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Hi

Anyone know of any proven method to get rid of blue green algae? It's not a big problem but I sure would like to eliminate it completely!

I read somewhere on the web that 1 tablet of Maracyn per 10g for 5 days would eliminate it. Has anyone ever tried that with any success? I would prefer not doing that because it may harm the fish and plants. Does anyone know if Maracyn would harm fish and plants? Thanks for any and all answers!!!

John

Apparently blue green algae isn't really algae at all - it's a bacteria. That's why you've seen discussion of using Maracyn which is an antibiotic.

There's a thread over on shelldwellers.com http://www.shelldwellers.com/index.php? ... 3;start=10 that discusses this (with pic, reply 16) and provides additional sources of info (read thru the subsequent pages).

blue-green "algae"
malawi cichlids will eat it if you don't give them regular food for a few days

livebearers and Flagfish might eat it

erythromycin will kill it
also
dick boyd's chemi-clean

I have had a problem with the slimy,blue-green algae in one of
my tanks.This type rubs off plant leaves etc. easily.It is a
cyno-bacteria.Antibiotics are supposed to help,however the
drawback is possibly losing your biological filtration.
I rid my tank of this by removing as much algae as I could by hand
(rinsing plants)etc.I did large water changes,used Poly-filter
(similiar to Boyds) and used Seachem Stability daily for about 2
weeks.I believe the Seachem helped a lot.So far its been gone
for a while now.
Tom

I found that with the Blue-green slime stuff check your nitrates. In my tanks that get it the nitrates are almost nil. The "algae" eats almost all of it.

Oddly enough the easiest way I've found to kill it is add more fish to get the nitate higher. I only ever get really bad outbreaks of it in low stocked tanks.

--Mia

BGA has a nasty habit of fixing N2... i.e. it's most competetive when nitrate is the limiting nutrient. Adding nitrate (for example KNO3 in a live plant tank) shifts the limiting nutrient to phosphorus (usually) and often solves the problem. Of course, there are alot of theories out there. Good info at www.thekrib.com for nutrient info.

If you find that you get BGA in patchy spots in a non-plant tank, adding or adjusting/redirection water flow often helps. The cyano seems to prefer low flow areas.

Antibiotics won't fix the problem, just kill the symptom. The problem is nutrients, not algae. Of course, it can be an uphill battle with P-rich tap water and high biomass. Just be careful not to kill off too much beneficial bacteria while squetching the cyano. I'm curious about the chemi-clean.... heard all sorts of things, but I like knowing more about a product then Boyd wants to tell us.

dick boyd's chemi-clean
I think it is Ertromycin
but I don't know

water change is the most important thing