Cyanobacteria growth-any suggestions?

Geeky1

Geeky1

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Aug 18, 2003
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Hi all,

My 10 gallon at work is having issues with cyanobacteria growing on the substrate and on certain plants-mainly the Cabomba and the Java ferns. I've had tanks with cyanobacteria problems before, and my experience with them has always been that once a tank has it, it's basically impossible to get rid of it or keep it under control.

Tank info:
10g, planted. Don't know all the specifics on what plants it has in it (i can't remember all of the species), but I know it has the aforementioned java fern and cabomba, some kind of micro sword or something, some corkscrew vallisiniera, and a bunch of other stuff... Somewhere between 25 and 40 individual plants/stems (not counting each individual leaf on the micro sword of course). Substrate is light colored natural, fine-grained sand (about the consistency of sugar granules, maybe smaller).

Filter:
Eheim Ecco (the smaller one, forget the #)

Light:
Coralife 28w 6700k compact fluorescent

Heat:
200w Hydor inline heater (this tank is in a room that'll drop into the low 40s at night during the winter)

CO2:
Nutrafin CO2 system (currently inop, the yeast I used is too old)

Fish:
6x White Clouds

I have not tested the water on this tank recently, and obviously that's the first thing I should do, but beyond the standard ammonia/nitrate/nitrite, what should I be testing for?

Any suggestions on how to get this stuff under control before it wipes out my plants would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
it is a bacteria(photosynthetic) so you can rtry blackouts. also it responds to ethrythromycin(maracyn)
increase the flow it does have a tendency to find slow water.
 
I agree that Erythromycin (maracyn) will kill it. BGA tends to attack when your nitrAtes are low. If your plants are draining away all your nitrates, that is the first thing to look at.
 
Thanks guys,

I picked up some Erythromycin, I'll give it a shot. I feel like I'm treating the symptom, not the problem though. I'll have to do a water test on it later today (tank's at work, water test kit is at home) and see what it looks like.
 
livingword26 said:
I agree that Erythromycin (maracyn) will kill it. BGA tends to attack when your nitrAtes are low. If your plants are draining away all your nitrates, that is the first thing to look at.
Click to expand...

This is obviously a bit counterintuitive! I am starting to have a cyanobacteria issue in my lower 30g. Obviously my nitrates are low - it has a ton of plants. Is this really true - low nitrates help this gunk to grow better? My parameters are all good - 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate. I am not doing CO2 and I am not doing ferts in this tank.

I'd prefer not to dose Maracyn, but I seem to be lowing the battle here. Every time I scrape it off twice as much appears.
 
BGA/Cyanobacteria looks like a slimy dark green mat that covers anything and everything. I had it in several of my tanks when they were fairly new (3-6 months). It eventually faded away on its own after I tried just about everything to kill it off. I did two 3-day blackouts on my 150 and it helped for a while but never completely got rid of it. that tank had no plants in it so nitrates were usually 10-25 or so. In my 10gal, the EM cleared it up. Be careful though, as this broad-spectrum antibiotic will eliminate your biofilter. I only used it in my planted tank because I knew the plants would support the stocking level even with no beneficial bacteria.
 
I had a cyano break out in my tanks substrate when I upped to the 75. I got another canister filter and positioned it where it blew right over where they CYANO infestation was. I also went to EI dosing as opposed to just flourish dosing. Things have been fine since. Except for the Black hair algae outbreak I had when I toyed with reducing CO2.
 
maxthedog123 said:
This is obviously a bit counterintuitive! I am starting to have a cyanobacteria issue in my lower 30g. Obviously my nitrates are low - it has a ton of plants. Is this really true - low nitrates help this gunk to grow better? My parameters are all good - 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate. I am not doing CO2 and I am not doing ferts in this tank.

I'd prefer not to dose Maracyn, but I seem to be lowing the battle here. Every time I scrape it off twice as much appears.
Click to expand...

Maybe I said that wrong. If your nitrates drop to 0, then the BGA attacks. Thats what happened to me. If you are sure you are staying above 10ppm, then that is probably not the cause. You can try what others suggested. I tried everything but the blackout. Nothing worked though, except the Maracyn.
 
In all of my planted tanks, my nitrate level is a pretty consistent 5. My tap registers 5 on the API liquid test, so I typically have almost no nitrates. I keep up on water changes and I err on the side of over filtration (Whisper 30-60 and 10-20 on the 30g). I have replanted a couple of times, but it keeps creeping. It is also getting a a pretty good foothold on the wood in my tank. Very frustrating.

Did you use Maracyn or Maracyn-2?
 
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