What do you recommend to remove cynobacteria that will not harm your ats ? in a reef tank with fish ...I,ve been siphoning it out but its winning the war......all suggestions would be helpful........... Ted
Remind me, how new is your tank? I have found that in most cases, cyano is a phase. There are many things that people recommend, like running carbon, filter sock, a skimmer, adding power heads to the tank (cyano does not like higher flow rates), siphoning, reducing DT lights (both duration and intensity), etc. Cyano will usually grow in a particular area where the condition suit it best. So if you use a powerhead and blow it off that area, then run a filter sock to collect it (or net it) that might reduce your daily effort. Also cyano is usually beat out by the scrubber, but it is usually a tough bugger, so it goes down last. Just FYI - site will be down here shortly for the transition...
Cyano seems intolerant to normal levels of reactive oxygen species produced through intense green algae cultivation. If you got plenty of green, there's a good chance of less or no cyano.
Reason why I ask is I ran Scrubber only for like 2 years.. and Cyano took the longest to get out. It was there months after all the hair algae was gone. I plugged in a skimmer I had in storage and ran a bit of carbon and It was gone in a few days. Then I removed it and never came back. I would run Carbon every now and then to keep water crystal clear and that was that.
Thanks for the tip ...I do run carbon now that you mention it, but its pretty old, perhaps I need to change it.....yes my water is clear, again thanks Ted
Id even venture to say a week. After that Its just a biological filter covered in slime. Unless you knead it like the zeovit guys do.. that tends to extend the use of it.
I was snorkeling in Belize last year and noticed that there were large rocks in areas that had huge amounts of current swirling around them that were totally covered with red cyano bacteria. The stuff was at least 1/2" thick. This was in an area where there was a huge amount of biological diversity. This was near reefs where there was little if no hair algae or other algae growth. I think the concept that more circulation will stop cyano is not really 100% true.
Yes, that is true that a rule of thumb will not hold true 100% of the time, there are always exceptions. The ocean is a completely different environment that our tanks. Interesting that you saw cyano there though, I wonder what is going on. I did plenty of diving in the Bahamas years ago and don't recall seeing any cyano, or GHA taking over for that matter. My feeling on the flow recommendation is that higher flow rates will cause cyano to dislodge more easily, not really prevent growth so much. It still grows in the preferred area, but once it gets dislodged into the water column it can get filtered out much more easily. IMO, a lot of the time, cyano is a stage/phase that you just have to get through. Sort of like dinoflagellates - you can try and try to "get rid" of them but all you are really doing is keeping it at bay under it runs it's course. Not saying that everything you do it worthless, because otherwise it might take over your tank/corals. There are just so many possible causes for an outbreak, it's really anyone's guess as to what will work for your situation. So you get the "try it all" recommendation...
There is a product called microbelift special blend that takes care of cyano. It's a blended bacteria product. You can get it at petco.
I have purchase above mentioned product and started using 19 Aug 2014 with my fingers crossed............Ted
