Blue green algae or cyanobacteria

Hi i have a 400 ltr reef tank and its covered with cyanobacteria, just wondering if anybody else is having the same problem or have had and have managed to get rid of it, any information would be appreciated, thanx

Hi eel, found this online if its any help to you?

http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/apr08/cyanobacteria.htm

cheers
Rob

sadly, it can be the bane of reef keepers lives !! Not sure how long your tank has been set up, but a reef tank can be considered 'immature' for up to a year, as it goes through the various stages of different algaes etc. Sometimes you do everything you can, and it is stubborn, and will go in its own time, its just another stage in the maturing process. Things you can do to help are syphoning it out as much as you can, a thin airline tube is good for that. Have you changed salt recently? as that can be another cause, as can overfeeding, and the nutrients in the tank are out of balance, despite skimming. I used to use red sea coral pro salt, and had no problems, changed to reef chystals, and wham, huge algae problems. changed to tetra, and they got better, though it could have been just coincidence ! There are very few clean up crew that will eat cyano, but if you can get a varied selection of snails, that keep the sand bed aerated, and turned over, it should help. Nassirus, ceriths, and a conch are all good snails that bury themselves, and move about under the sand. Turbos are good for cleaning the rocks. Ebay is often a good source for critters !! Try to postion your pwerheads so there is good flow right around the tank, and doesn't allow the cyano to settle and grow thick, and blast it off the rocks just before a water change with your pwerhead as well.

Phosphate and nitrate are another huge cause of algae, so test kits for them are a must. RO water is really essential for reef tanks, as the tap water here in the IOM is high in phosphate.

sorry, a bit of an epic reply ! For algae problems, there are just so many things it could be !! Good luck, I hope it soon subsides for you.

thanx to the people who replied to my message, ive been trying most of what was said and nothing really changing, maybe i need a bigger protein skimmer, anybody no of a good one for a 400 ltr juwel tank ? cheers

Hi there,

I have a 400l jewel tank set up for marine. I use a Tunze Reefpack 500 which does a great job. I dont know what your using now but the Tunze reefpack 500 is a water treatment concept for reef aquariums from 200 to 500 litres. It consists of a automatic skimmer with a 500 litre air output and a mechanical quick-run filter plus a self top up system. Costs about £370 new but well worth it.

You can also buy the skimmer on its own at a cost of £173.50 or if you want a skimmer for up to 1000 litres it £222.80. This Tunze equipment is not cheap but its very good quilty and wont let you down.

Hope this helps

Sean

Hi Eel,

I recently had a spell of green algae and managed to get on top of it.

If you try a few of these ideas and give it some time then hopefully u can solve it as theres nothing worse than a tank that breeds the green stuff like crazy.
Its just totally frustrating

1. back feeds off
2. remove fish if heavily stocked
3. back light cycle off
4. add a refugium and grow cheato algae
5. add a u.v steriliser
6. add algae eating fish (blenny)
7. add to the clean up crew
8. add new or more phosphate remover

obviously you will still have to clean the tank and glass but it will be a lot more managable.

Hi, I am having Cyno bacteria problems at the moment, seem to come and go, but I to am using Reef Chrystals, so I am going to change, have got some Red Sea Max., Salts, so will try the next water change with that after cleaning what I can off the various bits.

Very frustrating never had it in my 400 litre tank, but this 250 Red Sea Max., is giving me a few problems getting the skimmer setting right. If anyone out there can help, I am in Ramsey, not easy getting around at the moment.

I think that the salts are a lot to do with it.

Any other comments please. Otherwise tank is looking good, not got good enough camera to take photo's as yet.

Juliamarina

Hi everyone,

Have got rid of Cyno at last, cut down on feeding, took all my sponges etc., out and just put in some bits of live rock into a small mesh bag, dropped into place, put in good amount of Carbon in good flow area, and shut off the lights for a good for hours a day, also I put another power head in at the front. As in my 250 litre RED SEA MAX, the power is all at the back, and you need more even power level.

It took a lot of hard work plus water changes as well as the above.

But it paid off.

Juliamarina