Light spectrum and cyano

cryotek74 · Jul 18, 2016

So i am battling a cyano outbreak on my display tank. Oddly it has come at the end of my fallow period of fighting ich. I have been doing water changes and dosing H2O2. I get it killed back at night when lights are off but if my lights for the corals come on the cyano comes back every day. My tank parameters are good(I think). 1.023 salinity, 4 ppm NO3, 0.04 Ph, ) NH3, 390 Ca, 1150 Mg. Running max flow on my return pump DCS-9000 and mave makers are blasting away, so flow is not an issue. I have 125 gal DT with 4 AI primes over it. I had them set to be at 13K for 6 hrs a day and blues in morning and evening. no lights from 10PM to 0500AM. The cyano would come back and cover the sand by 4pm. it grows so fast in the light. I think my anemone and coral could be impacted if I went no light for a couple days or longer.

Is there a safe light spectrum I can run my lights to get my corals and inverts some light that won't grow the cyano??

https://www.reef2reef.com/members/twilliard.54869/ Hoping you have some scientific insight.

jsker · Jul 18, 2016

@twilliard is going ask from some pictures. I would bump you Ca up to the 410 area, and Mg up to 1320. I run my salinity at 1.025. I run my Hydra 26 HD's for 12 hours and blast the tank with light for 4 hours. I thought it was the lights. After making some adjustment by brining down my nitrates and my phosphates to below .04 ppm Red Sea test my algae issues have really improved. My red algae does kick in when the lights are on, but a lot less then a mouth ago.
I would post my setting, but Apple just makes thing difficult

Lenny_S · Jul 18, 2016

I really don't think it's your light spectrum. When I had cyano going on I fiddled with all kind of potential causes, including light spectrum.
In the end I didn't really care what was causing it, I just wanted it gone.
I did a combined ChemiClean and lights out (including covering the tank) for 48 hours, then a 25% WC. That was like 8 months ago and it hasn't been back. The 2 day blackout didn't kill any of my corals. They weren't happy, but they all made a full recovery in just a week or two.
One key to the process was I ran my in sump skimmer wide open with the cup removed. You really have to aerate heavy to keep the CO2 levels in check and promote high gas exchange. ChemiClean seriously drives the CO2 up. Even with as much as I was aerating my pH dropped from a 8.3 average to as low as 7.8

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 18, 2016

cryotek74 said:
Is there a safe light spectrum I can run my lights to get my corals and inverts some light that won't grow the cyano??

no.
its more about nutrients.

cryotek74 · Jul 18, 2016

I've tried Chemiclean and kept my skimmer running with the plug out to keep the dissolved O2 up. So 4ppm NO3 is high. What if I tried GFO?

jsker · Jul 18, 2016

Figured out how to post my settings

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 18, 2016

gfo or a refugium. use gfo carefully. small additions, i believe the directions recommend it. its actually pretty powerfull. po is mostly bount to the rock and sand. gfo strips it from the water colom quicly esp in a reactor, then slowly pulls it off the rock n sand. folks forget that corals need po and they pull it from the wc. but now its stripped. (Corals bleaching faded

). so by slowly adding gfo you slowly evenly pull it from the WC and then slowly the rock.
I use refugiums. its like slow gfo method. plants. if you want to increase no & po uptake in a fuge, increase light intensity& spectrum(sometimes flow), more photosysnth more nutrient uptake, more export more trimming chato and throwing away exess nutrients.

twilliard · Jul 19, 2016

Yup my buddy is correct shoot a picture so I can see the formation

If you are propperly (there is a specific method) dosing h2o2 and it is not eradicated in 14 days it spirulina
You can do the test mentioned below for positive identification

cryotek74 · Jul 19, 2016

Here is tank couple weeks ago. I confirmed cyano as well as the cyano that is on the rocks also turned green in the tank since I am dosing. Just trying to understand why it won't completely die off as there are no fish in the tank, just coral and inverts. I have done 20% water changes(using RODI) over the course of the last two months and my parameters are the best they ever have been and now the cyano wont go away. I've been dosing for weeks and the cyno will grow like crazy if my lights are on. If I keep my tank dark the cyano will go away till i turn my lights back on.

cryotek74 · Jul 19, 2016

forgot to add Im dosing 15ml twice a day.

Titanwerx · Jul 19, 2016

3day lights off has always worked for me. Here's a great article on several methods on dealing with cyano. http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/42-Cyanobacteria-what-is-it-and-how-can-I-get-rid-of-it

Titanwerx · Jul 19, 2016

cryotek74 said:
forgot to add Im dosing 15ml twice a day.

Maybe I missed it but What are you dosing?

cryotek74 · Jul 19, 2016

Titanwerx said:
Maybe I missed it but What are you dosing?

