In this Special Pet Fish Talk Show Tom tells the story about getting Cyanobacteria in his aquarium. Everything turned dark green!
Click
here now
to hear the
Special Pet Fish Talk titled "Cyanobacteria", which is about
17-minutes long.
Tom and
Nevin talk about ... What is Cyanobacteria? How did it get into Tom's
Aquarium? How did he try to get rid of it? What finally worked?
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The video, just above, shows the 29-gallon aquarium just
a few days after the green Cyanobacteria started to bloom. It got much
denser and greener, and finally almost nothing could be seen, ash shown
in the image just below. Apparently the green water did no harm to the fish, which were young Mbunas, but of course the
aquarium did not look right. By the way the plants you can see in the
video are just a picture taped to the back outside of the aquarium.
Green Opalescent Aquarium Water
Here is Tom's 29-gallon aquarium with a
bloom of something that causes green water. Many aquarists presume it's
caused by algae, but Tom and Nevin think this bloom may have been
Cyanobacteria. You can see the water has an opalescent green coloration.
But you cannot seen any of the fish. You can see the two Java Ferns that
tom added to the aquarium in the hope they would change the water
chemistry and eliminate the green water.
The Green is Gone, and the Water
is Clear.
In this picture the EcoBio-Rock has done its work and the water is
completely clear again. The fish are young Mbunas that have grown a lot,
since the Cyanobacteria started to bloom. You can see in the picture that
the Mbunas like to swim near
and through the EcoBio-Rock. Click
here to learn more about the EcoBio-Block Family of products from
ONEdersave.
The good folks at ONEdersave do not claim that their products will cure
Cyanobacteria blooms, but their products are a safety net to keep
aquarium water chemistry right, and Tom and Nevin talk about why good
water chemistry may prevent or cure green water in aquariums.
A Very Relevant Email from Dan R.
re:
Cyanobacteria show
I
enjoyed the show but felt compelled to share one aspect of my
reading on the subject.
You
tried introducing Java Fern to help deprive the BGA of nutrients and
impede its growth. Good idea, but not the best plant species for the
task. I've read that there are several much faster
growing plants that make much better "nutrient sponges" than
the relatively slow growing Java Fern does.
Elodea,
Wisteria, Najas, and
Duckweed are just a few stem plants that will soak up any
excess nutrients in a tank very quickly while growing rapidly.
If
there's enough interest, one of these days, you should do a show on
Drop Checkers
and how to use them in planted tanks.
Thanks
(and keep spilling the beans),
Dan R.,
Senior Research Chemist
Reply: Hi Dan and thank you for your
interesting email. You're right, I should have tried a faster growing
plant. I knew Java Fern is very slow growing, but a wonderful plant for
aquariums and fish bowls.
I had a Cyanobacteria bloom once before, and when I
put Java Moss in that aquarium, the Cyanobacteria disappeared in about
36 hours. I think Java Moss is a much faster growing plant, and as you
said, that may be why it worked. A very good point.
I wonder if those Drop Checkers are the fertilizer pellets that Heather
from Point Loma has mentioned to us? You are most welcome to call the
show and discuss them. Thanks again for your interesting comment and for
encouraging me to continue to spill the beans !!
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