0 nitrates, brown/cyano algae?

[Tangster]

Cyano is not a algae. Its a bacterium There is supposedly and new , recently discovered type snail . But they are expensive like 8.00 ea. Red foot snail that eats cyano as its reported to me.

[Frizza]

Could well be the Mexican Red Foot (Norrisia norrisi).

[Bogie]

Well, what's been working for me on the cyano I had was:
I added phosguard to the canister filter, and cut back 2 hours less of actinic lighting per day.
I clean cyano off the liverock with a toothbrush, and turn the skimmer up to wet skim and let the skimmer pump suck it up.
I'd use a plastic fork to scoop the thin green cyano layer off the sandbed into a clear plastic beverage cup, with most of the top layer of sand, until the cup is 1/4 full.
Then, I add a burst of tap water into the cup to stir up everthing, and swirl the cup around, and dump the water off the top.
The cyano and lighter waste material that the cyano feeds off of gets poured down the sink.
I repeat this several times, until I'm left with clean sand in the cup.
I then siphon the sandbed, removing water during the water change.
I clean the siphoned sand too, then put the clean sand back in the tank.
Then added new water for the water change (8-10 gal).
My cyano problem has decreased 95% over the past 6 weeks doing this three times now.

Snails sound like an easier solution, and would probably keep what's left of the cyano behind the live rock under control. I'd hate to have an $8.00 snail eaten by my blue hermits. They already got one super tongan nassarius snail.

[sauce-n-tank]

Originally Posted by IBMGeek

I just tested my water and got supposedly 0 nitrates (measured twice). You think this is possible? If indeed nitrates are 0 then I must have crazy levels of phosphate (dont have test kit). I added the chaeto a couple months ago but brown algae grows on rock a day after I clean it.

Well anyways I did a water change right now (about 40g) since I have not done one since I started setup, then letting it mix with old water and doing another water change later (15g). And going to try to hook up my phospate reactor this week to see if it helps.

I bet its your lack of experience. You probably never did any water changes. I also bet your tank looks herendous

[johnmaloney]

little air bubbles in brown like slime, doesn't sound at all like cyano, it sounds like dinoflagellates. Very hard to remove, get flow phosphate reactor and how for the best. You might want to try some urchins. Send pic!

[Phayes]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned yet that you will ALWAYS have 0 nitrates if you have a bad hair algae outbreak or a cyano outbreak (Also- cyano is NEITHER a true bacteria or an algae, and is actually in a class of its own. Cyano cell membranes act MUCH different than any type of bacterias membrane). Nitrates get consumed just as quick as they can be produced when you have a massive algae problem.

Your best bet would be to remove as much algae as you can by hand. Then begin performing large water changes on a regular basis (We all know how easy it is to slack on the water changes when your nitrates are consistently 0- almost too good to be true! But it's how algae problems get even worse). Your algae will still continue to grow.. but it should start slowing once your water changes become regular (once a week for at least 10%). Keep removing this algae by hand. Now would also be a good time to tend to any phosphate problem as well (add some type of phosphate remove to your filter).

Unfortunately people always figure that their algae problems are strictly related to abundance of phosphates when really nitrates are just as strong of a driving force.

PS: A good skimmer, new bulbs, and careful feeding will also help out the situation as well.