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View Full Version : Does rinsing with tap water and letting the sand & gravel dry for a week kill cyno?


paulhr
01/09/2014, 11:14 AM
I have what I believe to be a cyno bacteria outbreak in my reef tank. It is a ~180 gallon system with a Berlin Sump. What I have been doing is sucking out the cyno during my water changes. This inevitability get some gravel and sand in the old water. Since this is taking weeks to get control of I have been rinsing the sand and gravel with tap water. Then I set the sand gravel mix out in the garage to dry until the next water change. Then after the next water change is done I put the dried sand gravel back into the tank. My question is this....

Does rinsing 2 - 3 times with tap water and letting the sand and gravel dry for a week kill the cyno?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=259265&stc=1&d=1389287534

disc1
01/09/2014, 12:06 PM
Cyanobacteria is pretty tough stuff. I can imagine you could have some that might survive that. Bleach would probably do it.

The point isn't to kill it all though. That's a fools errand. You never kill it all and have absolultely none around. If you do, it will just come back from the environment or from your next livestock purchase. You just try to get it beat back enough that it doesn't grow out enough to be visible. The usual answer is to starve it out.

leveldrummer
01/09/2014, 01:14 PM
I had very good luck with the red slimer remover product that kills cyano, but as disc1 said you still need to starve it out, your tank has the conditions that make it easy for cyano to grow, get your parameters in check, then when you get rid of whats left, it will stay gone.

bertoni
01/09/2014, 01:37 PM
Even if you manage to kill the cyanobacteria, it can reappear in the system if the conditions are right. It probably can spread via the air, and certainly via any animal additions to your system.