Quote:
Originally Posted by Quiet_Ivy
That's what happens on real reefs too. Nobody knows. Cyano btw can utilize inorganic phosphate, and is known to fix its own nitrogen. It can therefore take advantage of very localized patches of otherwise unavailable nutrients and grow. I suspect it then dies out, leaving a nice pool of N and P for algae (or dinos) to suck up. There's also a paper I've lost the link to which actually found dinos with *symbiotic* cyanobacteria living on their armour plates. I see a strong association between cyano and dinos in my tank too.
@taricha I would definitely not go nuts eliminating a few patches of cyano. It may be flow related since it's at the back of your tank? Pick the stuff out if it annoys you, perhaps increase critters which mess with the sandbed.
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Thanks. Low flow, and the cyano appearance coincides with my lawnmower blenny deciding those corners are where the poop belongs.
It's like he leaves it there so I can siphon it out, except I don't siphon.
Until today. I looked at cyano patches very magnified and found much less sand critters (pods/etc) than in sand patches without cyano. Sounds toxic enough to siphon.