About to throw in the towel against BGA

[jsoong]

I have been fighting bad BGA for at least a couple years now. The type I have is brown to black, so may be Red Slime Algae is a better name. It forms a thick matted sheet over everything & killing my plants (and maybe even fish ....)

I though I had fight it at least to a draw .... but over the summer I am losing .... badly. In the spring, I was throwing out handfuls of Vals, hygro & hornwort .... things seems to be under control & plants are growing like weeds. Well, in the last months, plants are dying ... All the hygro had disappeared, and even the trusty hornwort had shrunk to a fraction of the former self. I am manually removing BGA from the leaves every few days just to keep the remaining plants alive ... this is getting out of hand.

What I have tried so far:
1. Manipulating the light cycle - more light, less light, a couple hr break in mid day ... <Total blackout trial - needs 2+ weeks to kill a sample on rocks ... don't think my plants or fish will survive that.>
2. New light bulbs - 4x32W T8 6200K Day light
3. Excel - can't do the overdose, as the Vals & hornwort melts
4. More ferts, less ferts, no ferts .... Currently trying to maintain 5 of NO3 with KNO3, about 0.1 ppm weekly of Fe & traces.
5. pwc's - currently 25% every other week - more or less doesn't seem to help.
6. H2O2 - Tried just dipping the anubias ... leaves melted completely, algae remains .... Dosing in tank - no change.
7. Changing water flow - With a wet/dry & cool water, I should have lots of O2 ... but even aiming the entire 750 gph at one spot doesn't help.

I am ready to give up & nuke the tank with chemicals! I have researched the "Red Slime Removers" and it seems they are KMnO4 or variants. Since H2O2 did not work, I am not sure another oxidizer will work any better. I am also not sure of the safety of KMnO4 on fish or plants ....

The other option is Erythromycin .... with the risk to the biofilter.

I will give up on the plants if I have to, but not on my fishies ....

Well, anything else I missed before going the drastic chemical route? If I do, Red Slime remover or Erythormycin??

BTW - my remaining plants: 6 Anubias (new leaves from the rhizomes ... older leaves melted with the H2O2 experiment.) A dozen Java ferns ... all under 2" as any bigger leaves had disintegrated from the BGA, 4 Crypt Balanese - doing not too badly as long as I remove all the old BGA infested leaves, about 6 Crypt (wendt?), maybe 3-4 dozen cockscrew Val in various stages of decay, and 6 little sprigs of hornwort (out of at least 50+ stems I had earlier this spring.)

 

[HN1]

I'd try phosgaurd or similar in your filter before going a drastic route. I've used it with success in fresh and salt. Just my 2 cents, it sounds like you've already tried everything else that I'd recommend.

 

[JohnPaul]

Did you say you are trying to maintain NO3 of 5? Does that mean 5 ppm? I'm far from an expert but my understanding was that BGA has an advantage over plants at very low nitrate levels (because of its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen), and one of the best things to do is thus to raise NO3 levels substantially...aim for something like 30 ppm or more so that your fast-growing plants (do you have any hygro left? anything like java moss, anacharis, penneywort, etc?) can grow and suck up all the other nutrients.

If you do decide to go the chemicals route, I have heard good things about people using Erythromycin.

 

[melosu58]

I can feel for you as every FW tank I have ever owned and have now has had that black algea in it.

 

[BigJim]

I thought it was a typo and you meant BBA. I haven't heard of anyone having BGA issues like yours. I'm with JohnPaul. Try increasing your nitrates. Maybe increase your water flow too. I had BGA issues in my 20L until I switched from an AC30 to an AC50.

 

[mattrox]

Try UV flitration?

 

[corrado33]

I feel for ya. I just gave up on my BGA fight. If you'll search, you'll find a few of my threads. If I were you, I'd do a full tank cleaning, take everything out, scrub the rocks, vacuum the heck out of the gravel, try to manually remove everything from the plants, then do a combination of blackout and dose that antibiotic. But, before you do, simply take some filter media out and put it in another container of water and put a little ammonia in it (or even fish food). I'd do this just to make sure you have a bio filter when you're done. If you have another tank, put it in there.

I've never tried this, but I've heard that separately the antibiotics (Maracyn is a brand name that has it if I remember correctly), and blackouts will help it. I figured that both will make it go away. Then again, if you don't correct the underlying problem, it'll probably come back.

You could even do a test, take a rock out with the stuff on it. Put it in a bucket and dose the antibiotic and see if it kills the BGA. (Have another rock in another bucket for a control to make sure that simply removing it from the tank didn't kill it.)

Or even take your plants out that will melt with an overdose of excel, put them in a container, put some ferts in and put it under a window or something, then overdose the heck out of excel.

Simply solve the reasons you can't do some treatments, then a lot more options open up.

And yes, this is from a person who gave up his fight with BGA. I had other, easier options (start a new, bigger tank).

 

[JustOneMore20]

I've used Erythromycin (Maracyn to be exact) and used half the recommended dose for 3-6 days and it did not destroy the biofilter. I did water changes every few days to get rid of the dead bga. It works like a charm and I would not try anything else myself if I have issues again. You do risk killing your bio filtration, but if you use half the recommended dose, the risk is less.

 

[jsoong]

Thanks for all the suggestions ....

One thing I did not try is higher nitrate levels - the most I ever push nitrates is to 10 ppm. Maybe I'll give 20-30 ppm a try before going the erythromycin route.

I did thought of putting the Excel sensitive plants in QT & doing an Excel overdose. However, after treatment, I still would not be able to replant as they would be covered with BGA .... OTOH, Vals are cheap & I can always get new ones.

I realized that there is an underlying cause that I need to solve or the BGA will be back. But at this point, I think I need a clean tank to get a bit of an edge. Established BGA might simply not go away even when the underlying problem is absent.

 

[DragonFish71]

Here's how I beat it in our 29 planted tank. (just recently actually)


I started with a 60% WC, scraped, brushed and scrubbed everything but the fish (probably would have tried that too)

Used erythromycin at half strength. Half the daily dosage for longer period of time, much easier on the biofilter and fish.

Did a total black out for the length of time I was doing the erythromycin

Another 60% WC, scrub, scraped, brushed

Lights back on for a week.


A 50% WC, not much to scrub, a little to scrap and brush


Lights back off


Then used API Algae fix, half daily dosage, longer use time. For the fish's sakes.


50% WC, nothing to scrape, scrub or brush.


It's been 4 weeks, I saw a little bit start to show up over Labor day weekend. Cut 4 willow branches and stuck them in the tank. Not seeing any more.

Here's where I found out about the willow branches.

Fighting green water. Simple cheap method. - Algae - Aquatic Plant Central

 

[HN1]

Have you done a phosphate test? Just curious....I've never seen cyano in a tank that did not have high phates and unfortunately, I've seen a lot of tanks covered.

 

[jsoong]

No I don't have a PO4 kit. That is something I am looking into as well.

 

[corrado33]

No I don't have a PO4 kit. That is something I am looking into as well.

You could always take a water sample to a mom and pop place to get it tested. My shop uses API master kits to check their water, and if you ask nicely, they'll check your water too.

 

[JohnPaul]

Or you can search on ebay, I recently bought a (brand new) Seachem phosphate test kit there and got it for under $20 shipped.

 

[jsoong]

MOPS has the API phosphate kit for $11 Canadian. I am just waiting to accumulate a big enough order to justify the shipping.