Spirulina Cyano

[ReefPig]

Morning reefers!

Have any of you had to deal with Spirulina before?
Any views on treatment, best practices, or lessons learnt from dealing with it?

Seems to be a relatively uncommon strain of cyano, but very difficult to eradicate.

I’ve been battling cyano for countless months now, done the usual tricks, some had temporary success, but it keeps coming back.
I've had common cyano before in other tanks, in comparison common cyano is easy to deal with, this stuff is a nightmare.

I did a test recommended on R2R, where you drop some of it into a beaker, add some H2O2 and if it has no or little effect on it, then it’s spirulina, as both common cyano and dinos are effected by H2O2.

I know a bunch of people will respond asking "what stuff have you tried", so here's the list:
Increase flow considerably, KZ Cyano Clear, KZ ZeoBac, KZ Coral Snow, Dr Tims Cyano recipe, temporary black outs, a very strong UV, and multiple months of no UV, a few months of NSW, at the start I tried MB7, I also did one treatments (as per directions) of Chemiclean many months back, limiting food, adding GFO, for multiple months I went one-on-one with it doing manual removal and turkey baster daily, and lastly sodium nitrate dosing.

My nutrients are:
PO3 0.01 - 0.03
NO3 ~10

Cheers,
Dave

 

[...]

Bumpity Bumpity Boo.

You can blow the Cyanobacteria stains with a Turkey Baster. Anyways, I do not know to much, I wish you the best of luck.

 

[ReefPig]

I’m surprised nobody has replied, i knew it was a more uncommon strain, but...

 

[...]

I’m surprised nobody has replied, i knew it was a more uncommon strain, but...

I replied

 

[...]

I feel very offended! Lol

 

[ReefPig]

I feel very offended! Lol

LOL don’t, your reply was fab, thank you.
I mean, anyone who has had this issue

 

[...]

LOL don’t, your reply was fab, thank you.
I mean, anyone who has had this issue

Ohhh, anyway, lets hope someone ELSE replies.

 

[creativeballance]

Photos?

I may have a similar problem.

 

[154162]

From what I understand, is that yes spirulina Cyano will not react to h2o2, and that chemiclean will actually get rid of it. Apparently that’s the only thing chemiclean beats is the spirulina version!
Chemiclean doesn’t always work the first time round... so maybe give it another go?

I’m also dealing with Cyano, but mine reacted to the h202 and apparently dosing h2o2 is the best way to get rid of it, although I really don’t like the idea of dosing h2o2 in the tank itself

 

[154162]

What are your no3 and po4 levels?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not sure where this was originally posted.
Let’s start with cause.
Are you using rodi water or tap water from the faucet ?
What is your current phosphate and nitrate level ?

reduce white light intensity. Siphon as much as you can. Don’t just take a baster and blow it around- the idea is to trap and remove.
Add liquid bacteria during the day
Do not add no pox or coral foods at this time which will feed Dino

 

[KrisReef]

I never heard of this, but I did look around:

Best treatment for spirulina

Well, I thought I had cyanobacteria (red slime & bubbles) and had been battling it for a while using H2O2 and other means but to no avail. After sending a sample for evaluation, it was determined that I had an outbreak of spirulina and not cyanobacteria. Any suggestions for treatment? I'm not...

www.reef2reef.com

Double dose Chemiclean. See thread for their experience.

 

[Paul31733]

How did it go for you? Did any method clear it up. I am having this issue.

 

[ReefPig]

How did it go for you? Did any method clear it up. I am having this issue.

Chemiclean, even at elevated dosage, was just a bandaid, it didn't solve the issue beyond a couple of weeks after treatment.

Ultimately, I cannot attribute my success in resolving it to any one thing, but likely a combination of actions.

Since around mid November, my tank has turned a corner, and seemingly matured. Oddly just as it became a year old.
I have no cyano or other algae issues (touch wood).

I've done three things since my post in October:

• 20% weekly water changes, but as I didn't want to crash my nutrients, so I added phosphate and nitrate to the mix to keep it consistent with my params (~0.02 PO4 and 10 NO3). I've now reduced this to every other week.
• I implemented a Pax algae reactor, running 12 hours a day, I now add sodium nitrate to my ATO RO to maintain 10ppm NO3. The reason I do this, is it means my PO4 stays low by growing chaeto so quickly, so no need to PO4 removers
• I dose MicroBacter7 once a week