Cyanobacteria?

Hawkian

Two days ago I noticed a green gooey substance at the bottom of my tank on some of the gravel and one pebble. It doesn't appear to be on any ornament yet but a quick "google-ing" of green goop in aquaria seems to indicate that this is in fact the start of a blue-green algae "bloom"... or cyanobacteria attacking my tank.

I hear they require light to spread... but my tank is in a dark room in the basement. I have 2 T-8 bulbs in the tank, one sun-glo and one aqua-glo... is it poissible that the sun-glo is in fact too strong (20W)? The aqua-glo is also 20W but seems to shed less light in the tank...

Besides that, how do I get rid of this stuff?

Thanks.

Fishin Pole

i use a siphon hose and suck it off the affected areas, even the gravel!............Try to get as much out of your tank as possible, this stuff WILL grow back quickly if not taken care of..........Water changes more frequently should help alot............Vacuuming your gravel on a regular basis will help it from coming back.........

organic wastes are the main contibutor for cynobacteria in your tank.............cut back on the amount and how many times you feed your fish.........It can be conquered, but it will take some effort on having it not return.......Good Luck!

Hawkian

Thanks Fishin Pole! I siphoned off the affected area - heck the whole tank for that matter - and will follow the rest of your advice too. Right now, there are small trace amount of it left but nothing compared to what it was 3 days ago. All sounds like good advice.

Angel079

How long are you running these lights per day? When I was researching algae online a while back (thanks to my new experience with that matter here lol) for just about any algae but hair algae its suggested to either fully black out the tank for 1 week (covered with bedsheet/ dark room etc) and/ or have light breaks during the day for at least 4 hrs, eg run the lights 4 hrs on, 4 hrs break 4 hrs on then night off.
Then after the 1 week blackout do a large w/c and 'suck it out'
I personally haven't tried this (And God help me I hope I won't have to with all other issues) but this does sound very logical to me considering the algae need the 'sun' to feed off.

Hawkian

Thanks Angel!

I admit that i have read something similar elsewhere and it does make sense... it just means that I won't have much opportunity to see my little ones much and I was tring to find a way other than the blackout. But I guess that makes me selfish a but eh?

I think it's time I tried it before it gets out of hand though... I'll keep you posted.

Byron

I would be careful with a full blackout for a week. If this is your 32g under your "Aquariums", it has Hygrophila difformis (Wisteria) which needs light. After a week of no light it might not exist.

Interesting that I have this plant in my Asian 70g and it is covered with cyanobacteria. I know it is a balance thing, and I haven't yet finished the tank the way I want it, waiting for some plants I can't seem to find. Stuck six bunches of Wisteria in to get it going, and now it's a mess. The slime comes off easily with your fingers, so every week I take it all off, it sinks to the bottom, I syphon it out. Fine for 2-3 days, then I can see it coming back; course I don't get all of it. I'm OK with this for the present, until I get the plants and aquascape the way I want it. Then I will adjust the light period. This tank is getting too much light, 80 watts over a 70g, to balance the nutrients.

Byron.

Hawkian

Wow! Point taken! I hadn't thought of that at all. Maybe I'll try a 4 hours on, 4 hours off approach... ?

The truth is that right now it is limited to a spot on the gravel which is directly underneath the filter flow and that siphoning it off once a week seems to keep it under control: it never truly goes away (as you describe) but it doesn't seem to get any worse either. I have 40w of lighting in that 32g (one sun-glo and one aqua-glo) and I have been wondering if that is too much... or if my "day period" of 13 hours may be too long?

Angel079

I can't give you advise based of experience with this matter. What I'd do if this was my tank:
Try to take out/ Scoop up areas it grows on and brush them off under running water (if that's possible I donno your tank's set up).
Following this I'd try the day-break light situation 4on 4 off 4 on for at least 2 weeks in which I'd do a lil more then the regular small w/c.
Meanwhile I'd keep a close eye on the amount I feed, only feed every other day.
You know what I mean, I'd slowly approach it via eliminating factors that will slow down or resolve the gorwth.
If you do want to go for the Blackout and have the Planted Byron mentioned above or any high sensitive plant like a Lotus, I guess I'd take them out into a spare tank or bucket with appropriate lights and then as last resort do the black out.
IMO what I read up and seen with the Hair algae in my own tank, it means something is outta order in the tank, so like anything else, slow calm elimination process approach should do the trick (yes that means it will take TIME & Patience and its not a over night cure).

Byron

The light is not too much if everything is balanced including the duration. On my 33g I have only one tube, a 25w Life-Glo full spectrum, which I find is adequate with 12 hours of light. So with 40 watts of comparable light I would reduce the light period even to 8-9 hours. As April I think mentions, it takes some fiddling for a while to find the balance, which the tank will settle into once the fish load and plants and light are fixed. The light the aquarist can control through duration. And of course the nutrients through fertilization. The CO2 from the fish is out of our direct control without adding more fish obviously, so I try to work the other two around the fishload and get it balanced.

Byron.

Hawkian

OK so I've taken everything out of the tank except for the plants, and siphoned the heck out of it. The affected area is now small - compared to before - and I am please with it. I took the fish net, scooped out the affected area, ran it under hot tap water, and put it back in... hoping that the combination of hot and small amounts of chlorine might help.

Tank looks great. I've missed a few spots. And it's growing again. I'll keep everyone posted.