Changing season diatom/cyno outbreak

[Waynerock]

Does anyone experience cyano or diatom on the rocks when the seasons change? That’s the only thing I can think why this is showing up. I think I had this last year too going from winter to spring when the windows are open and there is a crap ton of yellow pollen in the air. Any ideas? No changes to tank no3 at 5 and po4 at .03 ish.

 

[X-37B]

I had some cyano for a couple weeks. Its gone now so maybe?
Was about the time I opened windows too.

 

[Dan_P]

Does anyone experience cyano or diatom on the rocks when the seasons change? That’s the only thing I can think why this is showing up. I think I had this last year too going from winter to spring when the windows are open and there is a crap ton of yellow pollen in the air. Any ideas? No changes to tank no3 at 5 and po4 at .03 ish.

Life is full of cycles and coincidences. The air in your house year round is full of dirt. Most nuisance growth probably does not respond this way. My intuition is to put the conjecture in the “highly unlikely” category.

If you feel strongly about the idea, seal the entire system in plastic and provide this plastic bubble system with filtered air. The dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria will stop if the “dirty air” conjecture is correct. Maybe just tight fitting tops to the sump and aquarium would be enough.

 

[Waynerock]

Life is full of cycles and coincidences. The air in your house year round is full of dirt. Most nuisance growth probably does not respond this way. My intuition is to put the conjecture in the “highly unlikely” category.

If you feel strongly about the idea, seal the entire system in plastic and provide this plastic bubble system with filtered air. The dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria will stop if the “dirty air” conjecture is correct. Maybe just tight fitting tops to the sump and aquarium would be enough.

I have read of people saying they get little blooms from winter-spring and summer-fall and always wondered if there was truth of just Coincidence. We have nasty pollen this time of year in the south and the skimmer is always going to pull whatever in, in. It would be a lot simpler to blame the issues on the season instead of looking at what I am doing and trying to fix it of course. I was hoping someone was dealing with it currently

 

[NS Mike D]

could be more ambient daylight reaching the tank

 

[Dan_P]

I have read of people saying they get little blooms from winter-spring and summer-fall and always wondered if there was truth of just Coincidence. We have nasty pollen this time of year in the south and the skimmer is always going to pull whatever in, in. It would be a lot simpler to blame the issues on the season instead of looking at what I am doing and trying to fix it of course. I was hoping someone was dealing with it currently

The ”change of seasons” narrative goes back decades. It is one of many attempts to explain things.

I haven’t read that anyone has discovered what stimulates nuisance growth. Many, many ideas though, some pretty convincing, but still all based on anecdotal evidence. I am with you though. Blame the pollen, enjoy the aquarium, and the return of spring.

 

[taricha]

I once looked at the number of posts about dinos on the forum tracked by month. And there was an increase in early spring.
...BUT that increase was likely due to people having more time over christmas/new years to fiddle with their tanks and get new livestock and do other things that might result in noticing dinos a few weeks later.

likely had more to do with the annual cycles of people than algae.

 

[Dan_P]

I once looked at the number of posts about dinos on the forum tracked by month. And there was an increase in early spring.
...BUT that increase was likely due to people having more time over christmas/new years to fiddle with their tanks and get new livestock and do other things that might result in noticing dinos a few weeks later.

likely had more to do with the annual cycles of people than algae.

You encourage me to change the saying “every aquarium is different“ to “every aquarist is different”.

The implication is that everyone will not obtain the same number of good/similar results after, say, 2 years, given the chance to set up an aquarium exactly the same way, 10 times in a row. I wonder if @Lasse has ideas on this?

 

[Lasse]

You encourage me to change the saying “every aquarium is different“ to “every aquarist is different”.

The implication is that everyone will not obtain the same number of good/similar results after, say, 2 years, given the chance to set up an aquarium exactly the same way, 10 times in a row. I wonder if @Lasse has ideas on this?

“every aquarist is different” is for me the most important sentence in your post

Since 2006 I have set up around 10 different aquarium at my home - they have developed mostly in the same way as long as I have had interest for them. If you lose interest - they will (and had) decline.

In fresh water (I start 1973 in a larger scale) we often saw difference between seasons but they was connected to heavy rainfall during fall and snow melting in the spring. With tanganyika cichlids - WC was a big No No during these periods. Reason - probably water quality. I do not believe you will see the same in SW if you use RO/DI water. Pollen in the water - they may rise the organic load a little but allow me to doubt if it is of concern or not. If there is a difference between spring and other seasons - I think that @taricha is right

Sincerely Lasse