J and L's tip of the day
 

" High dissolved organic waste is one cause of cyanobacteria (red slime). " Please can anyone define what "High dissolved organic waste" is ?



-I know ....newb question.:redface:

fish poop, urine, decaying food, etc.

It should actually read "High amounts of dissolved organic wastes".

So..... I am having a cyano outbreak. My tank is only around 4 months old. I am running an ASM g2 and am wondering if I should try to get more skimmate out of it. It only ever pulls about a quarter of the collection cup a week.
The " bubbles" are about a third of the way up the c. cup.

Should I maybe crank up the skimmer so I can get more skimmate?

High dissolved organic waste = George Bush (On a good day.)

Hggc,

You should crank it out more. I find that my G3 pulls out a full container every 3 or 4 days, but that's because I like to keep my fish fat & sassy. (ie. I feed a lot)

Anthony

I would crank up that skimmer and think about how much you feed. There's no need to overfeed. watch the fish dring feeding time to see if they actually eat all the food or if most just settles on the bottom.

Hi hqgc,

Cyanobacteria is an opportunistic slime mold that usually stays at bay unless conditions (tank stress) allow it to flourish. The first step of course is to treat the outbreak (if it's bad) but it is far better in the long run to investigate and correct the causes of stress. Some of these are:

Overfeeding
Poor water circulation (deadspots)
low temps or temp swings
Dead fish or corals left in tank
Poor filtration. This can be broken down further into:
Under skimming
Lack of partial water changes
Lack of mechanical filtration
Lack of gravel vacuuming leading to detritus buildup

Go through the list and correct each issue if it applies. If the outbreak is limited try gravel vacuuming and being patient - I have had several semi outbreaks recede this way. I have treated severe outbreaks with a product called Chemiclean with good results. Follow the directions and don't be tempted to under medicate. Expect to do big water changes afterwords as well. Also, if the causes are not corrected expect to see a repeat performance (very frustrating).
There was a thread on here regarding the use of a medication eurethromyacin (sp?) but I have no experience to share about that.

Hope something helps,
Good luck.

I agree with the above tactics. My own battle was eventually won by upgrading my skimmer after I had tried all the other (cheaper) options.

What kinda skimmer did you buy? I still can't pull out more than a third of a cup out of my g2.

There is some ASM bashing but I've got a G3 and it's working prefectly fine for me on my 145g. I wouldn't be blaming the skimmer itself for lack of skimmate but more the set up.

On mine have it adjusted so after removing the cup to clean, when I first put it back on, after about 10 seconds the bubbles are about 2/3 up the cup. Works out then after maybe 5-10 minutes foam is surging to top.

Not sure how critical water level is since have the gate and feed mod (MJ1200) but level is constant at 10.5" up the body (same as before the mods and worked okay then as well).

Seen waste also referred to DOC (dissolved organic compounds).

As for cyano, I got a outbreak after tank up for close to a year and none before. There were no changes other than treated tank with Interceptor. Was doing lots of siphoning and water changes to no effect but added a some macro to the sump with noticable decrease in about a week and basically gone after two.

Mine is at 8 inches but I can easily move it to 10.5 inches. Think that would help?

Can't see how it would hurt and if easy, might as well try.

I have dealing with the problem for few months now on a not so big temporary puffer thing. Those fish kind of messy and big eater =( .. got a Remora Skimmer and hang-on filters which didn't help much and the skim cup fill up every day =(

Now everything seem to be under control when I pull out my Two Little Fishies Phosban Reactor and use RowaPhos Phosphate Removal Media to polish the water