blue green algae AKA cyanobacteria

[plantbrain]

Where, specifically is the BGA? Crowns of the vegetative cones, apical meristems? Or on the sediment, below the gravel line or?

I have BGA below the gravel line closest to the window in many tank,s but it's well behaved and stays there. I scrape it every so often, maybe once a month, but it does not pester me, nor has for years.

So it's there, but does not pose any bloom issues.

You might deep gravel vac say 20% of the sediment each 3-4 days and replant the stems etc back after. This will clean the tank up nicely, and give you a chance to clean the filter, add purigen etc or whatever else you'd like to try.

If EM is not able to handle it post recovery/post treatment, then clean the tank good and dose well, check CO2 again. Black out works for getting rid of what is there, but only if the root issue is addresses while you do the blackout.

It's annoying, but is the easiest pest to get rid of and keep away.
Not that helps you any here

A good cleaning of the sediment and filter, trim, preening etc, every few months, maybe once 6-12 month cycles, not a bad idea. I do this with the ADA soils, I remove the dust/fines and leave the larger grains with the gravel vac.

O2 is easily able to move through the sediment and plant roots have access to it, if the plants are not piping enough down into the sediment(so the CO2 thing plays a role there likely also since good CO2 drives plant growth much more than any nutrient and more growth= more O2 to the sediment)

I do not think dosing is the issue nor urea. As long as the NO3 is say 5-10ppm or more, you should be fine.

[happi]

Originally Posted by plantbrain

Where, specifically is the BGA? Crowns of the vegetative cones, apical meristems? Or on the sediment, below the gravel line or?

I have BGA below the gravel line closest to the window in many tank,s but it's well behaved and stays there. I scrape it every so often, maybe once a month, but it does not pester me, nor has for years.

So it's there, but does not pose any bloom issues.

You might deep gravel vac say 20% of the sediment each 3-4 days and replant the stems etc back after. This will clean the tank up nicely, and give you a chance to clean the filter, add purigen etc or whatever else you'd like to try.

If EM is not able to handle it post recovery/post treatment, then clean the tank good and dose well, check CO2 again. Black out works for getting rid of what is there, but only if the root issue is addresses while you do the blackout.

It's annoying, but is the easiest pest to get rid of and keep away.
Not that helps you any here

A good cleaning of the sediment and filter, trim, preening etc, every few months, maybe once 6-12 month cycles, not a bad idea. I do this with the ADA soils, I remove the dust/fines and leave the larger grains with the gravel vac.

O2 is easily able to move through the sediment and plant roots have access to it, if the plants are not piping enough down into the sediment(so the CO2 thing plays a role there likely also since good CO2 drives plant growth much more than any nutrient and more growth= more O2 to the sediment)

I do not think dosing is the issue nor urea. As long as the NO3 is say 5-10ppm or more, you should be fine.

looks like i got work to do for this weekend. thanks Tom
i was dosing 1/2tsp of KNO3 3x week on this 48g tank, so i don't think increasing the nitrate really fixed anything here. even with my Fert i was adding 1ppm of Urea and 2.5ppm of Nitrate everyday, this did not help either. the point is, it seems to thrive in both cases, low or high nitrate.

its is everywhere now, on Crowns of the vegetative cones, apical meristems and the sediment, but it started on sediment first.

[plantbrain]

Yes, this has nothing to do with KNO3 dosing as suspected.

Once established, like many algae/cyano's, it's tough to get rid of, high or low nutrients, but that bloom signal.... sure makes a mess. The signal could be multiple things.

As is often the case for gardeners and aquatic gardeners, it all comes back to the basics and elbow grease, getting in there, cleaning everything to the bone and redoing stuff.
I don't really mind that, but if the algae comes right back, then......you can go nuts quick.

Remove any and all leaves, wipe glass, spot clean or kill any algae outbreaks asap, clean filters often, add lots of shrimp and algae eaters, feed fish well(urea sort of does the same thing), good O2, current and CO2, light adjustment, purigen, etc.
Stay on top of it.

Sure, we have tanks or know someone who does very little to their tanks and it seems to work really well........but those are the exceptions. And they work generally for the same reasons, the light is less than they think etc...often easier species are chosen, etc.
Yep, you got some cleaning to do. Tank will look better and it'll give you a chance to redo things that may have been pestering you.

[happi]

erythromycin should be here tomorrow, its a 250mg 30 of them, so how do i dose the correct amount before i waste it? its going to be treating 48g ADA 90p tank. please suggest how the treatment should be and how much erythromycin should i dose. thanks

[happi]

anyone??

[wkndracer]

when I used it I did the recommended dose for treating fish the first day and 1/2 dosed after that for 5 more days.

[herns]

Originally Posted by happi

please suggest how the treatment should be and how much erythromycin should i dose. thanks

It should have on the package.

Erythromycin/ Maracyn is a potent med to cure BGA. Ive been using that few times in the past and it always have good result.

[plantbrain]

EM should kill any BGA. It does not prevent returning BGA, but it will kill everything that is there.

I treat for 3 days, I doubt you need to treat beyond that.

Big water change before, dose KNO3 and then a big water change 4-5 days later after treatment and more KNO3.

Anything 10ppm or over is fine for NO3 for the dosing KNO3.

[happi]

Originally Posted by plantbrain

EM should kill any BGA. It does not prevent returning BGA, but it will kill everything that is there.

I treat for 3 days, I doubt you need to treat beyond that.

Big water change before, dose KNO3 and then a big water change 4-5 days later after treatment and more KNO3.

Anything 10ppm or over is fine for NO3 for the dosing KNO3.

Tom didn't you agree with me that in low or high nitrate it can still come back. so i don't know why do i need to keep that nitrate at those levels?

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by happi

Tom didn't you agree with me that in low or high nitrate it can still come back. so i don't know why do i need to keep that nitrate at those levels?

Yes, but the 10 ppm threshold seems to prevent reoccurrence more so than not. Particularly with the BO method and with EM to a lesser extent.
Still, it's a general protocol I've used for folks with BGA issues, it works.

[happi]

am on 3rd day of treating it and haven't seen any difference yet, what are the signs to look for? beside it floating up toward the surface, which hasn't happened yet either.

[Borikuan]

Im battling a BGA outbreak miself. Will this med kill my bio filter?

[happi]

Originally Posted by Borikuan

Im battling a BGA outbreak miself. Will this med kill my bio filter?

so far i have heard that it does not harm the bio filter, but you are still likely to get ammonia spike, nitrate spike as the Cyno break down from the med.

[plantbrain]

Are you certain it's EM you are adding? BGA should be dead by the 3rd day, even the black out method kills BGA by the 3rd day.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Originally Posted by happi

am on 3rd day of treating it and haven't seen any difference yet, what are the signs to look for? beside it floating up toward the surface, which hasn't happened yet either.

Hi happi,

A couple of years ago I dealt with BGA / Cyanobacteria on several occasions. The first time it responded well to EM treatment however the next outbreak the EM had minimal affect and it came back almost immediately after the treatment ended. Apparently there are several species/strains of cyanobacteria, some of which may be show resistance to antibiotics.

Eventually I got rid of it by removing as much as possible manually, spot dosing with H2O2 for about a week, and being more conscientious about keeping my NO3 levels up.