Spirulina what is it, and what does it look like

[cowboy]

Now in all honesty spirulina in a managed state you will never see. Now you and I have actually a lot about this, so posting this might be kind of cheating. So I would like to see how other will interpret the original question. Spirulina is definitely photosynthetic but does feed as well it actually feeds heavily off of amino acids. That's why a lot of people see a red slum after dosing coral foods a lot of times spirulina is mistaken for cyano.

 

[Miami Reef]

Hey guys! I’m reviving this ancient thread!

Even though Twilliard hasn’t popped on in a year, I’ve read through his studies and posts about cyano.

Here’s the run down: Twilliard states a sample of the cyano in tank water with some h202 is the method to determine if It is cyano or spirulina. Cyano will turn the cup water pink while spirulina will make the cup remain the same.

 

[Miami Reef]

It seems to be turning pink. It must be regular cyano.

 

[Jgoal55]

Old thread revival time. I just did the test, at first with 1ml of H202 then added 5ml, and nothing turned pink or floated to the top so I’m guessing spirulina as well.

another post mentioned a likely cause could be fresh seafood and I did originally cycle my tank with dead shrimp.

I have a microscope that I’m going to try to look through, but I’m not sure it’s powerful enough. I will post results if I get a good image.

 

[MinnieMouse2]

I have it in my tank and it looks just like Cyano (twillard helped me discover this) In my opinion this is not something you want in your tank. It's unsightly and grows super fast. Can cover glass, sand, corals and pretty much everything else if your not careful.

No, that is not Spirulina you are showing. That is just regular cyano tanks get. In fact, if you get Spirulina to take off in a tank, it will look like a flat piece of blue-green algae. It is easy to remove. I feed some to my reef clams and if it grows in the tank is always blue-green and easy to remove. The life in the tank loves it. It also can outcompete dino. I stopped feeding it and then got dino again. I think in a dino battle might be something to look at.

 

[piranhaman00]

Bump, I did the h2o2 test and confirmed spirulina, how are people getting rid of it? It grows so rapidly in my tank.

 

[Miami Reef]

Bump, I did the h2o2 test and confirmed spirulina, how are people getting rid of it? It grows so rapidly in my tank.

Twilliard said chemiclean works for spirulina.

There is something about chemiclean that wipes out spirulina but at the same time does nothing to cyanobacteria

 

[piranhaman00]

Twilliard said chemiclean works for spirulina.

Well yes but I am not using chemiclean, hoping for other solutions, slower acting