could this be anything other than dinos?

[brianinak]

Hello,

 

I have been fighting Cyano (again), and notice these air bubble.  First thought of course Dinos.  There is no green algae part with bubbles on top as many dino pictures have and it is concentrated on top of cyano area with lower flow areas.  The picture is not great but the white ball things are defiantly air bubbles.  

 

could it be anything other than Dinos? 

 

Tank is 10 months old.  Water quality good, probably b/c cyano eating up the phosphates and nitrates.  I have never had a phosphate reading (hanna low range) and with or without cyano in tank nitrates 2.  Using RODI, regular maintenance and do not feel I over feed.  Skimate is light to dark tea color and has been getting darker over past couple of months.  Run carbon and GFO.  Stopped GFO when won first battle with Cyano, Cyano came back and stared with GFO in reactor again.  Run carbon

 

Please help, I getting warn down 

[Sancho]

hard to tell from the pic but looks to be cyano. 

[brianinak]

I definitely have cyano and the air bubbles seem to be on top and coming from the Cyano.  Could the air bubbles be part of the cyano metabolizing?

[seabass]

Yeah it's photosynthetic, so it can definitely produce gas bubbles.

 

So you hit on one factor, water quality.  Available nutrients definitely contributes.  Less obvious, but probably more importantly, is the organics in the water and on the rocks/sand.  Protein skimmers (like yours) can help here, likewise fresh activated carbon, vacuuming detritus off of the sand and blowing detritus off of the bare rock (with a turkey baster) also helps.

 

Increased flow can help keep things in suspension for your filters.  I didn't notice a mechanical filter.  This helps too.  Also, being photosynthetic, light spectrum and duration can be factors.

 

Once you correct some of the contributing factors, remove as much cyano as possible and use Chemi-Clean to help get rid of it.

[brianinak]

thanks sea bass.

 

I blew on the bubbles with turkey baster, and cyano piled off under it.  So I am relieved that most likely cyano bubbles and not dinos.  Hope I am using word right, my mechanical filter are sock, bubble trap (sponge, that I rinse every week with water change) and running some floss and changing every 3rd day.  I think I am going to assess the areas you identified and give chemi clean a try.  

 

thank for the help!

[jdmcbuilt]

On 6/21/2018 at 7:50 AM, brianinak said:

thanks sea bass.

 

I blew on the bubbles with turkey baster, and cyano piled off under it.  So I am relieved that most likely cyano bubbles and not dinos.  Hope I am using word right, my mechanical filter are sock, bubble trap (sponge, that I rinse every week with water change) and running some floss and changing every 3rd day.  I think I am going to assess the areas you identified and give chemi clean a try.  

 

thank for the help!

I have used filter floss nor sponges. They harbor pure nutrients for your BAD algae to eat. Even after you rinse it. 

 

I use filter socks on my big tank only when I do water change for a few hours than remove it.. I also bleach and let the sun dry them out. 

 

Keep your filter system simple. Gfo/ carbon. If I have cheato that works like floss but natural filtration. 

 

If you have a bad case of cyano/DINOS. They arr getting the nutrients from somewhere. 

Over feeding

Bioload 

Rodi not up to standards

Lighting

 

When i had Dinos/ cyano I did a complete black out for 4 days. Covered entire tank with cardboard.  I had some losses in my sps.  I also dosed H2O2 per the dosing instructions. 

 

Got rid of it. Never seen return again. I started a different feeding habit. Changed my lighting schedule a bit as well. 

[brianinak]

thanks for into.  I did chemiclean and so far so good.  my RODI is TDS 0, but I need to test the water.  I am pretty sure it was cyano, the bubbles just freaked me out.  It is all gone now.  I do know I need to pin down the root.  Not bio load, only 3 fish in reefer 170 (43g) various inverts and corals.  Medium CUC.  It seems light can fuel cyano but nutrients the culprit

 

thanks for in the info.  

[seabass]

3 hours ago, brianinak said:

It seems light can fuel cyano but nutrients the culprit

IME, it's organics more than inorganic nutrients.  Flow, light, and bacterial balance can also play a role.