Cyanobacteria outbreak

[May&Bruce]

Am experiencing a cyanobacteria outbreak and i dont know why. Phosphates are undetectable. NO3 is a little high....around 15.

Am using an FR with phosguard and also matrix carbon.

This outbreak seems to have coincided with when I scraped off the green algae on the rear glass (there was quite a lot).

Any ideas?

[cityofangels]

Here's an article which I stumbled upon while surfing.

Cynanobacteria

Hope it'll help you in some way~

[May&Bruce]

cityofangels..interesting reading. Actually just thinking about it another change we did was to remove our two sand sifting gobies as they were too efficient (undermining and toppling rock formations) and replaced them with sand dollars.

Coincidental???

[cityofangels]

Yeah, sandsifting gobies are the natural architects of the ocean.

I managed to find this thread in RC. Comprehensive read.

Cynano

[madmac]

Heard that if you increased the flow to the troubled spots, tune skimmer to wet, and do some water change... it may go away.

Are they the red-slime algae type? There are several things you could get that will help with the occasional outbreak of cyano, one is this product called "chemi-clean", some have sworn by it... unfortunately it is difficult to find here, Reborn carries its sister product called "chemi-pure". Or if becomes too ugly, you could try to get your hands on Erythromycin... need a prescription for that.

LMK which you choose, the dozing requirements are different under each. I had a algae overrun that I thought was cyano... it covered my rocks and was very difficult to get rid off. It turned out not to be cyano but some type of brown sheeting algae, almost impossible to clear off... eventually I cooked my rocks and that got rid of it.

[kueytoc]

Well here is the ultimate guide on destroying Cyanobacteria...

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=725686

[Panzz]

why don't you try siphoning out the affected spot this way it would also prevent it from spreading to other inaffected areas. ( but this is actually easier said then done )

[Terryz_]

You can try Ultralife redslime remover...

Very good... Disappear in 3 days...

But must control the PO4 which you have no problem with...

Take out the affected area... sterilise the sands with boiling water... It will kill the cyano...

[atos]

Most red algae "medications" are Eritromicin based solutions. Eritromicin is antibiotic with very low or no impact on nitrification bacteria, and efective agains cianobacteria. However, siphoning and increased flow around area were then bloom ocur will solve the problem in healthy system like yours, if not count the deep bad of sand

[zephyros]

PO4 is not the oni caused for cyano ... even without PO4, cyano

can still outbreak. to take out cyano completely without medication,

u have to perform the below three con-currently

1) remove PO4

2) remove nutrient

3) reomve light

any of the above is enough to make the cyano grow

[May&Bruce]

thanks! lots of advice there. Am a bit worried about using any medication or chemicals, with all my fish n corals.

m still wondering if it could be related to all the green algae i scraped off the rear glas, as I heard that green algae is a good phosphate 'sponge'...so If i scraped it off and it floated around the tank and deposited itself in the sand, maybe it has provided a source of phosphate for the cyno...... But, phosphates in the water are undetectable.

I had an outbreak in the early days, and increased water flow helped a lot, but I now still have this hi water flow.....****scratches head****

[atos]

We can not say that decompsing scratched hair algae bring the phosphate levels to the point were it cause ciano bloom, but certanly every algae when is crushing is poluting the water. Maybe you can catch the algae after scratching with fine mash as much as possible.

[gerald8]

" I had an outbreak in the early days, and increased water flow helped a lot, but I now still have this hi water flow.....****scratches head**** "

Me too...those area that are on high water flow has more cyno as compare to the rest !!