Your opinion on cyano Flow vs. Nutrients (again)

[tcarlson]

Eric you spoke to us here in Houston a few months ago and finally put it to rest in my opinion by saying that Cyano was heavily connected to flow and to a much lesser extent excess nutrients and that Hair algae was the exact opposite. You also added that you find cyano to be seasonal in your tanks. Now your words seem to have been lost upon your fellow Houstonians. If you could also reiterate your opinion on antibiotics for use against cyano.
The MARSH club waits on the end of the debate.

Thanks,
Tom Carlson

[NoMoJoOnJoJo]

tagging

[MiddletonMark]

Eric's in Palau at present, back in a week or so.

Please check back here, I personally would love to hear the answer as well. Hopefully one of us can remember to bump it back up

[tcarlson]

I knew after I posted that I would check the stickies and Eric would be gone.
I'll bump this thread don't worry.

[NoMoJoOnJoJo]

Hey tom since you do hang out here and do not answer e-mail or pm's are you going to send the skimmer or not?

[EricHugo]

Cyano, like other microbial mats, need nutrients, usually on the substrate. High nutrients will foster cyano, but there is a relatively low correlation with nutrients, but a high correlation with water flow. i.e., you can have highnutrients but almost no cyano if water flow is high because of the shear force. Cyano is not usually very tenacious in high flow, and this may also be partly due to the fact that the nutrient substrates are lost (i.e. detritus, mucus, etc.). In contrast, turfs tend to do very well in high flow, but they are mainly controlled by grazing. But, high nutrients also help them. The point is that provide an abundance of usable nutrients is good for most things, but may not be the primary control on their abundance. This is known as top down vs. bottom up control. Both are involved, but one may be more important than the other in controlling population or abundance.