more on cyanobacteria in high current

[Dirk_Matthys at toyota-europe.com]

Thanks everybody for responding to my mail regarding the  cyanobacteria
problem I described last week.

I immediately implemented some of the advice received:
1: removed most of the floating plants blocking light.
2: removed all junk stuck in dead corners of the tank ( dead leaves
leftovers from cuttings etc... )
3: uprooted my Echinodorus  Uruguayensis who was picking a lot of light.
Cut the plant in 4 and replanted 2 of them , 2 other are giveaways.
5: removed all slimy sheets manually by waving it off the plants and let
the filter suck the loose cyano material.
6: did a 70 % water change to remove as much cyano material as possible.
7:  thoroughly cleaned the sponges of my prefilter. ( where all the big
decaying plant material   is prevented to move on . )
8: Dramatically  increased circulation by turning off the by-pass. ( my
sump can be adjusted from 1 tank turnover per hour to 5 turnovers per hour
by switching a bypass )
9 : Covered it all up and switched off light timers.
Then after 3 days ( this weekend ) :
Uncovered the tank: Not a sign of cyano to be seen ( the eye at least ) ,
Dirk is happy.
Did a 30 % water change ( get phosphates as low as possible ), lights back
on , added TMG fertiliser including KNO3 up to 10 ppm and K2SO4 up to 40
ppm .
2 days later now , no sign of cyano's yet and plant growth has resumed a
higher speed again. Colours of the plants are also more green than yellow
now. ( Heteranthera and Micranthenum started growing fast again after a few
weeks of growing very slow and always covered with those ugly cyano's.
Update again in one or two weeks but I think it's gone.

Thanks everybody.
I'm not going in detail on opinions vented in the forum here . I just have
two things to say:
- The natural remedies explained by the experts on this forum DO work for
me. ( I have had several good working advice in the last two years )
- Governments are setting up regulations etc... to battle antibiotics
resistance. ( at least here in Europe ) . If they take it serious ( and it
takes time to make an administration realise and do something ) , why don't
we? This is a hobby after all and patience can reach the same or better
effect .
- people can say what they want about cyano's not being able to handle high
current areas etc... : Well, have I got news for you: I just fought a
strain that seems to like high current and it is was a tough one to get rid
off.

Can anybody tell me the 2 or 3 plant species that best show N defficiency,
I need to get better indications when NO3 becomes low. I have a feeling for
the consumption of N in my tank but since the tank is continuosly changing
( different plants dominating over time, different fish loads, major
cuttings reducing total plant mass uptaking NO3 ,... ) it is hard to
anticipate changes. An indicator plant can help out I think.

Thank you for the advice Tom. I was happy to hear this simple advice versus
medicin threatment which I absolutely refuse.  ( I have used H2O2
successully to beat Cyano once,  but I saw it hurt some of the more
difficult carpet plants so I wanted to avoid that )

Pictures will be shared with the group soon. Just need to put that website
up when I have time.


Regards,

suisoman Dirk