Cyano battle

[basiab]

My tank (24 gallon aquapod) is 3 years old with crushed coral a royal gramma, spotted cardinal, clown goby, tailspot blenny, Fire fish, and a Rusty goby that I only see as a blur when he dashes for food. The firefish died and I got a clown as a replacement a few weeks ago.
About 3 months ago I began my fight. First I tried Red Slime remover which I had used once before. But this time it did not work well. Still had plenty within a few days. I tried 3 days with no light and tank was fairly clean but then it started coming back. So I tried some more Red slime remover figuring that in its weakened state it might just do the trick. But slowly it started coming back.
Based on some threads here I decided to try Special Blend. For the first 4 weeks I will still syphoning and blowing off the stuff. Slowly I could see improvement. So now after about 8 weeks it is about 95% gone. The only real change is using special blend. I don't know if it really helps or just that my tank went through some cycle.

 

[ryangrieder]

did you cover the tank 100% while no lights on? like black garbage bag taped up? if you didnt, then you need to do it again. the bag trick should work, but you should also start the special blend right after the bags come off to clean up all the dead cyno.

 

[duke62]

the light thing dont work.it killed my clam when i had the problem..SB works if you are diligent about it.it will come back when you stop using it though.i found leaving the cyano alone and changeing all my ro/di catiges and changing lights worked the best.i did very small water chages and sucked out as much as i could in a 2 1/2 gallon water chage.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

I lowered my lights and reduced feedings and stopped spot feeding for a week and presto it was gone
I hope this helps.

 

[jerl77]

Special Blend and stop the feedings worked for me

 

[Rickyrooz]

How does Dr. Tims compare to Special Blend?

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/Product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18986

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3975+22563&pcatid=22563

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3975+8161&pcatid=8161

 

[basiab]

Duke-Not sure what your problem was but the light thing does work and does not hurt LPS which is what I have.
However, without any changes in your operation it will come back most of the time. Lowering light and stop feeding is fine but you can't keep it up. So for most of us that will not help becuase as soon as you go back to your old ways it comes back unless you get something that will compete it for nutrients. In my small tank I could use chaeto for that but my last batch died.
I don't want to change my crushed coral which may be part of the problem. I want to have a big load of fish. So if by using SB it keeps it in check that is fine with me.

 

[MatthewScars]

Well, I'd suggest to people watching this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCIKmFYivDo

You normally want to try non-chemical warfare methods when at all possible.

 

[basiab]

I put a full shot view of my tank in my gallery so you can see that I am winning the battle. From that distance you may not see any cyano but there is still a little bit here and there.