scoop per 10gallons, I did 6 scoops.
5. wait 48 hours and pray nothing dies.
6. do 20%+ WC after 48hours.
7. wait another 24hours to restart skimmer, etc..

Ive have read most good reviews about the product, but a few bad reviews (crashed tanks.)

So everyone wish me luck, hopefully this will help my corals getting invaded with cyano/algae.. I'll keep everyone posted..

 

let me explain to you why it crashed tanks. since cyano is a bacteria, the product specifically targets and stops the metabolism of the bacteria. This works great, other than the fact that it also stops the metabolism of a lot of other bacteria in your tank! so not only are you ridding your tank of the cyano, but also of the beneficial bacteria.
Now the good news: since you have been carbon dosing, you have very strong bacteria strains in your tank. even though they will be killed, some will survive and quickly repopulate everything. If i may make a recommendation, shortly after you dose the chemiclean add a small overdose of vodka to get your bacteria duplicating faster. Now this is not meant to scare you because TONS of people use the product with no ill effects... but i thought you might wanna consider it from an educated view.

 

I havent dosed vodka in over a month.. think its safe to add a little now..but I did add a capful or two of vingear with my kalk 5 days ago.. so I guess that counts as carbon dosing.. I just added the chemiclean 1 hour ago.

 

Good luck! You're brave trying the chemicals. Keep us posted on how it goes.

 

I'll add a 8-10 drops of smirnoff thats it, and 1 shot for me. lol damit dingo, Im scared!

 

will do. the stuff most be potent, its scooper is the size of a pea. for 10gallons. fine white powder.

 

just dose half of what is recommended by chemiclean. usually is enough. i have used this product before with great success. but like you, exhausted all other methods within my means($$$) at the time.

 

Good luck!
I'll be watching in case the cyano comes back to my tank....I changed the substrate and most of the cyano was on/in it so hope it stays away.

 

didnt want to worry you! im sure your stuff will be okay... hows it looking today?

 

Red..FWIW my neighbor neglected her tank for a couple of months and had a BUNCH of red cyano. She used Chemiclean and followed the directions to a T. The next day, it was completely gone. No ill effects, and did water change 2 days later. Her tank looks great and corals are all fine.