Oh no

[superjalami30]

I noticed some Blue-green algae/Cyanobacteria starting to grow on my Val and dwarf sag.
I did a little research and came up with several reasons why it may be growing in my tank.

Phosphate levels are high, always have been, and are the same in all my tanks.
But I have never had a problem with this type of algae before and am in the dark about how to take care of it.

My Iron levels are in check and otherwise, everything else is good.
Any ideas folks?

 

[Adistar]

Wow their are alot of tanks on here recently that have been having cynobacteria problems.

I dont kno much about it,cept that it is a menace in planted aquariums. good luck with it!

 

[donkey]

well you could black the tank out for 3 days . or get hold of some maracyn and nuke it .the black out never ever worked for me but the maracyn did .

 

[superjalami30]

Exactly what is maracyn?
I've heard about it here, but havent had the problem so I've never looked into it
Obviously it isn't harmful to plants, but what about inverts, cory's in paticular?

Thanks for the info

 

[houndour]

this is what i understand of maracyn from googling (i could be wrong tho).

Its an antibiotic used for fish illnesses that just so happens to kill BGA. So its not harmful to fish. But I've read that you need to keep an eye for a cycle, cos it may kill good bacteria. But lots have people havent experienced a cycle using it.

Other reasons for bga...
stagnant water
low nitrates

When I first got it, I first noticed it between the sand and glass. I didnt know it was bga then. It wasnt until it started growing around my vallis that I suspected what it was (at the surface) - I've now binned all my vallis and keep my surface free of plants to prevent any blockage of water flow.

You may have seen some of my posts. I've done 2 3 day blackouts in my 20 gallon with good results, but not quite enough to rid of it.

I did a 3 day blackout in my 5 gallon and it did nothing whatsoever.

I've now used maracyn in the 5 gallon at slightly over the recommended dosage (I have no living things apart from hitchhiker snails in this tank), and it's not come back...this is coming up to 3 weeks clear now.

The 20 gallon I am starting dosing tonight at the dosage of 200mg per 10 gallons for 5 days.

I didn't look to see where you are from, but maracyn is not available in the UK. There are people on the US ebay that sell it, but as pointed out in PFK, how do you even know these tablets are what they say they are?

My 20 gallon was absolutely covered in bga...I'm talking about the entire substrate and plants...all coated in the stuff.

I would recommend a blackout first, especially if you've caught it early.

The risk with antibiotics is if it doesnt quite work the first time the bga might build up a resistence to them.

 

[superjalami30]

Thanks houndour!
I'm going to try the black out starting this evening when the lights go out.
Now, should I still feed this fish, or just leave it for 2-3 days covered completely and not do anything at all?

I dont think its a stagnant water problem, but I've been wondering latelt about adding a powerhead about midway down the glass on one side to get the water moving a bit.
Since I inject Co2, I have very little water movement on the surface as well as within the tank.
The output of my Fluvol 202 is located halfway down the back of the tank so it doesnt move a whole lot of H2O.

I dose KNO3 every second day and levels sit around 20 ppm.

And, yea, I just called my lfs and they have it.
It's a pill form of the product, is this what you guys have used?
And, should I do the recommended dosage, or use slightly less/more?

Thanks

 

[houndour]

To do the blackout you have to have it completely blacked out and no peeking.

If you haven't done it already, these are the steps I followed from Zig.

Do a 50% water change
Clean filter (in tank water)
Turn OFF CO2
Add 10ppm of NO3
Black out tank (I used binliners and lots of tape)
Dont forget to unplug light!! (I nearly forgot to do this!)

3 days later

Reveal tank
50% water change
Add 10ppm NO3
Turn on Co2 and lights.
Feed fish

Yes my maracyn is in tablet form. I've read that you just drop the tablet in and it'll dissolve and the water flow will spread it around. But I found in the 5 gallon that it kind of stayed in a heap of white powder.

Tonight I put my first dose of maracyn in the 20 gallon and I split the tablet (I'm dosing 1 400mg tablet a day) into 4 pieces and dropped them in different places around the tank. Don't know if this will make a difference!

I personally wouldn't use more than the recommended dosage, as its probably there for a reason...and more may harm the fish. I've read that some people dose half the recommended amount when using for BGA. But I've personally gone with the full recommended doseage.

 

[superjalami30]

Right on, thanks houndour !

I hope you get your BGA under control, and lets hope I can have succues ass well.

 

[zig]

Only other thing i would do is remove as much as i could manually before you commence the blackout, and if you can, try and provide some surface agitation to the water for the duration of the blackout.

Best of luck with it.