# Cyanobacteria



## fisher13 (Aug 21, 2010)

My 30g high tank has a major cyanobacteria in it. I feed every two days. The tank has been cycled. The bacteris was so bad at one point th tops of the tank with plants had a layer 1/4in thick. it grew over night.


spec for the tank 
165 gph filter
45 watts of lighting 8hrs a day
feed them tetra flakes (has phosphates)
bloodworms cichlid pellets 
shrip pellets

fish Labidochromis caeruleus GBR 6 Tiger Barbs

my averageparamets for the past two months
ammonia 0
nitrite 5
nitrate10
ph 7.6
hardness 175

I don't really want to recycle my tank. I am using the tetra fish fake that have phoshates which cyanobacteria feeds on if I am correct. I did use The nutra fin plant gro before my plants dyed from the bacteria. _ I am using the tetra fish fake that have phoshates which cyanobacteria feeds on if I am correct. I did use The nutra fin plant gro fert before my plants dyed from the bacteria. _

the bulbs i have are
Life glo 24w 6700k
power glo 24w 18000k


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

I always have success in treating this type of algae with Maracyn for 5 days.


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## fisher13 (Aug 21, 2010)

But wonnt that kill the good bacteria and I dont want to hurt my plants


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

IME everything went well with Maracyn treatment. I just did major water changes (like 75%-85%) after 5 days treatment. 

I had Cyanobacteria strikes once a year when I get lazy. Thats why I always have Maracyn in stock.


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## ReefkprZ (Aug 21, 2010)

If your expirienceing a massive cyanobacterial outbreak, In my expirience you need to reduce the dissolved organics in your watercolumn. cyano bacteria tends to be prevalent in high nutrient systems. treating with any chemical be it maracyn or ultralife redslime remover (the invertabrete safe cyano killer) is generally only a temporary cure, if you dont take care of the cause the slime will return. signifigant water changes and changing to low phosphate foods and maybe even reducing the amount your feeding may help you as well. shrimp pellets tend to be a real dirty food, and tetra dried foods are in my opinion junk. I highly recomend paying more for a better quality food, it saves headaches in the long run. but thats my 2 cents I hope it helps.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

45 watts of what type of light (T5Ho)?
usually too much light is the cause.

For now a quick and easy fix is to remove as much as possible and leave the lights off and cover the tank so no light can get through. Leave this black out for 4-5 days.


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## MarkMc (Apr 27, 2007)

ReefkprZ said:


> If your expirienceing a massive cyanobacterial outbreak, In my expirience you need to reduce the dissolved organics in your watercolumn. cyano bacteria tends to be prevalent in high nutrient systems. treating with any chemical be it maracyn or ultralife redslime remover (the invertabrete safe cyano killer) is generally only a temporary cure, if you dont take care of the cause the slime will return. signifigant water changes and changing to low phosphate foods and maybe even reducing the amount your feeding may help you as well. shrimp pellets tend to be a real dirty food, and tetra dried foods are in my opinion junk. I highly recomend paying more for a better quality food, it saves headaches in the long run. but thats my 2 cents I hope it helps.


I would agree with this and just want to clarify for OP that when you refer to dissolved organics it's not referring to nitrate and phosphate because many folks add that stuff in fairly large amounts and don't have problems with BGA. Poorly maintained tanks with large amounts of mulm, plugged filters,poor circulation and decent lighting can be prone to blue green algae outbreaks. So basically it's not the phosphate in your fish food but perhaps uneaten decaying food? I'd recommend that you use maracyn to kill it and concentrate on doing maintainence on the filter substrate and do 50% weekly water changes.


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## csmith (Apr 22, 2010)

BGA hates water flow and oxygen. I bet you have too little of both where the BGA is growing.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

You have detectable nitrite in the water. That's the first thing I would worry about.


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## fisher13 (Aug 21, 2010)

Okay I got food that doesn't have phosphates. The tank is in the second day of the blackout and this moring I decided to take a peek and the water stinks, I could smelll it as soon as I took the lid off. I have two airstones running and two hob filters. also shout i get a phosphates test thing. 



I thiink imight do a w/c


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## csmith (Apr 22, 2010)

Leave it alone. Patience works here very well. Just remember, though, when this is done you'll still need to fix the underlying problem and not just the symptoms. You can either cure BGA as it pops up, or you can fix the issue that brought on the BGA in the first place.


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## fisher13 (Aug 21, 2010)

csmith said:


> Leave it alone. Patience works here very well. Just remember, though, when this is done you'll still need to fix the underlying problem and not just the symptoms. You can either cure BGA as it pops up, or you can fix the issue that brought on the BGA in the first place.


So you are saying I should leave the w/c till after the blackout. It stinks real bad at the surface.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

A water change couldn't hurt.

Physically remove what you can too.


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## justin182 (Aug 19, 2009)

Maracyn will kill it for good. Just clean your filter media more frequently and don't overfeed. Remember that the fish's stomach is approximately the size of its eye (at least true for smaller fish, ex: guppy)~!!!


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## James A (Aug 13, 2010)

Hi..!!
Cyanobacteria are aquatic and photosynthetic, that is, they live in the water, and can manufacture their own food. Because they are bacteria, they are quite small and usually unicellular, though they often grow in colonies large enough to see.


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