Sick of Cyanobacteria

Hey Kyle - The new bulbs will probably help a little bit. You might also want to check your RO/DI tds. If I recall, the other day you said you werent using DI and had 4ppm TDS. Seems clean, but it could still be contributing... What do you have for powerheads/flow? High flow usually help a little with cyano.

 

I've been having the same issue in Coralville - even with ultra pure water from the University is giving me issues.

 

The lights may help but the p and n are probably the problem. The cyano may suck up your nitrates as fast as its produced, if the cyano abundant. Is it just on the sand? What is your photoperiod? Try dropping it to half for a week and see.

 

I have phos too i think... Higher with sand beds, it binds to sediment (and the algea occurs where the nutrients or right conditions are). My scrubber has helped a lot though. If my alk sags, my algae increases... Let us know if its low, id be surprised if it wasnt! Drop $100 on a cpl drews dosers and hook it up to the apex... Thats the best thing i ever did for my reef!

 

I have phos too i think... Higher with sand beds, it binds to sediment (and the algae occurs where the nutrients or right conditions are). My scrubber has helped a lot though. If my alk sags, my algae increases... Let us know if its low, id be surprised if it wasnt! Drop $100 on a cpl drews dosers and hook it up to the apex... Thats the best thing i ever did for my reef!

 

Are you batch dosing kalkwasser?

What happens with dosing large (1/2 gallon at a time) doses of kalkwasser is that it causes dissolved minerals to chelate (po4 in particular) this causes the dissolved components to fall out of dissolution and precipitate falling to the substrate where they feed blooms of algae, and subsequently cyano bacteria.

 

I use brs 2 part and drews dosers slowly dosed thru the day. Its awesome. All i do is check ca and alk from time to time and adjust length of time if needed (check if corals look funny/closed-up, plates or euphyllias are good low-alk indicators).

 

Hmmm, Andy and Kyle, both you guys got me thinking! Maybe I'll stop dosing kalk in my top off and just switch to 2 part!! My corals are looking like absolute hell and I'm thinking it's because of trates and po4, even though on my tests they both look okay... I don't think the AIs could be doing it, but who knows!

 

What is your substrate Clay? Also how much do you feed? Bioload?

Its good to assess your "nutrients in" before all else. What are you denitrifying with? What is your phosphate removal mechanism? They require seperate strategies.

Matt

 

Well, I just have special grade reef sand from CaribSea. I don't think I overfeed, everything gets eaten. As for bioload, it's not over the top.

Unfortunately, I've been lacking in the field of water changes, but I'm getting back into the habit and have noticed a change already with my zoanthids. As for removal mechanisms, I just have a skimmer. I have a BRS dual carbon/GFO reactor set up, just need to get it plumed in and a stronger return pump to get it working properly (I'm in the process of doing so).

Thanks for hitting me up Matt! I'm not a big fan of asking too many questions on here and I don't want to take over Kyle's thread either! lol! Just kinda putting a feeler out there!

 

I don't think his thread is hijacked, really. Were talking about the same subject and can learn from it. Let us know if your GFO helps, i'm curious about the link between p and cyano...

It never hurts to cut back on feed anytime you have a bloom. In many cases we probably won't notice any changes in fish fitness. Nutrients in/nutrients out. Most uf us aren't trying to breed or fish, no reason to feed like we are (i'm guilty of this too!)

 

The link isn't specifically between phosphate and cyano, but really any localized nutrient source. Cyano is the second stage of a localized progression that occurs (and usually reoccurs) when the initial bacteria feed feverishly on a source of food (can be different things for different types of bac) and thereby produce a microcosm where CO2 is highly abundant.

Really the nutrient that kicks off the cycle can be any organic or inorganic compound that has low solubility and precipitates onto substrates. The real way to shoot yourself in the foot here is by using kalkwasser in batches (which is what I used to do). When the pH spikes (locally) the protons that negatively charged compounds/ions associate with are stolen and they [the - compounds] fall out of suspension. Many of them are reabsorbed shortly, others start the cannon! It seemed like it was safe to do this if you were adding it to a sump tho where there was no light, whether your batch dosing or dripping.

 

Thats interesting Andy, and makes sense...snowball effect. What you describe still requires high nutrients. P is more likely found bound to sediment than in solution... I'm really interested in understanding how P builds up in systems with sand beds and how it manifests itself.

Kyle, what do you mean? What concentration of kalk?

 

Idk, i've never used kalk. How much topoff water does your tank typically add? I suspect you can use concentrated kalk-isn't that what kalk reactors do essentially? Dont take my word fr it tho, ask someone who knows or ask google. I quikly found a ton of good info on this topic. Basically make sure its dissolved, be carefull in dosing too much (e.g. Bagging up a buncha frags) and you should be good to go!