[bsmith]

Due to the events that took place in my "can we get to the bottom of GDA" thread where it turned out that cyanobacteria was eating up all of the Nitrogen in the tank causing my plants to grow poorly and thus allowing GDA to be a huge nuisance I am now thinking that this same issue is happening in my 60-p. The GDA in this tank is not as bad as it was in the 37g but the algae/cyano (although not looking the same as the cyano in my 37g) in this tank has the same smell as the algae that was in the 37g. The plants are also growing poorly in the 60-p no matter how much co2 I inject and all of my fert parameters and lighting are spot on. I'm going to start dosing Erythromycin (which is what I dosed in the 37g to kill the cyanobacteria) tomorrow and see what happens.

Pre-dosing pics.

Cant put anymore co2 in the tank.

Nice pearling.

What kind of algae is this, I think its a form of cyanobacteria.

Some nice GDA.

 

[kamikazi]

cyano is a green slime. 5-7 don't look like cyano to me
the other pics im not sure

 

[bsmith]

Normally I would agree with you but after the findings in my 37g I'm open to anything.

 

[TLE041]

I used this product in my Mini-L when I had a bad case of BGA. It took two treatments (2 days apart) and the problem went away completely. None of the fishes or CRS were affected.

The manufacturer claims that it's not an antibiotic, so none of the beneficial bacteria are affected.

 

[bsmith]

I used this product in my Mini-L when I had a bad case of BGA. It took two treatments (2 days apart) and the problem went away completely. None of the fishes or CRS were affected.

The manufacturer claims that it's not an antibiotic, so none of the beneficial bacteria are affected.

I wonder what is in that product that kills the BGA? For treatment on my 37g I used API E.M. Erythromycin and it seems to have done the trick. I just got home and looked at the tank and it looks beautiful, the water is clear, the plants are looking healthy again and even the algae on the bottom leaves on the plants barely has any algae on them. I think im going to clean out the filter tomorrow or on Sunday after a vigorous scrubbing to make sure as much as I can that all the bad stuff is out of the tank.

I'm going to start treating the 60-p tomorrow with the Erythro and hopefully get some good results when I get back in the office Monday. It sucks that im of on Sundays and wont be able to dose but I think ill just dose first thing (9am) for 20g (2 packets) then dose two more packets at 6pm when I am getting off. If the treatment hurts the $1 petco neon's that are in there ill be okay!

 

[sewingalot]

I'm totally going to send you a pm and ask for algae samples to look at, don't you know? That cotton candy stuff is intriguing. (Yes I am obsessed.)

Good idea on the cleaning of the filter and scrub down. Get any bad stuff out of there that may be lurking.

I'm tagging along on this thread to see what happens.

What do you dose on this tank and what are your other parameters, bsmith? I'm just nosy.

 

[bsmith]

I'm totally going to send you a pm and ask for algae samples to look at, don't you know? That cotton candy stuff is intriguing. (Yes I am obsessed.)

Good idea on the cleaning of the filter and scrub down. Get any bad stuff out of there that may be lurking.

I'm tagging along on this thread to see what happens.

What do you dose on this tank and what are your other parameters, bsmith? I'm just nosy.

I'm glad you made it, the vanquisher of cyano in my 37g!

This black algae/bacteria is like nothing I have ever seen. It is black/gray, smells very strange, grows relatively quickly and does not attach itself to anything. I mean I can pretty much clear it out with my tweezers it comes right out. There is also no real rhyme or reason to where it firms either. It's in low and higher flow areas and in brighter/shaded areas. Not algae behavior at all if you ask me.

On this tank I had been dosing rootmedic macro/micro mix for months then when this problem started I went back to dry NPK with flourish Fe.

 

[sewingalot]

Haha, not a vanquisher, but bandaid applier. I only can hope that you'll have the success I am having with my own tank using that method. If not, you can yell at me later.

I will refrain from telling you what I think about adding too much iron, lol. I come from iron country and it's a disaster to add more during certain months (rainy season) because of the iron bacteria present. So I am biased and realize that.

That is some unique algae, for sure. I am high intrigued, to be honest.

Have you thought about going back to rootmedic products? The whole if it ain't broke saying....unless you stopped using it for being broke. :hihi:

 

[bsmith]

Haha, not a vanquisher, but bandaid applier. I only can hope that you'll have the success I am having with my own tank using that method. If not, you can yell at me later.

I will refrain from telling you what I think about adding too much iron, lol. I come from iron country and it's a disaster to add more during certain months (rainy season) because of the iron bacteria present. So I am biased and realize that.

That is some unique algae, for sure. I am high intrigued, to be honest.

