I've found a way to be rid of the algae, BUT...

Dwarf Puffers

Dwarf Puffers

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Dec 11, 2006
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NS, Canada
According to plantgeek, I can get rid of blue-green algae with 200mg of erythromycin for every 10 gallons of water. But it doesn't mention the safety for the fish, and more likely, the inverts in the aquarium. I've fed erythromycin in food to try to get rid of the anal worms, and was partially effective, but I'm unsure of actually dumping it into the water. Considering it concentrates in the kidneys of land animals while being used as an antibiotic, is it safe to treat the water with it? And will it have any adverse effects on any inverts I plan on adding in the future (I only have pest snails now, though they could cause an ammonia spike if there was a large die-off)?


The plantgeek link:

http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9
 
Erythromycin is the active ingredient in Maracyn, a common aquarium medication. Erythro will kill BGA without harming your fish or inverts, of course if the conditions that favoured BGA are not changed, it will come back.
 
Blue green algae and Anal worms oh my! :nilly:
 
watch your biofilter, i would manually remove as much as possible. Have you tried a blackout? What are your nitrate readings?
 
To the blackout suggestion, yes, I have, and the algae handles it better than the plants do. Not sure on the nitrates, though apparently blue-green algae sucks nitrates up like there's no tommorow. I added some Flourish (Iron and Complete or soemthing like that), I think I'm experiencing even more algae than usual currently because of it, or, the added nutrients just helped it along and permanently strengthened the amount in my tank.

Considering I'll be hitting up to 6 fairly good fish stores over the next week (monday to friday in Halifax and Truro), should I treat erythromycin, leave, and bring back some bushy, fast-growing plants to suck up extra nutrients faster than the algae (a tall order, that)? Any suggestions? (though I think 5 of those 6 pet stores don't label their plants by name, and thus I'll be going by printed pictures or memory).

Thanks :)
 
Dwarf Puffers said:
Not sure on the nitrates, though apparently blue-green algae sucks nitrates up like there's no tommorow. I added some Flourish (Iron and Complete or soemthing like that), I think I'm experiencing even more algae than usual currently because of it, or, the added nutrients just helped it along and permanently strengthened the amount in my tank.
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A major contributing factor to BGA is low nitrates. the BGA isn't causing low nitrates, the low nitrates is causing the BGA. Flourish only contains traces, you need to dose macros (nitrogen, phosphate, potassium).
 
Canuck said:
A major contributing factor to BGA is low nitrates. the BGA isn't causing low nitrates, the low nitrates is causing the BGA. Flourish only contains traces, you need to dose macros (nitrogen, phosphate, potassium).
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Oh, hmm. What kind of ferts would I need for that? I know little about ferts, although I think I can get the kind where they're in a plastic filter-like container and you buy dry refill packages.
 
Thats going to be the tricky part today. Flourish has a line of macro fertilizers Flourish Nitrogen, Potassium and phosphate. Aqua Nations in Halifax may carry these, I'm not sure. Dry fertilizers are much cheaper in the long run, but I'm not sure you'll find any around. KNO3 (potassium nitrate) is usually used for nitrate and potassium, I've been purchasing this at the drug store (but usually have to order it in). For phosphate I've used Fleet enema (or equivalent), also available at the drug store. The dry ferts can also be ordered on the net from Rex Grigg and aquariumfertilizer.com. Are you a member of Eastcoastaquariumsociety.ca, if you are and you know him Jart may be able to help you out. In a planted tank, you should have 10 ppm nitrates, 1 ppm phosphate (give or take), 20 ppm potassium. You should have nitrate and phosphate test kits, if you don't have them already.
 
Thanks, Canuck :) I'll have to write down some of the products and types you're listing.
 
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