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I've been battling cyanobacteria in my 55 gallon since I moved last November. I've been on a strict cycle of having to vaccum every 4 to 5 days to keep on top of the stuff, and it's just not working. Today is Saturday, and I've had my aquarium blacked out since Monday. I will be taking off the covering today, or tomorrow morning at the very latest. I'm going to give an evaluation of the set-up, and hope that you all have some suggestions for me.
Ammonia and nitrite are at zero. Nitrate stays around 10 ppm pretty consistently. ph is around 8. Should I be testing other parameters (in addition)?
My light fixture is 2.6 watts per gallon, and I am not running any CO2. Is this too much light (not to be running CO2)? Do I need to make changes here? Less light w/ no CO2; current light, and try a diy CO2 set-up to see what happens?
I don't have any fast growing plants. Crypts, Swords, Anubias, and Java Fern. Aquarium is only moderately planted. I know that I need fast growers, and would appreciate any plant suggestions you might have.
Would adding a type of airstone (or something similar) help to oxygenate the water, as an attmept to combat the cyano?
I did a thorough vaccuming/scrubbing prior to black out. I didn't change out the filters. Should my post black out cleaning include vaccuming, scrubbing ornaments, clipping any affected leaves that cannot be cleaned, and new filters? How much water should be changed out?
I have used Flourish, Excel, and Cycle in the aquarium in the past, but am unsure about how to plan an acceptable schedule. I have purchased Trace and would like to begin using it now as well. I also have been hanging a bag of phosphate remover in the filter. Any suggestions on this stuff, and creating a fert schedule would be very appreciated.
I want to make positive long-term changes in the aquarium, so that I can keep this from happening again. I read lots of articles, but it gets a little overwhelming at times...brain meltdown. I'm still learning!
Always many thanks for your help.
Kari

Cyanobacteria is generally caused by a lack of nitrates. I'd try to source some greenlight stump remover, or some of the flourinsh line to dose in KNO3. With all those gravel vacs and water changes I doubt that your nitrate test kit is accurately describing the situation. nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and carbon are the three biggest nutrients you need to supply your plants with. The Flourish line is nice that you can dose each separately - excel is the carbon source and the rest use the name of the element you are adding. I'd suggest picking one of each up and dosing about half the recommended dose on the bottle and work up from there.

Also, I'd say getting some fast growing plants is always a good idea with the amount of light you have. If you want low light plants (like you have, except for the swords), I suggest having low light. With the light you have, you should have some faster growing plants in that tank. CO2 isn't going to be much of a boost for the plants you currently have, but if you get some new stems it may be worth your while.

So you could try some stem plants like any hygro species, bacopa, ludwigia repens....etc. Try out the search function at www.tropica.com to find fast growing medium to high light plants.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients