cyanobacteria

[Yael]

I noticed some blue-green algae getting a foothold in my F8s brackish tank (1.005). I read that it can really take over and sometimes release toxins that can affect the fish so the goal is to get rid of it. I have live plants, nerite snails and BB gobies in with the puffer. I did a 75% water change and removed and cleaned everything that looked to have any cyanobacteria on it. Now the plan is to keep the lights off for a week or so. Is there anything else I can be doing? I read that antibiotics will kill the cyanobacteria but wasn't sure how that would go over with the other tank inhabitants. I'm hoping that I can keep that as a last resort rather than the first option.

[defool89]

i would stay away from chemicals as much as possible. and im sure it can release toxins, but so can anything else thats bio degradable. i think a week is too long to keep the light off if you are running plants too, but if yore not GO FOR IT. fish could care less if you have them on or not.

otherwise you are doing fine. remember though, its not just about changing out a bunch of water at once its about a consistent practice that will have the long term effect. change your water, and change it often.

[Pufferpunk]

Just brush it off with a toothbrush & start doing more WC.

[defool89]

Yea the deacaying bacterias ammonia by-product should be over taken by the live nitrfying bacteria as a snack. Microscopic carnivorous vulture pets.

[RTR]

I beg to differ. Maracyn (active ingredient Erytromycin) is specific against BGA (Blue-green algae - which is not an alga but a photosynthetic bacterium). BGA is one of the master biofilm producers and tends to incorporate multiple bacterial species into its biofilm. It is strongly photosythetic but nuch of its O2 generation is held within the biofilm rather than being released into the tank water in general.

The easiest correction for BGA is to ensure that there is sufficient current. It cannot build successful biofilms in cuirrent. Chronic recurrance of BGAusually is a hint that there are too many stgnat areas in the tank. Fine-tuning the current should block this.

Erythromycin is a gram-positive antibiotic (effectve against gram-positive bacteria only), so it has no effect on nitrificatuion bacteria, which are gram-negative.

Do not use Maracyn-2, it will wipe out you tank cycle.

Broad-spectrum wartning against "chenicals" are absurd. Life on this planet is made up of chemicals. Throwing commercial remedies agaist every tank upset rather than correcting the underlying cause is equally absurd, but LFS make lots of money by pushing such "cures".

HTH

[Pufferpunk]

RTR, don't you have an article here on this?

[defool89]

Oooo article? I dont recall reading please post link

[Pufferpunk]

I could swear he wrote one but I can't find it in the Library.

[RTR]

Nope, I've never written it up. It is a small thing, it hardly requires a real article. If you want one I'll write a note for it. That all dates way back in time, when we were just a list and likely was on some other board - Tom's Place or Advanced Aquarist or some such no longer existent place.

I'll have the note in a few days.

[El Scorpio]

A quick note about cyanobacteria - they produce oxygen, but only when they're photosynthesizing. The bacteria itself also consumes oxygen, so if you're going to leave the lights off make sure you have adequate aereation. I've lost a puffer before to a cyanobacteria explosion (remember Ike, my Hawaiian white spotted toby?) I couldn't control - I would pull tons of that crap out of my tank and it would literally grow right back in a few days. I was able to finally stop it by adding a power head; +1 to RTR's suggestion of water movement. Adding a sand-sifting goby to my tank also helped; he kept the sand bed so stirred up that nothing had a chance to grow on it.

[Yael]

I lost track of this post but wanted to update. I used a product from my lfs called Ultra Life Blue green algae remover. I was hesitant because the active ingredients aren't listed but read reviews that said it was safe and worked well. I found that one treatment along with adding more current to the tank was enough to get rid of the cyanobacteria. Just one warning on adding powerheads - I made the mistake of not having an adequate cage on the powerhead and killed a nerite snail that got stuck there. The puffer ate it so it wasn't a waste - still not a nice way to go for the snail though.

[Iliveinazoo]

I lost track of this post but wanted to update. I used a product from my lfs called Ultra Life Blue green algae remover. I was hesitant because the active ingredients aren't listed but read reviews that said it was safe and worked well. I found that one treatment along with adding more current to the tank was enough to get rid of the cyanobacteria. Just one warning on adding powerheads - I made the mistake of not having an adequate cage on the powerhead and killed a nerite snail that got stuck there. The puffer ate it so it wasn't a waste - still not a nice way to go for the snail though.

I doubt you would of needed the algae remover - just the extra current as RTR's post suggested. I had 2 filters running on my tank rated to the tank size (meaning I was filtering twice the recommended amount)n and still suffered from BGA. I then changed both filters for a single cannister rated at 3 times the tank volume and the BGA dissappeared.

[Yael]

You're wrong - I put in the extra power head and waited for some time and still had the cyanobacteria. The treatment was useful. Sometimes it takes more than one thing to fix a problem.