Cyanobacteria: What is it? How to solve it.

Cyanobacteria - cyano - is actually a really interesting creature. Not quite a plant, we think it turned into what we call Chloroplasts today long ago. We think that cyanobacteria was responsible for much of the Oxygen that caused a great die off of anaerobic bacteria early in earth's history.
Today, cyano is responsible for things like red tides and killing thousands of fish all over beaches each year - and it also shows up in our aquariums whenever we have a nutrient imbalance. If you're overfeeding or make a sudden change (like suddenly increasing nitrates) you may notice a cyanobacteria bloom. These usually are not harmful, but you may want to adjust or slow down changes that you're making to avoid unsightly cyanobacteria growing in your tank.
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Images are from Wikimedia Commons, and freely licensed for use.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cy...

[@WickedEfie]

Very informative video, great work! :-)

[@karennation3580]

How are you able to syphon out? Keep clogging the syphon water changer I use?

[@ArrickthaRed]

It's funny you did this video today. I just used Chemi clean this weekend for the first time as I was just tired of fighting cyano. I can say it worked as advertised. I was sceptical as I have been in the hobby 20 years and have seen a lot of miracle cures that don't work but I gave this a shot and it did work in a day and a half. My skimmer is still not right and I had to throw in an air stone but it was really very easy. Wish I tried this month's ago.

[@ReefMan]

Did you see any bad effects at all? What kind of coral and fish do you have? Very curious!

[@ArrickthaRed]

@@ReefMan No bad effects. Followed directions to the letter and made sure water was very oxygenated. I was very worried trust me. I checked the tank at midnight and at 2am. Everything went good except my skimmer is still going crazy. I have two tanks plumbed together a mixed reef few sps lps zoas and a clam. The other tank is an anemone tank with some softies and a bunch of serpent starswith all kinds of fish that I have had for years. I was very scared at first but was at the end f my rope. Everything is still down there except the cyano which I have been battling for months. Usually I siphon it and it's back the next day but now it is completely gone. I keep checking it to see if I can see spots reappear but nothing so far. I think I won the war.

[@ReefMan]

I've read it takes a few days for the skimmer to calm down. Keep it running, even just overflowing back into the tank keeps oxygen going into the water.

[@donachenuki9888]

Great video

[@ReefMan]

Thank you!! I'm really glad it was interesting!

[@joec2174]

Chemo clean works!!! But as you say the skimmer becomes immediately over active. They recommend first turning it off.

[@fuffoon]

With high nitrates and phosphates I had a lot of cyanobacteria. My current tank has no detectable nitrates and 0.04 phosphates and there is plenty of cyanobacteria. It gathers in low flow areas and just as much in high flow areas. The well lit parts get a good coat and the shaded areas do also. Its diminishing slowly, faster now since I installed a 55w UV.

[@davidwaters7345]

What is youre opinion of brown algae on my rocks been fighting this battle for a little while now my nitrates are around 5 and phosphate is around 0.4 sps is growing best it ever has tanks 1 year old

[@ReefMan]

Is it slimy? Does it have bubbles on or in it?

[@davidwaters7345]

ReefMan no bubbles just looks like green algae but brown ?

[@ReefMan]

It's really hard to say exactly what it might be without seeing it. There are so many types of algea haha. Given that your coral is all doing well I'd only try minor things - it'd be horrible to get rid of the coral along with the algea. You might try feeding a little less, or, if you use T5 lights, changing the bulbs. The spectrum of the lights changes over time.

[@davidwaters7345]

ReefMan thanks

[@ReefMan]

Good luck! Algae can be annoying. Keep at it and it'll go away eventually.

[@ReefMan]

Trying a new color space setting on my camera this time to enable HDR output for my channel. Seems like I need to bump up the overall brightness quite a bit - this feels really overly dark. I also need to back up from the camera so that I'm not just a giant talking head!

[@Val_Halla777]

.03 nitrates?..wow that’s pretty low isn’t it?.or did you mean to say phosphate level ? Cheers and thanks for the great info 🙏

[@ReefMan]

No, I think for most people nitrates will be the things that jumps up (closely followed by phosphate). Some people try to keep absolutely no nitrate in the water, but really a few ppm will help with coral health and color, so I recommend between 0 and 5ppm nitrates. A few ppb phosphate is also going to be useful to coral, but algae will make more use of it than coral will for sure so be careful.

[@tasanastasi7799]

My Nitrates are 25 and Phosphates 2.5 , yes i am scared ... probably need to do a water change, its been 8 weeks so far ..testing to see if i need to do so many water changes everyone is saying you should

[@ReefMan]

That's not that bad, though perhaps a little on the high side for each. The idealized ratio for nitrates at 25ppm would be 1.5ppm phosphate. I think corals do better with lower nitrates though - maybe 5ppm, which makes the phosphate even lower.

[@tasanastasi7799]

@@ReefMan Ill do a water change and test , your right all my fish are really fat ;)

[@Extrasolar84]

Thx man! So basically the human gut is like a fish tank. If the nutrients are out of balance then bad bacteria start to grow and cause an outbreak just like Candida does in our body.

[@Extrasolar84]

That was an idea I got from this video FYI :)

[@ReefMan]

Hah yep! The balance is important!

[@Extrasolar84]

@@ReefMan, balance is 🗝 🙌

[@williambrock7110]

Should you lower your lights it’s you have Cyanobacteria?

[@ReefMan]

I’ve never really had that work to be honest. It comes back. Better to try to fix the root issue - which can be hard to identify.

[@VikingTokyo]

Just get a few conches (Strombus alatus). They are great cyanobacteria vacuums

[@ReefMan]

Interesting, I’ve never heard that. Good to know!

[@peterbws]

@@ReefMan i've got 2 and they wont touch the stuff

[@ReefMan]

I have some too, but I've also never seen them eat cyano. There are many many types of cyanobacteria, so it could be that they eat some and not others.

[@tomahawkmissile241]

lower phosphate

[@seyhanalparslan1839]

TASTE THE SUN

[@atfinthehouse8631]

Interesting and informative videos. However, dry. Suggest better photography and better real life, tank examples. Keep working on it. Address other natural management of reef tank problems.

[@ReefMan]

Thanks! I've really been trying to figure out more ways to keep these kind of videos interesting. It's hard to make educational content and keep it super interesting all the way through. I've been trying to edit down as much "extra" stuff as I can. I also agree - the photography on this one wasn't the best - cyano kind of does weird things in the light. I was trying to find a microscope!

[@kashbrown603]

Reduce nitrates