Erythromycin For BGA

[itafx]

My experience over the last 6 months matches this pretty well. In my tanks with soil under the top layer of substrate, I have had little or no problems with BGA. The ones that have been plagued are the ones with plain sand and no ferts. I wonder if good fert tabs buried in the sand are enough to keep the BGA away.

[Plantbrain]

This assumes what you are using to measure NO3 is accurate........did you calibrate the test NO3 kit or not?

If not, you really cannot say what the NO3 is or not and what was it prior to the BGA, like the week before hand?.........

Go back and either do it right or do not do it.

The other way around this issue, you know using KNO3 and the tank volume how to add 10ppm.

So does the test kit measure a 10ppm increase after dosing this amount?
If not, you know the test kit is way off.

By adding 10ppm, you know that is the minimum NO3.
By adding 2-3x a week 10ppm in a CO2 enriched tank+ weekly 50% water changes, and good ample CO2 and dosing, there should never be any BGA.

It's when folks make NO3 measurement assumptions, do not do water changes, have poor CO2 etc.............

I hear all these horror stories and have for over a decade on the web about BGA, and how folks have absolution in their measurements and routines, yet every time I try to repeat these same conditions I do not get BGA, unless I fail to clean the filters, do not prune, general neglect, or I allow the NO3 to bottom.

I can go back and repeat this and induce BGA in the low NO3 treatment repeatedly. Everytime.

That shows at least a strong correlation that would suggest cause, and with a good NO3 test method, I can further support that.

Now if just the BGA itself is some super vicious type and it just picks on your tanks personally, I have hard time accepting that rational.
So do others that have long since not had algae issues and obviously have had the opportunity to have exposure to BGA and it's air born spores.

There is a cause and folks make assumptions, we all do, that can get them in trouble and make it seem like they are the exception many times, this is not the exclusive domain of BGA, this applies to BBA and many other algae.

If you rely heavily on test kits for measurements, you need to calibrate them and learn how.

If you do not want to bothered with testing the kits, don't bother using using them, there are other methods that avoid their use if you are not going to run a standard to reference them against.

So you have a couple of options, use them right, or not at all.
Well, you can still use them and not calibrate them, but then you are dealing with belief. You cannot say if those readings are correct or not without calibration.

Some claim the test are good enough for their purposes, no, they are not, they have readings all over the place and no brand is infallible, I have found the Lamott and Hach brands to be the most accurate.

But I still calibrate those.

But careful with your assumptions, go back and make sure and think about ways to get around some of those potentially troublesome issues.

I did a dozen BGA blackout + KNO3 test. Everyone of them worked and the BGA did not come back after 30 days.

Algae generally appear in the tanks when the plants are not happy.
They are sign that something needs to be done in the tank, water changes/dosing/more CO2 etc.

It's the same thing 1001 times.
Focus on the plants.




Regards,
Tom Barr

[itafx]

Here's an update: It's been about 5 weeks. Still no sign of BGA whatsoever. Ecosystem looks good, plants are thriving, and fish are healthy. Looks like erythromycin was just what was needed in this case.

[An t-iasg]

That's good news! Now you can get back to enjoying your tank and the fish!

[Plantbrain]

Just make sure to take care of the plants, add the KNO3, traces, KH2PO4, Gh and do those water changes, pruning and filter cleanings.

It's not complex if you keep up on things.
Then things stay stable, if you neglect things, you often have some issues and it takes old fashion work to push them back to a stable state.

Same deal for ecosystem restoration, it's just at a much larger scale.

I do not care if you use the pills or the blackout or both, I care that you learn enough from the outbreak to know to take better care of the plants so you do not have an algae that attacks again and if so, you know what to do to stop it before it gets nasty.

That's where good advice come in.
If all you hear is "add pills" to kill BGA, that's bad advice.

You need to address root causes for algae, and it's almost always poor plant growth.
Look there first, then correct that and then attack the algae.

That's a much better way of going about any algae management.



Regards,
Tom Barr

[itafx]

I agree that good care is the important thing. I don't know about adding the chems though. I'm not doing a high light scenario. I'm using substrate ferts that don't have any phosphorous, but are supposed to have everything else needed. The plants seem to be extremely healthy. Since putting the fert tabs in and using a good substrate, plants that had gotten sickly have revived and become brilliant. My amazon sword has had 2 babies that are growing very well, other plants are multiplying rapidly too.

[Plantbrain]

There's no sediment I'm aware of that has everything you need except PO4, you need that and Nitrogen as well, which is why you got the bad BGA outbreak.

A little chem knowledge goes a long way, you can make the same argument about learning how to drive, it does make life easier once you know how.

Each step such as adding say K+, or more light or CO2 etc helps to improve growth, but making sure you have done everythign you can will provide the best method and the least issues, it's not hard either.

BTW, why use those fert tabs?

Take some dirt/soil, add alittle water=> mud.
Take mud and oput in ice cube tray, freeze.

Take mud cube out, and place under plants.
It thaws under the plant without making a mess.

Soil has N and P in it and why the tank did fairly well till about 4-10 months later when the soil runs out of the nutrients, namely Nitrogen.

Mud cubes are cheaper.


Regards,
Tom Barr

[Sicklid]

I used the maracyn treatment with great results, but part of the results were that I also cut my light in half... I am now able to keep the plants going at a manageable rate (my Rotala must be trimmed weekly to prevent it from taking over!) and I am able to see that the nutrient levels are kept from bottoming as Tom says. When the conditions were out of control to the point where the plants were using up the nitrates so quickly I couldn't stay on top of it, I had BGA at epidemic proportions. It is only by changing the root cause that I say I had "success", not because I used the erythromycin. I am using DIY co2 in a 2.5g with 13w 5000k CF. I can safely say this tank is now "balanced" as I get great growth, and I have not even seen surface algae on my glass, plants, or hardscape for almost three weeks whereas before I had BGA, Thread Algae, and Green surface Algae on everything within THREE DAYS of cleaning.

[Puddle]

Originally Posted by Sicklid

I used the maracyn treatment with great results, but part of the results were that I also cut my light in half... I am now able to keep the plants going at a manageable rate (my Rotala must be trimmed weekly to prevent it from taking over!) and I am able to see that the nutrient levels are kept from bottoming as Tom says. When the conditions were out of control to the point where the plants were using up the nitrates so quickly I couldn't stay on top of it, I had BGA at epidemic proportions. It is only by changing the root cause that I say I had "success", not because I used the erythromycin. I am using DIY co2 in a 2.5g with 13w 5000k CF. I can safely say this tank is now "balanced" as I get great growth, and I have not even seen surface algae on my glass, plants, or hardscape for almost three weeks whereas before I had BGA, Thread Algae, and Green surface Algae on everything within THREE DAYS of cleaning.

I also have a BGA problem - How long do you keep your lights on for now?

[itafx]

In the mean time, I heard a good reason for not using Erythro: it kills off the beneficial bacteria in your tank as well as the BGA, so you have to recycle your tank over again.