Explain this stroke of luck?

[goblin072]

I had a FS treat my show tank 330 with copper. It was FO with inverts. After the treatment all hell broke loose in terms of alage. No inverts and maybe dead live sand the pea green cyano took over. The sand and artificial reef were so badly coated the 400 watt lights looked like 15 watt lighting. The green stuff was so agressive that as soon as the sand was cleared it would come back in hours.

The copper level was still too high for inverts after 6 months and the algae problem was not getting better.

All I did was purchase some cuprisorb to remove the copper. The tank basically fixed itself after that. The algae is gone and without inverts.

How can this be? Its like it dissolved and just fell off the reef. The tank looks super bright and the sand is white again. The only thing we changed was removing the copper with cuprisorb.

Can anyone explain? The tank is looking better and better by the day. How did the removal of the copper get rid of the cyano and other ugly algae that fast?

Before I put it in there the tank was getting out of hand. The maintenance guy said he had never seen one with such aggressive algae.

I had some people tell me that without the inverts the cleanup crew was gone and the algae or cyano would take over. Well I don't have my inverts back in and the algae is gone. I am happy but puzzled.

[CarmieJo]

I would have to guess that the nutrient stream was almost used up and removing the Cu could have been all that was needed to halt production.

[goblin072]

I am not sure I follow you. Nutrient stream for the algae and its relation to CU. Could you elaborate? Thanks.

[lReef lKeeper]

the food (nutrients) for the algae was almost gone and the cuprisorb removed the rest of it so the algaes food source was gone and it died off, that is what i think she was saying.

[CarmieJo]

That's right!

[goblin072]

I thought that the cuprisorb only removed CU and not food or organics.

[CarmieJo]

But it removes other minerals like iron that make plants grow. It could also be that the algae had run its course and it is just a coincidence.

[goblin072]

I think I may have an answer on how the cuprasorb worked.

according to Bob Fenner Cuprisorb also removes Iron and Manganese from the water.
Algae-Algae-3reef Forums (http://www.3reef.com/forums/algae/algae-42170.html)

What ever that green slime was it must have needed trace elements which cuprisorb removed.

What is still puzzling me is why did the Algae or cyano grow so fast with copper in the tank? Copper is used to kill algae not grow it. Its gone but I like to know the "why" if possible.

The cuprisorb does seem to work. My copper is now almost undetectable in the tests. The snail test will let me know if its ready.

[CarmieJo]

Cu is used to kill algae but a possible explanation is that it killed off a bunch of micro-inverts which became algae food.

[goblin072]

Well I know it killed off a bunch of micro ICH organisms :) maybe they are good for algae food.

My live sand may have been full of tiny worms etc. Never really saw them but there was probably a massive micro die and like you said there was new food in the system.