Cyano? Spirolina?

[jsker]

Here you go

 

[TheEngineer]

Here you go

Thanks! Forgot to ask what kind of light that’s on.

 

[jsker]

Thanks! Forgot to ask what kind of light that’s on.

Hydra 26 HD's

 

[jsker]

Thanks! Forgot to ask what kind of light that’s on.

Hope this help you out and you are welcome.

 

[TheEngineer]

I did a couple of experiments with the lighting to see if I could affect any change. Unfortunately dropping the white lights off entirely hasn't resulted in a drop in the amount of cyano I see. It doesn't grow as fast, but it does grow. I have found that it recedes with lack of light in general though. I did a 24 hour blackout and saw noticeable die back. I started a 72 hour blackout this morning to see if that can make a bigger impact.

I'll report back on my findings

 

[mcarroll]

The cyano is making use of a niche in the tank that you're providing.

IMO that niche has more to do with available nutrients than it does with other factors.

And by nutrients, I'm not talking about NO3 or PO4.

I'm talking about other nutrients (e.g. K, Fe, Si, etc) being in excess of available N or P.

Cyano tend to have ways of utilizing forms of N and P that aren't so useful to other plants, so in turn they can sometimes utilize other dissolved nutrients that may be unavailable to corals and other algae which may be effectively N- or P-limited (or both).

If this tank experienced a crash, then it's likely that there was a considerable amount of bio-mass both on and within the sand bed. Phosphorus and nitrogen would be likely to be either limited or unavailable in dead matter, but other nutrients and minerals would probably be more available.

A hard core gravel vacuuming or (more simply) a sand bed removal|replacement may do a lot of good. Blast the rocks with a powerhead too if they are also "nasty". Remove as much material as possible during siphoning.

 

[TheEngineer]

A silica test is on my list of things to get in the near future. I'm curious if they're present in my source water. I'm on a well and it doesn't look like that was part of my last test done by the lab.

I don't have excess K, I actually have trouble keeping it at 400. I had excess Sn in my Triton test, but everything else was normal. I have a new sand sifting crew in QT right now. They'll go in on March 26.

I've been blasting the rock work pretty heavily and there is less and less coming off each time. The vibrant has been killing off the bubble algae too so I'm guessing those nutrients are adding to the problem.