Been fighting with cyano for a few months, finally bought some red slime remover and plan on treating the tank this weekend. I know to keep my skimmer running to help oxygenate the water but do I need to do a water change afterwards? The box says it's not necessary but I'm also battling redbugs and plan on treating the tank shortly afterwards and a large water change is needed for that.
Cyano Treatment
- Thread starter hiimsean
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I've used red slime remover and did a water change as I noticed all the bacteria was gone. No I'll effects. Are you using interceptor to combat red bugs?
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Good deal I've seen a few articles on R2R with success with this.
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Yea just do a large water change to prevent spike in levels and you should be Ok.
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I didn't do a water change after using red slime until I seen it was all gone
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Keep the skimmer on? I wouldn't suggest that - it will most likely make your skimmer go nuts and overflow. Just my .02
While it's not explicitly necessary, it is recommended. (With the OTHER product, ChemiClean, it is absolutely necessary).
When all that cyano dies off it releases all the nutrients that were bound up in it. So water changes will dilute those nutrients and export them, which is half of the battle.
It's a catch 22 with the skimmer - yes it will make it go nuts, but it will help export nutrients. I'd leave it off at first because if it's overflowing that won't help, do a water change, put some carbon and turn the skimmer back on when you can keep an eye on it.
And don't let the skimmer get stagnant. If you turn it off for a couple of days, the standing water in it will get nasty. Take the skimmer out - it's a good chance to give it a good cleaning. Then put it back in when you're ready to run it under supervision.
Jenn
When all that cyano dies off it releases all the nutrients that were bound up in it. So water changes will dilute those nutrients and export them, which is half of the battle.
It's a catch 22 with the skimmer - yes it will make it go nuts, but it will help export nutrients. I'd leave it off at first because if it's overflowing that won't help, do a water change, put some carbon and turn the skimmer back on when you can keep an eye on it.
And don't let the skimmer get stagnant. If you turn it off for a couple of days, the standing water in it will get nasty. Take the skimmer out - it's a good chance to give it a good cleaning. Then put it back in when you're ready to run it under supervision.
Jenn
Keep doing water changes and suck as much as it out as you can. Good luck
As much manual removal of the cyano as possible prior to treatment is one of the best things you can do. When I treated my 465 with Chemiclean a couple months ago, I switched out my 100 micron filter socks to 25 micron socks, then took a maxijet 1200 and blew the tar out of my rock, which dislodged a lot of the cyano and sent it into the filter socks. Rinsed the socks out a few times over a few hours, then treated with the chemiclean.
The more cyano you get out before treatment means the less dead cyano you will have decaying after you treat.
On a side note, a funny thing with this last cyano treatment. I have always had my skimmer go nuts and over-foam post treatment every time I have treated, and coincidentally all my skimmers up until now have been internal, but a few months ago I plumbed in a huge H&S external Skimmer, and guess what?, after ChemiClean treatment this time my skimmer only over-foamed for about 15 minutes, then returned to normal, not the usual 5-7 days I usually see after Chemiclean treatment. I have no idea if there is any correlation of internal vs exernal skimmers and the overfoaming, but I thought it was interesting.
I used Chemiclean a few months ago. The directions I had said to turn the skimmer off and I actually forgot to and it overfoamed. I emailed the company because I was wondering if the skimmer would mess up the treatment and if I should treat again because of it. They told me that they had amended their directions to recommend that skimmers stay one simply for oxygenation because the product will drop the O2 level and could cause a problem in a heavily populated tank.
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I used chemiclean and turned my skimmer off and used an air pump with diffuser. I did not want a salty mess under my tank.
