it just won't go away! Help needed!

Looking for help trying to get rid of this nuisance allergy. Can anyone please help me figure it out? My levels are good except for a little bit high on the phosphate. I am using phosphate media for the last week and have not noticed any change.

 

It's cyanobacteria.

Get that PO4 level down, and you should see it's reduction.

 

What's the best way to get it down in a 29 gallon biocube?

 

Most phosphate reduction media takes a while to absorb what's being introduced and start lowering tank levels. Keep running it, but meantime, vacuum out all the algae you can while removing water for water changes; Cyano stores PO4 for future use, and therefore, is able to thrive in low-PO4 environments for quite some time once it has gotten a start.

 

well Mr. Bill, I just learned something new

 

Glad I could pass on something useful.

FTR, member M2434 posted a while back on how Cyano stores PO4. It also absorbs non-organic Phosphate and converts it to organic PO4. When it does start dying off, all that Phosphate gets released back into the water along with potentially harmful secondary metabolites.

 

Vac it, then do a 3 day lights out (complete black out of the tank is needed) period. That should kill the remaining cyano on the sand. Follow that with a large water change after you vac any remaining cyano from the rocks that the lights out didn't take care of. It's some nasty stuff to battle but the lights out, vac and water change should help eliminate it.

Also, that junk is toxic to snails so it can cause more problems if you don't nip it now. I'd remove any snails you have in the tank asap. They'll be ok to go back after the lights out period/WC is complete. Increased flow should prevent it from returning. Cyano loves flow dead spots.

 

And here I am a Medical guy, and was going to tell him how to control his ALLERGY!

Read the OP!

 

Just looked at the Pic, what about the nuisance zenia? LOL

 

I don't see any xenia, just gsp?

Todd, I love my xenia!