cyano

[lucasb.]

so my tank has been running for 10 months now and corals and fish are doing great. however i’ve had cyano for a while now. my nitrates and phosphates are both undetectable can that be the problem?

 

[Greatdane]

Well algae feed off of silica in the water you take that away they slowly go away togg u can yo-yo a poly fiber filter and water changes will help with that but being that the nitrates are undetectable could be the reason silica is basically nitrates

 

[Greatdane]

What test kit are you using for nitrates

 

[Albertan22]

Well algae feed off of silica in the water you take that away they slowly go away togg u can yo-yo a poly fiber filter and water changes will help with that but being that the nitrates are undetectable could be the reason silica is basically nitrates

Silica is silica, not nitrate. It’s an element on the periodic table, nitrate is a nitrogen based compound. They are certainly not the same thing...

 

[hyprc]

Cyano is bacteria. Actually likes lower nutrient environments. Also likes low flow environments. Check out Triton's Modified Redfield Ratio. Also keep in mind, it can take a couple years or more for a tank to mature to the point to where cyano is outcompeted by other not so ugly competition. It's in every single tank, a basic building block of the reef.

 

[lucasb.]

so should i up my feeding? and i use red sea coral pro salt and i have been told by eat_sleep_reef that people he knows that uses this salt has cyano. can this have something to do with it.

 

[ScottR]

I had cyano for the longest time until one day it got out of control. Chemiclean is Reef and fish safe. Works fast. The problem with cyano is, it will kill off a lot of your beneficial bacteria and once cyano is gone, dinos have the open door to take over. So it’s best to tackle cyano ASAP IMO.

 

[ScottR]

Well algae feed off of silica in the water you take that away they slowly go away togg u can yo-yo a poly fiber filter and water changes will help with that but being that the nitrates are undetectable could be the reason silica is basically nitrates

Diatoms will feed off of silicates. Algae doesn’t need silicates. Cyano is a bacteria and even cutting nitrates won’t make cyano magically disappear.