Cyanobacteria

[Huly]

As some know from my other thread in DIY. We had a tank crash or disease wipe out almost all of our fish. We only have 3 chromis left in QT. (Possibly Marine Velvet, ICH, Bad RODI Water, Nitrate Spike, and whole lot of other question marks) so we are keeping our DT fishless for 8 or more weeks. Our water parameters are back to normal after the nitrate spike (possibly due to fish that died while we were at work) But on the good side all of our Corals look AMAZING! Well we noticed this starting to grow over the weekend. So I snapped a quick photo and emailed it to Origami with my cell and he stated it is Cyanobacteria. I researched it online and saw that turning your lights off for 3 days, etc etc will help. I also saw that 50% believe crabs and snails will eat it. Last night I did see one of my larger hermits snacking on it. and the center red area is now clean. Thoughts?

 

We currently have randon snails (turbos to Nassarius snails), hermits, 1 fighting conch, 2 skunk cleaner shrimp, and a porcelin crab in our tank. We are looking to add a sand sifting starfish but no one has one at the LFS and we are on a wait list.

 

 

Any other suggestions? We are not a big fan of cutting the light for 3 days as I am scared we might start loosing coral too (Torch, Aussie Elegance, Sun Coral, Blastomussa, Starburst,

Candy cane, Ricordea, Birdsnest, Montipora, Zoas, Goniopora, Frogspawn, and Xenia)

 

[Der ABT]

corals will do fine for 3 days with no lights.

majority of the time if you increase the flow to that area it will go away (and just watch your nutrients or check how old the bulbs are)

 

try to syphon it out as well next water change.

[Jan]

Increase flow to that area will help along with using a turkey baster or tubing to remove the cyano. I've used Boyds red slime remover - Chemiclean with great results. Also increased water changes.

[NYfan78]

I have that in my tank and i have a 12 turbo snails and they do not seem to eat it. I took out my hermits as they where eating my nasaris snails. I do water changes weekly now (used to do every 3 weeks).

[Huly]

Thanks! I try to read what they say online then ask here to see what people have had and how it worked.

[miggs76]

Buy a conch. Ate that red blanket right up. Quantum reefs had them.

[miggs76]

Whoops.....just read you have a conch. Give him some time....he will munch on it

[Ryan S]

Increase flow to that area will help along with using a turkey baster or tubing to remove the cyano. I've used Boyds red slime remover - Chemiclean with great results. Also increased water changes.

Along with manual removal, lights out for 3 days, and increased flow, I also used Boyds red slime remover and it worked very well for me too.

[NYfan78]

Did the red slim remover affect anything else in the tank?

 

 

[Ryan S]

Did the red slim remover affect anything else in the tank?

Not at all. Just follow the directions.

[Jan]

Red slime remover is an enzyme and has no ill effects on anything. I think folks have had issue with it because they do not follow the instructions. Don't leave it in your DT longer than suggested thinking that it will work that much more. Have mixed water available for a large water change. If you don't reassess the situation and find the cause; adjust your flow, the amount you feed and do regular water changes, you'll just get it again. I keep getting it in one spot in my tank because I need to rescape the rock in that area so flow can get to a dead spot.