bacteria question

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booker

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
15
Location
Louisiana
I have a slimy lime green growth all over my glass and substrate. It seems to die down with the lights off but grows with a vengeance when they're on. From what i've read here i think it's cyano. does this sound right? lime green?
i don't have a phosphate test but will be getting one in the next couple of days. i read most of the fixes for this and i guess i just want to see if i'm on the right track before i start doing things. thanks for any help.

brian
 
Sounds like cyano and it can last for a long while. I'm battling cyano in my daughter's 10 gal. with chemi-clean. So far its looking great. Did you use live sand when setting up the tank. I ask because my large tanks has no cynao yet the nano tank does. The only difference is the substrates.[/url]
 
the tank is about 3.5 months old. i used a finely crushed coral (not live). it's a 45 gal corner tank and i have an aquaclear 300 hob filter. 1 makijet 1200 power head in the rear facing forward. live stock is 1yellow tail damsel, 1 blue damsel, 1 percula clown, and 1 firefish, and one yellow tang (friend is taking his tank down and i got the tang). it started appearing about the time the tang showed up. i feed him green seaweed and thought that might have something to do with but he doesn't seem to waste much of it.

thanks for any help.

brian
 
Find out what the PO4 reading is and then you will better know the cause. PO4 is usually the main culprit .
Here is my standard listing of other measures you can take.
1. Do you use RO water? If not your should make the switch and work on doing some water changes. If you already use RO water, test your source water. You may need to add a deionizer to it. This is the most important step.
2. Siphon as much of it as you can. Breaking it up only helps it to spread. You need to do this as frequently as possible.
3. Review your feeding habit. Are you overfeeding? Do the fish eat what you put in at feeding time within a few minutes, or is there food lying around the bottom after? Also, if you use frozen, make sure to drain the as much of the packing juice as you can before adding.
4. Do you have adequate water movement? Any dead spaces in the tank? Cyno has a harder time setting up in a system with brisk water movement.
5.Do you have a skimmer? If so, is it producing daily amount of dark thick "skimmage'? Adding or upgrading a skimmer may help.
You can also run a PO4 sponge (after you get the reading) which will help, but you need to address the other underlying causes.
These are few of the key things that feed a cyno outbreak.
 
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