Please Help!
- Thread starter Giants13
- Start date
CStrickland
New member
well... both.
Nitrogen is the element that we are talking about, "N" for short.
N is a sticky element, it usually has some oxygen "O" or hydrogen "H" attached to it. An N with 3 H's stuck to it "NH3" is ammonia, NO2 is nitrate, etc etc.
living creatures need N to survive - that would be your eating or sometimes they want the O or H that's stuck to it and the N is leftover - that's your producing. Like when you cycle your tank you are growing bacteria that swap O's for H's to turn ammonia into nitrite.
But things aren't "producing" or "eating" the N in the sense that they are adding or removing it from your tank. They are just sticking it to something so that it hides from your test, until another critter comes along and unsticks it. The N is in your tank because it is part of fish food, it only leaves the tank if you take out an algae or bacteria or poop or whatever it is stuck to, or bacteria turn it into a gas [N2O i think, not sure].
The thing with cyano is that it is really really good at finding the N it needs. So it can unstick it from lots of things. When people talk about cyano making its own nitrate, they are talking about "nitrogen fixing" which is another way of sticking N to stuff. That makes it special and different from, say, green hair algae which is pickier about what the N is stuck too and can't "fix" its own. So there's not much point in trying to get rid of cyano by just lowering nitrates. it's too clever for that, and will just get N someplace else
tl;dr - we don't usually talk about the whole nitrogen cycle, and the part that's missing is cyano. In this pic you can see how fixing (yellow) fits with the nitrifying (purple) and denitrifying (green) bacteria that make up our whole cycle, and completes the circle.
Cyano does have weaknesses. It needs light, phosphates, and not too much current. So you can play around with those if your tank is out of balance such that there is too much cyano and it's ugly. There are also a bajillion types of cyano, so some tricks work better on some kinds than others.
Nitrogen is the element that we are talking about, "N" for short.
N is a sticky element, it usually has some oxygen "O" or hydrogen "H" attached to it. An N with 3 H's stuck to it "NH3" is ammonia, NO2 is nitrate, etc etc.
living creatures need N to survive - that would be your eating or sometimes they want the O or H that's stuck to it and the N is leftover - that's your producing. Like when you cycle your tank you are growing bacteria that swap O's for H's to turn ammonia into nitrite.
But things aren't "producing" or "eating" the N in the sense that they are adding or removing it from your tank. They are just sticking it to something so that it hides from your test, until another critter comes along and unsticks it. The N is in your tank because it is part of fish food, it only leaves the tank if you take out an algae or bacteria or poop or whatever it is stuck to, or bacteria turn it into a gas [N2O i think, not sure].
The thing with cyano is that it is really really good at finding the N it needs. So it can unstick it from lots of things. When people talk about cyano making its own nitrate, they are talking about "nitrogen fixing" which is another way of sticking N to stuff. That makes it special and different from, say, green hair algae which is pickier about what the N is stuck too and can't "fix" its own. So there's not much point in trying to get rid of cyano by just lowering nitrates. it's too clever for that, and will just get N someplace else
tl;dr - we don't usually talk about the whole nitrogen cycle, and the part that's missing is cyano. In this pic you can see how fixing (yellow) fits with the nitrifying (purple) and denitrifying (green) bacteria that make up our whole cycle, and completes the circle.
Cyano does have weaknesses. It needs light, phosphates, and not too much current. So you can play around with those if your tank is out of balance such that there is too much cyano and it's ugly. There are also a bajillion types of cyano, so some tricks work better on some kinds than others.
Last edited:
stingeragent
New member
You a chemist CS?
CStrickland
New member
nope. got my GED tho
<iframe src="//giphy.com/embed/hAFhDdOgZ3Piw" width="480" height="192" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p>
billdogg
Well-known member
Sure - a power head to increase circulation and a light with better spectrum. I would just siphon it out during water changes. As already mentioned, it will run it's course and be gone. Then it will come back. Then it will be gone. Cyanobacteria does that, because it can.
hotelbravo
Active member
What do you mean? I grow caulerpa brachypus in my sump and I frequently do lights out for 3,4,5 days. Usually when I go out of town which is about every other week I leave the light off in the sump. Ive been doing this for about 8 months now.. What part of it becomes toxic and what does it affect. I havent noticed anything
stingeragent
New member
No clue on your answer, but I usually just take what mods with 30K posts say as fact.
Sounds Fishy
New member
I leave it on 24 hours because I do not want it turning to seed .If you leave the lights on in the fuge the caulerpa will develop seeds and then the next part of the cycle is that it will die off.When it dies it will affect your water in a toxic manner.If you leave the lights on it will not turn to seed,and it will not die off.
hotelbravo
Active member
i feel like that is only true for certain types of caulerpa.. there are tons of different kinds. im using caulerpa brachypus ive never seen anything that resembles seeds on it.
