Randy,
Recently I experienced an outbreak of red cyanobacteria which was due IMO to nutrient accumulation, caused by a massive heat spike in my nano aquarium (AC went out on 100 degree work day) that killed off all the micro flora and fauna in the sandbed and on the rocks. One can imagine the micro-population shift that would occur as bacteria accumulate and work on degrading all the tiny caracasses in the system...
In super-small setups, this adds up to one giant nutrient sink that will take a long time to mineralize and render itself inert--I wanted to tough it out rather than tear everything down. A friend of mine suggested using Boyd's Chemi-Clean, he said he was amazed at its performance in his system. I tried it, and yes I was amazed. It removed all the red cyano in two days 100%. The product label does not list ingredients, it just mentions 'oxidizing' waste products to maintain a clean system. From this I guessed they are likely using potassium permanganate--a common oxidizer in aquaculture applications.
My question is: Can we infer that red cyano is caused or facilitated by lack of oxygen in the system and on substrates? I wonder if heavy bacterial colonies reduce available oxygen levels enough to make anaerobic conditions in and around the substrates, producing fuels and nutrients just right for red slime cyano? I bet its moneran party-central after a crash like that
The system never had any bad algae until the heat spike. Id like to get a handle on predicting these various algae wars, since chemi clean worked so well I wanted to know what conclusions could be drawn from the process.
brandon429
Recently I experienced an outbreak of red cyanobacteria which was due IMO to nutrient accumulation, caused by a massive heat spike in my nano aquarium (AC went out on 100 degree work day) that killed off all the micro flora and fauna in the sandbed and on the rocks. One can imagine the micro-population shift that would occur as bacteria accumulate and work on degrading all the tiny caracasses in the system...
In super-small setups, this adds up to one giant nutrient sink that will take a long time to mineralize and render itself inert--I wanted to tough it out rather than tear everything down. A friend of mine suggested using Boyd's Chemi-Clean, he said he was amazed at its performance in his system. I tried it, and yes I was amazed. It removed all the red cyano in two days 100%. The product label does not list ingredients, it just mentions 'oxidizing' waste products to maintain a clean system. From this I guessed they are likely using potassium permanganate--a common oxidizer in aquaculture applications.
My question is: Can we infer that red cyano is caused or facilitated by lack of oxygen in the system and on substrates? I wonder if heavy bacterial colonies reduce available oxygen levels enough to make anaerobic conditions in and around the substrates, producing fuels and nutrients just right for red slime cyano? I bet its moneran party-central after a crash like that
The system never had any bad algae until the heat spike. Id like to get a handle on predicting these various algae wars, since chemi clean worked so well I wanted to know what conclusions could be drawn from the process.brandon429
