Cyanobacteria

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EmmaC

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
May 31, 2012
Messages
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I have a 10 gal planted tank. No really difficult plants, some anubias, some swords, and a variety of bacopa. Also, no really complicated fish, I have a couple of platies (actually, 4 platies now, because surprise one of the two I bought was pregnant, I'm just hoping it's not too overpopulated once all is said and done), a female betta, and a few white cloud minnows. I have one 15W florescent bulb, and I leave it on for 6-7 hours a day, sometimes longer depending on my work schedule but I try to be consistent. I usually dose CO2 daily (about 1 ml was what it said on the bottle) and fertilizer after water changes. I do 10-15% water changes weekly, and I use RO water in the tank.

The tank is a decently new set up (about 5-6 months old), and other than some hair algae issues early on, which disappeared when I started adding fertilizer, it's been a pretty problem free tank.

I went out of town for a week, and I had a friend watching my tank. When I came home, there was a dead minnow caught in the filter, and cyanobacteria covering 60% of the substrate, a little of the glass, and some of the rocks and plants. I called him to try to get an idea of what happened, and he confessed to not really paying that much attention to the tank other than feeding and adding CO2, but he hadn't noticed anything weird about it, though he had left the light on for about 15 hours everyday. :facepalm: Not sure how one misses black slimy sheets covering white sand, but that's my irritated snarky side rearing it's ugly head....

Anyways, that is a detailed explanation of my basic husbandry practices and an how the situation arose. The tank does not really have a smell right now. (Not a bad smell, nor that rich fresh smell that usually accompanies healthy tanks). I have read some of the different things that one can do to get rid of cyanobacteria. Given this situation, what is the best treatment course to take? Should I just do more frequent water changes? Should I do something more drastic like a black out, or an erythromycin treatment? What do you suggest?

Thank you
 
Blackouts work in some circumstances, as does spot treating with Hydrogen peroxide. Your first move should be manual removal of as much as you can, then a large water change. Erythromycin will work, but you should wait until you've done all other options before dosing with an antibiotic.

Accumulation of organic waste has been suggested as a cause for BGA. You might consider doing larger water changes weekly to help keep those levels down. Platies are muck machines IME.

Also, the stuff you add to tanks are carbon supplements, NOT CO2. Liquid CO2 doesn't actually exist under normal circumstances.
 
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