Bioload and overstocking discussion

[KatLovesCoffee]

Morning all. I’ve been doing some research on Cyanobacteria lately, and it appears I have the perfect storm. I read an article written by an individual on the forum and it suggested the following (of several options) to fix the issue:

Add more fish to increase nitrates, increase flow, oxygen, block light source.

my tank is near a window doesn’t have a direct hit except for 30 minutes in the morning. That could be fixed. I can fix the flow, I can fix the oxygenation.

I’m not sure I can fix the nitrates. My nitrates have been at 0 for a good while now, assuming because I have a good bit of plants that feed from the water column. I have 6 ember tetras, 6 Phoenix rasboras, shrimp, and an assassin snail to control the MTS population.

Is it even possible to add anything else? I consider myself fully stocked. My bioload is light, and I don’t want t o overcrowd and provoke stress. If not, what’s the best way to add nitrates to make Cyanobacteria less welcome in my tank?
Thanks to all.

Tank specs:

10 gallon tank
0,0,0 tank readings (it is cycled, I promise)
Aqua tech 5-15 filter that’s (for the next 5 hours anyway. I’m upgrading to an aqua clear 50 that I’m going to mod as needed. I may buy the impeller for the size down and do a soap dish thing to cut back a little on flow. I have to mess with it)

Temp—78f

25-30% weekly water change, sucking up surface and deep gravel vac different sections per change.

Easy Green all in one liquid ferts-1 pump per week

low light 8-9 photo period— kiwi led bar under cabinet lighting.

sun hits one side of tank 30 min a day in a small section. Seems to be where most of this garbage is.

 

[mattgirl]

Instead of adding more fish thus more ammonia leading to more nitrates have you considered adding something like Thrive liquid ferts? I know nothing about cyanobacteria and its causes so can't say what to do about it but if it is just a matter of more nitrates the Thrive will add some.

 

[GumYu]

my tanks are next to an East facing window and get about an hour of direct morning light. i'm actually trying to get some algae to grow for my ramshorns but no luck.

i'm running 2 filters per tank. lots of flow and oxygen. how many filters are on your tank and what brand and model and what size tank so we can determine turnover rate.

also how often are your water changes and how much do you change out? i do 75% weekly water changes, to keep my water clean, and to help reduce sicknesses and disease.

 

[KatLovesCoffee]

Sorry for the lack of info. I wrote that early before my first cup of coffee. I have edited the original post

 

[AZL]

As I understand it, cyano is more of a saltwater problem, far less common in freshwater tanks. I had an issue with it in my puffer tank (full marine) which sorted over some weeks of manual removal and water changes. That tank had pretty high nitrates to be honest whereas I've not had any in the reef tank where they are very low nor any in the freshwater tanks. A 0 nitrate reading in freshwater always carries the concern of a crashed cycle but if your other parameters are stable at 0 as you say it could just be the plants taking it all up. Again, odd for all to be taken up though - my planted tanks run between 5 and 10. The only other thing is that nitrate tests are notorious for being unreliable on strips and liquid ones needing a vigorous shake for at least 30 sec to avoid false negatives

 

[KatLovesCoffee]

As I understand it, cyano is more of a saltwater problem, far less common in freshwater tanks. I had an issue with it in my puffer tank (full marine) which sorted over some weeks of manual removal and water changes. That tank had pretty high nitrates to be honest whereas I've not had any in the reef tank where they are very low nor any in the freshwater tanks. A 0 nitrate reading in freshwater always carries the concern of a crashed cycle but if your other parameters are stable at 0 as you say it could just be the plants taking it all up. Again, odd for all to be taken up though - my planted tanks run between 5 and 10. The only other thing is that nitrate tests are notorious for being unreliable on strips and liquid ones needing a vigorous shake for at least 30 sec to avoid false negatives

correct. I was going to post today as well confirming that it was likely Cyanobacteria. I had a very vivid patch that I quarantined and treated with H2O2. It fizzed a good while and has slowly died off over the last couple days. It reeked upon first treating it.

yeah, I beat the tar out of that second bottle. I don’t know. I first suspected a crashed cycle too, but after a month and a half of 0’s across the board...shrug. My nitrate reading just slowly vanished and never came back, but nitrites and ammonia never did either.

 

[GumYu]

some websites state that cyano will out complete BB for ammonia, maybe one reason for 0,0,0 water parameters?

some options for treatment
total black out
h2o2
chemiclean

you'll also want to do larger and more frequent water changes along with gravel vac.

 

[KatLovesCoffee]

The H2O2 did a great job on my test subject. I didn’t have a huge amount of this stuff, but yeah... I wondered if it was making my readings janky.

 

[Momgoose56]

Morning all. I’ve been doing some research on Cyanobacteria lately, and it appears I have the perfect storm. I read an article written by an individual on the forum and it suggested the following (of several options) to fix the issue:

Add more fish to increase nitrates, increase flow, oxygen, block light source.

my tank is near a window doesn’t have a direct hit except for 30 minutes in the morning. That could be fixed. I can fix the flow, I can fix the oxygenation.

