Blue Green (Cyanobacteria) Algae - Please HELP!

Well it seems that you already know the solutions to your problems. Get a phosphate and nitrogen test kit; They expensive but worth it. Keep your current substrate and add seachem root tabs and dose npk and excel. The tabs will take care of the comprehensive. Iron is also a good one to add; even though comprehensive does have iron its so little.

 

Ps iron testers are rubbish and never work so just follow the iron dosing on the bottle.

 

Hein24 is right. You can also use seachem purigen. Just put it in a stocking.

 

@sub-lime

Ha-ha! Don't be fooled, I have absolutely no clue on this side. I saw a chart that indicated pin holes and yellow blotches etc. with indications as to what the possible causes could be, but absolutely no tips as to how to fix it.

@hein24 mentioned that I should dose Salt Peter for the lack of nitrates and @TheGrissom mentioned that the algae is as a result of too much phosphate, so I'm slowly puzzling together a picture here.

I need to find something that will balance all my out of balances but get lost when I start reading up on these things. I know now that I need to administer micro and macro nutrients, but the how and what still eludes me.

This is what I managed to get with regards to macro and micro nutrients

These are the Macro-nutrients:


nitrates (N)
phosphates (P)
calcium (Ca)
chloride (Cl)
sodium (Na)
magnesium (Mg)
potassium (K)
sulfates (S)

And the micro-nutrients:


iron (Fe)
boron (B)
copper (Cu)
zinc (Zn)
molybdenum (Mo)
manganese (Mn)

I attempted EI dosing - took me weeks to decipher the instructions found via another forum, but that wrecked havoc in my tanks so I take it I lost the plot somewhere during my deciphering and did something seriously wrong.

 

@Dinky lol okay.
Well either way it is pointing you in the right direction.
I would really get testers, you never know what causes might be until you test water condition - that being said it can also add more variables tot he problem too...haha

I find this helpful and easy to understand without millions of opinions; not that there is anything wrong with that but its confusing sometimes.
Common Freshwater Aquarium Questions - Common Aquarium Problems

Here you can get a basic understanding as to what causes algae, types and general remedies.
I have used this for reference many times and as basic as it is, it gave me reason and solution to my tank issues.

 

@sub-lime

Thank you very much! I need basic, I really tend to get confused. Give me someone's finances, that I figure out to the last cent and tell you exactly what went where, but when it comes to mixing things and figuring out ppm (at least I now know what on earth that means) I'm likely to blow up something even without any explosive chemicals.

I have increased the aeration and movement in the 2 tanks and also changed the lighting. I had 4000k lights but managed to find some 6500k globes on Saturday. I hope that will help the issue as well.

With regards to the Purigen in the sock. How and where in the tank do I put it? I have a ugf running in the Badis tank and a ugf and internal sponge filter thingy running in the betta's tank.

 

Give me someone's finances, that I figure out to the last cent and tell you exactly what went where - i can do the same. Anyone can give me their finances and il tell them it went to fish and plants for my tank, stuff for my bike and other things that make me feel great. #retailtherapy

 

Lighting should already make a change and as for the ugf, i would look at changing that sometime; Personally i have had issues with it and once the tank starts growing its going to be a mission to clean the ugf (Roots growing through it).
Purigen is unfortunately a bit expensive (+-R250). you add it into stocking and place it inside your canister filter. in your case i have no clue how it would work without seeing your filtration system.

For now run lights for an hour a day, use the Ista AR with WC and remove all infected leaves and clean everything. You can use Hydrogen peroxide (Cheap from a chemist) to clean everything. Do not use in inside the tank only for things that can be removed.
Also you will need to clean the filters and piping.

 

@sub-lime

Thank you very much. Operation clean-up scheduled and lights switched off.

I will look into getting some small corner filters, I know that has compartments that I can fill with stuff.

Also been looking into the Ista CO2 stuff - to outfit my tanks for additional CO2 will be much less than I expected.

I can feel some excitement building.... (Hoping to have my tanks looking as good as yours some time in future - your tank is really inspiring!)

 

Thanks a lot Dinky

Suggestion, rather invest in a power filter before co2.

Look at some very small hang on power filters. i know you can get ones for 75L tanks, im not sure how it would work in the 15L tanks; probably cause a mini tsunami?
Its better than the corner filters and better than a canister filter with input and output splits between all tanks as all fert's and diseases get distributed through all tanks.

Maybe someone has a better idea?

 

@TheGrissom - When I make the 2 liter mix, do I add Prime to the mixture for the chlorine? Side question - Prime "detoxifies" nitrates - does that mean that it removes it from the water or just transforms it to a non-toxic form? Could too much Prime be the cause of my low nitrates?

 

Hi Dinky, Use tank water to dissolve the KNO3. Dont add prime to it. Prime will not remove nitrates from the water. It will react with them to form a complex. I have never actually looked at this. I make up the solution with aquarium water and old add prime to fresh water that Im using for a WC. Never really read the bottle about the detoxification of nitrates. But the solution does still work well.

 

Thank you very much!

 

Hallo Everyone,

I'm happy to report that I have finally won my battle with Blue Green Algae.

No, persistence and patience did not come into play! Ha-ha! I simply redid the tank after attempting all other avenues without success. But on this side things are never done the easy way and I ended up with the same algae in a different tank.

The solution on this side proofed to be an increase in CO2. I doubled up on my CO2 and at this stage (hold thumbs) I seem to be winning the battle!

 

Well Done Dinky.
Have you got a UV sterilizer?

Happy to see all is back to normal.

 

@sub-lime - a what? Lol! No, I don't have something like that. Will go google what it does. Happy to learn new things!

 

Aquarium UV Sterilizer - Ultraviolet Sterilizer

 

I had some cyanobacteria about 2 weeks back and suctioned it off and did major waterchanges but it still returned quickly everytime. I had some ADA Bacterball in the drawer and read that if you put it over the cyano it will clear it up, so I tried it and it hasn't returned for about a week now. So I can definately recommend giving it a try if you still have problems.

Brandon

 

Nice Dinky, keep an eye on the macro and microferts as well !!!

 

@brandonb - thank you very much for the information. I'm not familiar with the product and had to go and google it. Sounds like an amazing product all and all if I understand its uses correctly.
@DoubleDutch - Baie dankie, ek sal so maak!