The Cyano Phase

[cshouston]

Hey, all. I thought I had skipped the uglies by having a long, lights-out cycle, and using maricultured live rock to add diversity to my dry rock structure. I am seeing coralline growth, but unfortunately, it also looks like I’m starting the cyano phase anyway. I have a lot of green cyano, and am now starting to see small spots red cyano. It’s only on the dry rock, of course. Should I just leave my lights going and continue business as usual or is it worth trying a few days of blackout? I don’t want to overreact and start dumping chemiclean into the tank. I’ve seen conflicting info about adding more NO3/PO4 to combat cyano, as opposed to cyano being caused *by* the nutrients. I don’t want to zero out and risk dinos taking over.

SG 1.026
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrate ~5ppm
Phosphate .04ppm
Alk 8.1
Calcium 440ppm
Mag 1360ppm

 

[HuduVudu]

Should I just leave my lights going and continue business as usual or is it worth trying a few days of blackout?

Let it be.

I don’t want to overreact and start dumping chemiclean into the tank.

Please don't do that. Your tank needs to build diversity and that takes time. By putting your thumb on the scale you will have to leave it there and you will never achieve the biodiversity of a truly beautiful tank.

I’ve seen conflicting info about adding more NO3/PO4 to combat cyano, as opposed to cyano being caused *by* the nutrients.

Feed normally and try as best you can to ignore your tank. This is the part were people panic and start the interference cycle that leads to certain organisms dominating the tank. You are going to have to do this anyway and by interfering you are just prolonging what for many is an ugly part of the evolution of their tank.

I don’t want to zero out and risk dinos taking over.

I have dinos in my tank. Sometimes something allows them to flare up but then the tank rebalances and they are banashed. Competition is the key. There are very very few truly invasive organisms, so it's best to err on the side of non-intervention.

 

[cshouston]

Let it be.


Please don't do that. Your tank needs to build diversity and that takes time. By putting your thumb on the scale you will have to leave it there and you will never achieve the biodiversity of a truly beautiful tank.


Feed normally and try as best you can to ignore your tank. This is the part were people panic and start the interference cycle that leads to certain organisms dominating the tank. You are going to have to do this anyway and by interfering you are just prolonging what for many is an ugly part of the evolution of their tank.


I have dinos in my tank. Sometimes something allows them to flare up but then the tank rebalances and they are banashed. Competition is the key. There are very very few truly invasive organisms, so it's best to err on the side of non-intervention.

Thank you. I also believe in letting nature take its course and that overreacting can make things worse. My tank has no fish right now because they’re all in QT due to ich slipping in somehow. I have been dropping mysis in for the inverts, but also have NeoNitro and NeoPhos in case I need to dose in order to keep nutrients up.

 

[Anthony Scholfield]

Thank you. I also believe in letting nature take its course and that overreacting can make things worse. My tank has no fish right now because they’re all in QT due to ich slipping in somehow. I have been dropping mysis in for the inverts, but also have NeoNitro and NeoPhos in case I need to dose in order to keep nutrients up.

I’m in the same boat pretty much. Newish tank, all dry rock though. Coralline is growing well but cyano is present, green and red. I also see dinos here and there.

I also had ich slip in so the fish are out and now healthy but this tank is going through its fallow period, half way done now. I have a handful of nems, some inverts and coral in there plus a herd of amphipods, haha

Ive been manually siphoning out the cyano with a small weekly water change and stirring up the mats during the week. I’m also dosing neonitro and neophos to keep those levels up. I spot feed the nems and coral during the week, otherwise I’m just trying to let it run its course. This is my second tank so I’m trying to play it cool, haha. It’s hard sometimes though. I did decide this week to dose microbacter7 everyday to add some competition, hopefully.

 

[Rp8]

Update on how its going?

 

[wonroc]

Is red cyano part of a cycle? You state phase like all tanks cycle through it. Excuse my ignorance about cyano i just dont know. You state you have coraline which only comes to a mature established tank. So how is this a phase which sounds expected?

 

[Rp8]

Hey, all. I thought I had skipped the uglies by having a long, lights-out cycle, and using maricultured live rock to add diversity to my dry rock structure. I am seeing coralline growth, but unfortunately, it also looks like I’m starting the cyano phase anyway. I have a lot of green cyano, and am now starting to see small spots red cyano. It’s only on the dry rock, of course. Should I just leave my lights going and continue business as usual or is it worth trying a few days of blackout? I don’t want to overreact and start dumping chemiclean into the tank. I’ve seen conflicting info about adding more NO3/PO4 to combat cyano, as opposed to cyano being caused *by* the nutrients. I don’t want to zero out and risk dinos taking over.

SG 1.026
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrate ~5ppm
Phosphate .04ppm
Alk 8.1
Calcium 440ppm
Mag 1360ppm

Hows the cyano battle coming? and are you making any progress?

 

[Dark_Knightt]

As others have said, give it time. Wait a month or two, or more, depending on the size of the tank, and then you can try adding Chemiclean if that doesnt help. I waited about 2 months, had a major infestation in my 20g, with large ugly patches covering everything, and it looked like lots of anemones because they had strands kinda. It was an eyesore for everyone who visited me and checked out the tank. So i got chemiclean, in about 3-4 days its was gone completely, tank was super clean.

 

[cshouston]

Hows the cyano battle coming? and are you making any progress?

Yeah, good progress. I removed my entire sand bed for a different reason, and also manually removed a lot during a few water changes. It’s starting to die back now and is isolated to two areas of rock. I also dosed MicroBacter7 again for a week after the sand removal which may or may not have helped.