hehehe, thanks Glen. As I've been doing this hobby successfully for the last 6 months (unsuccessfully prior to that) I'm still very much a newbie, but I'll do what ever is necessary to provide the bestest environment for my pets, whether it be the fish, my cats or my husband. If boiling sand will help, I'm quite happy to do that. If I'd twigged that it would have cleaned up the substrate like that I'd probabaly done it earlier, prurly for asthetic purposes, but I been just waiting for the diatoms to go away!
I've been doing some more reading on cyano and its triggers. Here is a summary of my thoughts.
First, being that I change 30% of the water weekly, and tank params are stable, I don't think it's cause is poor water quality. Also, based on what I have read, it really does seem that a low N
ratio encourages cyanobacteria.
many roads seem to suggest that to be rid of it, I should reduce the intensity and/or duration of the lighting, and do what I can to raise that N
ratio, such as cutting out any fertiliser that contains phosphate for a while or adding extra nitrate.
My tank:
PH - 6.4
Amm = 0, NitrITE = 0, NitrATE = 10
KH = 1d
GH = 1d (yup! that soft!)
Phosphates = 1ppm - and proven to be low thanks to a wee bit of GSA occuring in the left and right corners of the front of the tank
Incicently, phosphates registered 0ppm from the tap water.
So I think Glen is right.... If I don't change anything about the routine that I'm only going to see it reoccur. Now I'm happy to continue to remove substrate and boil it to remove it, but I'm also wanting to see if I can prevent it.
Here are my options as I see them.
1. I don't know much much less lighting I can have now wpg-wise (i'm only 1.2 wpg now), but I can drop the duration an hour.
2. Start dosing Nitrate - if this is a good idea, what PPM should I aim for?
3. Cut out any ferz with phosphate - I'm only using Florish Comprehensive, so will need a replacement if this contains Phosphates (but should I worry with only 1pm?
4. Continue as is and just remove cyano as needed as per Glen's suggestion.
Anything else??? Is my understanding of cyano correct? Any other suggestions?
Thanks.