Cyano In My Fuge

yea im both removing it and adding chemiclean the reason I added 1/3 dose is that I have read its pretty powerful stuff. Also my LFS guy uses it in his tanks and he has had problems with it when adding full dose to the tank. But yes I know i need to remove it also and will be doing that.

I did notice it in my DT but just in one spot a minute ago so might add the rest of the dosage to make sure it all goes away Id rather have something else taking trates out of my tank rather than cyano. Have read a ton about it and dont think I want it in the fuge or in my DT for that matter. Its killing my chato starving it out.

There is just so much better stuff that can be in there besides cyano. I do everything posted above in a regular maitnace schedule. So its either the light or flow and I really dont see the flow being the problem. In the tank there is over 4000Gph flow and in the fuge by itself there is over 1400 via a huge return pump. So will start with this and also find the root of the problem also.

The tank is still in its infant stage its only 8 months old so this is something that alot of people deal with gonna give both the removal & treatment a try and go from there.

Also had some green hair pop up in places in the tank so Have a lawnmower in QT right now thats going in there tom. Oh the life of the reef you never know whats gonna happen day to day. Keeps me busy thats for sure

 

It's pretty much impossible to completely eradicate cyano. It's in tap water, on your hands, on your corals and in your sand. In fact, there may even be some floating in the air. It can survive pretty much anywhere Survival of Akinetes (Resting-State Cells of Cyanobacteria) in Low Earth Orbit a

It's your choice to use chemclean. If it makes you feel better that's fine. Just remember there will be some back in your tank in no time, just sitting by waiting for your parameters to get out of line. So make sure to stay on top of the other stuff as well

 

well im still trying to figure out what perameters that is everything is at 0 that would cause any bloom of any type of algae right ?

Gonna do a decent water change tom and suck off the rocks and most of the fuge and see what happens from there. Really right now I hear of all these people having mangroves chato ect in there fuge what good is mine if I cant grow anything like that due to cyano killing it all off. It literally grows through my chato so fast that i can keep it clean and staves it out.

Cleaned the fuge 2 weeks ago and bam right back there. And now its creaping into my tank. Basicly what your telling me is Ill never get rid of it. But with that being said now if you cant get rid of it dont you think everyone would have this problem ? I mean my corals are huge and growing great fish dont seem to care but I cant grow chato to save my life anything that I want to put in the fuge as far as macro dies within a week or two.

So the only thing I have left to try is too treat it and suck some of it out. But as you say it does not die easy so I might want to just leave it be the only problem with that is it spreads to other parts of the tank and bam next thing ya know its everywere. I mean this does not sound like a good solution to me. Maybe if it was a form of hair algae in there id be ok with it. But its a bacteria right ? Have heard that its stores up nitrates but also has the potential to release them so that would not be good either. Not too sure what to think about keeping it or getting rid of it. But leaning more toward the getting rid of it side of things.

 

OK, nutrient competition 101.

'Get rid or' is a relative term. You can certainly get rid of it to the point you would never know it's there. In our reefs everything is a competition for nutrients. Certainly I've over simplified a lot of things in my previous post. However, if you do these things, 99% of the time you can keep cyano under control.

To expand a little bit, cyano has a few advantages, one such advantage, being a Bacteria, cyano can feed on decaying organic matter, whereas, algae may have to wait for it to break down more. So, protein skimming, running carbon, increasing flow to avoid dead zones where detritus can settle etc... are effective methods at reducing the availability of decaying organic matter. This can often help shift the competitive advantage towards the macro algae, or at least remove the remaining source of nutrients for the cyano. So, doing this, in itself is usually pretty effective against cyano. Sometimes, though, once everything is said and done, there just isn't enough nutrients to grow macro algae.

The more you push things however, the more you need extra tools. It is in this situation macro algae becomes useful. If conditions are suitable for the macro algae, it is an effective tool, as it can compete with the cyano and nuisance algae for the remaining nutrients.

