I've been mostly told it's a byproduct of low nitrates, which makes no sense at all to me. Now I'm being told it's from high nitrates. Kind of confusing
What will eat blue-green algae?
- Thread starter Dwarf Puffers
- Start date
I've been mostly told it's a byproduct of low nitrates, which makes no sense at all to me. Now I'm being told it's from high nitrates. Kind of confusing
I've seen this stuff at LFS that I sometimes go to for window shopping. I'm not so sure if it's a lack of circulation or not, since some of my tanks don't have any circulation at all. I did notice one time on an air-stone of mine.
I have a white ceramic air-stone, and it was running in a 10G planted, filtered tank. There was a decent amount of circulation, and defiantely not a lack of O2. The air-stone wouldn't be a "dead spot", and the water tested to have 0 Nitrate, plants ate it all. After a few months, the air-stone started developing some bluish color to it, and I was suspicious, so it was removed, and bleached. There was also another air-stone in that tank that didn't show these signs.
I really didn't know if it was BGA or not, but I took action before I wanted to find out. It's never returned since, and now the same air-stone is acting as a CO2 diffuser instead of an O2 supplier.
Hope my experience helps a bit.
I have a white ceramic air-stone, and it was running in a 10G planted, filtered tank. There was a decent amount of circulation, and defiantely not a lack of O2. The air-stone wouldn't be a "dead spot", and the water tested to have 0 Nitrate, plants ate it all. After a few months, the air-stone started developing some bluish color to it, and I was suspicious, so it was removed, and bleached. There was also another air-stone in that tank that didn't show these signs.
I really didn't know if it was BGA or not, but I took action before I wanted to find out. It's never returned since, and now the same air-stone is acting as a CO2 diffuser instead of an O2 supplier.
Hope my experience helps a bit.
I've been mostly told it's a byproduct of low nitrates, which makes no sense at all to me. Now I'm being told it's from high nitrates. Kind of confusing
I think what star_rider meant is that in his(her?) experience, BGA can even establish itself in a tank with high nitrates.
Low nitrates is decidely a condition which can lead to BGA. In star-rider's case, I would guess it was a low circulation issue which can also result in BGA.
That's where I come from by suggestion dosing nitrate and increasing circulation.
You have a decent amount of plants in there, with good low light. If you have a test kit, test nitrate. Your LFS will likely do this for you as well. If it's 0 ppm, you need nitrogen. If it's not, I'd increase circulation. Powerheads are the cheapest fix for this.
And again, kill it with EM, but be prepared with something to prevent it from coming back.
also, will potassium permanganate kill BGA? Im moving everything to a larger tank so i can dip everything in it
Not sure about the KMnO4, but I know many members of SFBAAPS kill BBA with direct treatment with a strong KNO3 solution.
Excel kills BBA as well.
BBA is almost certainly due to an improper balance between light and co2.
Excel kills BBA as well.
BBA is almost certainly due to an improper balance between light and co2.
Sorry, I know we're talking about BGA, but for that last post, I thought you were also talking about BBA.
I still don't know about the KMnO4 for BGA, either, just EM.
I still don't know about the KMnO4 for BGA, either, just EM.
Well the algae is almost completely gone. The few dead spots there are (only a few) have been sucked with a turkey baster continually.
I'll try to remember to test my nitrates, might do it right now.
I'll try to remember to test my nitrates, might do it right now.
Nitrate is 6, maybe 7. Tank was changed a few days ago, and really, I thought it was heavily stocked. Has a AC 110 and AC 50 on it, so filtering over 2x the standard requirement. I change the filters every 2 weeks or so.
Also noticed that the water is a bit cloudy. Not "Marco polo, where's the apisto" cloudy, but enough to be noticeable. Probably the cyano dying off, or is it? Anything wrong with this?
Also noticed that the water is a bit cloudy. Not "Marco polo, where's the apisto" cloudy, but enough to be noticeable. Probably the cyano dying off, or is it? Anything wrong with this?
