Actinic lights and algae growth

[sail33]

Thanks Russ. If the cyano knew what was coming, they'd quit and run right now.

THANKS for the help.

 

[hk855]

In response to your first post on actinic and cyano. I believe that you should go total blackout. Normal green algae uses mainly red and blue light, reflecting the green wavelengths. Red algae tend to be deeper water where there isn't much red light making it through the water column, here the blue spectrum dominates most of the par value. So I would be inclined to say any red algae would survive off any blue light. I would say stay lit with your halides, 10k would be best, would be better than actinic only, and no light would be best. I am not an expert but that's my logic to say no actinics. I have heard erythromycin is good on cyan and doesn't mess with the nitrifying bacteria but haven't tried it. Also the one time I had cyano problems was when I was using mostly actinic lighting(20k mh and actinic sup) and dosing vodka. Quit the carbon dosing and it improved so there might be a relation there.

 

[sail33]

HK855.. I'm in agreement with you. I'm even blacking out my new algae turf scrubber in the sump just in case there's any cyano lurking down there.

THANKS for the confirmation. That helped a lot.

 

[sail33]

i think I'll add chemiclean or Ultralife towards the end of the blackout cycle since oxy ought to be high enough to support it.

I will keep this thread posted on the results. So thank you one and all.

 

[steelcaveman]

I battled cyno for literally a few years, lights out, Chemi, Ultra,,, - thinking it had to do with my tank being a room with lots of sunlight. I then had a terrible experience with a product that claimed to remove cyno. Fortunately the distributor of the product is a major player in the industry. I spoke to one of their biologist for help. He basically said - if you have cyno there is is something wrong with your water.
*
Try a bucket of a high grade salt using R/O DI & do a 30% water change. Siphon as much Cyno out as possible. Keep your alk near 8.7. Test your R/O with a TDS meter.
*
It has been almost one year and I'm cyno free - no antibiotics.

Good luck.

 

[SantaMonica]

One thing to remember is why they sail "cyano does not like flow". It's because the flow blows away the nutrients before the cyano can get to them, like on a sand bed where waste settles. High concentration of nutrients there.

The biologist was right... something wrong in the water. But keeping your scrubber running will keep the nutrients down.

 

[sail33]

I battled cyno for literally a few years, lights out, Chemi, Ultra,,, - thinking it had to do with my tank being a room with lots of sunlight. I then had a terrible experience with a product that claimed to remove cyno. Fortunately the distributor of the product is a major player in the industry. I spoke to one of their biologist for help. He basically said - if you have cyno there is is something wrong with your water.
*
Try a bucket of a high grade salt using R/O DI & do a 30% water change. Siphon as much Cyno out as possible. Keep your alk near 8.7. Test your R/O with a TDS meter.
*
It has been almost one year and I'm cyno free - no antibiotics.

Good luck.

That's the most amazing response yet. I fully understand that there must be an original cause. I think I'll continue with the blackout PLUS test for ALK. I've been doing a 15% change every two weeks for two months but I'll increase the percentage and keep testing. WOW...a YEAR of battle !

How long did it take once you began the program?

I buy my water from a trusted LFS. I'll ask that they test before I take it home. Even though they check every day.

 

[steelcaveman]

A few weeks and it was gone. I had a bad RO membrane and changed to a bit more expensive salt. Look at the LFS TDS meter. 0 is the number it should read.

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