Help me deduce the source of my cyano problem (I finally think it's under control!)

[LiquidShaneo]

Forgot to mention a couple other things I have done as well: blow powerhead directly on cyano, reduced feedings, decreased lighting from 14 hours to 12 hours, and added powerheads.

I consistently use RO/DI water for all makeup water. I wouldn't even consider using tap...

liquid

[LiquidShaneo]

Would like your thoughts on this:

I've tried everything that people have told me to do to correct my cyano problem (from the ubb's on reefs.org, reefcentral.com, aqualink.com): clean skimmer, add airstone to skimmer, add surface overflow box to skimmer, lower skimmer cup to collect more krud, run carbon, run phosphate sponge, do multiple waterchanges (at least 25% 2x per week using IO salt), sponge cyano off sides of tank, cyphon cyano off substrate, clean bulbs, even tried a couple drops of 5% aqueous potassium permanganate (the corals HATED this, which I thought might happen, so I stopped after 3 tries using this method), dripping kalkwasser, and buying a baby queen conch. I did not change bulbs as these bulbs were only 4 months old when the outbreak started. With NO actinic, 6500 K daylight, and 10,000 K daylight bulbs should not shift spectrum that severely until about month 8 or 9 at a minimum. Here's my tank parameters: http://www.reefs.org/ubb/Forum23/HTML/000050.html

To date, the only thing that has helped the problem (it actually looks like the cyano has stopped growing!) was dripping kalkwasser into the tank and adding the conch. Normally, regardless of what I tried above, I would have to sponge off the sides of the tank and cyphon a LOT of it off the substrate weekly and I would end up with a lot of krud in the disposal bucket. Even when I was doing the 25% waterchanges 2x per week I still ended up removing as much cyano as before at week's end. The queen conch eats the red mat produced by the cyano, but before dripping kalk the mat would grow back too quickly. Now after dripping kalkwasser for 1 week I have found that the cyano growth rate has been severly affected by the kalkwasser additions. The growth rate has been significantly reduced and maybe even stopped from what I can see.

Based on the above information, what can we deduce from it so that I don't have to rely on kalk additions to the tank? I probably will still continue the kalk additions even after I find out what the problem is as my coralline algae is taking off now with the addition of kalk, but it is always nice to find out the source of the problem for future referece. According to what I know about cyano, they need 3 primary things: CO2, DOC's, and light @ 550 nm - 575 nm for optimum growth.

1) Could it be my 6500 K Daylight bulb? This is the only bulb that I didn't buy from an aquarium store. The other 3 are CoraLife bulbs. The 6500 K bulb was bought for $5 from the local electrical supply house. From what I understand about temperature ratings, the higher the K temperature, the more the color is shifted toward the blue end of the spectrum. This 6500 K bulb is in the front half of the aquarium where the cyano bloom is located. I could go out and spend $25 on a T10 CoraLife 10,000 K Daylight bulb but I've already spent a lot of $$ on the various remedies listed above...

2) Is it a CO2 problem in the tank? I am leaning toward "No" b/c even after the addition of the 2 airstones to the BakPak II, I still had a cyano problem and I did not see any reduction in growth rate of the cyano either... But from what I understand about kalk dripping, it will precipitate out CO2 as CaCO3.

3) Is it a DOC problem in the tank? Not sure here. Dripping kalkwasser for some reason increases skimming efficiency (my skimmer goes nuts when I'm dripping kalk) and I pull out all sorts of krud from my tank during the drip cycle... This could be remedied by the purchase of a larger skimmer.

4) Is it a phosphate problem? Cyano needs PO4, but from what I have read on http://www.athiel.com/ (Albert Thiel's website), it is not a major player when it comes to cyano blooms. I do not have any other nuisance algae growing at this point in time...just cyano. Kalk dripping precipitates phosphates as calcium phosphate.

5) What about this: not enough detritivores in the tank? I have 2 nassarius, 15 snails, 1 queen conch, 3 crabs, 2 adult brittle stars, bristleworms, etc. According to Shimek, I should add "worms, worms, worms" to my tank as well as more nassarius snails. The addition of these increases the number of energy pathways for DOC's and nutrients to be broken down. I have noticed a severe reduction in the number of spaghetti worms over the last 2 months. I'm thinking that my now defunct royal gramma went after my population of pods, etc...


What are your thoughts?

TIA!

liquid


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[Rinaldi]

I have never had any cyano problems, but I did experience a wicked dinoflaggellate bloom last fall and eventually kicked it. Directly siphoning off the stuff, dosing kalkwasser, and upgrading my skimmer from a Bak Pak to an Aquamedic Turboflotor Multi were key in my case. I needed the skimmer upgrade because I have a 75g, but Bak Pak might be okay on the 40g.

[horge]

Your addition of kalk probably precipitated nutrients out of solution, denying the cyano a nutrient source. Some of the remedies you've tried are, err ...severely remarkable.

There's an equivalent chance that all your efforts had nothing to do with what could've been the natural collapse of a cyanobac culture.

[coralhound]

I have heard but never tried erthyromycin
I have no idea the dosage or anything. It is going to be my last resort.

CH


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Please BUY captive bred marine life...
My website: Moon Tide Reefs (http://www.qis.net/~ckkuehn)

[LiquidShaneo]

I think I will pass on the erythromycin treatment. I have no interest in cycling my tank again after the dieoff of my sandbed from the treatment of erythromycin (an antibiotic)...

Really I am not looking for other solutions to my cyano problem b/c it seems like the kalk is doing the trick and I'd like to know the reason *why* it is doing the trick when nothing else seemed to work...

liquid

[coralhound]

well HORGE told them
either its the kalk taking care of nuitrients or the cyano just ran its course

CH

------------------
Please BUY captive bred marine life...
My website: Moon Tide Reefs (http://www.qis.net/~ckkuehn)