question on cyano

[jayster]

Can cyanobacteria be red? I had red hair algae, got some snails and now the red is like a thin film on the cc and rocks with little gaseous bubbles in it. It blows off the rocks easily with a turkey baster. Clumps up and kind of floats to the surface. Should I use a chemical remedy?

 

[mlm]

That is it. You can try something like chemi clean but you really need to find the source of the problem which is most likely over feeding or tap water.

 

[jonthefb]

test your water for phosphate levels, in the tank and your tap water. id suggest running a poly filter, to pull some of the suff out, but get soem queen conchs, or florida fightign conchs, some nertie, nassarius snails, or ceriths, and they should take a pretty big chunk out of it!
good luck
jon

 

[jayster]

thanks for the reply you two. I picked up some chemi clean and my LFS said they would test the water for me. I hate buying test kits. They are so expensive. BTW I hit all the local LFS in phoenix and have learned that the local tap water is huge on phosphates. Also our location in the world has produced a plethora of water/ice stores and kiosks. More than you can imagine. I am told alot of them are lazy and can actually have phosphates in the RO water. They charge 25 cents a gallon but my Favorite LFS charges only 30 cents for the goog stuff. Thats where I will go from now on.
One more thing. I only occassionally get responses to my inquiries. This tough love by you dudes and gals has tought me how to look up old threads which I did on the cyano problem and found alot of good info. Identical to what you just told me. Thanks for taking the time to respond just the same.

 

[jonthefb]

not a problem man. the same thing happens to me from time to time as well, and there is a wealth of info on this board, so somehow, your question should get answered!
good luck
jon