cyano bacteria

D

D27spanky

I have raised my alkalinity and I get rid of my cyano but then as soon as I do water change and even out my alk my cyano comes back. I can't give params right now cause I loned out my test kit for a moment but the last 3 times this has happen my params was salinity 1.024, PH 8.4, calcium 400 alkalinity is about 200-220, nitrate and nitrite is 0, ammonia is nothing and I don't remember my magnesium but I know it was good. I have cut down on my feeding to only feeding 1/2 cube of enhanced brine shrimp once a day I have a 55 gal tank with a clown,2 yellow tail damsels, coral beauty angel, anthia, 3 strip damsels, yellow tang, some hermit crabs just added, one turbo snail, bunch of nariruses snails(excuse spelling I know it is wrong) water temp is 76.5. attaching pictures so you can see my tank if you look on sand you will see the cyano I hate this stuff and trying to avoid the red slime or the chemi-clean treatment can someone help. I really need to find the root of the problem and I haven't had any luck with that
 
on your clean up crew how many snails and hermits would you say you have ? I can't remember the ratio snail to hermit.

Your helping by water changes and cutting back on your feedings. What are you using beside the overflow any pumps in the tank ?
 
I have a six and nine maxi's in the tank and I have like 5 hermits and 50-75 snails I would have 11 hermits but I ordered the blue legs and they are not blue they are brown and scared me cause of my corals and stuff don't know how safe they are buying 20 more blues next week from someone else
 
I take the snails are nass. snails that live in the sand. Yeah, picking up a few more blue legs would help but they will fight for new shells so keep some handy.

I forgeot to ask about your water. Do you make your own or buy from LFS or another location ?
 
Keep in mind that cyano appears for a reason, it needs a nutrient build-up and light to grow. It's possible to have great flow overall throughout your tank and still have "dead spots" where nutrients can build up. If you have changed your aquascape recently or moved the PH's around you could have unintentionally created a few areas of low flow across the sandbed.
Your pics show at least one PH aimed straight across, it's sometimes helps to aim your PH's at the front center of the tank which allows a a better dispersment throughout the tank. Play around with placement a bit so you get adequate flow across the sandbed without actually disturbing it and when you put food in the tank is mostly held in suspension. I think astrea snails are the one's that eat cyano but could be wrong on that, someone can verify that. If your nitrates/phosphates are ok, your light bulbs could be old and causing an issue also.

Cheers!
 
Here is a good thread on cyno and why, how to, and reasons
Ken

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=926002&highlight=cyano
 
Lets say this, if your tank is full of cyanobacteria and you send in the doses of chemi-clean to kill it, where you think all the nutrients that the cyano is made up of goes when it dies off. Does it magically all disappear? No, it all stays in your tank, ready to feed any other algae or just feed another outbreak of cyano. And at the same time kill of any number of other good bacteria that you need in the tank to break down the wastes and ammonia and nitrites that are constantly in the system.
 
you mentioned that you feed a cube of brine shrimp. Im guessing its the frozen ones. just make sure you thaw in a cup of tank water before adding the food directly to the tank.

I've heard that those manufactures add preservatives and could cause cyno.

Good luck
 
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