What are the root causes of Cyano?

aeras1131

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Hello All,
I am curious what are the root causes of cyano. I have zero experience with it in my aquaria... *knocks on wood*. I want to avoid creating an aquarium environment that fosters the growth of cyano for the future.
 
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aeras1131

aeras1131

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Ironically I did had super high nutrients and average flow. I have 2 of the large hydro korallia's on perpetually before I honed my approach to reef maintenance. Perhaps I got lucky. Currently, I do not have low flow or high nutrients by anyone's standards
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Unlike most "algae", many species of cyano can take up and get energy by metabolizing organics. So organics, whether added (such as vodka) or naturally present can drive the growth of cyano.

Of course, it does also need nutrients in some form.
 
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Due to the outcomes collected I have the opinion the root cause of cyanobacteria invasions is doing opposite of what's done in the sand rinse thread :)
total compliance there, variation elsewhere, im sold.
 
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reeferfoxx

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@brandon429 can you explain your statement. I do not 100% understand it.
He's saying, keep your sand bed stirred. When you go to scrape the glass, turn the sandbed with a baster or something and let the tank filter out. Then change out filter floss or filter sock.
 

brandon429

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Yes and to even go a step beyond when possible, see this gentleman’s interception page 3

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/simple-nano.230757/page-3

No chems
No tinkering with nutrient chasing

Just rip the bed out, clean it, put back, handles all issues at once

Our sandbed rinse thread is a collection of these events to show we simply can instantly stop cyano if the bed is accessible

Hard to do in larger tanks vs nanos, but same outcome every time. We talk about and document how to take apart any reef tank, blast it clean, and reinstall without losing anything.
 

brandon429

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Thank you :) I feel bad it's only a handy trick for smaller tanks. Large tanks have the dosing toil and water adjustments + wait n hope nothing else bleaches. That guy tap waters his bed and opts out, once and done, ergo the only inference I can draw from that is anyone with cyano problems in a tank under forty gallons has no excuse.
 

brandon429

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462C6596-7473-4848-BA59-BD506EA13456.jpeg
 

Cory

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Cyano always grows on algae thats been dying in my tank and usually the algae has collected much particles of dirt. Or on top of organics in areas with low flow. Like a sandbed spot or in a corner.
 

brandon429

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I really liked that. The bulk of the hobby still uses chemi clean on cyano, fact

Her writing is sharp

That's safe and repeatable info good article. I'm glad they didn't say one could not blast rinse the entire population out all at once, they left the door open to future action sets that may turn out ideal

That blog is neat and well produced I'm def reading now
 

Hans-Werner

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In my experience when you look what has been changed before a cyanobacterial outbreak the phosphate concentration was lowered with organic additives, especially amino acids. Cyanobacteria can make direct use of amino acids. They seem superior to many other algae taking up phosphates from gravel and rocks and may cover hair algae that suppsedly leach phosphates they take up from rocks. One cause may be that corals have problems to grow with low phosphate concentrations and are bad competitors for trace metals and nitrogen under these conditions.
 

lewis.maryann08

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Yes and to even go a step beyond when possible, see this gentleman’s interception page 3

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/simple-nano.230757/page-3

No chems
No tinkering with nutrient chasing

Just rip the bed out, clean it, put back, handles all issues at once

Our sandbed rinse thread is a collection of these events to show we simply can instantly stop cyano if the bed is accessible

Hard to do in larger tanks vs nanos, but same outcome every time. We talk about and document how to take apart any reef tank, blast it clean, and reinstall without losing anything.
Where can I find it to read?
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Here we go
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/


Since so many people were starting their tanks unnecessarily with cloudy water we quit doing that

So many have to move tanks or houses, we choose that as an intercept point for detritus/rinsing and cyano removal


Not everyone wants to rinse; natural is ideal. If it doesn’t work for whatever reason, we wanted a method to skip cycle rebuild after tearing into a tank, thanks for checking it out

We never considered causes there, only the fixes
 
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Lasse

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There is not a question what is starting a cyanobacteria bloom - the question is instead - what is making your normal benthic cyanobacteria to start building mats and hence make a bloom. The simply answer to that question is mostly nitrogen starvation.

Sincerely Lasse
 
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