cyanobacteria wont goooooo

[chris7]

So my 20 gallon nano reef is only 2 months old. water parameters are stable. but Ive had lots of cyano bacteria for almost a month now. Ive tried turning out the lights completety for days but they regrow fast. II do weekly water changes with Ro/di. I know the cyanobacteria is part of the new tank cycle process, but how long will they stay? Should I continue to reduce light duration?

 

[huuta]

Use this to rid of cyano.It also help with dino also.I just treat my tank with it and the cyano is gone in a day

 

[RJinPV]

I used solutions like that one too. It goes away for a while but comes back if you don't take care of the source of the problem, which everyone says is phosphates. The phosphates can read zero and the cyano keeps growing because they consume the phosphates so efficiently. At least that is what I was told by more than one LFS. It seemed to makes sense. Also, water changes were not enough. This is what I had to do:
Got a TDS meter and make sure the DI water is reading 0 ppm TDS. RO alone was not enough. I had 20 PPM of something coming out of the RO system and it had phosphates as a component. I needed a DI resin stage to get my make up water source to be 0 ppm TDS
Added GFO in the sump to create a sink for the phosphates
Got an accurate phosphate meter to measure the phosphate level
Syphoned out the cyan regularly, about once a week. I stopped using the cyano solution because it kills the cyano which I think just releases the phosphates back into the water column which cause it to grow back.
After 4-5 syphoning excercises the cyan stopped coming back.

My tank is now 1.5 years old and the cyano is under control.

 

[joshkirkland83]

You need to get it tested. It could be Dino, spirulina, or cyano.

 

[Ingo Hartig]

After a number of years in the US English is still my second language.
What does LFS and GFO stand for?
Thanks

 

[lewis.maryann08]

Local fish store LFS

 

[Ocelaris]

Gfo is granulated ferric oxide, the most common phosphate filter media. I have a friend who runs lanthanum chloride into a small micron bag overnight on an infrequent basis to remove phosphates which I'm going to give a try, but it's risky as it can irritate fish and corals if not done right.

My cyano just disappeared after about 6 months almost overnight. Just keep up the good habits and it'll clear out soon.

 

[ReefingwithO]

I had cyano and it persisted even with low nitrates and phosphates. I got rid of it with Red Slime remover. It never came back.
I've had and seen cyano issues in tanks with little to no nutrients.

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Cyano can use nitrogen from the atmosphere. One thing that helps a lot is keeping nitrates from 1-5 or 5-10 and phosphate from .02-.08. If you have 0 nitrate and more phosphate, then cyano can thrive pretty well. Be sure you have plenty of hermit crabs though too. Cyano and other algae is natural, you'll never fully "get rid" of it.

 

[cromag27]

I have always felt there was a strong correlation between the imbalance of no3/po4 and cyano. moreso than just excess nutrients.

 

[Ingo Hartig]

Local fish store LFS

Thank you: That was easy.

 

[Ingo Hartig]

Gfo is granulated ferric oxide, the most common phosphate filter media. I have a friend who runs lanthanum chloride into a small micron bag overnight on an infrequent basis to remove phosphates which I'm going to give a try, but it's risky as it can irritate fish and corals if not done right.

My cyano just disappeared after about 6 months almost overnight. Just keep up the good habits and it'll clear out soon.

Thank you.