Cyano and Bryopsis

jerrod · Dec 14, 2019

Not good at reef chemistry on how all the different things correlate to each other and need help in coming up with a course of action.
I am dealing with some minor Cyano right now and after blowing off all the rocks the last week or two I now have Bryopsis growing in small patches on all my powerheads and rock work. I'm assuming I had a small patch somewhere and when dusting the rocks I got it in the water column (please correct me if im wrong). I am trying to raise my nitrates now and decrease phosphates to treat the cyano but am concerned that in adding nitrates I will help fuel the growth of the Bryopsis.

Currently I am doing a 50 gal water change tomorrow and have quit carbon dosing and cleaned my algae scrubber in order to raise nitrates and started dosing Brightwell Aquatics Phosphate E to lower phosphates. Do I risk making the Bryopsis worse by letting my nitrates get up to around the 10 ppm area? Id rather not go the chemiclean route if I can help it and am willing to do it slow to protect the tank, I just bought 2 Orpheks but am afraid of adding or changing lights until I get all this handled.
Any help is appreciated as I've never dealt with 2 issues at once that to me to seem to be opposites i.e. algae grows due to excess nutrients cyano grown from a lack of one nutrient.

240 gal long parameters (all Red Sea or Hannah checkers)
Salinity 1.025
Ammonia/Nitrite 00
ALK 10.92
CA. 415
Mag 1400
Nitrate. 2
PO4 .08
PH 8.2

Dan_P · Dec 15, 2019

jerrod said:
Not good at reef chemistry on how all the different things correlate to each other and need help in coming up with a course of action.
I am dealing with some minor Cyano right now and after blowing off all the rocks the last week or two I now have Bryopsis growing in small patches on all my powerheads and rock work. I'm assuming I had a small patch somewhere and when dusting the rocks I got it in the water column (please correct me if im wrong). I am trying to raise my nitrates now and decrease phosphates to treat the cyano but am concerned that in adding nitrates I will help fuel the growth of the Bryopsis.

Currently I am doing a 50 gal water change tomorrow and have quit carbon dosing and cleaned my algae scrubber in order to raise nitrates and started dosing Brightwell Aquatics Phosphate E to lower phosphates. Do I risk making the Bryopsis worse by letting my nitrates get up to around the 10 ppm area? Id rather not go the chemiclean route if I can help it and am willing to do it slow to protect the tank, I just bought 2 Orpheks but am afraid of adding or changing lights until I get all this handled.
Any help is appreciated as I've never dealt with 2 issues at once that to me to seem to be opposites i.e. algae grows due to excess nutrients cyano grown from a lack of one nutrient.

240 gal long parameters (all Red Sea or Hannah checkers)
Salinity 1.025
Ammonia/Nitrite 00
ALK 10.92
CA. 415
Mag 1400
Nitrate. 2
PO4 .08
PH 8.2

Cyanobacteria films are likely fueled by decaying organic matter that has collected in the areas where the cyanobacteria films are growing. Start a regime of vacuuming up the cyanobacteria and regularly keeping rock surfaces free of debris.

jerrod · Dec 15, 2019

Dan_P said:
Cyanobacteria films are likely fueled by decaying organic matter that has collected in the areas where the cyanobacteria films are growing. Start a regime of vacuuming up the cyanobacteria and regularly keeping rock surfaces free of debris.

I have been blowing the rocks off daily and creating small tornadoes to get the cyano off the sand into the water column. Weekly I vacuum the sand bed into a filter sock then the next week I do on average a 40 gallon water change. With a 240 gal tank, 20 gal frag tank and 60 gallon sump I do not hit the 20% water change but I dose CA, Alk, MG and trace elements and have a large protein skimmer and algae scrubber.
I have done a few cycles of wet skimming where I did almost 4 gallons of skim mate turning it up as high as it would go while stirring up the sand bed and there has been no change. Unless there is something under the rocks decaying that I can't get to I have no idea what could be decaying. I am not missing any fish and I rarely overfeed. I should have plenty of flow and only have one area with a dead spot in the tank . I have 2 maxspect gyre 350's and three large current marine powerheads on the back to keep everything suspended and some of the cyano is directly on the rocks in front of these. I have even turned these up to 100 the last week hoping it would help. I will try to post pictures this evening or tomorrow.
Should I continue to try and raise nitrates and drop phosphates or will that in turn fuel the Bryopsis.

Dan_P · Dec 15, 2019

jerrod said:
I have been blowing the rocks off daily and creating small tornadoes to get the cyano off the sand into the water column. Weekly I vacuum the sand bed into a filter sock then the next week I do on average a 40 gallon water change. With a 240 gal tank, 20 gal frag tank and 60 gallon sump I do not hit the 20% water change but I dose CA, Alk, MG and trace elements and have a large protein skimmer and algae scrubber.
I have done a few cycles of wet skimming where I did almost 4 gallons of skim mate turning it up as high as it would go while stirring up the sand bed and there has been no change. Unless there is something under the rocks decaying that I can't get to I have no idea what could be decaying. I am not missing any fish and I rarely overfeed. I should have plenty of flow and only have one area with a dead spot in the tank . I have 2 maxspect gyre 350's and three large current marine powerheads on the back to keep everything suspended and some of the cyano is directly on the rocks in front of these. I have even turned these up to 100 the last week hoping it would help. I will try to post pictures this evening or tomorrow.
Should I continue to try and raise nitrates and drop phosphates or will that in turn fuel the Bryopsis.

The phosphate and nitrate adjustments might not be that effective. Are there other ways to tame Bryopsis.