H2O2. 3%

Titanwerx · Jul 19, 2016

cryotek74 said:
Here is tank couple weeks ago. I confirmed cyano as well as the cyano that is on the rocks also turned green in the tank since I am dosing. Just trying to understand why it won't completely die off as there are no fish in the tank, just coral and inverts. I have done 20% water changes(using RODI) over the course of the last two months and my parameters are the best they ever have been and now the cyano wont go away. I've been dosing for weeks and the cyno will grow like crazy if my lights are on. If I keep my tank dark the cyano will go away till i turn my lights back on.

You sure it's cyano? Looks more like diatoms in pic

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 19, 2016

One thng about peroxide. It weakens all algaes. So if you have a fuge its not helping them.

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 19, 2016

Hey I took a second look at the picture. How old is that tank.

cryotek74 · Jul 20, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
Hey I took a second look at the picture. How old is that tank.

9 months

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 20, 2016

9 months
no carbon dosing correct? Including Nopox?
No amino feeding?
No marine snow?
I assume the flow is strongest just above the cyano, dropping food down.
Your sure it's green cyano on rocks as it blows off easily?
How long have you been h2o2 dosing?
How did you cycle the tank?
There's never been fish?

Here's what I'm thinking. If it was a dry Rock cycle it was weak to begin with. Esp with dry rock and likely had a bad ugly phase. As the good bacteria was not fully developed or diverse enough in the tank. the addition of a food or a carbon source ( aminos Nopox)fed the cyano rather than. The good bacteria. The addition of peroxide limited the very important formation of micro algaes corraline etc and micro fauna that feed and break down food to be consumed by the bacteria.
It's also possible that the peroxide limited the corals nutrients too(bleaching fading if any) esp of the cycle was for some reason stunted. Same thing for macro algaes if your running a refugium. If the good algaes are being killed by color amines or peroxide, there will be nutrients free to be consumed by cyano.
As it seems there is some or limited corraline growth I always want to question the water source as that seems a common symptom in many of those those cases.

Additionally I'm not sure the effectiveness of peroxide on cyano (never researched)in as much as is it dissolving the cyano directly or more what it is feeding on.
my question in that dosing is if it dissolving bacterial colonies (cyano) or its food would it not also dissolve benificial bacteria. In a tank with a new or weaker bio filter that would be very bad. In an established tank there would be more margin for error as the benificial bacteria is deep in the rock and sand.

This is one reason why I generally avoid dosing that kills or quickly strips and tend toward the standard nutrient reduction and export and benificial bacterial supplementation and diversity.

Simon_Goffen · Jun 1, 2020

saltyfilmfolks said:
9 months
no carbon dosing correct? Including Nopox?
No amino feeding?
No marine snow?
I assume the flow is strongest just above the cyano, dropping food down.
Your sure it's green cyano on rocks as it blows off easily?
How long have you been h2o2 dosing?
How did you cycle the tank?
There's never been fish?

Here's what I'm thinking. If it was a dry Rock cycle it was weak to begin with. Esp with dry rock and likely had a bad ugly phase. As the good bacteria was not fully developed or diverse enough in the tank. the addition of a food or a carbon source ( aminos Nopox)fed the cyano rather than. The good bacteria. The addition of peroxide limited the very important formation of micro algaes corraline etc and micro fauna that feed and break down food to be consumed by the bacteria.
It's also possible that the peroxide limited the corals nutrients too(bleaching fading if any) esp of the cycle was for some reason stunted. Same thing for macro algaes if your running a refugium. If the good algaes are being killed by color amines or peroxide, there will be nutrients free to be consumed by cyano.
As it seems there is some or limited corraline growth I always want to question the water source as that seems a common symptom in many of those those cases.

Additionally I'm not sure the effectiveness of peroxide on cyano (never researched)in as much as is it dissolving the cyano directly or more what it is feeding on.
my question in that dosing is if it dissolving bacterial colonies (cyano) or its food would it not also dissolve benificial bacteria. In a tank with a new or weaker bio filter that would be very bad. In an established tank there would be more margin for error as the benificial bacteria is deep in the rock and sand.

This is one reason why I generally avoid dosing that kills or quickly strips and tend toward the standard nutrient reduction and export and benificial bacterial supplementation and diversity.

A very good explanation. I am currently dealing with cyano and i did all of the mistakes you have mentioned. Dosing NoPox just increased cyano in my tank. Now i have stopped using NoPox or any carbon dosing.

You have mentioned about the dry rock. I got cyano in my tank after i added dry rock to my established tank to rescape..i put the mature rocks into the sump and used dry rock in display. Maybe that became a breeding place for cyano. Is there a solution for this. Should i get rid of the new rocks or wait untill it establishes.