Frustrated with algae killing everything

Lajos_Detari said:

Do not to breathe in the fume.
Wear glove and don't touch it with bare hands.

Click to expand...

Well, it's a bit too late for that. I've been touching it and breathing in the fumes for the past couple months.

Lajos_Detari said:

In the outside pond, it will kill off all the inhabitants as its toxic and it really stinks.

Click to expand...

Will my pleco be okay? He ate some...

Lajos_Detari said:

1) Use Ultralife Blue-Green Slime Stain Remover which someone suggested above. OR

2) Use Erythromycin (an antibiotic) as suggested by Heather above. Since it's an antibiotic, please use it according to instructions to prevent it from coming back and becoming resistant to the antibiotic. Please use a minimum of 5 days or up to 7 days(best). Becareful that it may have impact on your beneficial bacteria(BB). Change more water and more frequently if that happen.

Click to expand...

I'll look into these. I would prefer to not have to dump everything and start over.

StevenF said:

If you are using tap water there may be other options. I'll await your photos and water test results.

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm using tap water.
I'll get the pictures in a bit.

Colin_T said:

pictures of the algae so we can identify the problem?

Click to expand...

I'll get some pictures soon. There isn't too much of it in the tank right now though, because I just cleaned yesterday.

Hi All:

Pretty sure that the "algae" in my tank is cyanobacteria, it fits all the criteria, develops fast, forms sheets, and according to my wife it smells (for some reason I cannot smell it). The photo is from the tank that is the worst. It is the tank I am raising my angel fry in so I am only treating by removing the films every 1 or 2 days. The plants are doing poorly because of the blackout treatment just before the angels laid the eggs, the plants were also not doing well because I let the floater population take over blocking some light.

I do not fertilize or add anything to the tank other than the chlorine water treatment during water changes.

Lights are on timer (7000k balance) 8.5 hours, used to be

On the wood the bacteria re-infested it after taking it out and scrubbing and treating the H2O2. The re-infestation was within a day.

My water conditions are (Frequent water changes due to the fry sometimes daily but usually every second day 40-50%):
pH - 6.4 (my most acidic tank)
NH3 - 0 ppm
NO2 - 0 ppm
NO3 - < 5 ppm
GH - < 30 ppm
KH - < 40 ppm

The only difference between the tap and my water in the tank is the pH drops quickly after water changes to 6.4, it takes about 18 hours for the change to occur. If there is an issue I expect it is from nutrient in the lower sections of the substrate, based on the replacement of the soil in another tank.

FishFinatic77 said:

Well, it's a bit too late for that. I've been touching it and breathing in the fumes for the past couple months.



Will my pleco be okay? He ate some...

Click to expand...

I think Pleco are quite hardy even in some environments that are unsuitable for other fish as they algae eaters.
I see some of my fish killed by some parasites but my Pleco still remains strong.
Also, not all cyanobacteria produces toxic.

But as a precaution, I won't touch the cyanobacteria with bare hands.

By the way, its best that you showed us a photo to confirm the type of algae in your tank.
Blue green algae grows/spread very fast probably within a few days.(in less than a week).
Firstly, cut down the duration of your light to 8 hrs or less.

Uberhoust said:

Hi All:

Pretty sure that the "algae" in my tank is cyanobacteria, it fits all the criteria, develops fast, forms sheets, and according to my wife it smells (for some reason I cannot smell it). The photo is from the tank that is the worst. It is the tank I am raising my angel fry in so I am only treating by removing the films every 1 or 2 days. The plants are doing poorly because of the blackout treatment just before the angels laid the eggs, the plants were also not doing well because I let the floater population take over blocking some light.

I do not fertilize or add anything to the tank other than the chlorine water treatment during water changes.

Lights are on timer (7000k balance) 8.5 hours, used to be

On the wood the bacteria re-infested it after taking it out and scrubbing and treating the H2O2. The re-infestation was within a day.

My water conditions are (Frequent water changes due to the fry sometimes daily but usually every second day 40-50%):
pH - 6.4 (my most acidic tank)
NH3 - 0 ppm
NO2 - 0 ppm
NO3 - < 5 ppm
GH - < 30 ppm
KH - < 40 ppm

The only difference between the tap and my water in the tank is the pH drops quickly after water changes to 6.4, it takes about 18 hours for the change to occur. If there is an issue I expect it is from nutrient in the lower sections of the substrate, based on the replacement of the soil in another tank.

