Cyano appears to be rearing it's ugly head

[DaveWF]

I have what appears to be Cyano algae (bacteria?) popping up on one rock.
I was feeding semi-sparingly 2x a day and will be bringing that down to 1x a day. Currently running my lights with 10k on 12 hours and actinic coming on one hour early and off one hour later. Should I reduce the light time, or will/can the reduce food load help enough?

[Sk8r]

THIS FROM MY BLOG

Algae
Posted 02/17/2010 at 01:52 PM by Sk8r
Tags
Managing Algae

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So you had this pristine white tank with beautiful rock shapes...
and then the green stuff took over.
Yep. That's the way it is.
So let's understand what it is, what causes it, and what you do about it that actually works.
1. What is it?
a) pest microalgaes, green film, hair, bubble.
b) floating and rooted macroalgaes, among them cheatomorpha, halimeda, caulerpa
c) things that only look like algae: cyanobacteria, diatoms

a) and b) depend on phosphate. Eliminate phosphate, and you eliminate these algaes. Should you test for phosphate? Surprisingly, no. Not ordinarily. The test costs money and only tells you what you can see when you look at your tank: you have phosphate if you have a) and b) algaes. If they're growing like crazy, you have a LOT of phosphate.

Where does phosphate get into your tank? 1) sand and rock: it binds with sand and rock, and dissolves into saltwater, so there you are. 2) tapwater: if you're not using ro/di, the stuff is likely not only coming into your tank, it's building up and up, because it doesn't evaporate. 3) fishfood that has algae in it.
To get rid of phosphate: 1) use ro/di exclusively; 2) patience---after it leaches out of your rocks, water changes and especially a fuge will rid you of it. 3) a fuge or GFO (granulated ferric oxide) reactor. You set this up, toss the waste or overgrowth, and you've exported the spare phosphate. Ironically, you can even sell it to another reefer, as algae. BUT: use cheato as your fuge algae, never caulerpa!!!!!!

OK: now to fuges and rooted and non-rooted macroalgaes. Avoid caulerpa like the plague. It's illegal in California, it's killing life in the Med, and it reproduces by 1. runner 2 fragment 3 spores, so it CAN get through your fuge pump; it's poisonous and nasty and most things won't eat it. One fish will: the onespot rabbit, but that fish is large (up to 10 inches) and venomous itself, and rowdy. I really, really advise against caulerpa, no matter how cheap and local. Halimeda is a stony rooted macroalgae: I've never found it to be a problem, except it's persistent and nothing I know eats it. Cheatomorpha is a floating macro that is ideal for a fuge: it reproduces much more slowly than caulerpa, and DOES NOT ROOT in your rock. It also aerates very, very efficiently. I keep my fuge lit 24/7.

Now to NON-ALGAES that look like algaes. The red blush on your sand (brown in some lighting) is cyanobacteria, one of the oldest lifeforms on earth. Look it up. It's a read. To get rid of it, first have a really good skimmer; then turn the lights out on your tank 3 days a month (1 day of actinic only, if you have MH lighting, total of 4 days.) It won't hurt your reef. But it will kill this stuff, which has only 3 life requirements: water, oxygen, and sunlight. Sunlight is all you can rob it of safely. Since it is also the origin of chloroplasts in all living green plants, forget trying to avoid it getting into your tank---just deal with it as it shows up. And avoid having slanted sunlight hitting your tank: this stuff had its heyday in the era of the Permian Extinction, when weird-spectrum sunlight was getting through the clouds. It loves that situation. Keep sunlight from your tank in all seasons, or expect to have a little of this show up. Do NOT use Red Slime remedy as a beginner: that rides beginner's luck to the max, and you can can crash your tank with it if you make a mistake or if your skimmer isn't what it ought to be. A cyano outbreak is soooo minor, and does no real harm, bad as it looks: don't panic. Take the long route, and you'll beat it within a few months.

And diatoms: animacules, as cyano is sorta plant/sorta animal, this stuff is little microscopic animals. A baby-poop-brown fluff or sheet or stain on the sand. Treat it much the same as cyano, but this stuff DOES like phosphate particularly well, so a fuge will help.
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[AaronM]

Ha above post is sweet. Interesting re. cyano and scattered light.

Why not cut both the food and lights back? I totally cut the lights for 3 days and it hurt the cyano bigtime – approx 70% decrease. Of course this is a temporary fix but can give you the upper hand if employing ongoing strategies too, like less food.

Maybe this will help, taken from a post by Highlandreefer, quoting Boomer it seems...pass the parcel:

This is a post that Boomer made in the past to further help hobbyists combat cyano:

"Some added thoughts from over the years from many

The only known fish to eat Cyano is Amblygobius stethophthalmus and it needs to be the real one not its close relative that is often Mis-ID with it.

A 2- 3 month scheme

1. Water changes. 25% weekly.

2. Bare bottom refugium only for cheato nutrient export and not for critters.

3. Siphon, sump, refugium, etc. every week during water change and clean all filter you have.

4. Blow off all the Cyano and settled stuff you can so it can be siphoned off.

5. Clean out skimmer and cup every week.

6. Carbon, 1 cup per 50 gallons / 2 wks. Try to use ROX

7. GFO -HC , change every month.

8. Purigen, every month

9. Soak frozen food in RO/DI and discard water before use. This is especially true for brine shrimp. Matter of fact I use to pour off the water, and then fill it back up, to repeat it until there was only whole brine shrimp in the container.

10. Read what is in the food and look for things low in phosphates.

11. Keep the pH in the very low 8's or very high 7's, as Cyano will out compete other algae's in higher pH water.

12. The # 1 limiting nutrient for Cyano is N, not P based on studies in various microbiology texts.

13. During these water changes and blowing stuff off and siphoning it up run a Diatom filter with a second cake of PAC (Powdered activated carbon).

14. Increase water flow where Cyano are growing, as they do not like high currents.

15. Shutting of all lights, almost total darkness for 48 hr. every few days.

Last resort is Chemi-Clean by Boyd."

[Pickupman66]

Hmmm.. I have a few spots and I know my params are good with no phosphate. I do have a window in the room and the cyano seems to be on that end of hte tank.

[Jstdv8]

could check your TDS on the RO water you're using as well. when my filters went south that's when I got cyano.

[ahenson]

Increase flow around the cyano, that helps