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I was looking on Bigals and it didn't say ANYTHING about getting rid of cyano, like I've heard. Also, will it damage my biological filter or anything if I use it?

My 90 gallon has cyano big time.... I HATE THIS CRAP! No matter what I do, my tank never looks good... plants wont grow, cyano everywhere... almost makes me want to give up fishkeeping...



Last edited by fishnewbie at 17-Dec-2005 13:51

Cyanobacteria is a gram negative bacteria so Myracin 2 or almost any other gram negative antibiotic will do the trick. As far as destroying your biological filter, yes it will have an impact on it. After all, you are adding a bacteria killing med in there, so... be prepared for a lot of water changes for you might have to cycle the tank from scratch.

Furthermore, treating a 90gal will be costy. If I had a tank infested like that, I would skip the meds and disinfect the whole thing with bleach and start over. But that's only MY opinion. Others might see it differently.

Good luck !

Sponge
NB : Might be helpfull to know what kinda of aquarium you have. Tropical ? Substrate ? Kind of Fish in there ? Filtration ?


Last edited by Sponge_Bob at 18-Dec-2005 06:52

you have to pretty much eradicate the stuff first before drugs will fully wipe it out. have you tried absolutely everything else first?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I treated my tanks with Maracyn, but not Maracyn 2. Mine for sure did work, but as Calla points out it is a good idea to first take all visible BGA out.

Any idea why you have BGA in the first place?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Made some research and found some valuable infos. Here they are :

BGA or cyanobacter needs little to grow. Factors that will make them thrive are :

- High dKH
- High CO2
- Lighting
- Decaying food / organic matter
- Phosphate ( though not their only source of nutrient )
- Nitrogen

based on that, you might want to check the following :

- Filtration adequate ?
- Maintenance / Cleaning
- Water surface movement
- Don't use air pump + bubble stones and the like. CO2 is more soluble in water than O2. Best way to get rid of CO2 and inject O2 in water is by water surface movement.
- Having more plants will help deprive the water of nutrients available for BGA to feed on.
- UV Sterilizers help by destroying free floating algae.
- Avoid using Bicarbonates to ajust pH as that will only add to your problem. That will produce more CO2 in your water.

Hope this helps a bit.

Sponge

I've got a tropical freshwater tank.

Yeah I usually do water changes once every 2 weeks. I also have a cannister filter rated for 100 gallons and a HOB rated for 60. I think that should be enough filtration.

Even if I take all the visible cyano out, the next day, I can already see splotches of it starting to overtake the tank.

If I add any plants, they get taken over by the cyano too... Most of them anyway. My red ludwigia always grow darker leaves, and start losing them... I think some of my fish are eating them... Probably the RTBS or my upside down catfish... or my BN....

I think I should use Maracyn II then.... I've also tried a product called Chemi-clean which seemed to work very well at first. Of course, after a week the cyano was all back again. Do you guys no if "Chemi-Clean" is any different than Maracyn?

Last edited by fishnewbie at 18-Dec-2005 11:37

Hi Sponge_Bob,

I would be curious as to where you found this information.

I was under the impression that BGA does not require Nitrates to thrive as it can fix its own.

Further, if all options that you list would be put in place, wouldn’t one create a tank where even live plants cannot thrive? Basically all options listed are the essentials for plant growth, CO2, light, nutrients, little surface agitation, and so forth.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

A few things that might help reduce/eliminate the BGA -

Increase water movement...not just on the surface, but all thru the water column... try a couple extra powerheads or something.

Do a total blackout for a few days... kill all the lights, an' wrap the sides of the tank with a black blanket or something... try to keep all light out of the tank.

Increase O2 - venturi style powerheads/air, airstones, etc, etc...

Might want to try some or all of those in combination with full doses of meds...

I've never even bothered to try anything other than totally tearing down the tank to get rid of BGA, so I've never tried anything I've listed above...that's only stuff that other people have told me to do, so you might want to look into them first

Good luck

Basically all options listed are the essentials for plant growth, CO2, light, nutrients, little surface agitation, and so forth.

Exactly. I've found it hard to control BGA in my one lightly planted tank, and the easiest thing in the world to control in my more heavily planted tanks. I would suggest doing a black-out and then planting your tank, but a few bunches of stems in a 90 gallon isn't going to cut it, you really need to go all the way. Still, a blackout is the most harmless method I think. Remove all the BGA you can, cover the tank up for 3 days, then do a big gravel vac and water change.

