Cyano..

Everything you need to know about cyano and dealing with it can be found in THIS article. It's a wonderful article on a wonderful site by a member of our very own presidency. Good luck!

As a general rule of thumb I choose to use chemicals as a last resort. How long has your tank been up and running?

It's been running since October - 2011. Just over a year.

I've myself and known many reefers that have used chemi clean to get rid of cyano permanently. I recently had a bit of an outbreak after setting up my system again and it worked like the charm I had expected it to.

ReefdUp wrote: ChemiClean is an antibiotic (I think erythromycin)

Sorry, but this is incorrect. You may find posts years back that assumed it was erythromycin, mostly because the manufacturer has been very protective of what it actually was. Its an oxidizer and not an antibiotic.

icenine wrote: ReefdUp wrote: ChemiClean is an antibiotic (I think erythromycin) Sorry, but this is incorrect. You may find posts years back that assumed it was erythromycin, mostly because the manufacturer has been very protective of what it actually was. Its an <span ="st">oxidizer and not an antibiotic</span>. <span ="st">

My apologies as I was thinking of the other multitude of cyanobacteria removers that *are* erythromycin (typically a yellow powder vs Chemi-Clean which is white). Chemi-Clean advertises that it doesn't contain erythromycin succinate - doesn't mean it doesn't contain other forms in conjunction with other ingredients.

Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley states,

"If it is any form of flocculating organic polymer, then any claim about it oxidizing sludge fits in with the typical Boyd modus operandi: absolutely no basis in fact.

It does fit the one bit of info on the MSDS: the mouse LD50. Few chemicals cna match >10 g/kg. Even salt is below that.

Flocculation simply means bringing things together. A polymer would coat a particulate and bring them together with other like particulates that normally repelled each other or at least had no attraction for one another, and caused a bigger lump to form out of many little bits that would then settle out.

One might make some sort of claim that an oxidizer (like permanganate or ozone) might cause flocculation of certain materials if added correctly, but those oxidizers would not be polymers, and would certainly not have an LD50 above 10 g/kg."

ReefdUp wrote: icenine wrote: ReefdUp wrote: ChemiClean is an antibiotic (I think erythromycin) Sorry, but this is incorrect. You may find posts years back that assumed it was erythromycin, mostly because the manufacturer has been very protective of what it actually was. Its an <span ="st">oxidizer and not an antibiotic</span>. <span ="st"> My apologies as I was thinking of the other multitude of cyanobacteria removers that *are* erythromycin (typically a yellow powder vs Chemi-Clean which is white). Chemi-Clean advertises that it doesn't contain erythromycin succinate - doesn't mean it doesn't contain other forms in conjunction with other ingredients. Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley states, "If it is any form of flocculating organic polymer, then any claim about it oxidizing sludge fits in with the typical Boyd modus operandi: absolutely no basis in fact. It does fit the one bit of info on the MSDS: the mouse LD50. Few chemicals cna match >10 g/kg. Even salt is below that. Flocculation simply means bringing things together. A polymer would coat a particulate and bring them together with other like particulates that normally repelled each other or at least had no attraction for one another, and caused a bigger lump to form out of many little bits that would then settle out. One might make some sort of claim that an oxidizer (like permanganate or ozone) might cause flocculation of certain materials if added correctly, but those oxidizers would not be polymers, and would certainly not have an LD50 above 10 g/kg."

Yes, I remember those discussions. The lethal dose noted on the MSDS had nothing to do with it being an antibiotic or not. IIRC, those discussions were more in line with how much of a likely mark up Boyd's was taking on the stuff.

Ya know, if you had used it in conjunction with what you did to clear up your problem, you likely would not have been looking at cyano for an entire year.

Evaluate the issues ReefedUp has identified in the blog post: flow,nutrients and lighting. Red slime is usually a new tank issue or a very old tank one. If you have good flow, balanced bio load and sufficient lighting feel free to ask for my remaining supply of chemi clean and be prepared to use it as instructed (water change soon after dose). I bought a new container this past year and don't expect to need the remaining 90% of it. Once you have things set up properly it can act as the final hit to clear your system of cyano for good.