just a few words of advice from an old salt...
I've had a planted tank now 4 yrs old, been struggling with BGA for nearly the whole,
1) Erthromycin is a macrolide antibiotic so it doesn't kill BGA per se (it is bacteriostatic and not bacteriocidal). What happens is that it prevents the BGA from replicating, and the ones already there will die of natural causes (bacteria usually have very high turnover in a matter of hours). The good news is that you can use as much erythromycin as you want and you won't get any resistance. The bad news is that once the erythromycin drops below the critical concentration, the dormant bacteria will start to grow again.
2) Which brings me to my main point. Here is a good read of the balance between the ions:
click here
There are 3 variables here; 2 of which you can control namely Nitrates and Phosphorus . What you want is to favor true green algae growth because they have the same growth conditions as the plants believe or not. Ok ready?
The plants/green algae need a high Nitrates to Phosphorus ratio. Meaning they LIKE high nitrates and low phosphorus. So frequent water changes will actually INCREASE BGA since you're taking away the nitrates and replenishing the phos (which comes from the tap water).
So rule 1; no massive change of water. Once every 3 or 4 weeks is plenty. The fish ain't gonna die if you got a good number of plants in there (ie the amount of plants should 'weigh' more than the fish)
Now the phos comes from the tap water, so the only way you're gonna get rid of it is to have a sink like activated charcoal or phosphate pillow/sponge
So rule 2; never skimp on the charcoal or the phosphate sponge
Got it? I s'pose you could add maracyn when you have a lot of junk but you'd do well to follow on the 2 rules here that I learned the hard way.
Now..to find some bulk source of charcoal...
I've had a planted tank now 4 yrs old, been struggling with BGA for nearly the whole,
1) Erthromycin is a macrolide antibiotic so it doesn't kill BGA per se (it is bacteriostatic and not bacteriocidal). What happens is that it prevents the BGA from replicating, and the ones already there will die of natural causes (bacteria usually have very high turnover in a matter of hours). The good news is that you can use as much erythromycin as you want and you won't get any resistance. The bad news is that once the erythromycin drops below the critical concentration, the dormant bacteria will start to grow again.
2) Which brings me to my main point. Here is a good read of the balance between the ions:
click here
There are 3 variables here; 2 of which you can control namely Nitrates and Phosphorus . What you want is to favor true green algae growth because they have the same growth conditions as the plants believe or not. Ok ready?
The plants/green algae need a high Nitrates to Phosphorus ratio. Meaning they LIKE high nitrates and low phosphorus. So frequent water changes will actually INCREASE BGA since you're taking away the nitrates and replenishing the phos (which comes from the tap water).
So rule 1; no massive change of water. Once every 3 or 4 weeks is plenty. The fish ain't gonna die if you got a good number of plants in there (ie the amount of plants should 'weigh' more than the fish)
Now the phos comes from the tap water, so the only way you're gonna get rid of it is to have a sink like activated charcoal or phosphate pillow/sponge
So rule 2; never skimp on the charcoal or the phosphate sponge
Got it? I s'pose you could add maracyn when you have a lot of junk but you'd do well to follow on the 2 rules here that I learned the hard way.
Now..to find some bulk source of charcoal...
