The Enigma of Cyanobacteria...
The Enigma of Cyanobacteria...
I'm certainly no expert but can only offer my own growing repository of info collected against personal findings regarding this annoying phenomenon of [not just] reef keeping.
When I first googled cyanobacteria, I found all sorts of praise from scientists studying the fundamental contributions of this bacteria which behaves like algae... it was apparently one of the original contributors of oxygen to our atmosphere, and if I remember correctly, is to a large extent credited for making earth's atmosphere liveable way back when... needless to say - all that babble was not helping me get rid of it in my fish tanks:worried:
I've also found through various accounts (written, anecdotal, personal) that cyanobacteria is extremely efficient at making use of nutrients more so than many of the other types of algae, which seem to benefit from specific nutrient biases, for example: if you have and extreme breakout of diatoms, chances are you have a surplus of silicates; if you have a similar proliferation of green hair algae, chances are you have elevated levels of phosphates; most of the other common forms of algae are directly related to levels of available nitrates in the presence of phosphates; etc... cyano on the other hand seems to thrive at times when nutrients which specifically favour all of the other forms of algae are suppressed... it is after all a bacteria! Said another way, if your aquarium manages to acheive 0ppm NO3, cyano will satisfy its Nitrogen needs from available N2 (nitrogen gas), while making use of any of the other trace element/nutrients available within your system.:reading:
All this is to say that cyanbacteria, has proven from time immemorial to be an extremely efficient life form which thrives when its competitors are stunted. Furthermore, if there is excess anything in a given water environment, cyanobacteria will be the first to make use of it. In the oceanic studies I've scanned through while trying to understand this pest; the common thread seems to be that excess nutrients made available from human activity (pollutants from run-off etc), almost inevitably lead to proliferation of cyanobacteria around coral reefs close to land. I've translated this to aquarium keeping by concluding that if anything is in excess aside from the typical NO3/PO4 common to all algae growth, cyano will be the first to make use of it.
In my personal practice, I began to suspect that my cyanobacteria challenges seemed to be coincidental with my generous dosing of certain supplements... in particular IODINE!!! In systems where I think I'm making a heroic effort to stay on top of things: religious water-changes; reasonably conquered NO3; and more specifically - dosing my supplements (even those I don't measure)... I've often found that these are the reefs in which I encounter cyanobacteria when all else seems to be in check. Alternatively, I've had those other systems too - you know, the ones where water-changes are not done every week nor every month for that matter; and more specifically, due to one reason or the other (client budget), I don't dose anything... guess what - no cyano whatsoever:spin2:... this to me has been the biggest testament that cyano thrives when there are excess nutrients which other forms of algae do not/cannot make use of. I have also made a direct observation, that my cyanobac problems usually only occur on systems that I dose iodine, and have at one point read, and would certainly advise, that when you dose iodine in addition to your water-change regime - if you don't measure levels; dose half or quarter of what is recommended on the bottle!
Not to become too superfluous in this post - I would summarize in the following way. My strategy for combating cyanobacteria has evolved to the following over the years:
1. - Immediately discontinue iodine dosing;
2. - gravel-wash & blow off the rocks to make the cyano waist energy in re-establishing rather than flourishing;
3. - dose a bacterial supplement such as mb7, zeoBak, or the like to make use of those surplus nutrients that algae doesn't benefit from like cyanobac does;
4. - focus on the O2/CO2 dynamic - remembering that cyano is photosynthetic; it thrives on CO2, just as your other algae and corals do, but have made use of all the other excesses in a way that gives it the edge.... oxygenate your water as much as possible... I've even turned off calc reactors and gone toward liquid calcium dosing until the pest has past (incidentally this works with brypsis outbreaks as well i.e. ensure you're not dosing CO2 in your system);
5. - Raise pH toward the upper range of acceptable... 8.2 - 8.4. This is helped by; and is an indication of good O2 levels.
In the end, I personally believe the relationsihp between organic dosing and cyano outbreaks has to do with that element of carbon dosing that I'e been harping on over the past few months. The target beneficiaries of carbon dosing (namely bacteria) utilize oxygen and exhaust CO2. This not only has a draw-down on pH levels, but also makes excess CO2 available for photosynthetic organisms such as cyanobacteria. And as mentioned earlier, cyano is a heck of a lot more efficient than many other photosynthetic organisms at metabolizing a wider range of available nutrients. This IMO is why it has been credited with being a foundational oxygen-building life-form in earths geophysical history; and why it currently shows up when human/land activity percolates through to our ocean environments. When employing carbon dosing, we need to keep a keen eye on pH results consequent of this new bio-dynamic within our reefs. Other aspects of our husbandry need to be monitored as well. In my view: high CO2 + Low pH + excess trace elements = cyanobacteria. In all of my years looking after fish tanks, I've always steered away from using red-slime remover, in favour of addressing the root causes... it takes time, but if you manage to correct all of the oversights/contributing factors, your cyano will subside within a month or so, and not return until your next lapse...
HTH at least a little,
Sheldon