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Back in the saddle!

Worst. Algae (bacterium). Evar.

Mac. is light stuff, and didn't really do much for me when I added it. The blackout did, however, work more or less effectively. The last resort, of course, is to break out the erythro.

What can I say... I found all the answers above on a pretty extensive paper ( several pages ) on BGA on the web. I do all the above and in some of my tanks, even the planted ones, I have BGA problems IF I don't do regular maintenance on my filters and make regular water changes. In ALL my tanks, I have a UV Sterilizer and they work wonders... as long as your filter can gobble up all the dead algae that comes out of it. When the filter is full, seems like the free floating dead algae turns into food for BGA and that's when problems occur.

Don't go with anti-biotics. Useless long term. Will only work short time.

I use Coralife Turbo-Twist UV Sterilizers. 9 Watts for my 25 and 35 gal. 18 Watts for my 80, 60 and 55 gallon. I know it's an overkill but I'd rather be sure than sorry. Anyway, the difference in price is minimal. To feed those lil' destroyers, I use Aqua-Clear Power Heads. 30 for the 9 Watts and 50 for the 18 watts. I know it's a lot of money, but I try to give the best for my fish. They are worth it.

Again, this is NOT the perfect solution and it is far from being 100% efficient. Nothing beats a good maintenance and elbow grease. But it sure doesn't hurt to have UVs.

Lastly, no, I have no problems with my plants. Some do not survive in this setting, some do. I simply buy those that do well. Which ones ? Dunno. Haven't the foggyiest idea of the names. Sorry, plants are not my cup of tea. I consider them to be a decorative item. ( I know they are more than that but that's how I feel about them. )

Sponge

Just to add one more things...

If you go the blackout route, once it's over and the BGA is gone, it's vital (IMO) to keep a good amount of circulation flowing throughout the tank. Stagnant water is bad and you'll be asking for trouble. Keep the water moving, especially in corners away from the filter outflow and you'll increase your chances of keeping it at bay in a non-planted or slightly-planted tank.

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Back in the saddle!

I LOOOOVE Cyano


Ooops today isnt opposite day .


So who wants my BGA experiences (minus the one where I laughed at a coworker for buying it in some "green" health drink :%) ).

I'm rewaging the BGA battle, I'm sick of the dosing of nitrAtes and blackouts (the crypts barely recovered from the last time I did a blackout).

BGA IME survives quite well in low lit tanks, in high lit tanks in Zero nitrAtes, in 40 ppm nitrates and ....now it's able to establish itself in a 30 gallon tank that has an AC 500, an AC 201 powerhead, and an eheim ecco rated for a 70 gallon tank.

I started dosing with E in my home 20, hopefully it wont come to dosing the 30 in the office.

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I got rid of my BGA recently! Scraping it off with a credit card. Removing and bleaching rocks and plastic plants (then soak for days in water and rinse tonnes). Feeding less. Water changes more. And hydrogen peroxide once in a while (with the filter sponge out and soaking in tank water for 30 mins while it fizzles out). Also added a bubble wall to the corner where it was growing. And put my lights on a timer so only 6 hours per day.

You may want to do your yearly total tear down instead of meds. Set up a tank for the fish while you do it, and two weeks later put them back to the main tank.

I was told to get eurethromyacin from the vet but is it safe for cories?

Last edited by pizpot at 22-Dec-2005 19:38

As already said, BGA is gram NEGATIVE. Erythromycin is gram POSITIVE... will not work or give only very poor results.

Antibotic, when only diluted in water or alcohol depending of the kind of antibiotic used, will not effect much the fish internally. When treating a fish and you wish to give it antibiotics, better off mixing it with their food. Otherwise, it's ( relatively ) good on open wounds and such.

Sponge

Errg... I don't like the idea of doing a blackout...

Then all of my plants will die for sure. Not worth it.

I hate to turn down all of this advice, but I'm going to try Maracyn 2 first... Just bought it the other day anyways. If that doesn't work, I'm going with a blackout then. Looks like any way I do it, I'm going to have to almost start completely over...

I freaking hate cyano...

OH yeah BTW, thank you guys so much for all of your help!

Last edited by fishnewbie at 29-Dec-2005 13:02