New Lights = No more cyano?

[texhorns98]

I swear, this hobby confounds me more and more every day.

I had a little case of the red slimy stuff that I couldn't shake. I recently went from 6x54 T5s to 2x250 halides with 4x54 T5s and the crap went away in less than a day. I didn't change my lighting period or anything...though I probably should have as I've stressed my zoas a bit.

 

[shrimpy brains]

How old were the previous lights? Also, how old is the tank?

 

[texhorns98]

The tank is 3 years old with MANY swaps, etc. The bulbs were probably closing in on a year for most with a few being at a year.

 

[shrimpy brains]

My guess would be that the age of your lights were causing the cyano problem.

 

[sharkbait]

Of course everything you think of or speculate could be completely wrong. Some things happen and can't really be explained. I would think more powerful lights would fuel the cyano even more.

 

[merkywater]

Well I know I just purchased a new radium bulb last week from Tim and I still have a little cyano built up in high flow areas in a week old tank something isn't quite right. It is not a lot of cyano but there shouldn't be any I would think. I only run lights 5 hrs too. Blows my mind!

 

[shrimpy brains]

I don't know the specific scientific explanation, but it is not always the strentgh of the light.
I want to call it the color spectrum, but am not sure that is a good explanation.
I just know that I have had algae problems before that were fixed by new bulbs.
The need to change bulbs frequently results from a loss of "useful" light being given off.

And yes, it could be just a coincidence. Maybe it was just an algae bloom, due to cycling.
This is possible since the. Changing of tanks in the last 3 years doesn't give a definite answer
as to how old the tank actually is.
Maybe increased feedings, the addition of fish, or even death, raised the tanks
bioload and the bacteria caught up on the same day the lights were changed.
There are an infinite number of possibilities.
I just gave a shot of one of the most likely, IMO.

 

[acroholic]

Another piece of info or mis-info floating around is that when you see cyano increase it is time to change out your bulbs. Who knows?

The difficult thing about anecdotal evidence is that if you changed out your bulbs and cyano decreases, it could be that, or any of 50 other things going on in the tank at the same time.

 

[schwaggs]

Acroholic;615898 wrote: The difficult thing about anecdotal evidence is that if you changed out your bulbs and cyano decreases, it could be that, or any of 50 other things going on in the tank at the same time.

True... True....

Another piece of anecdotal evedince is Cyno seems to appear and grow faster when the temps are higher. I use the seasonal adjustment feature on my Apex and during the winter when the temps are ~ 76, it is gone. In the summer with ~80 temps it comes back... but then again it could be the longer lighting periods that the Apex uses in the summer as welll...

 

[texhorns98]

All of your responses are exactly what confounds me!

Just to add to my experience here:

The tank was last swapped probably 8-10 months ago. I added a potter's wrasse probably 3 weeks ago, but I don't think that would have done it. I also recently figured out that I had an issue with my RO unit that has since been corrected. I was getting mid 20's TDS in my top off water.

I can see how the last one would certainly make a difference, and the correction of the RO coincides with my cyano going away, but I have a hard time believing that it would be so quick with no major water change. I probably evap 1.5-2 gallons a day and there's 155G in the overall system.

Oh well, maybe it's a little Reef God luck smiling on me after all the trouble I've been through in the past 18 months! Either way, I'm happy about it! Thanks to everyone for the discussion.

 

[acroholic]

Schwaggs;616008 wrote: True... True....

Another piece of anecdotal evedince is Cyno seems to appear and grow faster when the temps are higher. I use the seasonal adjustment feature on my Apex and during the winter when the temps are ~ 76, it is gone. In the summer with ~80 temps it comes back... but then again it could be the longer lighting periods that the Apex uses in the summer as welll...

See...that is kind of opposite my experience.....I have had an increase in cyano with cooler temperatures in the winter. I posted a thread about it 3-4 weeks back, wondering if it was the increase in CO2 levels a house would se in the winter with the place being shut up more compared to summer? Strange stuff. Maybe the pattern is no pattern!?

My fuge is still a cyano patch but it is not in the two DTs that the fuge is connected to.

 

[texhorns98]

Dave,

You make a good point. I've been at 76 degrees all Winter. With the warmer weather the past week, I've jumped up to 79-80.5. Hmmmm....

Time to bring the fans back on line since it really hasn't been THAT warm outside.