Re-dosage time for cyanobacteria?

[Floater]

Having a bit of an outbreak of this stuff at the moment. Just dosed with 200mg per 100L of azithromycin (derivative of erythromycin which my vet assures me is basically the same). Just wondering how long before I should re-dose the tank, and what sort of water changes in between should be carried out?

Cheers,

Scott

[Caryl]

I cleaned out as much as possible by hand and siphon then dosed. I repeated this 3 days later with the only water change being topping up what got siphoned out as I cleaned it off the substrate.

[supasi]

Also pays to try find out what caused the outbreak.

Erythromicin will kill it, but if the conditions are right for it it will reoccur at a later date.

Have you tested the water to get an idea what its up too?

[Floater]

My water seemed fine.

0ppm Ammonia

0ppm Nitrite

5ppm Nitrate

Maybe an oversupply of nutrients? I've stopped dosing with Flourish. I am continuing with Flourish Excel though. Maybe I should stop that for now too...

[supasi]

Whats the water circulation like?

Cyano tends to develop in areas with less water movement.

Cross your fingers and hope it does not return.

I hate the smell of the stuff

[Floater]

Whats the water circulation like?

Cyano tends to develop in areas with less water movement.

Cross your fingers and hope it does not return.

I hate the smell of the stuff

It isn't growing on the gravel too much yet, mainly on the plants which are in a current :-? . Who knows, my fingers are crossed.

[Jennifer]

Studies show that macrolide antobiotics like erythromycin and azithromycin can sometimes deplete poluations of both Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter within your biological filter so you may see an ammonia spike until the populations re-establish a couple of weeks after treatment. Also, when the cyanobacteria die off they contribute organic nitrogen back into the tank, thus supplying more nutrients for other algae so best to remove any traces of it as you go along.

HTH

[Floater]

Studies show that macrolide antobiotics like erythromycin and azithromycin can sometimes deplete poluations of both Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter within your biological filter so you may see an ammonia spike until the populations re-establish a couple of weeks after treatment. Also, when the cyanobacteria die off they contribute organic nitrogen back into the tank, thus supplying more nutrients for other algae so best to remove any traces of it as you go along.

HTH

Thanks for the info. I re-dosed today (200mg/100L), second and final dose. All the cyanobacteria appeared to be dead after the first dose. So it should definitely be gone after the second. Now just have to hope that what ever I did first time round to cause it doesn't happen again :-? .

[art_b]

Try increasing nitrates to at least 10. At some point you might have bottomed out to 0 ppm nitrates which triggers cyanobacteria. Mine kept coming back even after dosing erythromycin. But after I added CO2, and not let my nitrates go to 0 ppm, the algae did not come back.

[Floater]

Try increasing nitrates to at least 10. At some point you might have bottomed out to 0 ppm nitrates which triggers cyanobacteria. Mine kept coming back even after dosing erythromycin. But after I added CO2, and not let my nitrates go to 0 ppm, the algae did not come back.

It hasn't come back since I dosed with Azithromycin. I am also doing far fewer water changes than I used to.