I’m not sure I can fix the nitrates. My nitrates have been at 0 for a good while now, assuming because I have a good bit of plants that feed from the water column. I have 6 ember tetras, 6 Phoenix rasboras, shrimp, and an assassin snail to control the MTS population.

Is it even possible to add anything else? I consider myself fully stocked. My bioload is light, and I don’t want t o overcrowd and provoke stress. If not, what’s the best way to add nitrates to make Cyanobacteria less welcome in my tank?
Thanks to all.

Tank specs:

10 gallon tank
0,0,0 tank readings (it is cycled, I promise)
Aqua tech 5-15 filter that’s (for the next 5 hours anyway. I’m upgrading to an aqua clear 50 that I’m going to mod as needed. I may buy the impeller for the size down and do a soap dish thing to cut back a little on flow. I have to mess with it)

Temp—78f

25-30% weekly water change, sucking up surface and deep gravel vac different sections per change.

Easy Green all in one liquid ferts-1 pump per week

low light 8-9 photo period— kiwi led bar under cabinet lighting.

sun hits one side of tank 30 min a day in a small section. Seems to be where most of this garbage is.

Block that direct sunlight. There's a good part of your problem. Stop vacuuming for awhile, decrease water changes to every other week or just 20% for awhile. Get your water tested for phosphates. That may be contributing to the problem. That's all I can contribute... if that's anything.

 

[KatLovesCoffee]

Block that direct sunlight. There's a good part of your problem. Stop vacuuming for awhile, decrease water changes to every other week or just 20% for awhile. Get your water tested for phosphates. That may be contributing to the problem. That's all I can contribute... if that's anything.

You just helped me think of something. If it’s an overload of phosphates, maybe I can reduce my ferts by 1/2. Or move to an every other week dosage. There may just be too many phosphates from that.

 

[AZL]

correct. I was going to post today as well confirming that it was likely Cyanobacteria. I had a very vivid patch that I quarantined and treated with H2O2. It fizzed a good while and has slowly died off over the last couple days. It reeked upon first treating it.

yeah, I beat the tar out of that second bottle. I don’t know. I first suspected a crashed cycle too, but after a month and a half of 0’s across the board...shrug. My nitrate reading just slowly vanished and never came back, but nitrites and ammonia never did either.

Weird, some tanks do just run really low on nitrate. With my plecs who are poo machines I'll never be without nitrate in freshwater tanks but the plants keep them quite low compared to the water I test at the LFS I work in (as does sticking to 60% as max stock levels I suppose). Maybe with less effluent fish mine would read 0 as well lol. Never used hydrogen peroxide to treat it in my marine tank but I've heard it works and is pretty safe, glad it's sorted for you

 

[KatLovesCoffee]

Weird, some tanks do just run really low on nitrate. With my plecs who are poo machines I'll never be without nitrate in freshwater tanks but the plants keep them quite low compared to the water I test at the LFS I work in (as does sticking to 60% as max stock levels I suppose). Maybe with less effluent fish mine would read 0 as well lol. Never used hydrogen peroxide to treat it in my marine tank but I've heard it works and is pretty safe, glad it's sorted for you

Regarding stocking, I’m actually considering trading the Phoenix rasboras altogether and just getting maybe two more embers (8 in all). It’s kind of a shrimp tank, really, and the embers are just along for the ride.

 

[AZL]

Embers are great little fish, I don't keep them but a friend has a group of 8 in a 60 litre planted tank and they do well

 

[Miaw]

I don't understand, do you _have_ cyanobacteria, or are you just _scared_ of it?

Either way I have had it twice, each time in a separate tank. One was in a 5g and the other in a 50g.

The first time I had it I did some research and discovered Chemi-Clean by Boyd Enterprises. It is marked as for saltwater and red cyano, but according to reports it works in freshwater green cyano. Each time I used it the cyano was gone within a couple of hours and never came back (I made a few adjustments which made sure it never came back).

Sadly it doesn't seem to be available on amazon anymore, but this might work the same way:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultralife-Products-Slime-Stain-Remover-71/dp/B0002DKB6S/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=boys+chemiclean&qid=1571961112&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Or maybe it is for sale on another site

 

[KatLovesCoffee]

I don't understand, do you _have_ cyanobacteria, or are you just _scared_ of it?

Either way I have had it twice, each time in a separate tank. One was in a 5g and the other in a 50g.

The first time I had it I did some research and discovered Chemi-Clean by Boyd Enterprises. It is marked as for saltwater and red cyano, but according to reports it works in freshwater green cyano. Each time I used it the cyano was gone within a couple of hours and never came back (I made a few adjustments which made sure it never came back).

Sadly it doesn't seem to be available on amazon anymore, but this might work the same way:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultralife-Products-Slime-Stain-Remover-71/dp/B0002DKB6S/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=boys+chemiclean&qid=1571961112&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Or maybe it is for sale on another site

I have it, but it isn’t out of control. So far I’ve reduced phosphates and blocked natural light, also increased oxygen. It isn’t spreading rapidly, so hoping I can keep it down till it’s dead.