Cyanobacteria - questions, answers and solution

[twilliard]

Cyano origination test, where does it come from look see


put a cup of distilled water on a windowsill all summer long opened but topped with distilled (someone do, post back) so that it gets only natural contaminations and heat/cold cycles. Gnats, dust, a spiders web depending on how clean someone's sill is, leave it all there. Vectors

On August first after a mo and half prep sitting there, add only freshwater planted tank fertilizers that include n and p in any ratio. If no algae or cyano got in this tank since we've added nothing of aquarium origin, then we've only created a dilute soln of fertilizer, cup sides will remain free of depositional growths.

End of August, cup has life easily seen, monera... how did cyano get in there?

Good one brandon!
I would have my doubts it is cylindrospermum sp. In that cup.
I have not studied any freshwater species but still I would have to say it has to be introduced.
Now for saltwater species I have been trying for months to see if it just "appears " in my tests. Tests are no3,po4 and amino rich
I feel I am conclusive in my findings.
Also this is ongoing still to the day as I add more information to this work.

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Nice write up!
Might be advantageous to suggest diluting food grade peroxide in the case that people start using brown bottle stuff..
Since we can't account for all the various stabilizers, it would be wise.

 

[twilliard]

Nice write up!
Might be advantageous to suggest diluting food grade peroxide in the case that people start using brown bottle stuff..
Since we can't account for all the various stabilizers, it would be wise.

Nice I like that! Thank you

 

[mwilk19]

So we should not use the 3% H2O2 that we get from the pharmacy?

 

[twilliard]

So we should not use the 3% H2O2 that we get from the pharmacy?

Yes you can use that all my work is based on the 3% otc peroxide.
There are other forms of peroxide available and may differ from what I and others use.
For instance people in another country may not have the identical that we use so food grade makes a consistent baseline for all.

 

[mwilk19]

Yes you can use that all my work is based on the 3% otc peroxide.
There are other forms of peroxide available and may differ from what I and others use.
For instance people in another country may not have the identical that we use so food grade makes a consistent baseline for all.

Ok. Thanks for the response.

 

[brandon429]

Can sub saltwater in the test vs fw

I have done sw version, red mats form and green too.

 

[RUSKI]

Mike unfortunately once you have an abundance of cyano it will find a way to sustain itself as its actually very hardy. After a lot of talking with people it seems that a lot of people aren't seeing cyano they are actually dealing with spirulina. A quick check for is take a sample of the mats from the tank with tank water in a cup add a bit of H2O2 and see if it has a reaction. No reaction= spirulina.

So if you do infact have spirulina whats the best tereatment for that ?

 

[PSXerholic]

Great thread.
Herewith tagged for later reading ;-)

THX guys.

-Andre

 

[joshkirkland83]

So if you do infact have spirulina whats the best tereatment for that ?

Chemiclean

 

[cowboy]

So if you do infact have spirulina whats the best tereatment for that ?

For spirulina you can Battle this in a couple of ways. 1 increase filtration to help with any free swimmers, the Matt's you will have to remove manually. 2 you can use chemiclean when I do use chemiclean I only use a partial dose and let it run longer than the recommended 48 hrs. Or 3 let it run its course which in my system it takes about 3-4 months using sand sifting stars, and they get fat on that stuff.

 

[slief]

@twilliard

At the 1ml per 10 gallon dosing regimine, with a 600+ gallon volume, that works out to 60ml. I assume it's safe to just dump that in at one time? Since this is has to be done ever 12 hours for 14 days straight, would it be better to use a dosing pump and do 120ml over the course of 24 hours in larger volumes system? Have you ever seen any adverse effects on any types of soft or hard corals? Lastly, have you seen any impact on shrimp or other inverts? I've read that peroxide dosing can kill shrimp.

 

[Duke4Life]

How many aquariums (tested) have used the h2o2 cure you have outlined in the article?

Don't know that answer but they helped me and it's gone and not returned.

