7 Months - Surviving the Cyanobacteria War.

I am so glad that my tank, Bonsai, is happy and thriving again.  For almost 2 months, I have been trying to control Cyanobacteria bacteria (red slime algae) that was trying bloom and ruin the tank.  Traces of Cyanobacteria are always present in a reef tank, but excess nutrients or improper lighting can cause a bloom that will quickly overtake and destroy a tank.  At first the red slime was noticeable just under the sand bed.  I tolerated that until it started to creep up the tank wall and eventually a little spot on the sand.  I reduced the lighting and tried to carefully siphon out the colony without causing it to further disperse and multiply.  That did not work.  Every day it would grow a little more.  My red legged hermit crabs were occasionally attacking my snails for their shells.  I tried to remove the dead snails as quickly as possible, but I suspected that the extra nutrients from a dead snail could be the cause of the problem.  I removed the the crabs, but the Cyanobacteria spots kept growing.  So far, no corals were affected, but I felt pressure to resolve this before everything became smothered by red slime.  Even though I was doing extra water changes, the Cyanobacteria kept growing.  I realized, that I better check the quality of my fresh water.  I was using "RO" water from the grocery store.  I tested that water and lo and behold, it was loaded with Phosphates!  Problem identified.  I changed my water source to true Kent Marine RO water.  After one dose of Chemiclean and two 20% water changes with pure RO water and Tropic Marin salt, I have not seen a trace of Cyanobacteria for two weeks.  I am sure the battle is not over, but I feel a lot more confident that I can prevent this problem in the future.

As you can see in from the pictures, my corals continued to grow, reproduce and thrive even as I was pulling my hair out worrying the tank would fail.  The hammer coral grew a third head, I can see new growth on the scroll coral.  The brown polyps are reproducing like crazy and I have to keep cutting gold capnella frags so it does not take over the tank.  I am very pleased about the progress.  I am now at a place where I can step back and watch the corals battle for territory in their 10 gallon ecosystem.

Jon

Yellow Scroll Coral

Neon Green Horn - Hydnophora rigida

Striped Pulsing and Silver Pom Xenia with Blue Mushroom

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