Serenity Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Getting home from my honeymoon and in the airport. Got a message from my mother in Law telling me there is "a LOT" of Algae. Not sure what went wrong but I have been gone for almost 15 Days. Not sure how bad it is Either but I was battling it for some time before this. I'll upload pics once I'm back home and can see the damage. :cry: Anyways I have done a lot of reading but there is a lot of mixed info out there. Does anyone have personal experience with winning a battle against the blue/green algae? I'm tired of seeing it and am willing to do almost anything. Its in a heavy planted 75gal with no livestock. I have tried the 3 day lights out method while dosing excel with no noticeable benefit when I had little spurts. (I know its not a true algae but tried this first) Has anyone ever done any nuking of their tanks without killing the plants? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperGuppyGirl Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 I have been told flourish excel has been good at removing that sort of algae and the hair algae using the same method you used with the plain flourish but have only used it on hair algae Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 I tried to tell her to lower the photo-period but she wasn't having it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 I've had this and successfully killed/removed by using Metricide. ( same thing as Excel but you get more ml for your $ ) If interested shoot me a pm. ck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 IME, BGA comes from a deficiency in N and CO2. If you aren't dosing either, then you need to reduce the amount and/or duration of your lighting to prevent it. I have had great success w. a 4 day blackout (3 doesn't seem to be enough), and adding Excel/ Metricide will help, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 IME, BGA comes from a deficiency in N and CO2. If you aren't dosing either, then you need to reduce the amount and/or duration of your lighting to prevent it. I have had great success w. a 4 day blackout (3 doesn't seem to be enough), and adding Excel/ Metricide will help, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinW Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 I have had BGA several times and have had a tough time getting rid of it. Once I had to shut down the tank then restart it. I have had success a couple of times with manually removing as much as possible then having an extended blackout period ( ie covering with black plastic for close to a week). I have not tried Excel/Metricide dosing. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 I have been battling BGA as well blackouts nevered worked for me either.I have increased dosing of N as well as using excel.You can spot dose some of the worst areas with H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) 3% but be warned it can destroy some plants. 1) turn off all filters so there is no water movement 2) spot dose infected areas I use 20ml in my 75g 3) let BGA bubble way for 20min.( very satisfing to watch LOL ) 4) do 50% WC clean off as much as you can and clean filters This did destroy my hornwort but didn't harm the java fern & moss,melon swords amazon swords hygro or jungle vals.All fish and shrimp came through without problems. BGA never goes away its always present in our tanks and just waiting for the right conditions to flourish. Dosing of N and excel keeps mine in check. FLY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprucegruve Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 (edited) Leave your lights off for 4-6days,do 30-50% water change daily. During this time don't dose any fertilizers,only dose excel or metricide14 at a double dose daily. Your problem should be gone quickly,then you can get your fertilizers in check and start doing ei and hope it doesn't happen again. Edited October 4, 2012 by Sprucegruve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blink Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Aquarium Central suggested I dose EM, Erythromycin and it'd nuke the BG. Since hearing that I've read the same thing a few times but haven't tried it. In my fiancee's tank we've been dosing Excel and Nitrogen with lots of water changes and wiping plants clean whenever it starts to build up and I think we are winning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 I had a bad outbreak of this in my planted tank and it took a little while to get rid of it but its gone. I did a big water change and tried to clean most of it out, dosed kno3 and covered my entire tank with black garbage bags to keep all the light out for 4 days(as per Jason's suggestion). Then I did a big water change to suck out as much BGA as I could and double dosed the kno3. This didn't kill it 100% the first time so I repeated the 4 day black out 2 weeks later, after the plants had time to recover a bit. The key is to make sure no light is getting through and its long enough. Make sure to use black garbage bags and cover everything,including the top. Also, you need to fix whatever caused the issue in the first place. Something is out of balance and if you dont' fix it the BGA can come back. A few years ago I also used Erythromycin to treat some BGA and that worked well but I don't really like the idea of using chemical to treat it if you have fish in there. I only had a few that I removed to a Qtank while I dosed the tank. Also if its on certain decorations you can take them out and clean them with bleach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mko Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Had it once in my 15 gallon. Nuked it with EM with great success as well. It was fully stocked when I did it. Had an airstone in the tank also to add more O2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenity Posted October 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2012 Ok, so quick update. Got home to this mess Here are some close ups The thick dark green I know for certain is the BGA but the whispy brown stuff I have never seen before. Any ideas? I'm going to suction as much as possible out of that tank and then start dosing with either Erythromycin or Metricide which ever I can get my hands on. After enough WC's to clean everything up I'll start the EI dosing again and see if I can get everything to bounce back. Cause? Not totally sure yet. But I did find out that the connection between my CO2 regulator and bubble counter had blown off and so my tank was completely void of any co2. Not sure when it blew off but it must have been soon after I left to have the tank grow like that. If you have seen my other posts on this tank you will notice that all my HC and moss are gone. I tore them up before I left as I wanted to do a re-scape when I got back. Hopefully I can get everything off the grass, I don't want to lose it. I'll update progress on this monster as it goes Thanks for all your comments everyone! I appreciate the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heff Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 Same as Vallisneria, I did the manual cleanup, dose KNO3, 4 day blackout, cleanup, 50% water change, then dose KNO3. This put a big dent in it but didn't stop it. Before it had the opportunity to get a grasp again, I repeated this process about 7-10 days later and that finally finished it off. I was not using CO2 nor was I keeping an eye on my nitrogen level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 Suck as much up as possible, do a big WC, and get CO2 back. That may be enough to get rid of it. If not, spot treatment w. Metricide or Excel will do the trick. I would avoid antibiotics for fear of developing resistant diseases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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