Dealing with Blue Green Algae (BGA)

[wasabi8888]

sorry... Tom, dont understand your comments

[Goondoo]

sorry... Tom, dont understand your comments

when plants are in shipping process for up to 3 days or even more, its likely they are boxed and impossible to get any decent lights.

[freezze]

last nite dose the 2nd dose of interpet no.9 .. bga still can be seen.. it has infected the plant too.. look like the growth has not slow down.. tonight started blackout session on the affected tank..

NO3 level is 30mg/l

any1 know where can get antibiotic Erythrocin.. will try that if all else fail.

[|squee|]

I had a minor breakout once. I promptly did a 3 day blackout (strict blackout, no feeding of fishes, tank covered with 3 or 4 thrash bags thickness, no lights on, no CO2, filter running.

It never came back.

[PeterGwee]

last nite dose the 2nd dose of interpet no.9 .. bga still can be seen.. it has infected the plant too.. look like the growth has not slow down.. tonight started blackout session on the affected tank..

NO3 level is 30mg/l

any1 know where can get antibiotic Erythrocin.. will try that if all else fail.

Do the blackout to kill it then dose the KNO3 and do not trust the junky NO3 test kit!!

Regards
Peter Gwee

[MECH]

i have try antibiotic ERYTHROMYCIN on BGA
it worked

[wasabi8888]

mech..


can you let us know how you dose the erythromycin? one pill for how many litres of water? how often?

you succeeded after one try?

[freezze]

Do the blackout to kill it then dose the KNO3 and do not trust the junky NO3 test kit!!

Regards
Peter Gwee

wat the side effect of overdosing kno3.. since no3 test kit cannot be trusted..

[|squee|]

Side effects are nitrate poisoning in fish. However if I remember correctly you need extremely high levels of nitrate to cause poisoning... about what, 100ppm and above?

That level will be impossible to attain if you do 50% water changes weekly. The math have been done by Tom Barr on his website.

[MECH]

mech..


can you let us know how you dose the erythromycin? one pill for how many litres of water? how often?

you succeeded after one try?

1 tablet for 50 litre of water
1 time
yup 1 try

[wasabi8888]

Mech

After you drop in the tablet, the existing BGA dies off? do you still have to manually remove it? does it change color ?

sorry for the questions...

[FishFan]

Hi All,

Just wondering, wouldn't erythromycin also kill off beneficial bacteria such as Nitrobacter?

[freezze]

where to get erythromycin? lfs or pharmacy?

presently my tank is into the 4th day of blackout.. bga should have dead off rite..

after the blackout.. wat to do?

change 50% of water?
remove any dead plant or leaves..
apply NO3.. any idea wat dose to apply to a 150L tank?

Thkx

[Goondoo]

Side effects are nitrate poisoning in fish. However if I remember correctly you need extremely high levels of nitrate to cause poisoning... about what, 100ppm and above?

That level will be impossible to attain if you do 50% water changes weekly. The math have been done by Tom Barr on his website.

I remember its 50ppm

[PeterGwee]

Should be 120ppm or so. The shrimps start dying but the fishes are fine.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[freezze]

I remember its 50ppm

how many tablesp or teasp of KNO3 is that?

Should be 120ppm or so. The shrimps start dying but the fishes are fine.

huh issit 50 or 120? alot of different leh... anyway only 6 fishes in my tank.. the rest of the fish n shrimp still in the other tank..

[wasabi8888]

was just wondering about black outs...

I am keeping apistos... wont blackouts which include switching off CO2, push up the PH level and thus harmful to the fish?

Ph of our water is about 7. After injecting CO2, PH is about 6.4. My KH is about 3. Would black out be harmful then?

Is it better to take out all the apistos and put in another tank? I do not have another ready tank set up. but I could take out some water from the old tank and just temp set up a tank with an air stone for 3 days...

Any suggestions?

[wasabi8888]

really interesting.. just measured with AP nitrate test... 20 ppm...

so my BGA is not due to low nitrate level

[|squee|]

The AP nitrate test kit is seriously wrong. I have a set myself and all my test results were way off the mark.

Of course it could be just my set that is faulty.

Lack of water flow in an area also tends to have BGA.

plantbrain's posts on nitrate toxicity levels here.

[Goondoo]

The AP nitrate test kit is seriously wrong. I have a set myself and all my test results were way off the mark.

Of course it could be just my set that is faulty.

Lack of water flow in an area also tends to have BGA.

plantbrain's posts on nitrate toxicity levels here.

Thanks for the link, I must have remembered wrongly.