Blue Green Algae Help

[madnugget]

hi bros,

i had a serious battle with BGA in one of my 2 ft tanks. Been almost 2 months and it keeps coming back. Is there any effective methods to stop for good? I had tried blackout a couple of times and it stills come back. Had cleaned all traces of BGA on plants and substrate before blackout. Searched abit and some bros recommend dosing nitrates. Some even said hornworts does give out some "antibodies" that kills BGA. I put plenty of them inside and it still comes back..

Appreciate any suggestions/steps to follow to ensure 100% wipe out.
Thanks

[Shadow]

time for nuclear bomb, use antibiotic ... .. though probably can't get it from Singapore farmacy. Check with NA, they might have some medicine, give them a call.

[madnugget]

thanks shadow.. just mention my problem to NA and he knows?

[barmby]

madnuggent, chemical warfare will give you longer grace period. it may come back. it happens to me. btw, CO2 is very very important.

good luck. don't give up.

[madnugget]

time for nuclear bomb, use antibiotic ... .. though probably can't get it from Singapore farmacy. Check with NA, they might have some medicine, give them a call.

bro, any idea whats the name for it? i went down to NA and they dont sell it.. Chan gave me a waterplant brand algae remover.. I tried getting assurance from him.. he just told me its stated that it could remove BGA on the bottle..

madnuggent, chemical warfare will give you longer grace period. it may come back. it happens to me. btw, CO2 is very very important.

good luck. don't give up.

mind sharing how did you deal with your BGA? CO2? so should i add/remove co2? currently i using co2 in it too.. 24/7

[Blue Whale]

Okies, I will be direct on this.

1. How frequent do you feed the fish and how much? More than fish can eat?
2. Tank size in gallons or litre
3. What is your lighting deployed at the moment? Post in watts per tube and number of tube used.
4. Filter used.

The presence of these means not enough competitors for BGA hence encouraging them. BGA are plants also that also perform photosynthesis. What we want to do here is increase the competitors for photosynthesis. If BGA lost in the competition, you will not find BGA that much...maybe still a little. Do not under-estimate this little thingies. They actually produce enough oxygen for the earth in the early stage of earth's atomsphere.

[blue33]

Just increase your waterflow current in your tank will solve the problem.

[barmby]

Adrian is correct also. Lack of O2 is another problem. We cannot completely eliminate aeration. surface movement is critical.

Also,

Blackout is highly effective.

BGA seldom goes away on it's own, just ask those that have had it in the past. A mild case might appear and go away, but this is a sign of something else.

Address the cause of the BGA to begin with and then it does not come back.

To that blackout method, add: KNO3, after the 50% water change, do another 50% water change at the end of 3 days.

From then on, add KNO3 to your tank regularly.
Plants need a fair amount of NO3 and K, when these are not supplied, algae will grow.

Antibiotics are no more effective than a blackout which is 100% Free and always available anywhere to anyone, anytime.

A very good general rule about algae snake oils and killers:
If it is not a plant nutrient, do not add it to your tank.

Take care of the plants and then you do not have algae. It really is that simple.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[madnugget]

Okies, I will be direct on this.

1. How frequent do you feed the fish and how much? More than fish can eat?
2. Tank size in gallons or litre
3. What is your lighting deployed at the moment? Post in watts per tube and number of tube used.
4. Filter used.

The presence of these means not enough competitors for BGA hence encouraging them. BGA are plants also that also perform photosynthesis. What we want to do here is increase the competitors for photosynthesis. If BGA lost in the competition, you will not find BGA that much...maybe still a little. Do not under-estimate this little thingies. They actually produce enough oxygen for the earth in the early stage of earth's atomsphere.

this standard 5plan 2ft tank i have roughly 20 neon tetras in it.. usually feed it in the morning.
Current lighting is 1x36W and is on <6hours
using 2211 filter

Just increase your waterflow current in your tank will solve the problem.

from what i see in my tank i feel the waterflow current is sufficiently strong. i'm using a rainbar placed at the back pointing towards the front. any dirt stirred up can be seen circulating in the water like "washing machine"

Adrian is correct also. Lack of O2 is another problem. We cannot completely eliminate aeration. surface movement is critical.

Also,

initially when tackling this problem some suggestion was to aerate the water.. i cut off my co2 and tried using an air pump

Before the breakout, i used to have riccia in it. Been rather busy and did not trim the riccia and it started detachting. So i took out all the riccia and change to moss instead and there is where the BGA started coming in. Recently i placed a batch of hornworts inside the tank and it seems to be melting too.. is this serious water problem?

[Blue Whale]

I only have few pointers.

