Cyano choices

[dR3ws3r]

Hi,

I have a 25 gallon that I had to abandon for 3 months. I took all the fish back to the fish store, but left the plants. A friend came over and filled the tank weekly for evaporation purposes, but nothing else for maintenance.

When I arrived last weekend, many of the plants were still alive, although not thriving. A good 2/3rds of the tank had a cyano outbreak, and now I am considering my options. For now, I don't want to add any fish, but would like to get the tank clean and save as many of the plants as possible.

My first thought was to take all the plants out, and try and clean them off, throw away the substrate, and scrub the glass. I also considered just blacking out the tank with a garbage bag for a week and seeing what I had after that, but I didn't want to kill off the plants.

Will cyano, being a bacteria, be on the plants and embedded in the glass? What would you use to clean the glass, bleach followed by a thorough washing out and drying? I'd hate to scrub it all down and then just have cyano resurrect itself. I could just chuck the plants too and start all over again, but that wouldn't be my first preference.

I only light the tank for 8 hours a day, and there is no exposure to direct sunlight, if anyone thinks it is a lighting problem. There was no food or ferts added while I was gone, and I just ran a sponge filter 24/7. PH is a little over 7 and alkalinity and General hardness are low.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

Drew

 

[Colin_T]

The Cyanobacteria will be attached to the substrate, plants, ornaments and glass. It creates a film that helps it hold on and even when you wipe the top layer off, some can still remain.

If you don't have fish or shrimp in the tank (even if you do), you can kill the Cyanobacteria easily with Ultralife Blue Green Slime Stain Remover, found at the following link. It's the quickest and easiest way to remove it. However, you also need to look into the nutrients in the tank because they cause it to grow.

Amazon.com

 

[dR3ws3r]

The Cyanobacteria will be attached to the substrate, plants, ornaments and glass. It creates a film that helps it hold on and even when you wipe the top layer off, some can still remain.

If you don't have fish or shrimp in the tank (even if you do), you can kill the Cyanobacteria easily with Ultralife Blue Green Slime Stain Remover, found at the following link. It's the quickest and easiest way to remove it. However, you also need to look into the nutrients in the tank because they cause it to grow.

Amazon.com

Thanks,

I've used that stuff before and still have some packets left. I will try it out and see how well it works on this bigger mess.

Drew

 

[raylove]

I used that stuff too when I had a mild but persistent issue. It cleared it up but also killed most of my plants too. The tank was stuffed with beautiful jungle vallis which grew fantastically well for years. One dose of that stain remover and it melted completely within 10 days.

 

[dR3ws3r]

i have set up my old tank a 25 gallon cube, 18" x 3. I cleaned it out, replaced the substrate with sand, and put what surviving plants I had remaining back into the tank. I once again have a cyano problem in this tank.

I've read that the basic problem is light, nutrients and flow. My tank light (kessil) is on for 7 hours a day and no natural light comes near the tank. I have a Fluval 207 cannister filter that is rated at 206 gallons per hour. I understand that is ideal, but still it should be big enough. I have never put a flake of food in this aquarium since I started it back up and there are no fish. Thus, i am really doubting I have a nutrient problem. I do have some CO2 injection and have used fertilizer in all fairness.

I have a lily pipes for the inflow and outflow, and since they are at the top of the tank, I am wondering if the sand bed is getting nearly enough flow?

I use RO/DI water that has been remineralized.

Any thoughts as to what may be the problem? Can fertilizer or CO2 be the problem?

Thanks