# Cyanobacteria~ Quick advice needed!!



## 207lauras (Jan 28, 2009)

Hey all, I posted these questions under my algae help thread but I thought maybe no one was answering because of the sheer number of general algae questions... Anyhow, I think I am battling this bacteria in my 40 gallon tank and cant figure out how it established itself and the best way to get rid of it. I have been doing 10 - 15% wc's 2x weekly for the past 3 weeks hoping to keep it down that way but if the problem is my water I am only helping the situation... All of my params are stable at their normal numbers. I am wondering if something in my water that the test strips arent reading could be contributing to this? I use aquasafe during my wc's and thought this might be contributing to the issue?
I read online that keeping the lights off for a week it would help. I am leaving on vacation tomorrow and if this will help this would be the ideal time to do it. Will doing this affect the fish at all?? Any advice you could give would be great.
Thanks and sorry to repost this info~


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I say never do anything differently when you aren't home to watch the effects. Blackouts and/or erythomyacin (sp?) might do the trick, but you never want to kill algae when you aren't around to change water. Dead algae is like a pet-sitter overfeeding your fish, you get an ammonia spike and come home to dead fish. 

I do think there is some trace metal or mineral in the water that triggers this stuff to go nuts because I sporadically get bad outbreaks in some tanks without making any changes. 

I'm told the anti-biotic will do the trick if it really is cyanobacter (a nice blue-green carpet on everything). Try it when you come home and let me know if it works.


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## 207lauras (Jan 28, 2009)

Thank You! I may just cut back the lights hours while I am gone from 9 hours to 6 maybe? I will try the antibiotics when I come home and see what happens. Do you know if I can pick up ethromyacin at the lfs?
Hopefully that will do the trick. I want to get this taken care of before I start adding some new fishys into the mix!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

http://www.marinedepot.com/Aquarium...icals_API_MARS_Fishcare-AP1811-FIMEBF-vi.html

Looks like they have it in LFS, its just a bit pricey.


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## 207lauras (Jan 28, 2009)

Thanks! The price is not that bad, as long as it will do the trick! I will get to work when I get back and let you know how it goes....Just when I thought I had the brown algae under control this happens!! At least my water isnt cloudy at all, that would drive me bonkers!


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Do you have any sunlight hitting the tank?
I only had cyano one time in all my little betta tanks when the sun hit the tanks.
I scrubbed it out weekly and by the end of the next week it was all back.
You never know what gets into the water supply tho.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I'm told it will kill it all, but in a few months it may come back. That if conditions are right for this stuff it will come back again and again. IME experience thats true with other pest algae as well, you get it licked, you get some other issue, you beat that and and in a year or two the first one is back. It is a never ending battle.


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## 207lauras (Jan 28, 2009)

Ok so I just read this article

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/algae/cyano.shtml

and now I am freaked out about medicating my tank. I think after cutting my light time down to 9 hours, drop the water level some and maybe add a larger air stone I should be ok? Also I was going to add some Hornwort and marimo moss balls to see if that can suck up some more nutrients that are possibly feeding it... what do you think? Also I have seen some of the algae-fix products at the store and those say they also treat blue-green algae which is what the cyanobacteria are mistakenly called, though I dont think that product uses antibiotics... what to do, what to do???


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## 207lauras (Jan 28, 2009)

PS
Hi Mousey, I did have some sunlight hitting it and it was certainly worse on that side of the tank. I have fixed that problem though so hopefully that will help a little bit!

I still have some lingering brown algae too, what a pain in the butt....


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

How much light do you have on your tank?Ie what number of watts?

I keep 2.5 watts per gallon on all my tanks and just run the lights for 6 hours a day plus whatever room lighting there is.
I grow Jungle vals, java fern, anubias, hornwort in each of my tanks.
If you are not growing plants there is really no need for you to have the lights on the tank when you are not there and if you are there you can run low wattage. The fish do not need the artificial light-- we do just to ee them.
yes adding plants to the tank will sop up some of the excess nutrients . The hornwort is really greedy for nutrients- the mosses not quite so much.
Dang - wish i could sent you some jungle vals. I am stripping some out of my tanks because they are growing so fast.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Anything you do is a risk. Anything that kills stuff makes an ammonia spike. And anytime you use an anti-biotic, you risk creating anti-biotic resistant nasties. 

Other plants can help it they out compete this stuff, but IME, the goo just grows on the other plants and smothers them and then you have the additional issue of dead plant rotting to deal with. 

I am currently trying pearlweed, the idea being something floating could cut off its light. But I am mostly breaking down the worst-affected tanks and cleaning them empty. It does seem to spread from tank to tank. So I may try the EM, myself. The smell of the goo I got off the last tank I cleaned was enough to make me get serious.


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## 207lauras (Jan 28, 2009)

I have plants in there already, Italian vals, anubias nana (?) and java fern I think. for lighting i have a Nova extreme T5HO fixture but I am not sure of the wattage I will have to look again...
Thankfully it is not super stinky, would be worse if it wasnt covered I am sure. Do you think it would be palying it safe if I do the following:
fill 10 gallon quarantine tank (literally just the tank, no gravel or anything) with some of the current 40 gallon tank water and filter, transfer fish to that then treat the 40 with the antibiotics while nothing is in there. Then just transfer the fish back with as little infected water as possible?
I am in the process of getting ready to re-stock the 40 and really want to nip this in the bud before I add any other fish. will the plants be ok?
thanks again for all the help and suggestions!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Since I haven't tried it yet, I can't tell you for sure. I hear it will be safe for plants, but you really never know until you try.


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