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Blue-green algae

661 views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  pittipuppylove 
#1 ·
Hi everyone!

I am having a problem with blue green algae (BGA) in all of my tanks. Disgusting stuff, smells bad, won't be eliminated easily. I am doing maracyn treatments in the two 10 gallons, and am still wondering what to do in the 20 gallon tank. The 55gallon had it really bad, but I was able to switch some things up and it's not a problem anymore in there.

I think the BGA is being such a problem because the tanks are pretty low water movement, and they're heavily planted. They are simply too clean and too still - very low nitrates (which I hear BGA loves since they can fix their own nitrogen), decent light, and ferts. I have increased the circulation on all the tanks, and everyone seems ok...thank goodness for short finned bettas. Hopefully that will help even after the maracyn tx is over.

Anyway, my question is: have you ever gotten this stuff in your smaller betta tanks? What did you do to get rid of it and keep it away? I am looking for any ideas beyond nuking the tank with maracyn, which I am doing but I hate. I just don't know what else to do. Thanks in advance!
 
#2 ·
Ugh. I had a horrible infestation of the stuff in my 10 gallon - the conservative treatment of temporarily cutting down on light and feeding while upping the number of water changes nearly put one of my bettas on death's door, more or less crashed my cycle, and killed off pretty much all of my plants. Finally had to nuke the tank with a 10 day course of erythromycin to get rid of it, and now everything's back to normal. It was freakishly difficult to get rid of because we have approx. 20ppm nitrates from the tap -.-

I now have a very mild case of it in one of the 5 gallons, but I'm just dealing with it with manual removal and more water changes and it seems to be working.
 
#4 ·
I just cleared out some that resulted from my own idiocy. Google up "one two punch algae". It is a combo of peroxide and carbon, and it did an amazing job.

I took all the living things I could out. Pond snails were unaffected, as were copeopods. Tank is very clear. Just stick with the recconended dose or your tank will fizz for a day.
 
#5 ·
Thanks everyone. I guess I am doing the best possible thing at the moment...erythromycin.

For the people who did the 10 day course...when did you do a water change? I just finished up day five, and I'm a little worried about all the dead BGA fouling up the water. Should I do partial change now and then continue? I honestly would like to stop treating for it now, but there's still some BGA that looks alive (greenish) in both tanks.

I seriously want this stuff DEAD. But I don't want to hurt Sassy or Norbert, or the lone nerite in Norbert's tank.
 
#7 ·
I'd follow through for the entire 10 days - last thing you want is an antibiotic-resistant strain 0.o

I did a partial water change daily, especially since my cycle was pretty much dead at this point and there are some sources saying that the erythromycin will harm the beneficial bacteria, but made sure to adjust my dose for the day so that the amount of medication remained constant. In addition to this, I also continued manually removing as much as the stuff as possible throughout the treatment. Then after the course, I ran carbon in the filter for a few days to remove the meds and reseeded the filter with media from another one of my tanks.
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