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An amateur science and microscopy blog mainly about cyanobacteria. I don't understand why cyanobacteria keep dominating my fish-tank. But, seeing as it doesn't seem to affect the fish, I have decided to take a relaxed approach and to try and collect some data. I have also identified the various genera of cyanobacteria that grow in the aquarium.

Friday 13 May 2016

Chapter 24. Cyanobacteria are unpredictable

I see it's been 21 months since I last updated this blog. The reason is that I still have a cyanobacteria problem. I was expecting the tank to transition to a healthy cyano free state at which point I would post the data I have been collecting relating the abundance of cyanobacteria to levels of phosphate, nitrate and pH. I wanted to make the point that cyanobacteria problems can disapear spontaneously with no input from the fishkeeper. But after 21 months there seems little point waiting longer. I wouldn't want to advise someone with a cyano problem to wait two years and see if it goes away.
W302. The Cyanobacteria is not as bad as it has been but, let's be honest, it's not great.

So here I am, cleaning my aquarium every week because it looks diseased and smells if I don't, while wondering what the point of cleaning my aquarium every week is. And all this happening while my unheated tank in the front room is cyano free. I replaced my unheated tank with a bigger one around 21 months ago (coincidently) and have never had any cyano problems with it. It seems to me that I should compare the two aquaria to see if anything can be learned about the causes of cyanobacteria problems.
My new unheated aquarium 5 months after start up and cyanobacteria free