Freshwater question..

[Sunshine]

I know this is a saltwater forum, but I don't want to join another forum. I have had my freshwater for 14 years. Never had any big problems with it till now. I have a crap load of Cyano !! Don't know how I got it or why. I do water changes the same for the past 14 years, I don't overfeed. I'm not over stocked. It's 75 gal. I have a black shark, 2 silver dollars, 2 tiger barbs and a small catfish. Oh, and a pleco. I came home today, took everything out and scrubbed it clean, vacuumed the rocks, cleaned the glass and took over half the water out. I don't want to put chemicals in it, if it comes back, is there any other alternatives ?

 

[sen5241b]

This is a saltwater forum but I used to have fresh. I never heard Cyano in a fresh water tank. You should test for nitrates. Nitrates can go as high as 50 in a fresh water tank and then they feed algae and cyano. In salt tanks we try to keep nitrates at zero.

 

[lilyicu]

I have never had any cyano in my freshwaters tanks. But I agree with sen....check your levels and make sure everything is ok. Sometimes my heater will over react and kick up the temp and I will have a large algae bloom.

 

[Rcpilot]

I know this is a saltwater forum, but I don't want to join another forum. I have had my freshwater for 14 years. Never had any big problems with it till now. I have a crap load of Cyano !! Don't know how I got it or why. I do water changes the same for the past 14 years, I don't overfeed. I'm not over stocked. It's 75 gal. I have a black shark, 2 silver dollars, 2 tiger barbs and a small catfish. Oh, and a pleco. I came home today, took everything out and scrubbed it clean, vacuumed the rocks, cleaned the glass and took over half the water out. I don't want to put chemicals in it, if it comes back, is there any other alternatives ?

What kind of filter? Trickle filter? Canister? HOB? Under gravel?

I'd run some carbon in a canister and change it out every 3-4 days. You'll burn through a ton of carbon, but this works for me in saltwater tanks. Maybe you could run it a couple weeks if you took it out of the canister and washed the detritus off it every 2 or 3 days? I'd use RO water to flush it - if you decide to do that.

Lights? Fluorescent tubes that are too old can change spectrum and promote algae growth. Also a long light cycle can trigger it.

 

[Sunshine]

I have 2 fluval canisters. Yea, the lights came with the tank set up. It's probably 5 years old. Should I buy a new bulb ? I took the carbon out of the canister and put in a cut up Matala mat. The canister was just cleaned with the tank a month ago. And the cyano came back that fast.

 

[lilyicu]

I would deffinitly change your bulbs. I clean my canisters once a month as routine maintenence.

 

[dcantucson]

+1 on the new lights. Have you vacuumed your gravel really well?

 

[Sunshine]

Yes. Yesterday, when I took everything out. I took over half the water out vacuuming.

 

[sen5241b]

Ready to try salt?

 

[lilyicu]

I had to do salt several times on my smaller FW tanks, but it was more for fish disease than algae problems.

 

[dcantucson]

I would think that extra water changes would take care of the problem.

 

[lilyicu]

Sunshine, how often is "regular" water changes?

 

[Sunshine]

Sunshine, how often is "regular" water changes?

I never said I do "regular" water changes, I said I have been doing water changes the same for the past 14 years. I have never had this problem before. The water test fine. I've had the same fish in it for 5-10 years. I will do water changes more frequently to see if it helps it go away, plus buy a new light.

 

[Rcpilot]

I never said I do "regular" water changes, I said I have been doing water changes the same for the past 14 years. I have never had this problem before. The water test fine. I've had the same fish in it for 5-10 years. I will do water changes more frequently to see if it helps it go away, plus buy a new light.

I'll bet that fixes it.

Why not go for a black out while the new lights are on the way? I'd do a 50% water change and then black out the tank for about 3 or 4 days. Then do a 25% water change every day for about 3 or 4 days. Maybe do another blackout of 3 or 4 days and repeat with lots of water changes.

The reason I recommend so many water changes is because you're killing the algae by blocking the light. That algae doesn't magically go away. It just turns into organics that are dissolved in the water column. Soon as you turn the lights back on -- BAM!! - algae bloom. So you have to first kill the algae by blocking the lights and starving it of nutrients. Then you have to remove the dissolved algae in the water column before it can re-bloom into fresh algae.

 

[dcantucson]

"I never said I do "regular" water changes, I said I have been doing water changes the same for the past 14 years."

Not trying to be funny, but I chuckled when I read that! :lol:

 

[Sunshine]

"I never said I do "regular" water changes, I said I have been doing water changes the same for the past 14 years."

Not trying to be funny, but I chuckled when I read that! :lol:

Oh, sorry lol This algae is getting on my last nerve. I just did a 50% water change a few days ago, and it coming back already. This tank is built in a cabinet like enclosure, so the only light it gets is the florescent light. And that is only on about 5 hours a day.

 

[lilyicu]

I'll bet that fixes it.

Why not go for a black out while the new lights are on the way? I'd do a 50% water change and then black out the tank for about 3 or 4 days. Then do a 25% water change every day for about 3 or 4 days. Maybe do another blackout of 3 or 4 days and repeat with lots of water changes.



I agree. I think that a black out period will help cut down on the bloom. Your fish will be ok. It might be a good idea to starve the alage out. I had to do it in my SW tank.

 

[lilyicu]

As you can see.....I can't figure out the quote option :)

 

[Sunshine]

lol..... I'm going to do a black out for a few days. Get a new bulb, I didn't know it made a difference about the age of the bulb in freshwater tanks. Learning new things every day. Getting ready to check the parameters now. Would it make a difference if I added RO water ?

 

[Epos]

We've had freshwater slime in our 125 plant tank at work a few times. Erythromycin in combination with Paraguard seems to do the trick. This usually doesn't negatively affect any plants, although, snails don't like the erythromycin. Otherwise, you can black the tank out for about 4 days like everybody else said.