FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Cyanobacteria or blue green algae is a creature that is feared by almost all hobbyists. It comes from nowhere to foul substrate, plants and hardscape. Many people point to the Republicans as the cause of BGA and everything evil, but conservatives know that it is a liberal conspiracy.

I recently had an outbreak of this noxious pest. I changed water, harvested the slime, played with the lights and hopped on one foot barking like a small dog. Nothing helped, but the hopping turned out to be fun and cardiovascular!

Near wit's end, a short journey for me, I decided to nuke the tank with eurhythmics, um, erythromycin. What the hell, I said to myself, I can spend all my time scooping slime from this pigsty or I can just try to kill everything at once. After all, we all know that erythromycin in an anti-bacterial drug that will wipe out all of the good bacteria in the tank leaving the bad bacteria to party and cruise the internet.

Knowing that I was using Iran's solution to peace in the Mideast, I carefully read the directions. Normal dosage is 1 capsule for 10 gallons of water. I carefully calculated the true volume of my 125 gallon tank and deducted the water displacement of the substrate, wood, plants, fish, eurhythmics (damn, I can't get that song out of my head) and came up with... 125 gallons.

Well, I kept confusing the numbers and not carrying a one when I was adding, subtracting or multiplying. After shooting the azimuth of the Eheim, I decided to dose one (1) capsule. Dissolving it in hot water, I added the entire contents of the glass to the aquarium. Imagine my disappointment when nothing happened. Yes, the fish begged for food but they didn't die or flick and the damn algae was still there after waiting a whole 5 minutes!

I headed off to the bedroom to hatch other ways to discomfit my fish and visit the LFS to buy more stuff. In the morning, I had a rude shock. Not only were the fish still alive but the algae was dying. In fact it was sheeting away from the wood in gray strips!

Great results but I needed a new excuse to visit the LFS. Life is so unfair...

Oh, it's been a week or two and nobody died, BGA is gone, fish have clearer eyes and whiter teeth.





__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Glad to hear about your success Bob That'll definetely do the trick.

There are things you can do to keep it away in a planted tank. Keep water moving throughout the tank, keep nitrates above 10ppm (should do that regardless), keep other conditions stable, like CO2, and keep the water clean and moving.

---

Back in the saddle!

I agree Bob -- I also used erythromycin and nothing but the algae died, or rather, nothing I can see. It probably does not harm the beneficial bacteria as ammonia and nitrites both stayed at 0 after the treatment. It's a hit!

Bob, you might like to read this thread ... some cyanobacteria can be nasty ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

David,

I read that thread a while back. The possibility of cohntracting any number of bugs from my fish tank leads me to wash my hands and arms after playing in the water. Any open cut or sore is covered with a water proof bandage.

I never want to have this... a bacterial infection on a fishkeeper's forearm.





Attached Image:


__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright