Convinced of a link between GFO and Cyano (and not the good kind)

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by MitchM

Thanks. The sump water is also filtered first through a 200 micron sock from the display tank.

I picked up Phozdown tonight, but stupid home depot sent me on a city wide run around looking for the half inch PVC fittings I'll need to modify my manifold, so I won't be able to set it up until the weekend.

I also picked up a 100 micron filter sock, and some 50 micron filter fabric to put in it that will live in the filter second filter sock holder in my sump that I've never used to dose the phozdown in to. I'm a little nervous about calibrating it all properly as I don't really trust most phosphate test kits (thus it's hard to trust the "rate" at which phosphate is added to the tank), but I'll start slow and see how I go.

[MitchM]

I don't know what section of town you're in, but I find that Rona at Crowfoot has the best pvc fitting selection.
I started out dosing 1/2 the recommended daily amount of Foz Down.
For measuring phosphate I use both the readout from my Hanna tester and the appearance of existing macro algae to tell me if things are going in the right direction.

[asylumdown]

Which Rona? When I left the 16th Ave Home Depot I called the Bowness Rona because they're the closest but they said they didn't have anything smaller than 2" fittings. The guy at Home depot said they were the only ones that didn't carry the small fittings though, so I drove all the way to freaking royal oak (after their plumbing department wouldn't answer their phone) and they had the exact same selection as 16th ave. I hadn't eaten dinner yet, so I was hangrily fuming. The next closest Home Depot would have been Country Hills, but that's practically driving to Airdrie and they wouldn't answer their phone either.

Rage.

[brotherd]

What 1/2 inch fittings are you after?

[freeze]

For plumbing fittings I have flat out stopped going to Home Depot, very little selection and horribly organized. Hit the Rona's. Guy on the phone I'd an idiot. Have 2-3 time the selection of Home Depot and way more organized. I use the one on McLeod and southland but the crowfoot one is good as well. I live south so it's easier.

[IanWR]

Before you start your LC dosing (which I have not done, so only passing on what I read), I know that Reefsupplycanada used to sell 10 micron socks to use with Fozdown. I would hate to see your tank suffer another mysterious set back that may be ultimately traced to LC flocs that escape your 50 micron net.

[Myka]

In response to post #14 by Asylumdown. http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...8&postcount=14

Some points to understand...

Test kits only read inorganic phosphate (PO4), and cyano can use both organic and inorganic phosphate. GFO only binds inorganic phosphate (PO4).

The red (or green or brown) stringy gunk we see in the system is not the cyanobacterium. That "gunk" is what the cyanobacterium exudes, and the bacterium is under that, and to a degree within it as well which is a method of spreading (aka hormongia aka motile reproductive filaments).

Cyanobacteria are biologically really cool - they don't follow the usual rules. Cyanobacteria are autotrophs, and the species that we see are also able to fix atmospheric nitrogen (which is really cool because cyanobacteria are aerobic and nitrogen fixation requires anaerobic conditions). Cyanobacteria are particularly good at surviving in both iron-limited and phosphate-limited environments.

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I agree there is cyanobacteria in the water column to some degree [...] not that it's picking a substrate bound state over a pelagic state (otherwise our tanks would look like a red tide).

Indeed the cyanobacteria we see in our tanks is benthic (clings to the surfaces). When I say the bacteria are in the water column, this is not something you can see. The hormongia are much different than pelagic cyanobacteria.

Originally Posted by asylumdown

If it's an "imbalance", what would constitute a "balanced" state? There's always going to be phosphate in the system somewhere. In older tanks, there's going to be a great deal of it in the rocks from a few different sources.

I think you're over-thinking my use of the word "balanced". The balance I'm referring to is simply that the water column contains roughly the same amount of phosphate as the substrate (sand/rock).



I think we are "arguing" different points. It appears to me that your side is that you think cyanobacteria are triggered by iron, where I believe cyanobacteria are triggered by phosphate imbalance within the system.

My own experiences (and yours also, it appears) have shown that adding a large amount of GFO to a tank can ultimately cause abundant growth of cyanobacteria. Seeing as cyanobacteria are not responsive to iron-limited nor phosphate-limited environments, then it must be something else.

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Which Rona? ...
Rage.

Crowfoot shopping area is at Crowchild Trail and Nose Hill Drive nw.