Is this cyano bacteria?
- Thread starter dave171
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You can manually remove it. But it'll most likely come right back. Gotta find the cause before the cure.
Main causes of cyano growth:
- Poor water quality - Using water that is anything but 0 TDS RODI. Elevated nutrients/nitrates/phosphates can also fuel cyano growth.
- Not enough flow - If you have "dead spots" in your tank, this is where cyano will grow.
- Old bulbs - T5, MH, VHO all need to be changed every 12 months. Supposedly LEDs last 5 years.
- Manual removal - siphon it out wherever possible, including the top layer of your sand bed
- Go 3 day lights out, once a month, every month. Wrapping your aquarium with black garbage bags helps keep out even ambient light.
- The above help in the short term, but you must find & eliminate the cause to control cyano in your tank for the long term
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dave171
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I have LEDs very little dead spots in my tank and only in the back and there's none back there. My water quality is fine all RO water and from my LFS and I know it good because my friend works there and has checked it. Lights out with corals isn't a option . The only thing with manual remover is it comes back and hard to removed when it kinda just break apart. But has anyone done a chemical treatment?
Chemi-clean will usually eradicate it in the short term, but it always comes back. Also, using Chemi-clean is not without risk.
Does your friend also check your nitrates/phosphates for you? If so, what are the readings?
Is your LFS water RO or RODI? A friend of mine was getting all his water from a LFS. We tested it and come to find out the TDS was almost 30.
Gotta dot every i and cross every t if you wanna get down to the source of this problem.
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dave171
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It RODI trust me I have multiple friends that work there also. I just started getting it there and before I was getting it form mY friend and he had brand new filters and DI filter.
WetWhistle
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Cynao can be tricky to remove. It is a bacteria and is able to do nitrogen fixation and take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and use it as a fuel source. If you don't have a lot of corals you can shut the lights out for a few days and try a product like Chemiclean - Red Slime Algae Remover. If you do have lots of corals you can try and cut down on how long the lights are on. I have treated a few friend tanks this way and in a few days the tank went from totally covered to all gone.
You do need to check a few things that could be causing in. Dirty substrate is a good spot to check. Under rocks especially collect organics and waste. Also check the things mentioned above.
You do need to check a few things that could be causing in. Dirty substrate is a good spot to check. Under rocks especially collect organics and waste. Also check the things mentioned above.
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dave171
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Yea I have too many corals for lights off. But the thing Is there is only patches of cyano on my sand only. None on rocks or anywhere else. I used to have a little bit of red on a rock but not anymore. Kind of strange anyways I am doing manual remover but its difficult and pain in the butt.
I've just battled this problem and it was down to my flow and too much light. I reduced my hours and messed about with my powerheads until I got the flow right. When you manually remove it, it will be back the next day or day after latest. Using chemiclean will only benefit you if you have solved the problem and just want to speed things up.
Dannycelluk
Community Member
I was always told it was due to an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates. Google redfield ratio.
How old is the tank? For the first year or so algae blooms like this are pretty normal IMO, whether your using RO/DI or not. From what your describing it doesn't necessarily sound like a problem either, just a blemish. Perhaps time is all you need. GL.
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dave171
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It is more of a blemish! But don't we all want perfect tanks
. anyways my tank is about 1 year and 6 months old. I have led and they are on 10 hours which were originally cut down from 13 and my flow could prob use another powerhead . all I have now is a aqueon nano but it outs out a lot when I tried to out another one in sand would blow all over or what not.
. anyways my tank is about 1 year and 6 months old. I have led and they are on 10 hours which were originally cut down from 13 and my flow could prob use another powerhead . all I have now is a aqueon nano but it outs out a lot when I tried to out another one in sand would blow all over or what not.
