Cyano Bacteria.

FraggledRock

FraggledRock

New member
I know taking care of Cyano is a multi faceted problem.

Overfeeding, Nutrients in water, source of water, etc.

I realized that my GFO is over a month old. Is it possible it started leeching out phosphates?

I also noticed my Chaeto was disappearing (my emerald crab was making diner out of it). I moved it to a separate chamber.

I don't have any other algae in my tank except for corralline growing.

Cyano i thought was minimal til the past 2 days. It is also ONLY in my Display Tank along the corner front glass and substrate. (possible low flow area?). No cyano in my sump/refugium.

I took the old GFO media out, put fresh carbon and buying new GFO tomorrow.

I stopped feeding as much in case it is the culprit.

I don't have any fish in there(QT) and only 3 small zoa frags.

What else should I be doing other than:
  • Reducing food
  • Changing GFO media
  • Changing Carbon
  • Using RODI Water

I literally has been growing exponentially over the past 2 days.
 
Well, if the GFO is your primary method of reducing phosphates, which it's very effective at doing, then it probably expired a while ago. I doubt it's leaching anything appreciable but it's probably not reducing the phosphates by any amount either. If you just change it out on a set time frame it could be exhausted well before that time and allow phosphates to rise again in the tank. Only way to know is check the tank water and check the effluent. When the effluent starts rising it's time to change. This could be after a month, a couple weeks, or even a couple hours.

Another thing is a change in light spectrum has been known to cause cyano blooms. So, usually that could indicate a need to change bulbs. And yes increased flow could help among many of the things you mentioned.
 
jason2459 said:
Well, if the GFO is your primary method of reducing phosphates, which it's very effective at doing, then it probably expired a while ago. I doubt it's leaching anything appreciable but it's probably not reducing the phosphates by any amount either. If you just change it out on a set time frame it could be exhausted well before that time and allow phosphates to rise again in the tank. Only way to know is check the tank water and check the effluent. When the effluent starts rising it's time to change. This could be after a month, a couple weeks, or even a couple hours.

Another thing is a change in light spectrum has been known to cause cyano blooms. So, usually that could indicate a need to change bulbs. And yes increased flow could help among many of the things you mentioned.
Click to expand...

The tank is new, I doubt it needs a bulb change. I'm guessing it's a simple case of the tank being new, the nutrient export isn't matching the nutrient import. Step up your GFO game, water changes, give carbon dosing a shot. There are lots of ways. Even siphoning off the cyano is exporting nutrients.

How bad is it? Lets see a picture. Unless it's horrible, I'd just let it do its thing. These things are expected with new tanks.
 
jason2459 said:
Well, if the GFO is your primary method of reducing phosphates, which it's very effective at doing, then it probably expired a while ago. I doubt it's leaching anything appreciable but it's probably not reducing the phosphates by any amount either. If you just change it out on a set time frame it could be exhausted well before that time and allow phosphates to rise again in the tank. Only way to know is check the tank water and check the effluent. When the effluent starts rising it's time to change. This could be after a month, a couple weeks, or even a couple hours.

Another thing is a change in light spectrum has been known to cause cyano blooms. So, usually that could indicate a need to change bulbs. And yes increased flow could help among many of the things you mentioned.
Click to expand...

Could ADDING spectrum cause cyano outbreak?

about a month ago I added a dual T5 by coralife with a 10K bulb and an actinic bulb.

I first had an LED fixture with daytime whites and the blue 450nm Royal Blues LED.

can the full spectrum lighting cause this now?
 
FraggledRock said:
Could ADDING spectrum cause cyano outbreak?

about a month ago I added a dual T5 by coralife with a 10K bulb and an actinic bulb.

I first had an LED fixture with daytime whites and the blue 450nm Royal Blues LED.

can the full spectrum lighting cause this now?
Click to expand...

Possible. From my understanding they like the lower spectrum which happens as bulbs age. You could try swapping out the 10k bulbs with 12k. There's a lot of great T5 bulb combinations out there. There's also low quality and higher quality bulbs. I liked UVL and ATI back when I had t5. If you have the T5 bulbs that came with that fixture I would switch them out just out of personal preference but may not do anything at all to the cyano.
 
Doubt it, usually it's a problem with the spectrum shifting when the bulbs get old if it's a spectrum issue at all. Do you test? What are your numbers?
 
FraggledRock said:
test the spectrum?
Click to expand...

Think he's talking about your numbers like phosphates. You never mentioned your nitrate or phosphate levels that could drive cyano.

My experience is cyano will thrive on even slightly elevated phosphate levels even in the absence of undetectable nitrate levels and doesn't need much lighting. I usually go through bouts of cyano after my algae dies off due to low nutrient levels but just enough for the cyano to then be able to out compete the algae that was previously out competing the cyano. Once the phosphates get back under control the cyano then fades away.
 
jrp1588 said:
I jumbled two thoughts together in one paragraph. What are your nitrate and phosphate levels.
Click to expand...

This past sundays water tests:
image1.jpg
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i forgot to plug, but phosphate were 0.1

calc alk and mag are a little high. i'm also getting a handle on that.
 
How old is the tank? I'd want the ammonia and nitrite to be 0 and nitrate to register. The phosphate levels at .1 are getting high and gfo would easily manage that back down to .06 and lower. Some things don't like extremely low phosphates though like my duncan hates getting under .03 or quick drops in phosphate.
 
Can elevated CO2 in my tank cause Cyano outbreak?

it is winter here in NY and very cold so the doors and windows rarely open...
 
Surprised to see a 0ppm nitrate reading on a tank that new. What brand of test kit are you using? What sort of skimmer and water change schedule are you on.
 
jason2459 said:
How old is the tank? I'd want the ammonia and nitrite to be 0 and nitrate to register. The phosphate levels at .1 are getting high and gfo would easily manage that back down to .06 and lower. Some things don't like extremely low phosphates though like my duncan hates getting under .03 or quick drops in phosphate.
Click to expand...

Tank is 5 months old.

The ammonia went up 2 weeks ago when i left 3 pieces of shrimp in there without removing and it started decomposing. It is coming down now.

Tank is cycled the spike was me leaving the dead pieces of fish market shrimp.

I have a massive amount of Chaeto and do 5 gallon weekly changes.
 
FraggledRock said:
Can elevated CO2 in my tank cause Cyano outbreak?

it is winter here in NY and very cold so the doors and windows rarely open...
Click to expand...

Your pH levels are fine and if you had major CO2 issues the pH levels would be lower and your alk is already more then high enough so I wouldn't try and correct it.
 
FraggledRock said:
Tank is 5 months old.

The ammonia went up 2 weeks ago when i left 3 pieces of shrimp in there without removing and it started decomposing. It is coming down now.

Tank is cycled the spike was me leaving the dead pieces of fish market shrimp.

I have a massive amount of Chaeto and do 5 gallon weekly changes.
Click to expand...

Sounds good, get the gfo going again and harvest out some of that chaeto. Don't sweat the small stuff.
 
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