Blue-Green Algae

Hey i believe that reducing the light on the "blue" side of the spectrum in your tank will do wonders instead of leaving lights out or just adding toxins to kill it. Cyanobacteria rely on the blue side of the spectrum, (thus the blueish coloring) so if you have a dual lighting fixture, turn on the 5600 k light only, during normal photo periods. I would do this for, say, one week and see if you can eliminate it naturally. (I dont necessarily trust chemicals)

That won't do it, trust me. You can eliminate it "naturally" but doing a balck out then cleaning and dosing Nitrates.
 
I'm on day 2 of a blackout, this is killing me. I love my fish tank too much. I almost bought a 10g and a betta just so I can look at something for a few days.
 
I thought plants used less lights in the spectrum of coloring that they are? Red plants showing that they reflected, instead of asborb, reds and so on?

Anyways, this stuff was killer in my reef. A blackout would have killed all my corals so I tried other stuff.. it eventually took over the tank and killed my corals anyways. With all water parameters being perfect.. Afterwards a black-out did kill the stuff off, it didn't return.

edit: and depending on how thick it is it can be really really messy after a blackout. Be sure to do a huge water change, get all the dead algae out.
 
Hey i believe that reducing the light on the "blue" side of the spectrum in your tank will do wonders instead of leaving lights out or just adding toxins to kill it. Cyanobacteria rely on the blue side of the spectrum, (thus the blueish coloring) so if you have a dual lighting fixture, turn on the 5600 k light only, during normal photo periods. I would do this for, say, one week and see if you can eliminate it naturally. (I dont necessarily trust chemicals)

Yeah, I know this doesn't work as I only have 5600K lights (natural sunlight)
 
Ok, well good luck then! ErrorS, cyanobacteria has chlorophyl "a" which is the most simple and oldest type of photosynthetic appatarus. they simply absorb light, captures the energy and transfers it. Then, later on in the evolutionary chain, algae becan to pick up phycobilins, which are a protein, that allowed newer species of algae to pick up red light, instead of just blue green light. Maybe take out neutrients by significantly increasing the amount of surface area your filter has. This would deprive the whole aquarium of nutrients for a while, but maybe the cyano will be the first to die out?
 
If you're giving me hints about the cyano, that reef has been broken down for a year. I got rid of it by doing a blackout.. i've never seen any heavy cyano in my FW tank.

Well, I just did some reading (interesting subject) and some Cyano apparently has phycobilisomes that allow it to pick up just about any light they can. There are some Cyano that doesn't.

Here is a quote from the article I'm reading

The variations to this theme is mainly due to carotenoids and phycoerythrins which give the cells the red-brownish coloration. In some cyanobacteria, the color of light influences the composition of phycobilisomes. In green light, the cells accumulate more phycoerythrin, whereas in red light they produce more phycocyanin. Thus the bacteria appear green in red light and red in green light. This process is known as complementary chromatic adaptation and is a way for the cells to maximize the use of available light for photosynthesis.

That's what I thought, the color changes depending on the amount of light they recieve. I have always suspected this was true with Ludwiga, the redder the plant is the more red light it was recieving, lack of reds mean there aren't enough. Because each chemical reacts differently to different lights, it allows some plants to balance the amount of light they recieve. If they get too many greens and need more reds, a plant like a Ludwiga wont be red in color so it can more easily absorb greens..
Cyanobacteria (which isn't even a real algae apparently) has many properties that it shares with plants.

But because of this many Cyano (not all) can thrive with any spectrum of light. You can't simply cut out the blues or the reds to kill it off, you need a total blackout. Those without phycobilisomes would actually die off in a tank with nothing but blues but so would most of your plants, and even if you decided to do it you would have to know exactly what cyano you have in your tank.

Any Cyano I got in my reef was multicolored, bright reds and greens. Using high wattage 50/50s all around (had 7WPG of CFs in my reef).
 
Good article! Where did you find it? i have an algae text book that i got my info from but if theres other good sources id like to read 'em.
 
Keep your nitrates at 10-20 ppm to prevent it from forming. This may mean dosing the tank daily depending on the nutrient uptake of your plants.

Wow, that's the key. I measured my nitrates 2 days ago, it was around 10-15 ppm....today just about 0. I had no idea. Once I kill it off, I will definately be adding KNO3 on a day to day basis.

Thanks
 
Wikipedia?? Just kidding that wasn't a bad article because it was written by academics. Wikipedia is ok i think as long as the citation is given and it seems to be a good source, not just "Tom 'The Tominator" from Toledo" or something.
 
AquariaCentral.com