View attachment 139554

Click to expand...

You are right that they spread very fast..usually within a few days..

You can check the treatments that were suggested in my earlier posts.

Lajos_Detari said:

Cyanobacteria won't appear in your tank unless it comes from the contaminated plants(or even rocks or woods) that you bought from the LFS.

Click to expand...

Science disagrees with you. Scientists have detected all types of microorganisms in airborne dust including Scyanobacteria. See this paper.

Uberhoust said:

My water conditions are (Frequent water changes due to the fry sometimes daily but usually every second day 40-50%):
pH - 6.4 (my most acidic tank)
NH3 - 0 ppm
NO2 - 0 ppm
NO3 - < 5 ppm
GH - < 30 ppm
KH - < 40 ppm

Click to expand...

Looking at the pictures your tank the plant circled on the left side is a long stem with only few leaves on top. This occurs because old leave die while new leaves grow. This is not normal and is evidence of a mobile nutrient deficiency. Some nutrients in plants a mobile. meaning plants can move these nutrients to were they are needed themes. These nutrients are nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, phosphate, chlorine, and Molybdenum. All other nutrients are not mobile.

So when you have a deficiency of a mobile nutrient the plants strip old leaves of this nutrient to insure the new leaves fully develop. The old leaves are now damaged and will die and fall off the plant. So your tank is short on any on of the following, Nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, phosphate, chlorine, or molybdenum. If your nitrates are less than 5ppm you might be intermittently running out. You could increase nitrate levels to just above 5ppm by adding potassium nitrate (KNO3). GH is a measure of calcium and magnesium in the tank. but it doesn't tell you how much calcium or magnesium you have. While your GH looks good it could be mostly calcium with very little or no magnesium. You can add a small amount of a commercial GH booster or add epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) Tap water typically is sterilized with chlorine. So in my opinion tap water generally has enough chloride salt in it for plants to use. Or you could add a bit of sea salt to the water to increase chloride levels.

As to molybdenum it is one of the least used nutrients. Plants only need water with about 0.001 PPM. However that said I recently had it. I am not sure why but I suspect it was an interaction between sodium molybdate and other ingredients in my fertilizer mix bottle. I then added molybdenum seperately and that solved that issue.

You can use Rotalabutterfly fertilizer calculator calculate how much of a nutrient (such as KNO3) to serif it would help. Or you could by products like Seachem nitrogen, Seachem phosphate, or Seachem potassium.Many of the leasves in the image show evidence of a nutrient deficiency but most don't indicate a specific nutrient. Except for the one plant circled on the left side of the picture.

The more plant you have the less algae. Plants produce oxygen algae hates oxygen. Once you get you tank planted to 30-50% by volume your algae problems will go away.

itiwhetu said:

The more plant you have the less algae. Plants produce oxygen algae hates oxygen. Once you get you tank planted to 30-50% by volume your algae problems will go away.

Click to expand...

Largely correct but in addition to having plants, the plants need to be growing. Without growth they won't produce much oxygen. When they are growing well oxygen bubbles may form on the leaves. Typically under the leaf. With a nutrient deficiency oxygen production is significantly impacted.

Okay, sorry this took so long. Here are the pictures of my tank.

Lajos_Detari said:

I think Pleco are quite hardy even in some environments that are unsuitable for other fish as they algae eaters.
I see some of my fish killed by some parasites but my Pleco still remains strong.
Also, not all cyanobacteria produces toxic.

Click to expand...

Okay, good. I really like him, so I wouldn't want him to get sick.

Watch

FishFinatic77 said:

This is interesting. I have sand in this tank, which obviously I can't siphon like gravel. Do you think maybe that's causing it?

Click to expand...

I doubt it's the substrate that caused it. I have sand substrate and have never come across BGA. More than likely, this bacteria entered your aquarium on a plant.
Instead of figuring out how it happened focus on how to get rid of it. Because of this post I looked at pictures online and this bacteria can quickly overrun an aquarium. Not to mention its unpleasant to look at.

Heather7465 said:

Because of this post I looked at pictures online and this bacteria can quickly overrun an aquarium. Not to mention its unpleasant to look at.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I noticed.