Blue/Green Algae (Cyanobacteria)

[Mifsud]

A few colonies of cyanobacteria have cropped up in my tank. At first, I wasn't bothered because the colonies were not out of hand. A few quarter sized spots on my gravel.

Nowadays, they cover the leaves of all of my plants and are causing them to suffer.

Can anyone lend me some advice on how to manage this growth?

 

[NYgiantsRP]

What size tank is it? What filter do you have? Is the tank cycled? How long has it been setup? What is your water change schedule? What fish are in the tank and how many? How long do you leave your lights on? What kind of lights? Do you dose fertilizer?

 

[Mifsud]

What size tank is it? What filter do you have? Is the tank cycled? How long has it been setup? What is your water change schedule? What fish are in the tank and how many? How long do you leave your lights on? What kind of lights? Do you dose fertilizer?

Style? Hexagon
Volume? 35 Gal
Filter? AquaClear 70 power filter
Cycled? Yes
Age? 3 months (Setup 10/12)
Water Changes? 10 gal/week
Stock? 3 Tiger Barb, 10 Neon Tetra, 3 Black Tetra
Lighting? 2 FloraMax T8 lamps, (12hr/day)
Fertilizer? 7mL Seachem "Envy" (2x/wk), 5mL Seachem "Trace" (2x/wk)

 

[NYgiantsRP]

OK, you seem to be good with filtraion and stock. You could do more like 50% of the water, and lower the lights to 8 hours. Also, to jump start the killing of the algae you could do a black out. Just shut the lights off for a day or 2.

 

[Mifsud]

OK, you seem to be good with filtraion and stock. You could do more like 50% of the water, and lower the lights to 8 hours. Also, to jump start the killing of the algae you could do a black out. Just shut the lights off for a day or 2.

Can plants withstand not having any light for two days? Is this something widely practiced?

 

[NYgiantsRP]

Yes, its better to not have light for a couple of days then being chocked out by algae. I have done it....like 2-3 times a year. I keep hardy plants like swords, crypto, anubias, java, ect ect

 

[Old Scales]

Cyanobacteria Information

Here a link to some good info about it that may help you. OS.
Aquarium Cyanobacteria

 

[gilpi]

OK, you seem to be good with filtraion and stock. You could do more like 50% of the water, and lower the lights to 8 hours. Also, to jump start the killing of the algae you could do a black out. Just shut the lights off for a day or 2.

Agree. Lower the time. I went through the same, I cut back on the light hours, anywhere from 6-8 hrs. Wasn't long before I had algae die off.

 

[Mifsud]

Thank you both, I'll turn the lights off for two days and see how it goes.

 

[Mifsud]

Two days ago I cleaned a lot of this blue/green algae from my tank, added fresh water, fertilized NPK and Seachem comprehensive, turned off my aquarium's lights and covered the glass with an opaque plastic sheet to prevent external light from entering.

Today I turned on my lights and found that blue/green algae did not visibly grow since I turned them off. There still appears to be traces of it here and there so I am pretty confident that it is not dead, but turning the lights off prevented it from spreading.

I don't know yet if I consider this a success. I'll give it a few days and see what happens next.

 

[Mifsud]

A blackout and reducing my lighting to 8hrs/day successfully rid my tank of the cyano.