Cyno battle almost won!

[Irisservice]

After a long tought battle it seems like i'm going to win this one.
I had a major cyno problem in my refugium and a small one in my main tank. The problem seamed to be my refugium Lights. After replaceing them with 65w Security light made by LOA (Lights of America) availble in most Home Depot's the cyno is going away. :D

[Anonymous]

I haven't tried it yet but jsut saw a new product at www.ffexpress.com you might be interested in. its called ROWAphos which is supposed to suck phosphates out of the water and should help with the cyano. again, I haven't used it so don't know how good it works.

[Irisservice]

I had tested for phospate,but there were none.
So I tried Phospate sponge from kent marine any way but did not help.

[BigE]

What did you do to get the cyano to go away :?: I have some here and there in my tank but its pretty limited. I'd attribute the small amount in my tank to good water quality since the lighting and water movement both need an overhaul.

[Irisservice]

Just the lighting on refugium!!!

[HoopsGuru]

Saltshop, a respected member at RC and AL has written this several times on cyano....I just thought I would post it to help you guys out, once again these are not my words and I claim no credit.

"Ugh...cyanobacteria, the reefkeepers worst nightmare! I know I have mentioned this many times before, but cyanobacteria do NOT utilize nitrates or phosphates to any great degree as nutrients like a green algae mainly because they are not algae but bacteria of course. I sometimes get weary of re-typing this in all of the time....but here we go.

Cyanobacteria are the oceans "nitrogen fixers" and are responsible for the vast majority of nitrogen input into the reefal areas. They are able to fix both free nitrogen from the atmosphere and by breaking the weak chemical bonds of organic nitrogen. They are NOT, however, capable of breaking the strong inorganic nitrogen bonds that exist as nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia and actually have a negative reaction when these ions are present. In order for them to "fix" nitrogen they must be able to create an anaerobic zone within their cell membranes as oxygen will poison their fixation process by forming inorganic bonds with the O2 such as Nitrite/Nitrate.

Knowing this, it is pretty simple to get rid of the problem by taking certain steps all of which can and should be combined until the problem is licked. First you need to seriously increase your organic nitrogen removal processes, which in turn will limit the amount of denitrification that will take place which increases the amount of free nitrogen in the tank. Simply put, do lots of water changes with nutrient free RO/DI water and increase skimming capabilities if possible. Next siphon as much of this crap out as you can on a daily basis which prevents the dieing cyanobacteria from breaking down and re-releasing all of the formerly bound nitrogen into the water column. If need be you can get the stuff to grow faster by simply increasing the temperature of the tank...you will have more to siphon but it will actually speed up the whole process. Next increase water motion if possible since they hate oxygen rich environments as was mentioned above. Increase cyano grazers if need be which would include amphipods and conch snails. Lastly, start bumping up the salinity in the tank for a bit as the bacteria is not real fond of higher salinities. You can get to around 40 ppt salinity without ill effects to the tank, although any mushrooms might not be happy for a little while. The most important part is to be patient and continue the routine as this is a pretty tough microbe you are dealing with.

FWIW, while they do actually use small amounts of phosphates you would need to get levels well below molar readings ie. a few parts per billion for it to become limiting to their growth. Regardless of how much phosphate remover you use it is simply not possible to get the levels low enough in a reef tank. A few years ago there was a report by Eric B. from the International Conference on Scientific Aspects of Coral Reef Assessment, Monioring, and Restoration that listed briefly the positive and negative correlations. It had this to say: "Cyanobacteria have specific chemotypes that can be used to measure bloom biodiversity. They are poor indicators of nutrient enrichment and have no relationship with phosphate, a negative relationship with Nitrogen/Nitrate, a strong negative relationship with salinity, no relationship with other algae growth (slightly negative with certain macroalgae (which I asked if it may be due to secondary metanbolites acting as antibiotics, to which I discovered that was the next course of study), a positive relationship with temperature and a strong negative relationship with water motion. They tend to occur in 3 week cyclical periods and are grazed, by far, primarily by amphipods and sea hares."