Is this cyanobacteria?

[Aeonflame]

I have been getting this on my sand for a couple months now. Nothing seems to stop it.. I stir the sand and vacuum at every weekly WC and still it grows back in a couple days. its only on the sand and nowhere else. My parameters are good. 0 am, 0 trites and 10 trates. Short of nuking the cyanobacteria and my cycle with antibiotics, what do you suggest? higher lighting didnt do the trick for me, although it did clear up my diatom problem.

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[rich311k]

It sure could be. You could try cleaning as much as you can and bumping up your nitrates a bit.

Blackouts may also work.

[PostalPenguin]

That is definitely cyanobacteria. Take some hydrogen peroxide and squirt it onto the sand with a syringe. Make sure all the filters and powerheads are off. Safe levels are 3mL of peroxide for every gallon of water you have. That will kill the stuff.

Then to make sure it doesn't come back try increasing flow in the tank and possibly adding nitrates to the tank.

[EmmanuelJB]

Looks like it to me. Watch it for a little while, and if it seems to spread really fast, it likley is.

[taralm13]

Looks like it to me....but to be sure take a wiff of your tank...does it stink really bad? Cyano stinks...really really bad...you will know for sure...smells like low tide :scry:

[fins_n_fur]

I agree with taralm13. I had it for a short while and you could smell it from the top of the tank, it was even worse when taking it out (much worse than low tide LOL). I would try to vacuum up as much as you can, as often as you can, and cut down on feedings. I wonder if stirring the stand is not pushing some of it under and then it comes back? What is your photo period like? I'm thinking that a longer lighting period will help to get rid of it (at the risk of introducing other algae). Got it:

Excerpted from Dave66's Algae Primer:

CYANOBACTERIA

Blue-green algae isn't algae at all; it's a photosynthetic bacteria. Cyanobacteria is also toxic to most fish and it also consumes Oxygen, meaning a full-blown invasion of Cyanobacteria can suffocate fish.
It's also a slimy, smelly thing and many people find it disgusting.
It almost always appears when the tank has either a short photo-period or low lighting.
The solution is simple, but counter-intuitive.

Increase your light. The more light you have the less likely you'll run into Cyanobacteria. If you lights are already bright, run them longer. If you have one or two 40-watt tubes, add another and run them 12 hours a day. Cyanobacteria is primitive enough it can't assimilate bright light.

Bright light and manual removal will beat Cyanobacteria every time. Thankfully, Cyanobacteria doesn't bind tightly with solid surfaces so siphoning usually gets most of it.

So if you run into Cyanobacteria in your tank, light it up and suck it up. May take some time to beat it totally, but it can be done.

[Wild Turkey]

Erythromycin will kill cyano bacteria also. When I used it it didnt noticeably effect my bacterial filter, never had cyano in that tank again.

[taralm13]

Erythromycin will kill cyano bacteria also. When I used it it didnt noticeably effect my bacterial filter, never had cyano in that tank again.

I also used this and had no problems :ssmile:

[Aeonflame]

Im thinking i'll try the antibiotics. What dosage did you use and how did you dose it? It doesnt smell that bad to me, but maybe i have a high tolerance for stink lol. Its a 70 gallon that I run 80 watts of lighting on for 12 hours a day and another 80 for 10 of those hours

[EmmanuelJB]

My 60 gallon had cyanobacteria really bad and someone recommended a product called Blue Green Algae remover and it worked great on my cyanobacteria.

Blue Green Algae Remover:
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60 Gallon Thread: [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Good Luck!

[domjd05]

Ugh I used to have that stuff in my sand in my 46g tank (when it was set up).. Tried increasing flow.. hydrogen peroxide, changed lighting, never did fully get rid of it.

[toddnbecka]

I saw some of that in my 38 until I started keeping BN fry/juvies in the tank for growout.

[taralm13]

Im thinking i'll try the antibiotics. What dosage did you use and how did you dose it? It doesnt smell that bad to me, but maybe i have a high tolerance for stink lol. Its a 70 gallon that I run 80 watts of lighting on for 12 hours a day and another 80 for 10 of those hours

This is what I did and it worked for me...

dosage of 200mg/10 gallons (I have a 20 gallon tank) every 48 hours with 40% water changes prior to every dose.

Well I decided to go with 4 doses. I added 1st dose then 48 hours later did 40% water change and added another dose. I waited another 48 hours and did another 40% water change and added another dose. I waited another 48 hours and did a 25% water change and added another dose....and did this step one more time. Total of 4 doses. I have no more cyano that I can see. My plants and snails were not affected at all that I can see. The only change I noticed with my fish was one male guppy would lay on the bottom on each of day dosing except the last day. He would be fine after that and is still ok. I plan to continue with water changes of 25% every 2 days for a while and work my way back up to once per week. If anything bad happens at all I will update this post.

Also, I didn't do anything special with my filter...I have a submersible filter with carbon and a sponge. I plan on changing the carbon soon though just in case. (my filter is for an 80 gallon tank and I only have a 20 gallon if that matters).

This was copied right from my original post about this problem I had here... [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Wild Turkey]

IME with the antibiotic I just used a one-day dosage for the fish and that annihilated the cyano. It turned yellow/white, was light and easy to siphon up a few days later. None ever grew again, used carbon to remove

[Aeonflame]

Did you just drop the pills into the tank? bury it in the substrate?

[Wild Turkey]

I dissolved them in some water and poured in it a little bit at a time over a few hours. Ive never really had problems dumping dosages in, but its just for caution's sake.

[Plant Man]

I didn't do any of these things. I lowered my light, cranked my Co2 up over 35ppm and started EI dosing the tank. The Bluegreen was gone all by itself in less then a week.

a month later I reversed the conditions by upping my light, turning off the Co2 and it came back. LOL High Co2, low light and lots of nutrients did the trick for me.

Nasty slimy stuff.

Unfortunately I don't have an after picture. Sorry


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