doc's
- Thread starter xsdbs
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I would be willing to bet that at some point right before the outbreak started, there were at least minimally measurable amounts of NO3 and/or PO4. What can very easily happen is the cyano (or any nuissance algae) consumes those available nutrients in the water, leading to test results showing 0s.
This is what's happening in the 50g reef we set up at work (a very young tank). There were NO3 levels in the 10 - 20 ppm range a few weeks ago. About two weeks ago, a red cyano outbreak started. Now, there's plenty of red cyano and 0 ppm NO3. I work to remove the cyano as much as it's reasonable, to prevent any nutrients from being recycled within the tank as the cyano begins to run its course. It takes time to battle it like this, but it's been effective for me in the past.
This is what's happening in the 50g reef we set up at work (a very young tank). There were NO3 levels in the 10 - 20 ppm range a few weeks ago. About two weeks ago, a red cyano outbreak started. Now, there's plenty of red cyano and 0 ppm NO3. I work to remove the cyano as much as it's reasonable, to prevent any nutrients from being recycled within the tank as the cyano begins to run its course. It takes time to battle it like this, but it's been effective for me in the past.
Thanks fsn77, I will keep more of an eye on these levels and monitor them more frequently. do you simply continue to remove it or do that and more frequent water changes than normal?
In working to remove it by siphoning it out, I do actually perform more frequent water changes, which are generally smaller than what I would do as a part of routine maintenance. On top of the regular 5g water change I do on this work tank every 10 - 14 days or so, the cyano removal results in an additional 1 - 2 gallon water change every 3 - 4 days at this point (depending on what's going on at work).
In my case, I was more or less expecting to see a lot of diatoms / cyano / nuissance algae during these first 6 months, as the tank was started with mostly dry rock from a torn down tank (I figured there'd be a lot of nutrients in the rock). I just got a remote DSB and a refugium plumbed in to the system, so I haven't started to gain any benefits from either, especially since I haven't put any macroalgae in the refugium yet.
How long has your tank been running? I've not had a problem with cyano in any of our sw tanks that are more than 8 months old, as it's always seemed to be an issue related to the tank being new and not established. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I also tend to keep the number of fish low in my tanks and make sure I don't overfeed.
In my case, I was more or less expecting to see a lot of diatoms / cyano / nuissance algae during these first 6 months, as the tank was started with mostly dry rock from a torn down tank (I figured there'd be a lot of nutrients in the rock). I just got a remote DSB and a refugium plumbed in to the system, so I haven't started to gain any benefits from either, especially since I haven't put any macroalgae in the refugium yet.
How long has your tank been running? I've not had a problem with cyano in any of our sw tanks that are more than 8 months old, as it's always seemed to be an issue related to the tank being new and not established. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I also tend to keep the number of fish low in my tanks and make sure I don't overfeed.
my tank is about 1.5 yrs old and this outbreak comes and goes, just when I think GREAT ITS GONE, it starts again. I only have 3 fish in the tank right now and a few corals. ( kind of been on tank restriction lately, too many other things to take care of at home ). I don't think that I am over feeding and for flow I currently have 2 rio 2100's and 2 korilia 4's and lights are new ( about 2 months old ). Thanks for any advice.
Remember that cyano is somewhat specialized, in that it isn't really limited by nitrate. It can extract nitrogen gas from the atmosphere and fix it into ammonium and use it. I would bet that there is a substrate source of phosphate (and probably some nitrate) that is allowing it to thrive.
Yup, some pretty amazing stuff. In fact, it is because of cyanobacteria that many plants are able to grow in nitrogen-poor soils. Things like peanuts and other legumes use nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria to get their nitrogen as ammonium. That isn't counting plants' very widespread symbiotically mutualistic relationship with fungi, either. As far as the N-fixing stuff goes, look up nitrogen fixation and heterocysts. Tons of info.