 

[twilliard]

@twilliard

At the 1ml per 10 gallon dosing regimine, with a 600+ gallon volume, that works out to 60ml. I assume it's safe to just dump that in at one time? Since this is has to be done ever 12 hours for 14 days straight, would it be better to use a dosing pump and do 120ml over the course of 24 hours in larger volumes system? Have you ever seen any adverse effects on any types of soft or hard corals? Lastly, have you seen any impact on shrimp or other inverts? I've read that peroxide dosing can kill shrimp.

I will point you to this thread
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/
It is harmless as long as there is no direct exposure to tank life.

 

[slief]

I will point you to this thread
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/
It is harmless as long as there is no direct exposure to tank life.

Thank you very much. I read the entire 48 page thread yesterday and as well as your Reef Nation Understanding Cyano page. I sucked some off my rocks and did the test with 1ml of 3% peroxide and 2 cups of tank water. This morning the measuring cup had a nice pink tinge and the stuff I sucked off the rocks was a much different color. After seeing the test results I went to Walmart and grabbed 2 large 900+ ml bottles of 3%. I did my first 60ml dose just a bit ago. My total volume is around 650g so I figured 60ml was a good starting point for the 2x daily treatments.

I took pictures so I can track the progress. I was going to share those results in the thread you linked to above but unfortunately it appears as though that thread is locked for further posts. I will however update the results here after several days.

 

[twilliard]

Thank you very much. I read the entire 48 page thread yesterday and as well as your Reef Nation Understanding Cyano page. I sucked some off my rocks and did the test with 1ml of 3% peroxide and 2 cups of tank water. This morning the measuring cup had a nice pink tinge and the stuff I sucked off the rocks was a much different color. After seeing the test results I went to Walmart and grabbed 2 large 900+ ml bottles of 3%. I did my first 60ml dose just a bit ago. My total volume is around 650g so I figured 60ml was a good starting point for the 2x daily treatments.

I took pictures so I can track the progress. I was going to share those results in the thread you linked to above but unfortunately it appears as though that thread is locked for further posts. I will however update the results here after several days.

Nice that is a positive conclusion for cyanobacteria
Yes I had the thread locked to preserve the information without adding more pages of the same questions.
Keep me posted!

 

[slief]

Nice that is a positive conclusion for cyanobacteria
Yes I had the thread locked to preserve the information without adding more pages of the same questions.
Keep me posted!

I suspect I probably have a combo of cyano and spirulina. The first bit I put in the cup didn't respond in terms of coloring up the water after several hours. I added some from a different location and that sample may be been what did it. Time will tell and it will certainly be interesting. Thanks again for your efforts on this subject. Given the redundancy of the questions, I suspect locking it was a good idea. Especially after reading that entire post. On the flip side it would probably be good to add more results to the thread on a case by case basis. Once my results are complete, I'd be happy to write up a text file with embedded image links if you want to add it to that thread.

Anyhow, thanks again. Will look forward to sharing the results. I will update in a week or so when if and when I start seeing changes and at the end of 2 weeks.

 

[chickenreef]

Deep stuff, thanks for the reading material guys.

 

[twilliard]

Deep stuff, thanks for the reading material guys.

Thank you,
My goal is to solve today's most common tank problems here on R2R and publish to the public.
Also welcome to the R2R community!

 

[watchguy123]

Enjoyed your reef nation article .

You said you believe the cyano are introduced via fish, coral and inverts. Does that mean you think they reside on or in living organisms. Have you given any consideration to perhaps rock and sand as possible sources as well. It seems plausible that there may be multiple modes of transmission/infection.

Do you think once a tank gets infected, so to speak, that an outbreak inevitably occurs or do you believe that biological diversity keeps it in check. It seems that there are tanks that have minor bouts of cyano infection that come and go without specific treatment. This perhaps suggests other tank inhabitants, i.e. inverts, other bacterial inhabitants, etc, may effect the severity, duration and success of a cyano outbreak