Posts by Zapins
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The cyanobacteria I am familiar with grows in continuous mats like a piece of celophane plastic and has bubbles trapped under it. It usually doesn't grow anywhere near fast currents which results in it growing along the substrate 99% of the time. Cyano doesn't typically grow over plants more than an inch tall.
If this is a new type of cyanobacteria then it will probably be affected by antibiotics or higher nitrate levels (as the original cyano doesn't like higher nitrate levels).
The algae in the picture looks like thread algae to me though which is also nitrate related. Check your nitrates and other values and make sure they are at the recommended levels.
How are your plants doing and what is your dosing regiment?
One last thing: there is no way to sanitize a tank of algae, your will always have algae spores lingering in the tank even when there is no visible algae. This is fine and quite normal. The way to have no algae problems is to learn more about the nutrients that plants require for healthy growth. For some still not well understood reason when plants grow healthily and flourish algae remains dormant regardless of what the fertilizer levels are (within reason of course).
The first step to fixing this algae problem is for you to do some water tests and let us know what the nitrate, and phosphate levels are, and then what you are doing for CO2 and lighting. Don't be discouraged and shut down tanks - it isn't the answer!!
Oh and Jeff is correct the 20,000 K bulbs you are using aren't suited for plants, don't go above 10,000 K with freshwater plants.
If this is a new type of cyanobacteria then it will probably be affected by antibiotics or higher nitrate levels (as the original cyano doesn't like higher nitrate levels).
The algae in the picture looks like thread algae to me though which is also nitrate related. Check your nitrates and other values and make sure they are at the recommended levels.
How are your plants doing and what is your dosing regiment?
One last thing: there is no way to sanitize a tank of algae, your will always have algae spores lingering in the tank even when there is no visible algae. This is fine and quite normal. The way to have no algae problems is to learn more about the nutrients that plants require for healthy growth. For some still not well understood reason when plants grow healthily and flourish algae remains dormant regardless of what the fertilizer levels are (within reason of course).
The first step to fixing this algae problem is for you to do some water tests and let us know what the nitrate, and phosphate levels are, and then what you are doing for CO2 and lighting. Don't be discouraged and shut down tanks - it isn't the answer!!
Oh and Jeff is correct the 20,000 K bulbs you are using aren't suited for plants, don't go above 10,000 K with freshwater plants.
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