Cyanobacteria feat. my Nerite snail

[EricksonAquatics]

Today I noted something interesting!

I have a very plentiful amount of Cyanobacteria (blue green algae) in my 10g right now. When you read up about getting rid of it, everyone says it tastes gross to all the algae eaters so nothing will eat it. But then I woke up to this:

my nerite chowing down on this stuff! What?! Please ignore the state of the tank. It’s been a tad neglected due to a very recent wedding in our backyard.😂

Anyone else experienced this? Just thought it was crazy he ate not just a bite, but quite a lot of this stuff. 
 

As for getting rid of it, everyone seems to agree the easiest way is to use Maracyn or Slime Out (which is likely the direction I’m going). Just curious once you kill it all off with erythromycin, is it likely to come back? 
And there seems to be a lot of different info regarding what causes it. I’d like to know what everyone’s experience has been with getting rid of this ratchet algae so I can prevent it in the future.

For extra info, it’s just a moderately ish planted 10g betta tank with an Easy LED at 20% and dosing Easy Green once a week ish. Still trying to figure out my fertilizing schedule to see what works.

Thanks! 🙂

[Guppysnail]

Watch your ammonia. This stuff dies and creates ammonia like crazy. As long as you clean up the tank and keep nutrients under control it usually don’t come back

[Whitecloud09]

My nerite eats it, but no more is in the tank now, for the moment. It is crazy!!! Maybe that is the cause of my ammonia spike i had a few weeks back that lasted months 🤔

[EricksonAquatics]

Thank you @Guppysnail I’ll keep an eye out. Or rather, a test kit out 😉

[johnnyxxl]

My pond snails ate it when I was cycling my tank.  MD Aquatic always has a bloom when he starts a new tank.  I just left it let it die off on it's own.  He was right about doing that, it kills itself off when the plants get balanced and established.

[Tony s]

On 6/2/2024 at 5:08 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

My nerite eats it, but no more is in the tank now, for the moment. It is crazy!!! Maybe that is the cause of my ammonia spike i had a few weeks back that lasted months 🤔

Yeah, most probably not, you more than likely had standard green spot in the tank. Blue green algae is a different thing altogether. It’s not an algae at all. But a photosynthetic bacteria. It’s really nasty stuff. Usually takes some form of erythromycin to kill. Same as a bacterial infection on your fish. And it stinks. Most algae is not harmful and doesn’t smell bad. This stuff can do both. And instead of feeling fibrous like a plant. It’s pure slime. You’d know for sure if you had it.

[Whitecloud09]

On 6/2/2024 at 8:51 PM, Tony s said:

Yeah, most probably not, you more than likely had standard green spot in the tank. Blue green algae is a different thing altogether. It’s not an algae at all. But a photosynthetic bacteria. It’s really nasty stuff. Usually takes some form of erythromycin to kill. Same as a bacterial infection on your fish. And it stinks. Most algae is not harmful and doesn’t smell bad. This stuff can do both. And instead of feeling fibrous like a plant. It’s pure slime. You’d know for sure if you had it.

Hmm ok that makes sense. Thanks!!! Now seeing what it is, I am glad I don’t have it 😜 @Tony s.

[EricksonAquatics]

On 6/2/2024 at 6:28 PM, johnnyxxl said:

it kills itself off when the plants get balanced and established.

 Now the only trouble is it’s the cyano that’s keeping my tank from being “balanced”😂

Hopefully by removing it I’ll be able to help my plants perform better and finally be blissfully algae free!