joefitz
Non-member
So, I know medication isn't the best way to beat most problems in the tank (or life in general)...and certainly not a first resort, but after sucking cyano out for months and doing massive (read expensive) water changes on my tank, changing the lights, running carbon, gfo, reduced feeding and my light schedule...you name it, I've tried it. So I gave up and used erythromycin on my whole system (probably about ~450-500g).
I siphoned as much as I could out and then treated. I left the meds in for 2 days, did a water change and re-medicated again, leaving it in for 2 more days. Then I skimmed for a day and did a water change. Then I re-medicated one final time and left the meds in for 3 days at which point the skimmers went back on, ran carbon and GFO, and turned on my ridiculously huge UV (for a few days) and will probably be doing large weekly water changes for the next few weeks.
The result is that I don't really have any cyano left. I can still see a few areas along the glass deep under the sand bed that I couldn't conveniently get to, but I can't find any anywhere else in the tank. And I had a LOT of cyano...as in, it was covering EVERYTHING. I couldn't bare to take a "before" shot because it looked so horrifically bad.
It has only been a handful of days since the end of the treatment but in the past, the cyano would be back covering everything in a matter of days so I definitely think this put the cyano on its heels. Time will tell if it comes back or not but even if it does, I'm going to try erythromycin again.
FYI, I'm sure you can pick the stuff up at local stores...I needed quite a bit for my system so I ordered it directly from the manufacturer (www.nationalfishpharm.com).
Anyway, I just wanted to post my expernience in case others are considering it or looking for another option in terms of treating cyano. I'm all for exploring the options everyone always suggests...but if they don't work for you, I'd give my personal thumbs up on erythromycin.
A few other notes:
0) I haven't lost anything during the treatment. One of my prized fish (a beautiful lamarck angel super-male) seems like he might be a casualty though. Mid-way through the treatment, he stopped coming out of his den. He's still alive but it has been a week and he still doesn't come out. I haven't seen him eat anything over that entire period and I cannot imagine he is going to last much longer. The female lamarck hasn't changed her behavior at all.
At this point, I'm guessing this is more a coincidence than anything. I'm still hopeful he will end up ok.
I have sps, lps, mushrooms, zoas, gorgonians, anemones (rbtas) and a pretty standard looking clean-up crew (snails, hermits, starfish...). None of those creatures showed any ill effects at any time.
1) Keep your skimmers off during treatment. If you want to keep them on, you are going to have to find a way to scale them back because they'll be on hyperdrive during and for a while after. I have a Euroreef CS12-2 and an RS12-2 and I've only been able to keep one of the pumps on each on because if they are both on it will overflow. It has been a week and I'm still only using one pump on each skimmer.
2) They say erythromycin can reduce oxygen levels in the tank; so add in some airstones or something to help
3) I'm noticing my tangs and angels are all picking at the rocks a lot more than they used to now that they can actually see rock instead of just slime.
Anyway, that's about it. Hope this helps somebody.
I siphoned as much as I could out and then treated. I left the meds in for 2 days, did a water change and re-medicated again, leaving it in for 2 more days. Then I skimmed for a day and did a water change. Then I re-medicated one final time and left the meds in for 3 days at which point the skimmers went back on, ran carbon and GFO, and turned on my ridiculously huge UV (for a few days) and will probably be doing large weekly water changes for the next few weeks.
The result is that I don't really have any cyano left. I can still see a few areas along the glass deep under the sand bed that I couldn't conveniently get to, but I can't find any anywhere else in the tank. And I had a LOT of cyano...as in, it was covering EVERYTHING. I couldn't bare to take a "before" shot because it looked so horrifically bad.
It has only been a handful of days since the end of the treatment but in the past, the cyano would be back covering everything in a matter of days so I definitely think this put the cyano on its heels. Time will tell if it comes back or not but even if it does, I'm going to try erythromycin again.
FYI, I'm sure you can pick the stuff up at local stores...I needed quite a bit for my system so I ordered it directly from the manufacturer (www.nationalfishpharm.com).
Anyway, I just wanted to post my expernience in case others are considering it or looking for another option in terms of treating cyano. I'm all for exploring the options everyone always suggests...but if they don't work for you, I'd give my personal thumbs up on erythromycin.
A few other notes:
0) I haven't lost anything during the treatment. One of my prized fish (a beautiful lamarck angel super-male) seems like he might be a casualty though. Mid-way through the treatment, he stopped coming out of his den. He's still alive but it has been a week and he still doesn't come out. I haven't seen him eat anything over that entire period and I cannot imagine he is going to last much longer. The female lamarck hasn't changed her behavior at all.
At this point, I'm guessing this is more a coincidence than anything. I'm still hopeful he will end up ok.
I have sps, lps, mushrooms, zoas, gorgonians, anemones (rbtas) and a pretty standard looking clean-up crew (snails, hermits, starfish...). None of those creatures showed any ill effects at any time.
1) Keep your skimmers off during treatment. If you want to keep them on, you are going to have to find a way to scale them back because they'll be on hyperdrive during and for a while after. I have a Euroreef CS12-2 and an RS12-2 and I've only been able to keep one of the pumps on each on because if they are both on it will overflow. It has been a week and I'm still only using one pump on each skimmer.
2) They say erythromycin can reduce oxygen levels in the tank; so add in some airstones or something to help
3) I'm noticing my tangs and angels are all picking at the rocks a lot more than they used to now that they can actually see rock instead of just slime.
Anyway, that's about it. Hope this helps somebody.
. I'll be following this thread, just in case I need to dose the tank. Thanks for the great info.
