Chemiclean for Freshwater Blue-Green Cyano Experiment

[SkullV]

Decided to finally do something about the blue green cyano growing in my office Betta tank. I get great growth on all of the plants, plenty of new leaves, and have to trim often, but something in the water/light/etc is growing this blue-green slime. No one in the office, or any of my clients seems to care, they all think the tank looks great, but it bothers the crap out of me!

After doing a bunch of research it looks like there are a few different methods to deal with it, one of which is chemiclean. Us saltwater guys love chemiclean so I figured why not do the treatment today so when I get back to the office on Monday it's all ready to go! Wanted to document it for success failure info.

FTS before dosing (6/13/14), notice all the blue green slime algae on the leaves, gravel, etc.:

Removed the normal filter pad (with included carbon) and replaced it with some filter floss to hopefully catch all the dead/dying crap over the weekend. Also added an air stone with Tetra Whisper 10 pump:

Supplies:

Instructions call for one level scoop for 10g, I used a little under 1/4 scoop:

We're an hour or so in right now, no change in fish behavior, and no change in the algae. Next post will be late this afternoon, and then again Monday afternoon.

 

[jrwoltman]

Ted, I am sure it will work for you. I use chemiclean every year or 2 in my reef tank, and I am very happy with the results. I imagine that freshwater cyano doesn't stand a chance.

Jim

 

[SkullV]

Didn't end up back in the office that afternoon, but just took a look this morning and I would say the treatment was about 50% effective. Since the fish and plants seem fine, I'm going to do the 20% water change now, and when I get back from court this afternoon, do a second treatment. I'll post another pic before the second treatment.

 

[SkullV]

Went through the tank with a little stick and grabbed all the cyano I could before the second treatment. I noticed that whole mats of the stuff came off way more easily than it did prior to treatment.

This is what came out:

Here's where we are at now. Hoping by Wednesday it'll be all gone.

 

[SkullV]

Not a bad turnaround! Will be out of the office tomorrow and back on Thursday. One more 20% water change and putting a carbon backed filter pad back in. I think I'm going to keep the airstone too. Adds some extra flow without getting the betta stuck to the overflow.

 

[Sawdonkey]

Man, chemi-clean works well! I'm about to run a dose through my tank. The MB7 makes my water clear but the red dust/algea/diatoms don't seem to be going away after one week of MB7.