Cyanobacteria Help...

[DarkDH]

I've been looking at my tank more often since I all of a sudden lost 2 perfectly healthy fish.

Currently everything is normal except with the wide disappearance of shrimp and the massive reproductive qualities of snails.

However, I have been noticing cyanobacteria will always attempt to invade my tank, however will never succeed as I always get rid of it. It appears in my moss, the sand, and mostly on 2 rocks.

I know blackout is an option, and I make sure I don't overfeed, but it just keeps appearing. I have no problem with other algae, so the cyano is starting to tick me off a little.

So is there anything I can do, or do I just have to keep fighting this darn thing?

[Bk718]

I've been looking at my tank more often since I all of a sudden lost 2 perfectly healthy fish.

Currently everything is normal except with the wide disappearance of shrimp and the massive reproductive qualities of snails.

However, I have been noticing cyanobacteria will always attempt to invade my tank, however will never succeed as I always get rid of it. It appears in my moss, the sand, and mostly on 2 rocks.

I know blackout is an option, and I make sure I don't overfeed, but it just keeps appearing. I have no problem with other algae, so the cyano is starting to tick me off a little.

So is there anything I can do, or do I just have to keep fighting this darn thing?

1- do more water changes and keep up on the sand maintenance (hovering over picking up the fish crap)
2- dose nitrates if you can (low nitrates = bga)
3- increase flow in the tank if possible (add a powerhead)

and to finally treat it you have 2 options and both work great
1- blackout for 3-4 days. This means completely covering the tank with a sheet or a black garbage bag. Do not peek during those few days, do not feed fish they will be fine. And at the end of 4th day remove the covers and do a 50% water change. All algae should be gone. Even some other ones like green spot might go away as well

2- Erythromycin treatment. Get Maracyn and dose 1 packet per 10g of water and do that for 3-4 days. Some say that it will hurt the biological filtration but i didnt have a problem with it before when i was using maracyn to treat a bacterial infection in fish. If you use it by the directions on the box you wont have any issues.

Either way bga is not like other algaes, you cant just fight it here and there. You have to remove the whole population from the tank or else it will just spring up again

[DarkDH]

More Nitrates? With what?


I went from 1 a week to twice a week, so it has been dieing down a little.

Does BGA survive if it's under the substrate? I think my mom may have buried some instead of removing it.

I have enough flow on one side, since one side doesn't get any...

[Bk718]

More Nitrates? With what?


I went from 1 a week to twice a week, so it has been dieing down a little.

Does BGA survive if it's under the substrate? I think my mom may have buried some instead of removing it.

I have enough flow on one side, since one side doesn't get any...

nitrates with Flourish nitrogen.

bga does not grow under the substrate but it can grow under the substrate by the glass. This occurs due to sunlight hitting the tank and giving plenty of light for the bacterium to spread.

Its good to position your filter so that you get flow throughout the whole tank, no dead spots. Though the dead spots is where the algae starts.

Blackout should be your first type of treatment.

[jmhart]

I agree with what BK said. I had a decent dead spot in my tank, and therefore am having bad cyanobacteria issues. About two months ago I did an erythromycin treatment for 4-5 days. It killed it all, but about a week or two ago it started coming back.

So, I have now added a koralia powerhead to remove the deadspot. I'm currently treating with erythromycin AND I'm starting a 3 day blackout tonight(2 birds one stone, clear out the BGA and a little Rhizo I'm dealing with). Basically, I'm nuking my tank. Actually, I'm also currently treating for ich too.....busy these days...and I have the UV sterilizer running about 12 hours a day until all of these gets cleared up.

The good news is my plants are doing very well.

[Bk718]

Jeff looks like you got alot on your hands. Better keep that airstone running full time.

[fishorama]

I think I'm goning to go with you, jeffrey. None of the more casual approaches are working for me long term.

[KarlTh]

That explains something. I'd put down the sheets of BGA I've been seeing as being because the lighting had effectively increased (I got rid of my old and more translucent than transparent cover glasses), but I checked the nitate - 0. Of course, the increased light may have improved plant physiology to get the 0 nitrates, but there you go. Learn a new thing every day.

[DarkDH]

I just scrubbed as best I can, so I only have little spots where it's wedged in the rock. My AC filter broke, so I got myself a Tetra 30x, which is a nice 20-30 gph more. changed the water, and got as much cyanobacteria as I could. Still some on the glass though.

I'll get Flourish Nitrogen ASAP and try a black out once everything settles down.

[Bk718]

I just scrubbed as best I can, so I only have little spots where it's wedged in the rock. My AC filter broke, so I got myself a Tetra 30x, which is a nice 20-30 gph more. changed the water, and got as much cyanobacteria as I could. Still some on the glass though.

I'll get Flourish Nitrogen ASAP and try a black out once everything settles down.

good luck.. blackout should help
Make sure to add an airstone and make sure not to peek at all for those 4 full days.

[DarkDH]

Black out.. It's going to be really hard to not peek at the tank..

Do I basically just no use lights, cover the tank, keep the filters running and add an airstone?

[Bk718]

Black out.. It's going to be really hard to not peek at the tank..

Do I basically just no use lights, cover the tank, keep the filters running and add an airstone?

1- pickout what ever algae you can see now and do a 50% water change
2- feed the fish for the last time
3- add an airstone (shut off co2 if have any)
4- cover the tank completely and turn off the lights. The tank should get complete darkness.
5- after 4 days remove covers and do a 50% water change feed fish and enjoy an algae free tank.
Plants will take a few days to get back to normal but all should be fine.

[DarkDH]

I'll start just as my new filter is fully seeded with my old filter stuff...