Have you thought about going back to rootmedic products? The whole if it ain't broke saying....unless you stopped using it for being broke. :hihi:

I have your algae samples all packed up and ready to ship. I wasn't able to leave work today because I was with customers but I will drop it off on my way home. I have some samples of the algae all by itself and also on some plant leaves and the bottoms of some purple bamboo that if you remove the mystery algae you could grow them with no problem. I also included some GSA? that I ran a paper towel across that came from the glass so well see what that turns off.

 

[DetMich]

If you haven't yet, take a quick look over this thread: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/140915-cyanobacteria-aka-blue-green-algea-aka.html

I personally had amazing luck following the 5 day dosing of Mardel Maracyn. (Which contains erythromycin) All the BGA in my tank was completely wiped out and hasn't came back.

 

[sewingalot]

I have your algae samples all packed up and ready to ship. I wasn't able to leave work today because I was with customers but I will drop it off on my way home. I have some samples of the algae all by itself and also on some plant leaves and the bottoms of some purple bamboo that if you remove the mystery algae you could grow them with no problem. I also included some GSA? that I ran a paper towel across that came from the glass so well see what that turns off.

Work's keeping you busy, eh? Hope you sold a nice car to them. :icon_smil I'm thinking I'll have a nice collection of algae to mess around with. I wonder if this stuff will knock me down like that stinky cyano, lol. Thanks for fueling my passion. :redface:

If you haven't yet, take a quick look over this thread: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/140915-cyanobacteria-aka-blue-green-algea-aka.html

I personally had amazing luck following the 5 day dosing of Mardel Maracyn. (Which contains erythromycin) All the BGA in my tank was completely wiped out and hasn't came back.

That stuff is amazing, isn't it? It did the same for me and hasn't come back. I'm going to keep some Maracyn in my medicine cabinet from now on.

 

[bsmith]

I would say this unknown algae is as odiferous if not more than the first batch. Break out the nose plugs!

 

[Chlorophile]

I've used maracyn on bga with good results. For a Mini M its cheap enough to just buy the small package at your LFS, not so cheap on larger tanks.
Either way it doesn't have the red, green, purple, or blue look of most BGA.
Not does it appear to be slimy or growing in sheets.
Looks filamentous, definitely has kinks in its growth.
Maybe it is a response to low pH conditions from an algae or bacteria that is happier in less acidic water.

 

[sewingalot]

I think you'll love some of the photos I took tonight! (Well, just pretend to be excited.)

You have some of the coolest cyanobacteria in there! Look familiar somewhat?

Main two things I am finding gobs of is Oscillatoria species and some cool diatoms. I'll update more tomorrow evening with pictures. I am curious how the treatment is going?

 

[bsmith]

Is that pic a pic that someone took of the same cyano that I have in the 60-p? So the smelly black algae is deff cyano?

 

[sewingalot]

Yeah, that picture is found here:http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/images/images.html

Without a doubt that black stringy stuff is cyanobacteria mixed with diatoms, but mostly cyano. I'm almost certain it's Oscillatoria sp. But I am trying to get some better pictures before saying for sure. For now, here's some shots.

Cyanobacteria and a ton of diatoms surround the oscillatoria

It's really cool - if you shine green light on it it glows bright blue:

The type of diatom (I think it's a diatom, not 100% certain yet) you have gobs of

And you have some nice Woodruffia (was found on the glass sample eating the cyanobacteria). I found a great link on showing the definite relationship of what I call GDA (for lack of better knowledge of what to call it aka "green stuff on glass"). It can be found here: http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/images/movies/grazing.html

There are a few other really cool algae types you have in smaller amounts that I'm going to work on tonight getting pictures taken. If you like, I'll share all your critters here later.

How is the treatment going? And more importantly, how is your other tank doing?

 

[bsmith]

Treatments going fine and the 37g is still pretty much GDA/cyano free on the glass. There is still some algae on the plant leaves but I think it is coming from an imbalance in ferts due to the plants now taking in nutrients.

 

[RickRS]

I pretty sure I have cyanobacteria spreading in a 75 gallon tank with goldfish. What's weird is nitrates have been 40 ppm for over two month and maybe 40-80 ppm now (hard matching the API test kit result sheets to the water tint so unsure if its 40 or 80) while the BGA has been developing. Ammonia and nitrite are 0 ppm. What in the world?

The idea of using a medication to rid the tank of this is appealing, and just about to try.

 

[bsmith]

Got any pics and does it smell weird?

You could always send a sample to our residend algae scientist Sara (sewingalot) to have it examined a bit more closely.

 

[bsmith]

Here are some pics from today. Lots of improvement but the algae is still not completely gone. This tank is displaying the same signs that my 37g showed early in the treatment. The new growth all looks wonderful and my reds are actually red!

The nusiance algae/cyanobacteria.

Nice reds!!!