#cyanobacteria

It's so nice to swim in the summer. If there are such creatures in the water, it will surely be healthy.

Cyanobacteria, aka blue-green algae, can kill dogs almost instantly. Furthermore, websites tracking this bacteria only test after someone reports a problem, so in MA at least, it can say no algae but be wrong because they haven’t even tested it. In other words, often a dog has to die for the problem to be even reported.

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, is often a problem in bodies of water across Massachusetts this time of year, but vets say many dog owners are not aware of it.

“Once the symptoms come on, it’s almost always fatal,” Dr. Emily Boches of Veterinary Emergency Group said.

Pet owners are advised that it’s safest to keep dogs out of lakes and ponds during peak algae season as a precaution.

“The only way that we ever find out that it’s a problem is that we have a dog, maybe two dogs, that swim in the same area and they get sick,” said Boches. “It can either affect the way their brain’s functioning or it can affect the way their liver is functioning.”

…

The potential risk way outweighs the benefits of letting them swim for these couple of weeks or couple of months,” Boches said.

Most dog owners we spoke with had no idea about the danger algae can bring. But Savavier Sagov says she did, and she even checked with local authorities to ensure the water was safe. Now, she’s shocked to learn after the fact the state only tests after issues are reported.

“When you look at the website — whichever website I looked at to do with the water areas — if it says there’s no algae, it doesn’t mean that they’ve come and tested the water,” she said. (TW Animal death: Source)

I replaced all the sand in one tower, and it seems to have worked about 98%. We’ve got a new power head in our frag display tank, so there’s one live rock that has a dead spot that accumulates cyano every so often. As long as I pull the rock out to brush off the cyano things are chill.

I replaced all the sand in our 2nd tower and it straight up did not work at all. It’s back with a vengeance, we have to scrub and manually remove this shit with the net every day. The python is not strong enough to pick it up, it just transfers it around the tower.

We have “RO/DI” water and replaced the filter recently, however our phosphate level directly from the tap is hella high so obviously it’s not doing shit. And our phosphate level jumps every time we top off the tank or make new saltwater. We tried chemiclean as a last resort too, all it did was bubble over our skimmer, and emptied our sump entirely so that shit ran dry overnight for days cus it drained so fast.

Frankly it’s pissing me off cus we get dinged by corporate for it constantly and we’ve used every option they’ve suggested and nothing has worked.

I’ve thought about trying the Seachem phosphate remover, but that’s not exactly a permanent option since the tower is about 125 gallons and I’d have to purchase it out of pocket since I definitely won’t get store use approval.