Need Advice

Ok the 20g tank had a cyano outbreak, after a few water changes, less feeding and incorporating the nitrate sponge nothing changed. For 2 days we have cut back the photo period considerably and the cyano is almost all but gone. Does this mean it's the lights causing it? The bulbs are new, only about 2 mnths old. I did read that certain spectrum aid in cyano blooms, can anyone help me understand the problem.

I am aware that cyano blooms are usually due to nitrates and phosphates but I am confused as to why the photo period being cut would cause the cyano to disappear?

 

Light can feed it.. P.C are notorious for the growth of it.. If the bulbs are that new ? And depending on the K of them I still think its flow situation along the bottom in the problem area. 99.99 % of the time I have always taken care of the problem with just a good flow .

 

cyano is photosynthetic. so cutting back the lights would reduce the amount of energy it can gather. anyways are you using a phosphate absorbing media? if not you really should it helps tremendosly(sp?)

 

it's really weird. Monday the cyano was bad, i thought oh god this is gonna be a hard job for us to fix. We cut back the time by 1 hr and it's all gone. There is no cyano in the tank. The only thing we use is carbon and now the nitrate sponge????

 

I get cyno outbreaks every year or so. Don't know where it comes from or where it goes. I don't see what I might be doing to cause it. May be just a nutrient build up or flag to do some larger water changes then normal.

When it shows up, I vacuum what I can, do a large water change and just wait a few days - and it disappears.

 

I don't suppose it would have anything to do with an increase in water temp during the summer would it? I just had a battle with mine and I think that is the problem as I have had the same lighting for the last 3 months at least and have only noticed the cyano in the last month during the heatwave we had. I only feed every other day so I don't think it is an overfeeding problem either. I also did a TDS reading on my RO/DI and noticed it was up to around 30ppm. Could be another contributer along with the heat (84deg), replacing filters this Sunday.

 

Yes temps can stimulate its growth Bacterium loves warm environments