# Red Algae



## Navigarden (Jun 25, 2010)

I use filedump to upload my imgs... no idea bout the algae though. Maybe BBA? Do you have pressurized CO2? good luck!


----------



## decoman (Nov 2, 2010)

looks purple


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

I do run pressureised CO2 and have a drop checker which is in the green yellow color range.

Lights are on for 5 hours twice a day.

Let me know if there are any other tank parameters that would be helpful.


----------



## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Looks like cyano. Hows the flow around this plant? Cyano loves slow flow.


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

The flow is not strong on the side of the tank where that plant is located. However, it is also growing on and around the wall where the filter return pipe is located.


----------



## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

What do you have for an algae team? Ottos, plecos, snails, shrimp?


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

chad320 said:


> What do you have for an algae team? Ottos, plecos, snails, shrimp?


Ottos, Shrimp, & Siamensis


----------



## msawdey (Apr 6, 2009)

chad320 said:


> Looks like cyano. Hows the flow around this plant? Cyano loves slow flow.


is cyano purple in freswater tanks? ive only seen that in saltwater.. usually its a blue green color to my knowledge... but i may be wrong.. either way.. 10 hours a day for lighting period is a pretty long time.. i would cut at least 4 hours off that for now


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

msawdey said:


> is cyano purple in freswater tanks? ive only seen that in saltwater.. usually its a blue green color to my knowledge... but i may be wrong.. either way.. 10 hours a day for lighting period is a pretty long time.. i would cut at least 4 hours off that for now


Thanks. I will cut the lighting period back.

I had cyano once before and it was blue-green colored. When I had it before it tookover really fast. This has been around for a couple of weeks and hasn't really spread.


----------



## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

I would suggest ethromycin but im not sure about the shrimp. Nothing eats this stuff. Im tihnking ottos will eat it if its dead for some reason. The initial problem usually lies in flow (not enough)


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

I moved my power head to try and get more flow to that side of the tank. Any idea how much flow I should try to get over there? I can see that water is moving by the little bubbles of CO2 being forced down and around the infected plant.


----------



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

what plant is that?


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

mistergreen said:


> what plant is that?


I do not recall the name (never been very good with the latin names). It is a type of smaller sword.


----------



## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

I've never seen FW algae colored like that in my life. My guess is it's bacteria, like BGA.


----------



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Red algae does exist. BBA belongs in this category of algae.


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

Sharkfood said:


> I've never seen FW algae colored like that in my life. My guess is it's bacteria, like BGA.


Thank you for the reply. 

Any advice on how to combat? So far, I have lowered my photo period from 10 to 8. I moved my korila power head so that there is more current on that side of the tank.


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

I went advice that this algae was actually a bacteria like BGA. I first tried a Black Out and that helped a bit, but did not kill it all. After reading a bunch of other threads, I got some EM and treated the tank for 5 days. Sucess! 

Thank you to everybody who posts on this forum! This truely is a great site.


----------



## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

BG1772 said:


> I went advice that this algae was actually a bacteria like BGA. I first tried a Black Out and that helped a bit, but did not kill it all. After reading a bunch of other threads, I got some EM and treated the tank for 5 days. Sucess!
> 
> Thank you to everybody who posts on this forum! This truely is a great site.


what is EM, where did you get it from, and how much did you dose daily?
thanks


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

erythromycin - i got it from Amazon.

I used a dosing recommendation I found on another post (thought I had it bookmarked, but I don't). If you search for "erythromycin" you will find lots of useful info. Anyhow, here is the dosing method I used.

200mg per 10 gallons for the first dose
Do a 10% waterchange after 24 hours, then add 100mg per 10 gallons
Repeat that (water change and dosing) 3 more times for a total of 5 doses during 5 days.


----------



## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Any problems with your shrimp and erythromycin? I'm thinking about trying this in a shrimp tank and am curious about your results with them. Any noticeable ill effects?


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

I only have a few RCS and did not notice any affects on them.


----------



## JoraaÑ (Jun 29, 2009)

BG1772 said:


> erythromycin - i got it from Amazon.
> 
> I used a dosing recommendation I found on another post (thought I had it bookmarked, but I don't). If you search for "erythromycin" you will find lots of useful info. Anyhow, here is the dosing method I used.
> 
> ...


Dude..thats a lots of med. in the tank...we followed this one when a friend had it in his tank.



sewingalot said:


> Any problems with your shrimp and erythromycin? I'm thinking about trying this in a shrimp tank and am curious about your results with them. Any noticeable ill effects?


No ill effects at all. But I don't know using 200 ml/10 gal, it might effect inverts...


----------



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

Joraan, Thanks for the link. In the event my tank get infected again, I will try that dosing method. I was able to locate the thread that contained the dosing I used.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/131418-help-cyano-destroying-my-tank.html


----------



## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Thanks for the information on the shrimp. I'm going to try this out next week.


----------



## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Joraan said:


> Dude..thats a lots of med. in the tank...we followed this one when a friend had it in his tank.
> 
> 
> 
> No ill effects at all. But I don't know using 200 ml/10 gal, it might effect inverts...





BG1772 said:


> Joraan, Thanks for the link. In the event my tank get infected again, I will try that dosing method. I was able to locate the thread that contained the dosing I used.
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/131418-help-cyano-destroying-my-tank.html


Joraan, here is a quote from your link:



> The dosage that is most commonly used is no less than 2,5 mg per litre. So for my 60 lt tank (actually less if I consider gravel, plants etc.) I needed 60 x 2,5 = 150 mg. Since I like to overdose a little bit (another trend by George Reclos  ), I split the 500 mg capsule in 3 parts (166 mg) and decided that this would be one dosage (treatment).


If you do some minimal math here, you'll see that 2.5 mg/l is about 10 mg/gal which equals 100 mg/10 gal which is what I am suggesting to dose for the second through 5th day. First day I'd recommend twice the dose to get levels up quickly.

Keep in mind that this is half the recommended dose used for bacterial treatments. Everyone can decide for themselves how much and how often to dose of course. However, with antibiotics it is always wise to run the treatment a couple of days longer to make sure you hit all the intended BGA and you don't breed any immune strains.

BG - congrats on beating that stuff!


----------

