Blue Green Algae Control

[Zac]

Hey all,

I have a small blue green algae problem. It’s mainly on certain areas of gravel. I haven’t seen it anywhere else. I need to do weekly water changes/gravel vacs so that kind of keeps it under control. But I’ve noticed it slowly start to get worse. Light is at 7-8 hrs per day. Sometimes I’ll turn the gravel over to prevent it from getting light.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Blue green algae is actually a bacteria that photo-synthesizes. There are a few methods, blacking out your tank, using h2o2 (hydrogen peroxide) or an antibiotic like Maracyn2. If it were to hit me I'd go with the maracyn as I've seen disasters (dead fish and fast) with the peroxide method and it will kill your good bacteria. Blacking out if you have nothing on hand would be your only option, risk here is possibly losing plants. I would probably go with Maracyn 2 if it were me- while it could also kill beneficial bacteria it seems like the most manageable choice. 

Before you do any of the methods do your research. Clean the tank like you have been first. And then go for the treatment you pick. 

[Katali]

In Canada, we can buy a product called "Ultra Life". I've used it in four tanks to date with great success at eliminating blue green algae from my tanks. All of the tanks had neos and relatively sensitive fish, and I've never had any losses after treatment. Good luck!

[lefty o]

cut the amount of light. try 6 hours a day, if it still does it, cut back more.

[Torrey]

I will share my cyanobacteria secret... as soon as I figure it out 🤪

 

I have literally gone years with zero cyanobacteria, and in the past 4 months it has shown up in 4 tanks. I have been cleaning with a toothbrush and a siphon to carry the bacteria away immediately. 

I don't want to jinx myself, but I seem to have eliminated it from one tank by lowering the water level to below the cyanobacteria, used a paper towel to wipe it up, then wiped a cotton ball soaked in hydrogen peroxide over every plant leaf and that I had found the blue green bacteria on. Then I refilled the tank with dechlorinated water.

I have not seen any more growth in this tank... which leaves me with a conundrum. I don't think it's possible to wipe gravel...

[JoeQ]

I was just reading this article https://www.tankarium.com/types-of-aquarium-algae/

Which pointed out that overfeeding (and im assuming decaying plant matter) is also a contributor to BGA. It's something to consider since decay = more disolved solids in the water. Sadly with forums you usually recieve the typical spoon-fed algea advice of 'its a light or co2 problem'......  With not much other advice or thinking outside the box. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 2/17/2022 at 6:13 AM, JoeQ said:

Sadly with forums you usually recieve the typical spoon-fed algea advice of 'its a light or co2 problem'......  With not much other advice or thinking outside the box. 

You can state your experience, method or research without belittling other users' assistance. This kind of thing isn't tolerated on the forum. You could have left your bit of advice without the sentence above. Please do so in the future. It can get you banned.

Edited February 17, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[lefty o]

On 2/17/2022 at 8:13 AM, JoeQ said:

I was just reading this article https://www.tankarium.com/types-of-aquarium-algae/

Which pointed out that overfeeding (and im assuming decaying plant matter) is also a contributor to BGA. It's something to consider since decay = more disolved solids in the water. Sadly with forums you usually recieve the typical spoon-fed algea advice of 'its a light or co2 problem'......  With not much other advice or thinking outside the box. 

it is for sure a balance of light, and nutrients. usually cutting back 1 or the other can do the trick, and since it is usually the fact people run their lights for way too many hours, they get the cut back the lighting advice.

[JoeQ]

On 2/17/2022 at 10:03 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

You can state your experience, method or research without belittling other users' assistance. This kind of thing isn't tolerated on the forum. You could have left your bit of advice without the sentence above. 

It wasn't belittling and im sorry if you read it that way. All i was saying was I got little algea help from light modifications. And I believe the co2 cause is often overstated. 

[JoeQ]

On 2/17/2022 at 10:04 AM, lefty o said:

it is for sure a balance of light, and nutrients. usually cutting back 1 or the other can do the trick, and since it is usually the fact people run their lights for way too many hours, they get the cut back the lighting advice.

Nutrients I agree with, im just breaking down nutrients into more categories to include overfeeding and decaying plant matter which is often overlooked as a 'nutrient'. Lighting should be considered as secondary IMO. Advice that I recieved early in my planted tank addiction days caused me to cut soooo drastically in lighting at the detriment of my plants and then considered buying a costly co2 system to 'fix it" (which would of only confused me more) My advice was only based on this, the primary advice mentioned in the hobby is its a light/co2 issue. When in reality its easier to think of nutrition as anything present in the water. (fertilizer, food, fish poop, decaying plants) 

[Torrey]

On 2/6/2022 at 8:44 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

peroxide method and it will kill your good bacteria.

@xXInkedPhoenixX doesn't the maracyn (antibiotic) also kill the BB in the tank?

That's why I have not used it, because my tanks post heater failure are currently too overstocked to risk losing the BB.

I definitely don't recommend just adding H2O2 to the tank, I use an infant medicine syringe to prevent overdosing the tank while also "painting" the cyanobacteria with water filtration/aeration turned off for 15 minutes. 

So far, lowering the water level so I can wipe plants and hardscape with H202, and waiting for 15 minutes to refill/turn aeration/filtration back on is definitely reducing the cyanobacteria I can see.

It's also labor intensive, and I recognize that not everyone has the spoons... some days *I* don't have the spoons.😬

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Torrey I do believe it CAN and the package even says so (doesn't say that it absolutely does- which is non-committal on the part of the manufacturer- but I'm usually prepared for medication to crash my cycle no matter what the meds are). The H2O2 method to me is double detrimental- you can kill all of your fish AND kill your BB and it seems a fine line that I don't care to tread myself. I would personally never do it. It's a bacteria in this case, so an antibacterial I would use- my fish would absolutely survive treatment. Thankfully I've never had to and hopefully never will. 

Edited February 18, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX