Cyano | Cause and effect

[Dolphin2409]

Hi

Maybe the answer is not so cut and dried but do low nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) cause cyano or does cyano cause low nutrients readings in test kits?

cheers, Paul

 

[Cory]

Hi

Maybe the answer is not so cut and dried but do low nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) cause cyano or does cyano cause low nutrients readings in test kits?

cheers, Paul

Im not sure cyano cares about low or high nutrients. But it definitely lives on top of areas with ddcaying organics. Ive also seen it smother hair algae and feed off that. It also prefers lower Kelvin lighting (2700k to 6500k) ime.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi

Maybe the answer is not so cut and dried but do low nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) cause cyano or does cyano cause low nutrients readings in test kits?

cheers, Paul

What do you measure your nitrate and phosphate to be?

Low nutrients is never a direct cause of any pest. There is no known organism that grows better at lower nutrients.

That said, low nutrients are apparently often an indirect cause of dinos. Presumably that happens because the low nutrients kills off something that was outcompeting the dinos at higher nutrients, such as algae.

Cyano may be able to withstand lower N than most organisms (since some types can use N2 from the air as an N source), so it is at least theoretically possible for the same thing to happen with cyano if nitrate is very low.

For these reasons, as well as the health of corals and other organisms, maintaining at least a few ppm nitrate and 0.02 ppm phosphate seems an appropriate lower end.

 

[Dolphin2409]

What do you measure your nitrate and phosphate to be?

Low nutrients is never a direct cause of any pest. There is no known organism that grows better at lower nutrients.

That said, low nutrients are apparently often an indirect cause of dinos. Presumably that happens because the low nutrients kills off something that was outcompeting the dinos at higher nutrients, such as algae.

Cyano may be able to withstand lower N than most organisms (since some types can use N2 from the air as an N source), so it is at least theoretically possible for the same thing to happen with cyano if nitrate is very low.

For these reasons, as well as the health of corals and other organisms, maintaining at least a few ppm nitrate and 0.02 ppm phosphate seems an appropriate lower end.

Nitrates at 1 and phosphates at .03 now, but they were lower in Jan and Feb so I am wondering is this part of the cause or part of the effect of the cyano; i.e. is the cyano thriving because of low nutrients or is the cyano using the nutrients and causing low readings?

Cheers, Paul

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Nitrates at 1 and phosphates at .03 now, but they were lower in Jan and Feb so I am wondering is this part of the cause or part of the effect of the cyano; i.e. is the cyano thriving because of low nutrients or is the cyano using the nutrients and causing low readings?

Cheers, Paul

I don't think cyano is generally known as a low nutrient pest, but it would not hurt to dose more nitrate. Getting dinos from low nutrients will make cyano look good.

 

[Dolphin2409]

I don't think cyano is generally known as a low nutrient pest, but it would not hurt to dose more nitrate. Getting dinos from low nutrients will make cyano look good.

Yep, if we’re measuring on a scale of 0 to Dinos then it’s not too bad at all

I’m manually siphoning through a filter sock every second day hoping that it might help and if nothing else it at least reduces the ugly look.

 

[PatW]

I had cyano and tried all sorts of things. And NOTHING worked. How vexing. Then for some reason, I bought a number of the popular reef aquarium bacteria additives. You know the ones meant to increase bacterial diversity. And after adding that stuff, my cyano outbreak disappeared. I had started with dry rock and I think the cyano flourished because of a low diversity of bacteria in the reef. Maybe I should have used some high quality live rock to seed my dry rock.

 

[Dolphin2409]

I had cyano and tried all sorts of things. And NOTHING worked. How vexing. Then for some reason, I bought a number of the popular reef aquarium bacteria additives. You know the ones meant to increase bacterial diversity. And after adding that stuff, my cyano outbreak disappeared. I had started with dry rock and I think the cyano flourished because of a low diversity of bacteria in the reef. Maybe I should have used some high quality live rock to seed my dry rock.

I’m actually adding Fauna Marin Bacto Blend on a weekly basis and thinking of increasing that dosage or switching to Fauna Marin Bacto Therapy

Would you recommend any particular brand or did you go for the ‘cocktail of many’ approach?