zeebee Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Hey Guys, So I planted my small tank with quite a few more plants. Since doing so I have had a breakout of brown diatoms, and now have woken this morning to see cyanobacteria through the tank :an!gry I have decided I want to move all the plants to my big tank, but will I contaminate the big tank with the cyanobacteria? Do I need to rinse them in a diluted bleach solution?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 get a school of Oto's, brown algae is best way to make them fat and happy also try a young siamese algae eater, they become part of the Oto school Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeebee Posted May 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Yes, its not the brown algae i'm worried about, its the blue green algae (cyanobacteria). Do otos eat BGA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 No fish eat cyano Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeebee Posted May 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 I don't blame them, doesn't look very appetising... :slfg: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtiskaw Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Try a three day blackout to kill the cyano. Get some thick garden bags from the supermarket and cover up the whole thing. No peeking! If you can house your fishies elsewhere during the blackout, it might be worth it as you can get an ammonia spike from the cyano dying off :dead%fish Give it a good vac and water change after the three days are up. If you see it start to reappear, do another blackout. Long term, you might need more water flow/aeration, and/or adjust your ferts/light/CO2 so the plants out-compete the cyano for resources. Good luck, it's nasty stuff but you can get rid of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 I suggest you pull out as much of the cyano as you can first, before doing the blackout. This will mean less to pollute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtiskaw Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Good idea, Caryl :thup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Li@m Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Yes the 3 day black out works very well, but in about 4 days later it will be back. You have to sort out the root of the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeebee Posted May 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Yeah I'm not sure what's caused it. I replaced the bulb in the light hood and planted a few more plants. It has two puffers and do 40% WC per week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahny Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 I have a really bad case of BGA as well... It got so bad that I couldn't even see my poor siamese fighter. It was mostly on my glosso and xmas moss so I chucked the driftwood it was on out into the garden, and after manually removing the rest of the BGA I couldn't find a trace of the glosso...completely disappeared. I had a thick carpet of it all over the bottom of my tank too There's still traces of bga on the substrate and along sides of the glass I can't reach with a brush. I haven't bothered with a blackout as I thought that if it's going to come back anyway, I'm going to try to treat the root cause. I took out my internal filter and tossed out the bio noodles and filter floss. A bit gutted cos I have new tanks I wanted to cycle with the media from this tank. Replaced the internal filter with a brand new sponge filter I had lying around as back up. Hoping this will do some good. I'll let you know how I go...Sorry to impose on your thread! I'm also very interested to get any other tips and/or advice on how to keep BGA under control without having to resort to temporary or chemical means. I'm also worried about contamination, does this now mean any cleaning equipment I used on my affected tank, I can no longer use on other tanks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karina Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Zeebee I had a brown algae breakout in my 430 very recently. I put phosphate remover media in my filter. Used API algae stuff and closed the nearby curtain to block out natural light. After 5 days all the brown algae was gone and my fish were happy throughout the whole process By the way I left my T5 on their 8 hour setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 It is often caused by an excess of phoshate over nitrate. The phoshate usually arrives from too much or the wrong type of food. Some people suggest to add nitrate but increinges total macro ferts is not much use without CO2 and good light. Removing the phoshate with water changes and reducing the feeding or changing the food could be the answer. Then blackout to give it a hard time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtiskaw Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 It is often caused by an excess of phoshate over nitrate. The phoshate usually arrives from too much or the wrong type of food. Some people suggest to add nitrate but increinges total macro ferts is not much use without CO2 and good light. Removing the phoshate with water changes and reducing the feeding or changing the food could be the answer. Then blackout to give it a hard time. Yep, excess phosphate seemed to be what triggered it in my tank. The macro fert mix I was using had too much phosphate for my tanks requirements. These days I use separate KNO3 and KH2PO4 dosing solutions Liam, if your BGA made a comeback in 4 days your tank must have been waaaay out of wack Mine took 6 weeks to re establish and then adjusting the nitrate/phosphate, and another blackout, got rid of it for good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtiskaw Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 I did some reading on the Barr Report (great site) last night, and Tom Barr seems to think it's more a lack of nitrate than excess phosphate. That still fits in with my experience as I was dosing less of my macro mix to get the phosphate down, so had less nitrate. "Low NO3 is part of it, and often the main issue in newer tanks and tanks that are really clean and prepped well. For other tanks, often clogged filters, a lot of organic matter, dirty filters etc, seems to be more the issue. Also, if you have a lull in plant growth in general, something it will infest some plants, a bit, maybe at the growing tips. Excel might help a little, not much, but the overall effect of a large water change+ cleaning filters, + dosing more KNO3, + tweaking CO2 a bit more, etc, jujst run down all the basic items that you need to do and check them off and make sure they are in good shape." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 29, 2012 Report Share Posted May 29, 2012 I agree but it is the relationship that is the problem I think. Too much nitrate can be a problem as well. The balance is the thing and a lot of ferts without light or carbon means it will not be used by plants and algae can take advantage. He is talking about heavy ferts with micronutrients,CO2, and good light. Nitrate is less of a problem than phoshate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeebee Posted May 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2012 Well my nitrates are at 0. Should I be doing less water changes or dose nitrate? I probably need to clean the filter too.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted May 29, 2012 Report Share Posted May 29, 2012 I find that it comes off stuff really easily. I just siphon it out. But if it keeps coming back then I do the blackout thing. From my experience if you have heaps of healthy plants then cyano shouldn't be a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtiskaw Posted May 29, 2012 Report Share Posted May 29, 2012 Well my nitrates are at 0. Should I be doing less water changes or dose nitrate? I probably need to clean the filter too.... I think if it's a planted tank with reasonable light and no CO2, then you should be dosing, but no where near as much as you would for a high light and CO2 injected tank. Ferts don't cause algae - you want them to not be a limiting factor in your tank. As Alan said, it's finding a balance. I had a read of a non-CO2 thread on the Barr Report, and he's recommending about 1/8" and 1/32" teaspoon of KNO3 and KH2PO4 respectively once a week or two for a 75 litre tank. You have to take into account your fish load and how many plants you have. He also recommends few water changes, as they cause CO2 swings, which is another cause of algae. Have a squiz at http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.ph ... hods/page2 - He sometimes takes a long time to say nothing, when all you want is a straight "How much, how often" answer, but it's worth a read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeebee Posted May 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2012 Wow that sure is a read lol, but thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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