Permacyano

[Thunderkat]

Ok, my redone tank is wonderful but due to the amount of sunlight that hits my tank I can't get rid of the copious cyano growth. Oh well, if that is my only problem I don't mind it one bit.

I have done everything people say to do like RO water, have a fuge, good skimming, sump, water changes, high flow , blah blah blah ect...but it is the sunlight that allows this stuff to grow like nuts.

My question for everybody is this. Is it ok for me to take my live rock out of my tank and blast them under the faucet? (I don't do it to rock with coral on it- would it be ok to blast mushrooms and ricc for a few seconds of tap water?) Duration of the blasting does not exceed ten seconds.

I did this a few times already, I just pull the rock out and run tap water over the rocks at high pressure and the cyano flies off. I only need to do it for a few seconds as the cyano is not hard to remove this way.

[thedude]

I'm going to go with absolutely not. You're blasting chlorine onto the rocks along with other things that are in no way good for your tank. Is it only on the rocks or the sandbed as well? What kind of clean up crew do you have rocking in there? Also, try chemi-clean, it worked to get rid of a cyano problem I had 2 years ago.

[brewercm]

I've done it before when I didn't have RO water. If you can get to RO water and do the same that would be better. Wouldn't say I recommend it just that I've done it without any harm.

As far as the cause, have you tried the chemical aluminum. Place it on the window and tape it down and walla, no more sunlight in the tank to cause the algae growth. :lol

You can also try some sort of winow shade that will block it more but you will lose the use of that window.

[Thunderkat]

I live in an apartment and it has thin plastic blinds and one of the walls where the tank (living room) is solid window. I have the blinds shut but it does no good.

If it was my house you know I would have thick curtains and all kinds of stuff up to block out the light (must protect...my precious).

I must be doing something right in my redone tank because with my last tank that I had going for a year I did not have a single bit of coralline algae leave my live rocks. Now I have coralline algae growing on the glass and filters. It is only a small amount but I hope it will spread.

My corals are doing fine, and in fact I think a new type is starting to grow from one of the live rocks I bought. I didn't see anything on it initally but now I think there is Xenia growing on it.

Oh, my cleaning crew is one large mexican turbo (nice name for that ^_^ ), one fighting conch, 3 blue leg hermit crabs, 4 cerith snails, 3 money cowries, 4 nessarius snails (but they don't eat cyano), one emerald crab, some of those clear feeder shrimp (were not meant to be residents but fish didn't eat them).

[GaryP]

I seriously doubt that sunlight is somehow mysteriously causing cyano to grow, as opposed to the light from your system. Why is sunlight any different then artificial light. The last time I checked its made of the same thing, photons. Cyano will adapt to any light source. Light is not the reason for cyano growth, nutrients are. You can blast a tank with an unlimited amount of light and if there isn't excess nutrients in the tank you aren't going to get any cyano growth.

Killing the "good stuff" on your LR is counter productive in my opinion. You are just going to release more nutrients back into the water and thus create more growth. If you want to clean the rock, use a toothbrush. You have a new system. A cyano bloom is just part of the natural cycling of a new tank. My suggestion is to calm down and be paitent. A new tank is not the time to do drastic things.

I'd go get about 50 more hermits and that should help a lot. 4 blue legs is a drop in the bucket for a tank your size. 1 hermit per gal. is a good starting point.

[alexwolf]

i have cyano in a few tanks. Funny thing is, they are the only tanks that get direct sunlight. Strange?

[Thunderkat]

Yeah Alex, after seeing that just the tanks you had with sunlight hitting them I did quite a bit of reading on cyano. According to my book it will grow in even low nutrient areas with sufficient light.

I don't mind the cyano and the washing off of cyano on the rocks is only to uncover the macro algae (which seems unaffected by the biweekly washing, it is growing in fact and I keep finding new types of macro).

I have been patient with the cyano, the only thing I have been doing is removing 2 gallons of water a week and topping back off (using RO water to mix the instant ocean with), scraping it off the glass, and blasting it off the rocks.

Even with the cyano I am happy, coralline algae growing on the glass is really nice and new corals and different types of macro are really nice. Redone tank following maast advice = AWESOME!!! ^_^

I will beef up the cleaning crew and see how it works.

[::pete::]

Light definitely makes it grow or pop out. Just look at night when the actinics are on its almost gone and when the lights first fire in the am. As the day (light cycle) increases so does the cyano patch.

[GaryP]

Light definitely makes it grow or pop out. Just look at night when the actinics are on its almost gone and when the lights first fire in the am. As the day (light cycle) increases so does the cyano patch.

I think the reason you don't see it under actinics is that there is no red light being produced by an actinic. It just fades into the background.

[::pete::]

But, if its on the white substrate and you can still see it as it receding .... I have seen it get bigger as the day goes on in my tank and smaller in the evening (light cycle).

[falcondob]

I have to agree with Pete on this one. Light (artificial or natural) increase the cyano and when it is removed it appears to slow, metabolically at least. I base that on the number of oxygen bubbles I see in the areas where I know I have the cyano. I also agree that nutrients are more to blame than light. As my tank is proceeding through the cycle (and I added a charcoal reactor) the cyano is decreasing. I guess the answer for me is, it is both light and nutrients, but more so nutrients.

As far as sunlight, I have notice the 10k bulbs increase the cyano more than the 20k. 10k is closer to sun in wavelengths, so that equates to the sun hitting his tank, not sure, just a W.A.G. Could also have something to do with PAR or a million other lighting variables.

[GaryP]

It just seems to me that cutting back on light, whatever the source is counter productive.

[don-n-sa]

I know for a fact that flow has something to do with it because the water for my mantis tank comes from my 240g...no cyano in my 240g but I have some in my mantis tank. the only difference is the mantis tank has low flow.