cyanobacteria- lesson learned

Hard lesson in Algae learned

As I have stated here, I have had a severe Algae outbreak, more specifically Cyanobacter, and I am sure I have found the cause.

I upgraded my lighting with my DIY Hood with lights. I added these lights 2 6500, 2 5000 and 2 kitchen and bath (like 2800). Come to find out ALL lights in the red/orange spectrum (kitchen and bath 2800, or anything less than 5000) help produce algae and do little to grow plants.

I switched my lighting around and am running my 6500 as my sunrise/sunset and have 2 40 watt plant/full spectrum lights in place where the 6500's were. The 6500 replaced the kitchen and bath lights and I cleaned the heck out of the glass and equipment in the tank.

I also switched off of my old marineland HOB regular filter and put my Emperor up without the wheels (dont have any now).

I added the Otto Cats to the tank today to prevent future buildup but left the algae on the plants (it seems they like eating the algae off of the leaves and also did not want to trip a new algae bloom by removing everything).

I think/hope that the changes made will prevent the algae from getting as bad as it was (to let you know how bad it was I would clean my tank walls clean and all of my equipment and it would double in one day more than it was before cleaning).

The point of this is to re-iterate for those, in case you didnt already know, NEVER put a red/orange light over your tank as it WILL cause and algae outbreak. I know because I switched the lights yesterday and today was MUCH MUCH better than it was before. I just thoroughly cleaned my tank today so hopefully from here out I will be in the clear!!!

 

Ehh, not that bad.... actually that is one reason I picked the Ottos, that is one of their favorite "algae" because its soft.

It is a pain though. We will see how much cleaner it is today.

 

I reluctantly cut back on my feedings and as mentioned changed the 2800 bulbs for full spectrum and also added the Ottos.... well the feeding cut back seems to have made the most substantial difference. I was feeding the Discus 3-4 times a day.... I took them down to 1 for now and my tank is very low on algae compared to before yet my plants are still rapidly growing and the fish seem mad at me as everytime I walk by my tank I have a shoal of Discus following me down the tank

 

Well, my algae outbreak has continued despite my efforts to keep it back. I changed my timers and instead of running this setting:
6am - (2) 6700 bulbs on (64 watts total)
12pm - all bulbs on (2) 6700, (2)5000, (2)Full Spectrum (208 watts total)
8pm - (2)5000 and (2) Full Spectrum off leaving (2)6700 bulbs on
10:45pm - All lights off

to this:
12pm - (2) 6700 bulbs on (64 watts total)
3pm - all bulbs on (2) 6700, (2)5000, (2)Full Spectrum (208 watts total)
6pm - (2)5000 and (2) Full Spectrum off leaving (2)6700 bulbs on
10pm - All lights off

I hope this helps. Keep in mind those (2) 6700 lights are quite dim (at least compared to all lights on given that is only 64 watts on a 125gallon tank)

Me keeping light on the tank as much as I did is because I leave for work at 7:15am and I go to bed at 11pm, so doing this I am not feeding the fish in the morning

 

I dont know, I thought it was here. Those are the proper ratings though for freshwater plants.

Ahh, I think I brought it up in the DIY Hood thread when I was building it.

 

I have read about the 10K bulbs and everything I saw said the antic range does little for growth of freshwater plants. I run the 2 Full Spectrum bulbs to add the red spike and the 6700 is my blue spike. The 2800 bulbs I had in there before the Full Specs were too much in the yellow which got them to grow algae.

I ran just the 2 6700 bulbs on the full day like they were set on and I had great plant growth in some plants and not in others.... ALL of my plants grow A LOT with the full day setting.....

I am assuming I am hitting the light for too long though so that was my thought to cutting the light in half across the board. 3 hours of my "Red/Yellows" should help the plants and hopefully wont help the algae and the 10 hours of the 6700 should support the overall time the plants need light.

On the plus side, less of the overpowering lights keeps the stress on the Cardinals and the Discus down as neither of them really like light. After changing my lighting yesterday I did observe some interesting behavior in my Discus too mentioned in this thread:

Changes in My Discus Behavior in Tank

I dont know if it was the lighting or the Cardinals that did that or maybe a combo of both?

 

Green Slime, yes

 

I think it is the Cyno.... it is slimy, wipes off easy, spreads fast and blankets things in the tank.... but it DOES NOT turn my water green

That and I have some beard algae :evil: That stuff is BAD!!!! You can BARELY scrape it off of things!

 

No, actually it is coating my plants, the tank walls and the driftwood. Forunately the otos keep it off of the plants and some on the driftwood but the back of my tank is a MESS! They cant keep it off even if I scrub it off and net out what I scraped off.

 

I know, I am hoping the decreased lighting will do the job. The lighting I have now is GREAT for the growth of the plants! They grow great and fast. The other side is so is the algae I really dont want to change the bulbs, but I figured I had the lights on WAY too long.

Really I did, think 6am-10:30pm.... 16.5 hours...... WAY too long, it should only be 8-12 hours of light.... So I went down to 10 and have my "grow session" only 3 hours.

The downside is my Discus dont eat then until I get home from work at 6 (Frozen Bloodworms) and then I guess I will give them a 2nd feeding (Flake/Granual) at about 9