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melev

Cyano bacteria and something else

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12 Comments
by
melev
, 05-13-2010 at 10:18 PM (2983 Views)
For the past couple of months, my tank has really suffered from a bothersome cyano bloom and I've been trying to wait it out until it receeds, but not only has it stayed strong, I'm seeing some other issues in one of my colonies that concerns me. It is darn close to a dinoflagellate issue, with dead areas that have turned brown and nuisance algae has sprouted from it.

With nitrates low and phosphates low, it's hard to figure out the cause. I'm going to conjecture that this is CO2 related, as I've been using a borrowed regulator that doesn't have a bubble counter connected to my calcium reactor. It seems to come on much too often, clicking on and off around the clock. The new regulator arrives soon (possibly tomorrow). The new circulation pump for the reactor arrived today. A new jar of ARM is ready for use.

Perturbed, I went through my medication plastic bin and found two unused containers of Chemi-clean. I've not dosed any in over two years, but tonight I decided to go for it. The skimmer is off, and the carbon reactor is as well. I treated with enough for 400g of water, and hopefully in 72 hours, this stuff will be dead. I'll continue to clean the tank of any wanna-be dinos over the weekend. Hopefully this will kick the cyano in the butt throughout the system: 280g reef, angled tank, prop section and refugium. I've seen it in all four zones.

I'll be mixing up a new batch of saltwater this weekend for that water change, and hopefully get the skimmer under control quickly to get all the medication and dead cyano out of the system.

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Comments

  1. fchidsey's Avatar
    I have read that Good flow to the effected area, manual removal, wet skimming, and activated carbon are the way to go for this problem. I have no EXP with a calcium reactor ( they actually scare the crap out of me even though I am going to have to get one sooner than later.) therefore Im not sure how a higher co2 level would create a cyano bloom but I'm in for the science lesson

    Thanks for sharing

    Fred
  2. melev's Avatar
    Yep, I've done all of that for years and years. This isn't a new plague, but it got to the point that I had to either turn off my lights for three days or nuke the tank. Since I've used Chemi-Clean many many times in the past, I've no fear of it. The only reason I'd held out this long is because I dose vodka - when you do that, the skimmer has to stay on to maintain oxygen levels. I'm simply going to not dose vodka for the next three days, and then when I resume, I'll dose 50% of the standard dose, then add 1 ml more every 3 days to get back to the normal dose.
  3. fchidsey's Avatar
    Good to know, I began dosing vodka about a three week ago now and had no clue about that. So is there a correlation between the CO2 and the cyano bloom?? or just a quinki-dink
  4. melev's Avatar
    It's a guess. Co2 fuels plant growth, and cyano bacteria really isn't a plant although it does react with photosynthesis. Nothing else makes sense that could be fueling it, so I'm just guessing it is CO2 related.
  5. fchidsey's Avatar
    Now that makes sense.
  6. Hat39406's Avatar
    Does Chemi-Clean work on the algae that I have? What does it actually do?
  7. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Marc, I suspect the biggest thing the CO2 does is lower the pH and make things more favorable to the algae that way. If it really is Dino's then I've had success raising my pH to 8.5-8.6 for a week to eliminate it. Be warned though, my toadstool did not like that proceedure at all, but recovered quickly after the pH came back down to 8.3.
  8. coralreef321's Avatar
    I had and to some extent do still have this problem. I tried to let it pass over the coarse of about 9 weeks and it just seemed to be getting worse. I finally got feed up and started making changes. First thing i did up the ph and that seemed to be a really big help but it was not curing the problem. Second thing i did was change out from T5 lighting to PC which i really hated to do but it was worth a try. The lighting seemed to be what was fueling this stuff. When i put on much lower lighting (PC) it seemed to be receding. Now several months later I am still running the PC lighting, Weekly water changes and dripping kaulk to keep the ph up high enough to keep it at bay. It will still come back in small spots on the sand but leaves after about a week or so, only to return again and again. VERY frustrating to say the least. Now if I can find a cure for bubble algae but that is another topic.
  9. Midnight's Avatar
    If lighting was part of the cause...wouldn't refreshing the bulbs fix the problem? Isn't it the more yellow color that feeds algae and cyano? And isn't it towards yellow that bulbs shift as they age? I am just trying to make sure I understand lighting concepts correctly.
  10. coralreef321's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Midnight
    If lighting was part of the cause...wouldn't refreshing the bulbs fix the problem? Isn't it the more yellow color that feeds algae and cyano? And isn't it towards yellow that bulbs shift as they age? I am just trying to make sure I understand lighting concepts correctly.
    The T5 lighting i was using were half actinic 460nm and the other half where 10k. All the bulbs were about 2 months old so i doubt that was the problem. I dont think they are dinoflagellates or diatoms either, I have had all of the above at one point or another and after you get them a few times they are pretty easily distinguished.
  11. melev's Avatar
    Just an update. Since the meds have been added to the tank, the Toadstool leather has retracted all of its polyps and is probably getting ready to shed. Some areas are looking glassy (shiny), which is part of that process.

    This morning, the tank was cloudy as the BTAs decided to spawn. The water is clearing slowly.
  12. melev's Avatar
    I got the calcium reactor running again, but that caused a cloud in the tank from the new media. An hour later, I looked at the tank and it was even more cloudy. The reactor is running correctly, so I looked more closely and the BTAs are spawning again. Sure wish my skimmer was on right now, but the Cyano isn't gone yet. One more day to go.