Rid of BGA/slime algae>>> solution?!?!

[ZeRoC00l]

Recently went away for a 1wk holiday, then came home to see a tank with BGA growing on some tips of the leaves, n stem...

Quickly removed all of the infected parts n did a water change.

But then this week, the algae symtom got worst [] More n more are growing... I keep removing n now my tank is getting very empty....

I do not like to use algae remover chemicals, so is there any way to reduce or kill these algaes?

N o, my water starting to smell as well... now changeing 50% water weekly. It has already been 1 mth []

Any tips / solutions to get rid of these irritating algaes? No algae eaters would touch these algae.... This is more like a type of bacteria?!?!?

Thank you

[rosha]

hello bro

no problem antibiotic is the only way to kill BGA man[]

[PeterGwee]

Remove all of it you can, trim plants as needed.
Do 50% water change, add about 1/4 teaspoon of stump remover(KNO3)per 20 gal of tank, remove CO2, increase surface turbulance. Cover with blanket/trash bags etc so that no light at all gets in.

Wait 3 days. Remove cover, reconnect CO2, reduce surface turbulance, do 50% water change and add the KNO3 back in again.

Now keep up on dosing the KNO3 may at 1/2 or 1/4 dosings and/or feed your fish more.

Plant mass likely got larger than the amount of N being supplied by your fish and sucked all the NO3 out of the water column stunting the plants.

Well the blackout is simply to kill what's there, the KNO3 part is to have your plants grow well and not have the algae come back.

A basic idea is that when the plants grow well, the algae does not. Stick to that you'll be fine.
Cyano is easy to get rid of this way.

Other forms of algae are tougher but follow the same basic routines and methods.

Kill it and get what's there out of the tank, next re set the nutrients and a water change.
Now keep up on the nutrients.

You can see the estimative index over on the Dallas Fort Worth plant club site for a more in depth look at this approach.

Tom Barr's method for correcting BGA problems. []

[ZeRoC00l]

Wow. Thank you. But got some questions:

add about 1/4 teaspoon of stump remover(KNO3)per 20 gal of tank
>>>>>> Is this KNO3 = potassium nitrate?? same as Dr M@%^ dosing??


Cover with blanket/trash bags etc so that no light at all gets in. Wait 3 days.
>>> wouldn't this kill my plants?



Plant mass likely got larger than the amount of N being supplied by your fish and sucked all the NO3 out of the water column stunting the plants.

Well the blackout is simply to kill what's there, the KNO3 part is to have your plants grow well and not have the algae come back.



You can see the estimative index over on the Dallas Fort Worth plant club site for a more in depth look at this approach.
>>>> May i know where is the website???

Tom Barr's method for correcting BGA problems.

>>>> May i know where is the website???

Thank you []

[PeterGwee]

Yup..Dr Mallick's KNO3 is good.

It will hurt your plants a bit but they would survive as they have bigger mass and can store more reserve nutrients.

Tom Barr's estimative index website

[ZeRoC00l]

Erm.. what abt KSO4?? potassium sulphate???

I need to add nitrate ? or is it the potassium tt I lack???

[PeterGwee]

BGA stems from a lack of NO3....

Do the following:
Remove all of it you can, trim plants as needed.
Do 50% water change, add about 1/4 teaspoon of stump remover(KNO3)per 20 gal of tank, remove CO2, increase surface turbulance. Cover with blanket/trash bags etc so that no light at all gets in.

Wait 3 days. Remove cover, reconnect CO2(Make sure it is in the 20-30ppm range or else nothing works!) reduce surface turbulance, do 50% water change.
Add back 1/4tsp of KNO3 per 20 gallons of tank water (2-3X per week)
Add 1/4tsp of K2SO4 per 20 gallons of tank water (Only after water change)
Add 5ml of flourish or TMG per 20 gallons of tank water...(Fe can be hard to test for and the residual level does not tell you much...imagine I dose 0.8ppm of Fe but was gone in 3hrs or so?) (2-3X per week)
Add 2 rice grains of KH2PO4 per 20 gallons of tank water. (2-3X per week)

After a week, do 50% water change and repeat the routine.

You can do the testing and dosing method as well but bad or lousy test kit can point you to no where except algae tank...its up to you though.
[]

[ZeRoC00l]

Hmm.. I dun have so many chemicals with me or have the spare cash to buy them.[] []

Coould I just feed more so as to generate more nitrate?

Or feed frozen food like blood worms / mysishrimp?

[PeterGwee]

You need all the nutrients to be in place before the nitrate and phosphate can be uptaken....so....save up...they are pretty cheap chemicals as oppose to traces abd they last very long as compared to traces.

Feeding more is okay but you might get ammonia which is the major problem as it is toxic to fishes and if it is not uptaken fast, green water and other major algae will love you more. []

[Plantbrain]

Thanks Peter
Now I don't need to say no nuthing.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[DEA]

uh
i dunno about you, but i wouldn't use any form of antibiotics to remove bga
no sense in taking the chance of breeding resistant bga

i'm not sure if bga grows well due to the lack of nitrate, but i got rid of my infestation by manual removal, sucking up mulm in the tank and cleaning my filter
hth

[ZeRoC00l]

O...

I do have Dr Merick <excuse my spelling> K2SO4 , Fe, MgSO4, n trace element.

I'll dose these as instruction? I wouldn't do the blackout as the last time i did it, my fav plant died. Had a hard time trying to find it again.

I'll clean my filter then.. last change was like .... dun even remember got abt 3 mths i guess

Thanks guys []

Hope I can rid my BGA ASAP b4 my NS... []