sea hare for cyano?

[Will]

g'day again dr. ron.. i've been doing a little research on cyano because, of course, i've got a nice little garden of the red variety (there must be more than one red variety, but...). so, from what i've read, various species of sea hare are the only animals that will actually eat it willingly. would you recommend one of these? i doubt because of their achievable size, but it's worth asking. thanks!
fourhand2

ps- i don't really know what's causing my cyano, but i know it's not bad water quality.

[EdKruzel]

Hey Four,
I believe your lighting is assisting the cyno to keep a foothold within your system.

Even a 175MH over a 20gal is fairly intense, especially if you don't have a shield between the bulb and the water.

The PC's you had are known to change spectrum quite quickly, much like a normal florescent bulb.

Little nutrients + the right exposure to a certain spectrum = cyno

I had a grouper stuff extra food under a crevice in some rock. If I didn't keep it cleaned out, cyno would spread across the sand from that point.
I added a queen conch which made very short work of the cyno.

I still had to check for excess food in the crevice, but now the sand looked clean.

Good Luck,
Ed

[Will]

hi. thanks for the help :) what should i do to help it out? i'm planning on ditching the power compacts altogether in a few weeks. the MH is still acclimating (four hrs a day) but when it's up to 6 hours, i'm just gonna use it and not the pc. i'll keep going until i get it to about 10 hours. i've got a glass cover btwn the bulb and the water. do i need something more? thanks again for your help.
fourhand2

[EdKruzel]

The glass alone is good. During the acclimation you should have begun with the light higher and gradually lower it to the point were it will remain.
Unfortunetly most canopies make that a difficult task.

How long have you been going through the adjustment period?
Have you seen any adverse conditions other than the cyno?

After 4hr periods of MH's that close to the water, should your corals appear fine I believe your acclimation period is over.

If they show signs of recession or burning than you need to raise the lights higher above the water line.

Once the light has reached it's burn in point, (warmed up) the intensity is the same. 1hr or 10 hr the coral has to absorb the same amount of intensity, or reflect and protect itself.

Good Luck,
Ed

[rshimek]

Hi,

It looks like Ed has commented on the lighting.

Conchs will eat the cyano but your tank is too small for one to survive for long. The cyano is responding to dissolved materials in the water, so the way to control it will be likely to get some other alga growing to use up the nutrients first.

:frog:

[golfish]

Dr Ron, could it be someting other then what you have suggested? I've been fighting this stuff for months now. I installed a refugium but the algae in there wont grow for lack of nutrients. I've done 200-300 gal of water changes in the last 2 months (150 gal tank) I siphon out sheets of slime every few days, increase flow (its 2500 gph min) I'm going to remove half my fish today, I'm affraid their going to starve to death because I don't feed. I've used poly filters and carbon, phospahte sponge. I've stopped injecting CO2, added a better kalk reactor, changed all the MH bulbs, RO\DI cartridges.....I'm really lost on this one.

[rshimek]

Originally posted by golfish

Hi,

Dr Ron, could it be someting other then what you have suggested?

No, not really. Cyanobacterial outbreaks always have to have fuel. This fuel is nutrient dissolved in the water, probably in the sediments.

I installed a refugium but the algae in there wont grow for lack of nutrients.

All this means is that the cyano is more adept at grabbing the nutrients. Probably because the nutrients are in main tank sediments and never make it to the refugium.

What is the fauna of your sand bed like? Are a lot of animals visible? How much sand surface area do you have?

You may need to do a major revision of the sand bed. This would involve potentially removing and re-establishing the bed. Alternatively, you may need to supplement or re-charge your bed with some more detrivores/good live sand. IF the sand bed open surface is 2-4 square feet or more, you may wish to introduce a fighting conch or two.

Once this is done, it is possible that that the algae in the refugium will start to thrive, and you will have the situation under control.

It will not be a fast process, however.

:strooper:

[golfish]

Originally posted by rshimek


What is the fauna of your sand bed like? Are a lot of animals visible? How much sand surface area do you have?

You may need to do a major revision of the sand bed. This would involve potentially removing and re-establishing the bed. Alternatively, you may need to supplement or re-charge your bed with some more detrivores/good live sand. IF the sand bed open surface is 2-4 square feet or more, you may wish to introduce a fighting conch or two.

Once this is done, it is possible that that the algae in the refugium will start to thrive, and you will have the situation under control.

It will not be a fast process, however.



That's funny you mention the sand bed. A buddy of mine also thought it was the sand bed, he brought over a large scoop of his sand and when the cyano grew back it didn't grow in the area I added his scoop to.

My sand bed is LOADED with spaghetti worms, that's all I can visually see. I have two Queen conches in the tank and two fighting conches in the fuge. I'll see about adding the fighting conches to the main tank.

I bought some Ultralife Red Slime Remover but I just can't bring myself to use it. I'll see what I can do about adding some more\different live sand to my tank.....

Please please don't suggest I remove the sand bed, that's just plain old cruel:D

Thanks you sir

Mark

[rshimek]

Hi Mark,

I suspect you actually have cirratulids or hair worms rather than spaghetti worms (see this article (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/index.htm) for the differences.

When a sand bed becomes dominated by one or another type of animal, the ability of the bed to process nutrients is reduced somewhat. You may well wish to introduce some diversity by the use of well collected offshore live sand.

:D