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Cyanobacteria Outbreak



>>      Before the algae breakout, my tank was filtered by a Fluval 203
>>with ceramic pre-filter rings and foam, plus a Whisper 3 for mechanical
>>filtration.  I "injected" yeast-produced CO2 via a upturned soda bottle.
>>Give or take a week, at the time I first noticed the algae breakout was
>>also the time when I replaced the Fluval with a trickle filter.  This
>>caused my ph to promptly shoot up to about 7.6 from 6.8.  (note--I
>>experience significant

>It sounds like your trickle filter drove your added CO2 out of the water. 
>This isn't too surprising since gas exchange is something that trickle
>filters are supposed to promote.  Of course if you're going out of your
>way to add CO2 then you probably don't want a trickle filter stripping it
>all right back out again.  A trickle filter probably will give you a
>higher nitrification rate than you can get from your previous setup but
>unless you're carrying a high fish load in the tank you shouldn't need the
>added nitrification.  Besides, your plants actually need at least some of
>the ammonia that your nitrifying bacteria are consuming. 

My guess is that Robert took his canister out of service before his trickle
filter went through the nitrogen cycle and that this might have caused the
outbreak.  I haven't experimented with DIY CO2, but I haven't noticed a
significant increase in CO2 when I occasionally shut off the trickle filter
and leave the CO2 system running.

Steve Dixon