cloudy water after maracyn for cyano - normal??

[frog girl]

I am not really worried yet but was wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I put my aquarium in a 5 day blackout with half dosing of maracyn to get rid of a pesky case of cyano that kept returning. During that time I didn't run my DIY CO2 & I put my biofilter in a bit of tank water in case I compromised the other bacteria in the tank (though I kept the filter running to provide mixing.

I unveiled today & there is no sign of the cyano & all the fish look fine but the water is a bit cloudy. I am planning a partial water change & vac to pic up mulm for tommorow probably only about 25%.

Do you think this will just clear up when the plants & filter get up to speed again?

 

[malkore]

sounds like a bacterial bloom. Maracyn will not affect the bio-filter...but storing the bio bag in a seperate container of tank water could kill all the bacteria. It gets too cold, and there's no ammonia being produced to feed them. Might have only dented the population.
It'll clear up, but keep tabs on ammonia and nitrite in the aquarium for a few days.

 

[frog girl]

The cloudiness cleared up in less than 24 hours. My mechanical filter is so slimy with bacteria I am sure it kept up the process given that the maracyn didn't hurt it. I just wasn't sure if it would or not.

Thanks malkore everything looks back to normal except NO MORE CYANO!!!

YEAH!!

 

[malkore]

Wow, I have to apologize for how un-clear part of my post was. I'd just woken up, no glasses, no coffee in me

Indeed the bacteria still in your filter (not the media, but the filter housing) should have survived. My point was just that the super concentrated colonies of bacteria in the filter media were what got harmed, allowing for a little bacterial bloom.

I'm glad you got the cyano cleared up. it can really be a chore.

 

[frog girl]

You weren't that unclear I just don't have any fancy filter media. Its just a plastic thingy with some extra bars (for bacteria to grow on) that slides in behind the mechanical filter bit. Cheap filter really I mostly rely on my plants which where also out of commision during the blackout. I think I probably have more nitrifying bacteria growing on some of my driftwood than on the "biological" part of my filter.

Anyway thanks again. Hopefully the blue green nastiness won't rear its head again.

 

[malkore]

Oh, I thought it was like a filter cartridge, the plastic bracket with filter floss wrapped around it, maybe filled with charcoal.

You should be fine. That plastic thing doesn't have near the surface area I thought it did, so you didn't do hardly any harm to your bacteria, hence why your cloudy water already cleared up.

 

[travis simonson]

FG - I treated my tank with Maracyn back in October and I haven't seen a speck of BGA since. I've heard others voice the same observations. I think there is some lingering aspect of Maracyn dosing that keeps your tank BGA free for some time afterward. I can't complain

 

[frog girl]

I sure hope so travis .

Thanks

 

[humpty]

Is there a consensus on which is better a blackout, a maracyn dose or both together?
I am getting ready to do one of the three choices tonight for a BGA epidemic and I am confused over the choices.
Are you all using the half (100mg) dose per 10 gallons of water method?

humpty

 

[malkore]

maracyn should be your last ditch effort.
make sure you have no nutrient imbalance...as a complete lack of nitrates can trigger BGA outbreaks.
make sure you have enough water flow...dead areas will build up BGA.
try the blackout first.

when all else fails, do a half dose of maracyn for 7 days, followed by a 50% water change on day 8. If you have a really bad case, use a full dose on day one, half dose the remaining 6 days. That's how I did my one and only BGA treatment, no ill effects, and I ran the light normally so the plants weren't affected.