Another scenario though, is you actually reduce some nutrient too much relative to the others. Algae requires nutrients in a fairly specific ratios, one such is the ratio of C: N: P, called the Redfield ratio. Remember, the point of macro algae is to outcompete the cyano for nutrients. In certain situations however, if there are limited nutrients, cyano can actually starts to out-compete the algae, because it has adapted ways to sneak around these ratios.

if you want to get more advanced, you can sometimes figure out what your macro algae is lacking and dose that. It seems counter intuitive to dose a nutrient, but often times, this can shift the competitive advantage away from the bacteria and back towards the algae. For example, cyanoabacteria can also, to some extent, use atmospheric nitrogen, N2, rather than wait for nitrate or other non-atmospheric inorganic nitrogen to form. So, dosing KNO3, for example, can sometimes ensure that there is a sufficient inorganic nitrogen source for your macro algae, and this can help shift the competitive advantage towards the algae. Once the algae is thriving, it is more likely to latter out compete the cyano for other nutrients.

Another nutrient is iron. Cyano is a very efficient iron scavenger. Ensuring iron is available for the macro algae via an iron supplement can help the macro survive and flourish and then out compete the cyano for other nutrients. This is a more benign supplement than potassium nitrate, so it is more commonly used to grow macro alage.

Personally, I'm not running any macro algae right now. Some people, myself included as of recently, dose small amounts of sodium silicate. Silicates drive diatoms, which can often out compete other nuisance algae and bacteria for nutrients, given sufficient amounts of silicates. Many organisms, such as pods, zooplankton, snails etc... quickly consume the diatoms, so, they are not visible (it's not like right after your tank cycles), however, neither is the cyano. The pods make good food for the fish and the other zooplankton is great food for the corals. So, it is also a way to efficiently cycle the nutrients. Mostly though, in function, it is similar to running macro algae.

Carbon dosing offers another form of competition, which can be even more effective. However, except for the most heavily stocked systems, people often can't grow macro algae because the nutrients are too low. And it is much more risky than running macro algae, due to the risk of bacterial blooms. In addition, cyano is a bactiria, which can utilize such carbon sources, so, it seems to be somewhat important to make sure there is a population of bacteria that can out compete the cyano. So, many people also add bacterial supplements.

Dosing nutrients usually isn't necessary to get rid of cyano though. If you follow the recommendations myself and others have suggested and don't overstock/overfeed, cyano is very controllable, even without growing macro algae. The more you push your system though, the more proactive you need to be.

 

thanks for the info gonna work on some things and see what we get out of it K+

 

which is why i changed to a lower watt light..yeah it sucks out nutrients but it can also get growing in your display very quick..i have other methods of getting my water clean i def dont want cyno growing in my fuge..

 

I'm not sure it's accurate to ever say lighting in the fuge is the "cause" of cyano in the display. Decaying organics and availible nutrients are the cause. Lighting may be a cause (in addition to decaying organics) of cyano in the fuge. This could be if cyano better utilizes the spectrum of light than the macro algae. The result could be that cyano out competes the macro in the fuge for some nutrient, causing die-off of the macro. The die-off, then fuels cyano in the display. This shouldn't be an issue with a daylight 6500K bulb though. If it is, it suggests that nutrient levels may not be high enough to sustain the macro in the first place. Basically, dimming the light just reduces the demand for nutrients by both the algae and cyano. Or alternatively, something else is going on, such as some other nutrient imbalance.

 

BTW, if that's the case, it seems like reducing the photo-period, rather than the light output may be better. I think this is because, if you reduce the light output, and nutrient levels rise, you'd need to buy a new bulb to increase your chaeto growth. If you reduce the photo period, you can latter just change the settings on your timer and increase back to where it was.

just my .02 though.

 

i havent done anything different but switch out a 40w desk lamp to an 10 watt undercabinet light, no more cyano in fuge and no more cyano in display..i had only had a piece the size of a quarter in my display and took action before it got out control..im sure there is a bunch of science behind it but when i changed my light i had no cyano..still feed heavy and no bad algae anywhere in tank or fuge..nitrates are undetectable as well as phosphates with salifert test kits and also got a double check from two fish stores, one using salifert the other im not sure..

 

cheato is still growing just as strong, had to pull out two hand fulls yesterday, its been two weeks since i changed the light and i pulled two handfulls out when it was changed, so my cheato grow hasnt been affected with the change in lighting..

i looked all over google on many forums and alot of people said cheato only needs 10 watts and a certain number of lumens to grow...cant remember the lumens..

and my fuge is small its a hang on back on so i may have had way too much light for the size fuge..

i doubt the light i have for mine will grow someones in a 30 gallon fuge, or something like that, but the light is very very bright