biopellets and cyano treatment

[josie]

I started biobeads (similar to biopellets) last week (in a nextreef modified reactor with a mag3 pump)
I was wondering... I have a lot of cyano in the tank... can I make a cyano treament or will it be a bad thing for the biobeads?
should I just suction out much of the cyano instead and wait to for the biobeads to activate?

thanks!

[kien]

I've recently noticed that every time I top up my biopellets (add new ones) I get a little bit of cyano flare up. I just blast it off the rocks and it always clears up by itself within a week. I call it new pellet syndrome

[Delphinus]

I think that's sort of normal. The pellets are both a food source for bacteria and a growth medium for bacteria, so at first when introduced they are a food source for bacteria but the bacteria has to colonize the pellets. After colonized they should easily outcompete the cyano bacteria but it can take a couple weeks.

[josie]

so the best thing to do is suction out the most cyano I can and leave the biobeads do the rest?

[George]

Originally Posted by josie

so the best thing to do is suction out the most cyano I can and leave the biobeads do the rest?

Yes, I think that's the best action plan. And remember cyanobacteria is a bacteria also so it may also use the biobeads as a food source. So start with a small amount of biobeads, increasing the amount slowly, and make sure no biobeads are leaking into the tank.

[josie]

thanks

here's the pic of the biobeads reactor



the pic does not show it well, but biobeads are moving good inside