Blue Green Algae/Cyanobacteria outbreak

[wEiPInG]

Hi all,

I have a terrible outbreak of cyanobacteria or as most people call the blue green algae/bacteria. Have anyone met with this problem and how do you remove them? I have tried frequently removing them manually but they just kept coming back. I have 10+ Chromaphyopsemion Splendopleure 'Tiko' in this 3 feet tank. Thus I am hesitant to use any other methods without first consulting experienced personel. The tank is powered by 1 36W pl light lighting only 1 half of the tank. It is only this half that contacted cyanobacteria. Does it help to just switch off the light for a few days? Are there any fishes that will remove them? Are there any effective chemicals that I can get from the market that can solve this problem?

Please help. Thank you.


Wei Ping

[erirku]

BGA some what easy IMO. It is hard to get rid of, if you have small remnants lying around in your tank. The way I got rid of it was by getting rid of the infected plants (trim) cleaning the BGA pieces with the siphon, then I treated it with and antibiotic. I think it was erythromycin??? While I'm doing the antibiotics, I do a major water change and blackout for several days. Good luck.

[FC]

Wei Ping,

I did that with anti-biotic too, 5 years ago. I placed the tablet near/at the BGA. Do 100% water after 2~3 days. Then repeat this once or twice. The BGA never come back since then.

There are people who are against this method for good reasons. If you ever do this, do it correctly/well.

As for the dosage, gauge it against human body volume. Example, one tablet is recommended for an adult. Then, one tablet is good for about 60 litres of aquarium water. This may be a little stronger but I think it is a safer bet.

There are people who has succes with blackout for 3 days, then change 100% water. You may want to try this method first.

[SQUEAK]

Hi,

You might want to look at my thread found here. It was originally started about CO2 diffusion, but quickly snowballed into fixing a blue-green algae problem - and the suggestions worked very well! I think it started around page 2 or 3, but the entire thread is only 4 pages.

[AquaManCanada]

I have taken care of cyano algae two ways. The first time I had it I went away for 4 days and decided to leave the lights off and it went away and never came back. I recently got an outbreak of bga in another tank and tried the erythomycin treatment and it worked wonderfully as well.

[ed seeley]

I got rid of it by giving the tank a really good clean, adding more CO2 and upping the flow rates. It went in a couple of weeks. From what I have heard, I think poor flow rates seems to be a common determining facter in BGA outbreaks.