Hydrogen Peroxide vs BGA

unseenone00 said:
well the thing is, I have used Erythromycin, and it didnt get all the spots. There was still some hidden in my moss, and stuck on slate rock cave. I will be siphoning any clumps i see, scaping back glass wall and siphon the second it comes off. Dose the tank with Erythromycin again, but take out the cave and the wood pieces w/ moss and dip them in peroxide. And if any spots show up in my tank, do a spot treatment. And with my dosing of KNO3, the recovery of the BGA in my tank is very slow. Its just that i had too much left. Im trying to annihilate it completely.... Though im now questioning the health of my moss :( looks to be some dead strains mixed with new growth everywhere. It hasnt stopped improving though so who knows !
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don't bother with the H2O2 on the BGA. It is ineffective as a treatment. The H2O2 will do great on BBA, hair algae, diatoms and other actual algae. But on a cynobacteria its not effective. You may have better luck using bleach dip instead of H2O2. I think once you do a good physical cleaning of everything then dose Erythromycin you should have it handled. Be sure your using enough of a dose for long enough.
 
and have u tried it you yourself? I did small spot treatments last night, the spots i treated broke apart, turned brown, and are gone this morning, big spots
 
Like I said, I have never tried the H202, but it seems like a lot of work, and what if you miss some spots, then it comes back? I had cyano about as bad as one could have it. It was in my 10 gallon planted, it was a 0 nitrate problem like you had. Anyway, I took out as much as I could, syphoning out as much BGA as possible, after syphoning, I probably replaced close to 100 percent of the water, which is ok, most of your beneficial bacteria is in the substrate anyway. So after getting almost all of it out, I dosed Maracyn. I still saw a little sticking around after the first full dose which is 2 days worth of treatment. I did what the medication box told me. I did a 50 percent water change though, and dosed for another 2 days. After doing another 50 percent water change after the second dose, it was gone. I added nitrogen and it hasn't come back. I have been very careful not to let the nitrates hit 0 again since that time. I wouldn't bother with spot treating, your not going to get it all that way. If you see "Any" BGA after treating with the Erythromycin, in the moss, behind a rock, whatever, dose again. You might have to dose twice to get it all. If you dose twice and it hasn't gone away, well I don't know what to tell you. Hopefully it has at least got better, and you dose a third time to finish it off. Eventually it will work, and much better than just spot treating with peroxide(if that actually works which like I said, I have not tried it, and won't because for me the Erythromycin always works great). My first experience with cyanobacteria was back in 2000, I have had it probably 4 times since I started in the hobby, which I started back in 1999. I have been doing this a while, I wouldn't give you bad advice.
 
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unseenone00 said:
and have u tried it you yourself? I did small spot treatments last night, the spots i treated broke apart, turned brown, and are gone this morning, big spots
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Yes I have. While you might zap a little here or there it comes back. Once a tank has BGA its all in the tank and this is why spot treating BGA won't do the job. The tank has to be treated as a whole water and all. Feel free to try it.
 
The important thing to remember is if it was an algae it would be different, kill the algae and it's dead. But the cyano is a bacteria and is in the water itself. You won't be able to spot treat the bacteria unless you have a very very small pipette and a microscope.
 
but i did not say i was not gonna dose maracyn or anything, its just that killing bulk with peroxide BEFORE i dose it, the maracyn wont get used up fighting that particular bulk, and more of it will seep out and kill any free floating or small bits hiding in the tank. Its a combo attack! lol
 
Dumb question what is BGA and how do you know it you have it. Also I have a small aoumt of BBA and hair algae in my tank so will H2O2 take care of it. I started dosing Excell yesterday as I heard that would get rid of it. I am just wanting to get rid of it faster.
 
BGA = Blue-Green Algae, but its not actually an algae... its a cyanobacteria. hair algae is eatten by fish such as siamese algae eaters, and use a pipette to directly dose the excel on BBA to kill it
 
What could I use if I do not have a pipette. I have a syringe that I use to dose my ferts would that work.
 
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