[jason lee]

I have had algae before but is the BGA the most confussing or is it just me? I have never delt with this algae in the 20 years I've had aquariums but know I can't seem to get rid of it. I went out of town for a week, when I came back there was a carpet of it on the substrate, and a layer over all my plants. I can pull out what seems like pounds of the goop and in 24 hours its all over everything again. What is the best method to rid my tank of this menace? I have tested the water and nothing in my water samples are spiked, what am I missing.

55Gal
Trickle filter
co2 injection
80watts of light

 

[yoink]

Aquarium Algae At the bottom of the page.

Are you using any fertilzers? If so, how much and how often?

What kind of trickle filter is it that you are using? It's probably unrelated, but they will drive a lot of the co2 you are injecting.

 

[jason lee]

The trickle filter is from Aquarium Life Support. I stopped using fertilizers when the algae took over, but before then I was using the Seachem Flourish and Seachem Potassium.

 

[plantbrain]

Well then you have a low NO3 tank which is why you got this and cannot get rid of it.

Adding plants, and all the ferts other than NO3 will drive the NO3 to zero, then the BGA will take over and you cannot stop it for long.

So, clean off all you can now, start adding KNO3, then stop adding Seachem Potassium(the K+ is potassium in the KNO3).

You will also need some PO4 as well.

Order some KNO3/KH2PO4 from www.Gregwatson.com
2-3 lbs of KNO3 and 1 of KH2PO4.
Should last a decade or so.

Dose 1/4 teaspoon KNO3 2x a week. Dose the KH2PO4 2x a week as well, 1/16" teaspoon(divide 1/4, 4x).
Add about 5mls of flourish 2-3x a week.

Seal up any air vents or lips on the trickle fiter dry section with duct tape etc, raise the over flow box level so the water only falls about 2".
Add CO2 into the intake of the return pump from the sump.

You can kill BGA easy with a 3 day black out(plants are fine, they are shipped often times longer in total darkness). But.....you should just clean the tank up real good, do about 60-70% water change and then add the
KNO3(add 1/2 teaspoon this time) etc and see. You might not need anti biotics or a black out etc, note, blackouts are free and take the same time to work as antibiotics.

Do weekly 40-50% water changes and dose the KNO3 routinely.
Plants should perk up

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[jason lee]

When I clean the tank should I remove the plants and rinse them off? Also should I replace the bio-balls or will rinsing them off be ok, the bio-balls are several years old. When I bought the tank in 2000 the store owner I purchased it from informed me it was the best filter for planted aquariums. Did I just fall for a sales pitch and should I give it up and look into replacing it with a canister filter?

Thanks for all your help.

 

[plantbrain]

I just fluff the plants good, and the filter etc.

BGA does not have roots, so don't bother them unless you want to prune anyway. Tips near the lights often will get infested, but you'll want to trim those back to about 1/2 way up the tank.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[thadius65]

I recently had a bout with BGA. I read tips on using hydrogen peroxide, so I decided to try. Being a chicken and fearful of hurting my tank inhabitants, I used much less than others indicated. About .5ml per gallon. I put 60ml in a syringe and spot treated all areas. (cool O2 release as others indicated) Left filters running during the process and did no water changes post treatment.

After about 4 days of this treatment, my BGA is gone and has been for about 3 days so far. I did not have to remove anything post spraying, it just disappeared.

Will advise if it comes back.

Ted