1. Make sure don't overfeed. Once a day is good. If pellets, try tapping action to feed.
2. If you haven't try Seachem Excel, give it a shot, help the plants to take in the CO2.
3. Lighting can consider changing. T5 24wx2 or 24wx4. Lighting 10hrs. Although Aqua Zonic T5 lights can lift up, you might want to consider the surface area on top of the tank, I believe yours is 24x12x?? You might want to see the light first before you decide, if you are considering x4. x2 is $45, x4 is $85 or so.

[StanChung]

I manage to induce BGA in my dead water tub with plants in it. Amazing- when I kill it with Erythromycin. glee-

Then again-I would go with Tom's wise words- blackout is free.

In my other tank I'll just use antibiotics since it's a little difficult to do a good blackout with so many branches sticking out of the tank.

[Blue Whale]

Stan, blackout is good, I always do that if I come to the BGA stage, but so far I do that only for hairy algae, usually at it's infant stage. Wait until boom stage it's like a goner. As at current, the bettas, gourami and badis badis seem to be very good at control snails and algae. =) 3ft one I got no worries.

Anyway, listen to Stan. Blackout = Elimination (for the time being). But you still have to tackle the tank in the long run.

[madnugget]

thanks for all the tips.. i tried blackout before and it works... but soon it came back again.. i guess i will do a blackout again. what must i do to followup after the blackout?

[Blue Whale]

previous previous reply =) set the environment and your feeding pattern correct.

[blue33]

It seems like alot of issues is not address here yet. 2211 is not even enough to drive a 2ft tank unless you have tons of plant to suck out those nutrients in the water column which i don’t think you have currently. Your lighting period 6hrs is too short, plants need min of 8hr to create photosynthesis. Ok let’s come back to the questions.

Riccia - Alot of times when there's riccia you would find much lesser algae issue which you already encounter initially, riccia is a nutrients sucker, but it gets pretty out of hand when it starts to grow massively, and it stuck everywhere which you find them unsightly. As you currently remove it, you face issues on all sorts of algae and plants problem one by one.

Filter - This is also due to the way your filter is not doing a good job, such as the media use and media arrange, also the size of the filter is not up to the task. I believe you heard alot of people mention, to keep a good aquarium you got to know how to manage the water also, this is truth. Normally we will use a oversize filter for any tank we going to setup, partly after the media install it will reduce flow greatly and also we want a efficient filter and up to the task, another thing is the bacteria inside have enough room and time to break down those dirt’s etc also before return with a clean water.

CO2 - Lots of time, it doesn’t mean you have 8bps(eg) and all this 8bps(eg) will dissolve into the water column, most time it will be wasted and not dissolve at all. Most issue is due to CO2 problem than the nutrient issue, such as your plant currently melting could be due to CO2, when plant cannot take in CO2, they will go hunger and starts to release sugar out which create the boom of algae, at the same time they also dying, when they die they release whatever they absorb to the water column, creating a disaster out of it.

Temperature - This is also another issue which alot of people miss out. When water temperature goes up, most plant grows very fast up and also it becomes leggy at bottom. Their metabolism also increase causing the rapid grows. CO2 and O2 loss is high at high temperature. Plants start to melt most time at high temperature. Plant grow best at below <28 degree. Recently ADA Aqua Journal came out an issue on temperatures that affect the plant, they measure most mountain plants grow well under low temperature.

You need lots of trial and experienced it yourself to get this far sometimes. IMHO.

[StanChung]

I tend to agree with what you say Adrian.

Temperature high=leggy? hmmm never knew that. I always thought low light=leggy because or 'stretching' towards the light source.

Temperature high to me = yellowing, dull colour, smaller leaves and poor growth. I must be more observant to see if it's faster growth. I always thought higher temperature would inhibit some enzymes and stunt growth, not speed up growth as least from my casual observation.

[Blue Whale]

Stan, based on Adrian's reply. If nugget changed to a filter that provides higher flow rate, yes it will bring the temperature down but depends on how the flow is being distributed. I DIY a rainbow pipe, it does helps to bring the temperature down. Poor growth might be slow growth, for the maint. guy who does lesser maint. that would be good news instead of bad. =)

[StanChung]

I don't think higher flow makes the temperature lower. Why should it? More evaporation?
Need lots of splashing to achieve that. That's more CO2 loss.
High W pump makes the temperature higher in most cases.

[barmby]

What blue33 said, is quite right. Especially the CO2 and temperature part. Pe-We Alley once said, chiller can do magic. If filteration isn't working out, oxygen cannot be generated enough to cultivate beneficial bacteria.

[Blue Whale]

I don't think higher flow makes the temperature lower. Why should it? More evaporation?
Need lots of splashing to achieve that. That's more CO2 loss.
High W pump makes the temperature higher in most cases.

^o^Y Bingo! You just pointed out the disadvantage of this thingy. CO2 loss is no issue because back then the main tank got 1x CO2 tank and 2x DIY CO2 tank....CO2 is basically free there. So long the fish are not breatheless, it's quite okay.