I'm assuming Ive got a case of Cyanobacteria, its the first time Ive had it and from what I have read, it sounds like thats the culprit. Its almost a red/brown and covering the substrate like a slimy mat. There are little tiny air bubbles along the sand as well. Its not time to do a water change yet and all of my levels seem to be normal. I have been running my light a little longer than usual so I will cut that down to start with. I see lots of posts about leaving the lights out, but I cant because of my corals. I also know that this bacteria has other ways besides photosynthesis to grow, so Im guessing that the lights aren't going to make a big difference. Im hesitant about putting in a medication. Ive never lost a single creature thus far and I dont want to start now. What should I do? I plan on doing a small water change and siphoning the gravel to start...any other suggestions? Thanks.
Cyanobacteria??
- Thread starter Leonae
- Start date
You can start with a LARGE water change! Obviously you have excessive nutrients... how old is the tank? and what are your means of filtration? your going to wanna up the flow in the areas that are the worse aswell as get your nitrates/phosphates in check (phos reactors are good at removing phosphates) and like i said before water changes to get the nitrates down... BTW you can do 3 days lights out without harming the corals... Also i dont like adding chemicals to my tank but in the past ive used a product made by Dr G's called red slime remover or something like that and it actually worked without harming any corals
Ok, I think it may have started when I moved my power heads due to the corals, so after I change the water and clean out the substrate Ill move the power heads back too. I think I will go ahead and get a phos kit cause I dont have one yet...Tank is 3 months old. We have sponge filtration running on our 24 gallon aquapod/sunpod...is this kind of filtration specifically called something? Thanks for the info on the lighting as well. I was worried but I know Ive had it on a little longer than needed lately so the corals should be good w/o it for a little bit.
Thank you all. We ended up doing a large water change, siphoned out as much as we could, moved the power head back. We did buy the red slime stuff and our fish store told us to put in an aerator for a few days and that would help, which makes sense because the cyano are anaerobic... Will the bubbler hurt anything else?? Im just going to use the one from our fresh water tank and Im a little hesitant so I thought I would ask you guys first 
I did get some pics before we did this, so I will try to post some before and after...Id like to be a little more active on the forums! Thanks again
I did get some pics before we did this, so I will try to post some before and after...Id like to be a little more active on the forums! Thanks again