xinguinsis Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 Hi all, Does anybody have any experience getitng rid of this stuff without getting the tank out of the position it's in(under part sunroof). Regards Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebe Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 BGA is a cyanobacteria. If I recall correctly it needs to be treated with an antibiotic, I think maybe it was streptomyacin? I tried lights out and hand stripping and neither worked for more than a day or so. The antibiotic worked for me. My research indicated that this antibiotic would not kill my biofilter but I didn't trust it - I ran the biofilter on a different tank for a while until the BGA was gone and I had changed enough water to be confident the medication worked. Sorry I can't be more helpful, it was a few years ago! I also think I was able to buy the antibiotic I needed from Strictly Aquariums, FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 UV will get rid of it; in your current position, the best bet to prevent a recurrence is to plant heavily to outcompete the bacteria. If you have patience, plant heavily anyway, and the BGA will go away after a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juneau95 Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 Hi I had Blue-Green algae as well and successfully removed it the following way. Firstly the difficult part is to aquire some "erythromycin". I talked my local pharmacist into selling me some when I explained why I was using it. DAY 1 Add 2.5mg/L erythromycin. If you have a skimmer, turn it off. DAY 2 Add 2.5mg/L erythromycin. DAY 3 Now you should see alot of dead Blue-green algae floating around in the tank. Increase filtration ( a second mechanical filterif possible ) to get rid of it. If you have a skimmer, turn it on... The critical thing now is to get rid of as much protein (dead bacteria) as possible. DAY 4 Most Blue-green bacteria should be dead by now. Try to clean out as much as possible. Do a 50% water change, then add 2.5mg/L erythromycin. Day 5 - 7 Wash the mechanical filter at least once a day. Keep check on Ammonia and nitrite but do not change any water unless absolutely necessary. The extra filter can be removed as soon as the water clears up. Day 8 Do a 30% water change. Add 1mg/L erythromycin. From now on resume your normal maintenance. Treatment for me was successful with no stress or fish loss. Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 Furan-2 is good to use on BGA and doesnt effect the filter bed UV will zap what passes through it only Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Even good old tetracycline works, but be careful of the fish. Erythromycin or streptomycin are the choice picks... grovel to your LFS, most keep a good stock on hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Wombat Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 A lot of information on this topic in a post from the old forum Old blue green algae post HTH WW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Wombat Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Oh yeah PS: - i dont like the indiscriminate use of antibiotics to control problems like these. You will harm the bacteria in your biofilter and could run into further problems down the track. Having said that - good luck getting rid of it cos it can be difficult. Cheers WW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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