Cyano Bacteria. Ready to give up.

[Cinderwolf]

Over the past 6 r 7 months I have been battleing with cyano bacteria in my tank. No idea hwo it got there but i was away for a weekend and when i came home it had taken over and killed all my plants..

Since then no matter what I do it comes back.. I have gutted the tank and scrubbed everything ( too many times to count) replaced the sand many times, washed each plant individually, even blacked out the plants. i have boiled my drift wood, I have gone though many plants and most recently i even rinsed off soaked my filter medium in tap water( i know that will kill my good bacteria but i was out of ideas..

And yet, low and behold it is back. I dont understand it and I am super frustrated.

I jsut bought a bunch of new plants and i plan on getting shrimp.. but i cant until i figure this out.. please help : (

[aokashi]

increase flow to areas with bga and manual removal is also helpful. get a syringe and spot dose H2O2 at 1ml/gallon in affected areas. turn off filters when you spot dose and remove fish. repeat daily. expect plants such as vals, anacharis and water sprite etc to melt...

[LittleBettaFish]

Cyano is usually caused by low nitrates, poor water circulation, excessive light or a high amount of organics present.

I had cyano bad in one tank and I eventually got rid of it by manual removal during water changes, dosing nitrates, gravel siphoning more thoroughly (I had a lot of mulm), increasing my filter flow and lessening my light period.

All that combined seemed to remove at least a majority of it. I found I get cyano most in tanks that have lots of mulm over the substrate and receive a fair amount of indirect sunlight.

It's a pain in the butt to deal with and I think you have to be careful with touching it as it can cause skin irritation.

[aokashi]

fun fact: spirulina is a type of cyano bacteria :3

[acadialover]

I talk with my local fish stores often about this. I have it in every one of my smaller tanks (5 gallons ) and have written about it here before. My fish store guys say it is a real problem around here, and they were wondering what was going on and maybe something with Seattle water. I can totally clean a tank, and within a day I have the fillm across the water. I feel because I keep the current so low, it just keeps on a c omin (for years !!! ) SO I just skim the top of the water and do more frequent changes. It is a pain, but that way I can keep a drop on it. I also rinse the plants often ! Just give in and keep it clean. YOur not alone !!

[Cinderwolf]

Yea i dont knwo how it happens, my tank never has mulm or anything on th ebottom, and I keep it clean it jsut appears out fo no where.. I will try decreasing my lights and I have tried allt he other stuff, manual removal, black out, my filter is unbaffled to a point ( it has a water bottle baffle that doesnt decres flow it jsut stops the water from flowing forward so the fish has one spot to sit ) the only thing I havent tried is the h202 thing which I might have to try. I even stopped dosing ferts casue i thoghut that was causing it : P but the onyl nutrience goign in is fish food, and Iahve tons of live plants so I woudl say the fish's ammonia is sucked up fast.

So I guess I jsut gotta keep clenaignt h etanka ll the time and hope it goes away ?

[aokashi]

dosing nitrates will also help like littlebettafish says :) there's a science behid the occurrence of BGA :3 goodluck!