Algae Problem need help!

[YuccaPatrol]

Save your money on chemicals/antibiotics/etc.

Cyanobacteria can be completely eliminated by a 3 day blackout. I've done this several times with great success.

I do 3 days and 4 nights and when I unveil the tank every bit of that awful stuff is gone gone gone.

Make sure not to peek at any time and don't worry about feeding the fish.

You may want to increase the volume of your water changes. Try 50% each week instead of 25%. I routinely do 75% water changes in my tanks and my fish love me for giving them the clean water.

 

[jwddboy]

YuccaPatrol is correct in everything said but...

Cyanobacteria can be completely eliminated by a 3 day blackout.

As mentioned before. A blackout will kill any weak plants which have already been starved of light... but it will make the algae die down so you cant see it.
I promise you... its still lurking in the shadows to start growing again.

YuccaPatrol even confirms that:

I've done this several times with great success.

Having to do it more that once means that:
1. the tank still contained the algae after your blackout. It didnt completley kill it off.

2. You are subjecting the fish to a lot of prolonged dark that they are not used to, and seeing as they are already quite stressed because of this gross algae everywhere you dont want to be stressing them out more by not feeding them and starving them from light.

3. You need to get better lights in your aquarium... it wont grow under a proper light source!

I am not saying that YuccaPatrol is wrong, as yes the method would work, it just may not be the best option for you. Especially as you seem annoyed about having to clean it our regularly.

 

[Jay-Stew]

What do you mean better lights?? My 65 G has been up for 8 weeks now and iI am starting to get small growths of green hair algea on the plants, rear wall and filter. I figure I am just not cleaning enough. i also do 2x 40% water changes a week. My lights run for 11 hours a day and it does get in-direct sunlight into the room. Could cutting the time the lights are on be a solution? any ideas? Oh yea I use 2x 30 watts bulbs ,flourescent.

 

[carpguy]

1. the tank still contained the algae after your blackout. It didnt completley kill it off.

If you could kill it off completely with Erythromycin or a black out (either will work equally well), it'd be back in the tank a second time the same way it was the first (through the air, through the water): the tank always contains all sorts of algae and cyanobacteria. It will reoccur so long as the conditions are right for it. No matter how it is treated the root cause needs to be identified and remedied: the method of treatment is a short-term fix and has absolutely nothing to do with the long-term solution.

2. You are subjecting the fish to a lot of prolonged dark that they are not used to, and seeing as they are already quite stressed because of this gross algae everywhere you dont want to be stressing them out more by not feeding them and starving them from light.

You risk crashing your biofilter with the antibiotics: the fish will find this more stressful than a few days darkness and a three day fast. Fish do not need to eat every day and will suffer no ill effects from going with out for a week or more. You can feed the fish during a blackout if you like. Nothing about the blackout is stressful for the fish.

3. You need to get better lights in your aquarium... it wont grow under a proper light source!

It will and it does. I've had it in a high light aquarium.

The water parameters seem fine but i have high levels of phospates

What are they? They're information folks out here can use to try and figure out what's going on in your tank. Especially Nitrate and GH, but whatever info you've got.

What sort of filtration? Powerheads? Current?

Jay-stew: please start your own thread. You're low light. What sort of plants? Ferts? Parameters?

 

[Roan Art]

You guys really need to discuss this in the plants forum where the gurus are

Cyanobacteria will occur when there is high light and the plants are starved for NO3. If you let your nitrates bottom out to 0, you're just asking for BGA.

I know

3 day blackout works, but if you don't correct the nutrient imbalance it will come back.

You can also try nitrofurazone, which will not harm the biofilter at all. While using it on one of my rainbowfish tanks -- they always carry columnaris and of late I've been doing a back-to-back treatment of Furan 2 on all new fish once they settled in -- I found it killed the BGA that was starting to form in that tank.

Tried it on two more tanks -- I have very high light and nutrient greedy plants. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with the KNO3 dosing -- and in every case it killed the BGA and didn't touch the biofilter.

Anyhow, there's a lot of stuff on BGA prevention and treatment in the Aquatic Plants forum, as well as several gurus who don't frequent the other forums.

Roan