cyanobacteria problem in fuge

S

sunjai

New member
the question is the same as the title...
what should i do??? i have cheato in the fuge and run 24hr light...
should i just let it be... my DT is totally fine at this point, or this is a timing bomb that i need to take care of? what is the cause of cyanobacteria? too much light not enough flow?
any input will help..
 
I'm actually having the same problem. Was thinking about leaving the fuge lights (14hr counter-cycle) off for 2 days. It also seems to love growing on my carbon bags.
 
This worked for me. I kept the light off in my fuge for a max of 3 days and nights. It should not hurt your fuge still the natural reefs do not received light every days out of the year. I have even tried this method in my display tank with no ill effects on my SPS corals and clams. I have never tried the chemical out on the market for this problem. What I have read, they do work if you follow the directions completely.
 
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I had the problem a couple of months back. Started out with a little ended up with a lot! My pump on my skimmer went so I replaced it with one I had laying around. The new pump was smaller but it seemed to be working? I finally got around to getting a new pump the same as the original. Within 3 days of changing the pump this stuff was gone! Have not seen any since! Did not change anything else, so it was not skimming enough crap out of the tank. 3 months without any sign of it!
 
What I'm thinking is even if I tune off the light for some time and solve the problem now....
how do i know is not coming back...
I wanna make sure I know what I'm dealing with and see if is a water problem or lighting problem..
cuz it seems alot of guys are running their fuge with 24hr.
just wanna see if they have the same problem.
 
You are correct, turning off the light will only kill the existing cyano. Your fuge maynot have the ability to hand the bioload. With my fuge, I also use a PO4 reactor, protein skimmer, carbon, perform water changes, use RO/DI water, donot over feed, etc.
 
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i ran everything that u metion.... but the only diff is i do over feed my tank....once i start feeding i can't stop : )
 
I agree with jaredwaites, I had a cyano in my sump and I added a little ph and poof all gone!! I had to turn off my ph and forgot to turn it back on and within a week I had cyano again. So I turned the ph back on and it was gone within a day or two. Obviously a flow issue.
 
do you ever completely drain you sump with a water change--you might want to do that every second month or so
Its the residual crap in there that the cyano is feeding on.


all algae needs a down time from photosynthesis--a dark period--they use this time to process the products of the days work
running the light 24/7 will eventually cause problems with the macro algae--eg premature yellowing and dying off
I suggested running period is 16-18 hours then lights off
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12484994#post12484994 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by down and outman
More Flow!
Click to expand...

Personally, I would prefer to strip down the sump and clean it out good rather then just increase the flow
the flow ideally should match the output of your skimmer--if your skimmer works at 300 gph then that is what the flow through the sump should be. If you have live rock, reef rubble in there then you want the flow slow so the bacteria have time to work on the water column
Too often the flow is much greater then the skimmer can handle and unskimmed organic laden water is recirculated through the water column.
 
Not sure what style sump you have. Mine has the refugium in the back, then skimmer box area,filter stages,then the return to the main tank. The only place I had issues was in the return area (lower flow), as my pump is external. My refugium area has plenty of flow (keeps chaeto turning),skimmer box area has a CL super skimmer (no flow issues),like I said just when the return is. Mine sump is an eshops 30g/ref, it's rated at 600gph, but I've got WAY more than that going through it. Do you have just a paticular spot that has the cyano or is it everywhere? I put a maxi-jet 400 in the return area and that has solved my problem. Also I could see on the surface of the water that there wasn't enough flow in that area before I ever had a cyano problem. It always looked like it had a bubbly film on the top of the water. Does yours do that too?
 
I dont understand the problem here guys, a fuge is a tank that is out of sight where we are suppose to grow macroalgae to consume nitrate and phosphate, IMO this tank should have cyano, cheato, mangroves, caulerpa, etc growing with a 24hr light cycle, for what is worth i rather have it flourishing in the fuge instead of my display tank and have it control excess nutrients at the same time, good luck

sana
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12484994#post12484994 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by down and outman
More Flow!
Click to expand...

My flow did not change at all? When I directed the flow to those areas it just blew the stuff everywhere and made it start growing in other spots. Skim wetter if you can not change your skimmer! It will go away. If you just remove it or blow it around it will come back. Turning the lights off or down is a temp. fix.
 
What's the big deal?

Didn't you start your fuges to keep the "negatives" out of your displays?

As long as it stays there be happy. :)
 
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