Cyanobacteria

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Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

Cyanobacteria

by Tmercier834747

A few weeks ago I simultaneously upgraded my filtration (while seeding it with my old bio-wheel for 48hrs), added new plants, moved the tank from one wall to another (removed more than 50% water to do this safely) removed my overgrown amazon sword (was now over a year old and just too damn big for my 16gal), trimmed my java moss down real short and took the driftwood out and rinsed detritus off it as I've done many times before, I also added about 3lbs more playsand. I also changed my lighting for a bit different kelvin.

Within a few days of leaving the tank be for a bit I noticed some blue/green cyano starting. It was pretty at first, growing only on the sand in the brightest part of the tank. I had seen it before in my 5gal but it only remained in there for about a week before dying off.

Its now a few weeks later and 95% of my plant surfaces are covered. I've tried physically removing it, spending about an hour each time painstakingly hand removing globs (god it effing smells) several times only to see it come back stronger.

My PH ranges from 6.5-6.8 depending on CO2 levels. I've done about 6 / 25% water changes --- normally in the elapsed time I'd have done two max. I've been maintaining nitrates between 5-15ppm. Nitrite is non-existant. I've been running CO2 since Oct and in two weeks time I feel like I converted to saltwater and just witnessed it crash. lol There is no plant growth whatsoever, even hours after hand removing the mats of bacteria. My java moss is completely covered by one giant photosynthesizing mat putting out oxygen bubbles visible through its slimy layers.

Most of the info I've dug up on it recommends chemical treatments but I'd rather just remove all my plants and ride it out. I hate using chems, and I don't want to be dependant on something like R/O water with a planted tank. Ie: I don't wanna manually add trace elements.

Anyone think or know for a fact that blacking the tank out several days may eliminate this problem? I'm flabbergasted.


jweb
 
Posts: 318
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:45 am

by jweb

I use algaefix and with constant water changes it worked well. It was really really bad in mine too. It stunk up the entire house.


a1k8t31524
 
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 5:10 am

by a1k8t31524

you know you probally have an excess og nutrients now that you took out the swoard... thoes things are the biggest nutrient hogs once they are well rooted, i had a small problem with this a few months back on my gravel...... only lasted about a month. i would leave it alone for about a week and then just remove all the gravel that it affected. then week after week it grew back but much smaller. umm i know that cyano is not an actual alga but i coulda swore that somewhere i read that bamboo shrimp will take care of this for you too


a1k8t31524
 
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 5:10 am

by a1k8t31524

and avoid the chems especially if you have any inverts


a1k8t31524
 
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 5:10 am

by a1k8t31524

you might try 10k lamps too....


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

That makes a lot of sense. Though I have a dwarf lily which is supposed to be a huge nutrient hog..I know for a fact its root structure isn't a tenth the size of the damn sword. lol That thing was like the size of a freaking frisbee and as deep as a coffee mug..

I've had the tank -mostly- blacked out for several days now other than feeding, and though the bac isn't dying off it seems to have stopped growing/spreading..I guess I could use R/O for a few weeks but thats not a habit I want to get into. After removing chloramines my city apt. water is perfectly fine.. Do you think adding a sponge powerhead (170gph) with some directional flow will slow things down a bit as well? I removed my old 120gph because I was putting the aquaclear 70 on there and figured that would be enough flow, but it just moves straight at the glass and then dissipates quickly.

I hope this kicks itself out of my tank because I'm really tired of pulling the stuff out by hand. I'm ready to toss everything but the substrate it looks so horrible..and the smell. I give my hands a bleach bath after I'm done with the tank and I can STILL smell the EFFING bacteria along with the bleach odor.

Btw I'm running 10k/6700k PC bulb.

After such a long time of cruise control its real disappointing to see my pride and joy falling apart. -.-


a1k8t31524
 
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 5:10 am

by a1k8t31524

i dont know if a powerhead would help..... ahw you might try is java moss in a mesh bag and filter through that for like a week at a time till it starts to die off than give it some light bring it back and then put it back in your filter.....i would say try peat but it might crash your ph....... or even thought it is a pain in the ass you could do daily water changes.... you use florite or eco complete or something like that too dont you?


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

yeah, flourite and playsand. I put the marineland 660 back in today and directed the flow from one side to the other and it really blew some bacteria around. Someone had mentioned in another thread that increased flow may make it hard for the bacteria to take hold. Well it blew most of the mats off my driftwood revealing some still green moss. =D I'm considering removing the rest of my plants which seem to do nothing more than harbor the bacteria, and adding some floating water sprite. I had some shortly before I changed the tank over to a planted tank (was the first plant I had, actually) and was amazed at how fast it grew and subsequently sucked nutrients out of the water column even when just receiving less than 1wpg.
I still have the tank blacked out for now.

I now have roughly 400gph of movement in a 16 gal. 470 if the flow was unrestricted. lol


a1k8t31524
 
Posts: 939
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 5:10 am

by a1k8t31524

ummm.....what about crystal wart.....that might help too..... it is a nutrient hog


Tmercier834747
 
Posts: 887
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

don't think its available to me from any LFSs in the area...about the shrimp.. I have had the same 3 amanos in the 16 for well over a year now and added my 3 dwarf puffers from my 5gal to my 16 a few months back. They haven't touched the amanos...but I had the bright idea to waste $30 on 6 cherry reds and the puffers made short work of their eyeballs..somehow 4 of them are still ok, they could just use some eye-patches. Do you think I'd be taking a big risk with a bamboo(filter) shrimp or w/e they're called? A LFS I frequent sells them but they're some distance away..

Cyanobacteria

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