Cyano Removal HELP

[jsaltiel]

I am new to this world. My tank (55g corner) is about 5 months old. 60lbs live sand, 60lbs live rock, all the right lighting, sump, skimmer, etc. I been through a diatom bloom and green algae bloom, and the tank seemed to have cycled nicely. I added some livestock too early, so I lost a few, did many water changes and then things seemed to settle down. I now have a bunch of red & blue leg crabs, a couple of snails, two chromus and a dragon gobi. My first polyps got ruined by the gobi dumping sand all over the tank until the Diatom phase was over.
Life in the rock is starting to sprout then - about three weeks ago Dark Red (almost black) Cyano hit. I have tried everything. I have been thru a few Chemi Clean treatments, which helped for a while, then it came back. Then I tried Redout which did nothing. Back to ChemiClean - added a 12" air stone, redirected by inlets to get good splash, lots of skimming, a little more ChemiClean, 30% water change, reduced the feeding to once every other day, but I get get rid of it. It is not spreading (today). How do I get rid of it - or should I?? I have some Potasium Permangate on the way (which is Albert Thiel's solution - when I learn how to mix it. - can't find Redox+.)
Any help please!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi jsaltiel,

:welcome:

Just say no to pot, its a gateway drug!

Seriously though.. - I've been there, done that.. - Potassium permangate will appear to help, but considering that you'll also be killing plenty of other stuff right along with it, you're very likely to just feed its revival and it'll wind up coming back stronger than ever.

Probably your best bet is to check your makeup water... - When my DI resin chamber in my RO/DI filter is expended I'll start to see cyano develop with the first addition of that bad makeup water. Every drop from there is more fuel to the fire.

I don't usually have a problem unless my DI resin is shot and so is my wallet. - I also usually know well ahead of time that I'll be seeing it too, since I usually do a TDS test on pretty much every batch of clean water I make from my RO/DI.

The only other times I've had long-term problems with it is when I didn't have enough flow..


OH! - Cerith snails help too, but blue-legs like to make meals and new homes out of them so not sure that'll help you much.. :?

 

[Anonymous]

By far the best thing is to enhance water circulation. Double it.


If all else fails, erythromycin will kill it, without killing your biological filter. I've done this, but use it as a last resort.

 

[Anonymous]

Potassium permagenate is a fairly powerful oxidizing agent. Since it contains magnesium and oxygen and potassium, it should be fairly harmless, but use it as spairingly as possible.

Are you using decholornator? That is a fairly potent reducing agent, so if you are, stop using that first.