# Cyanobacteria help!



## IUnknown (Feb 5, 2003)

I've been trying to get rid of this for weeks with no luck. Using all the recommended anti bacterial products but nothing is working (Chemi-Clean). Could it be a strain that is resistant to the normal medications? Is what is pictured below blue green algae?


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## Fizbi (Sep 26, 2011)

I've been fighting this stuff for months. Finally gave up and shut down my 55 gallon tank.

I moved my largest plants to another smaller tank with no substrate. Did a 20% water change and the cyanobacteria started to die off right away.

After much reading I came to the conclusion that my filters could not keep up with the dead or dying organics collecting in the corners of my tank. I also failed to keep up with proper filter maintenance. At some point, everything was just got out of balance. I could smell an obnoxious odor coming from the water. Drastic water changes were not enough. I don't believe medications or low light conditions will ever rid a tank of the cyano. Only proper maintenance on the substrate, filters, and clean water seems to help.

So, I have begun reeducating myself on the importance of proper substrate and filter maintenance. I am switching to sand and more frequent filter inspections and changes.

The plants I moved into a substrate free tank are now free of that green slime. Within a few days, the nasty odor is gone. Changing the filter media has helped. The lights were left on and I vacuumed out anything that looked dead or decayed. I now see a big difference in water quality and thriving plants.

As soon as I polish out some nasty scratches from the inside of my 55 gallon acrylic tank, I will replant everything into a new substrate of clean sand.

Hope that helps.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Do you have a picture of the whole tank ? Is that one from the top ?
"Erythromycin – use antibiotics at half dosage to kill the bacteria. Mardel Labs’ Maracyn contains erythromycin and has been used effectively without harming most plants."
Also:"Increase nitrates – Dose nitrates until the concentration reaches ~5ppm."
From the picture you have in here I wonder how much circulation is in this aria or the whole tank. That's most of the reason I asked about the whole tank picture.
Every new tank I've had got this at least a little. All but one tank had only a small amount. In that one I had to use the med listed above as it was getting all over and
killing lots of my plants. But I never had this in any tank after I started doing regular 50% water changes. I allow the mulm/detrius to collect on the bottom. Some of it filters down into the sub and becomes ferts for the plants. The rest eventually dissolves 
in the water and is carried off by the water changes. It also provides a place for micro
bugs which inhabit any water system.
Most info sources on BGA say it triggers BGA. Might, but not so far in my tanks.
Triggers I think is the main word here. Lots of things trigger it. Your tank will benefit
more from working on getting better plant growth. This usually stops most algae which
takes advantage of poor plant growth.


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## Doppelgaenger (Jul 20, 2015)

I'm with Fizbi, you need to vacuum as much organic material as you can out of the substrate. I had outbreaks when deliberately overfeeding my tank to try and get some baby ghost shrimp to settle down. I was successful, but at the cost of having to take everything out of my tank and boil/steam it to kill the BGA.

Vacuum the substrate
Take everything that will come out easily out of the tank and sterilize it.
do everything you can to loosen and then suck up the bga that is living on your plants. It should be pretty easy to loosen and suck up.

Spot treat with hydrogen peroxide directly on all problem spots that come back after you've removed as much as you can. Leave the filter off for a few hours as you do this, you don't want flow.

Most importantly, come back after a few hours and spot treat it again. If you wait a day between treatments the BGA may be able to survive the peroxide treatments and will eventually recover. Hitting the spots 3 times in one day should be enough to kill it.

You CAN win this battle, but it's going to take effort on your part and putting up with the stink that crap puts out. Make no mistake, the smell comes from the BGA and not something else in your water, if you can smell it, you have it still.

To prevent further outbreaks, keep the mulm in your tank to a minimum.


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## voyetra8 (Sep 24, 2010)

Have you tried the 1-2 punch? If not I'd suggest it as your next step.


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## BlackThumb (Oct 4, 2014)

I just got over a serious bout with BGA in my 7.5g office tank. I beat it using "Ultralife Blue Green Slime Stain Remover" which I picked up on Amazon (not sure if I can post links, just make sure you get the Blue Green remover NOT the Red Slime remover).

Followed directions to a T and after 1 week my BGA was 99% gone. Pretty darn impressive when all of my plants were covered and about 75% of the substrate as well. Clean what you can manually and the rest will melt away with this stuff.

It was super gentle on my tank. No mini-cycle, my plants all survived (even my red root floater which gets nuked by excel), and it didn't affect my fish, shrimps, or snails.

I was skeptical at first, but am totally impressed by the results.


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## hbosman (Oct 5, 2006)

BlackThumb said:


> I just got over a serious bout with BGA in my 7.5g office tank. I beat it using "Ultralife Blue Green Slime Stain Remover" which I picked up on Amazon (not sure if I can post links, just make sure you get the Blue Green remover NOT the Red Slime remover).
> 
> Followed directions to a T and after 1 week my BGA was 99% gone. Pretty darn impressive when all of my plants were covered and about 75% of the substrate as well. Clean what you can manually and the rest will melt away with this stuff.
> 
> ...



How many applications did it take? I tried it and it worked but, came back two weeks later. I've had more permanent results in the past with erythromycin. I will try the erythromycin again and compare results.


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## BlackThumb (Oct 4, 2014)

It only took one application for me. I started the treatment 3 weeks ago and still BGA free today. So I'm still probably in that window where yours came back. I had planned a second dose because I thought the BGA was too bad for one application to take care of, but never did the second round. I had to be patient because it took about 5 days before it really looked like the BGA was retreating, but by day 7 it was almost completely gone.

The BGA in this tank was triggered by low nitrates (0ppm). I've since remedied that issue which probably helped a lot.

I had it in another tank once that had sky high nitrate levels (read 160+ppm with the API liquid test, I wasn't being good with water changes). I beat it in that tank by doing huge water changes and thoroughly vacuuming the substrate, followed by a 4 day blackout (did this twice before it was completely gone).

Blackouts didn't seem to be working with this tank, which is why I resorted to the BGA remover product.


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

Following the advice above I ordered a pack of the Ultralife Blue Green Slime Stain Remover for a new planted tank I'm cycling. I could wait for the cyano to cycle through and go away itself, or go through intensive measures to try to prevent it, but haven't really got the time to be fussing over it. 

I've used the Ultralife Red Slime Stain Remover in my reef tank after researching it extensively, and it worked perfectly. I haven't seen any downside to using it whatsoever. It's not an antibiotic treatment or what I'd regard as some type of toxic chemical or copper treatment, it's apparently just an enzyme which happens to dissolve the cell walls of cyano. Somewhat similar to the digestive enzymes I sometimes swallow to help digest certain foods such as fiber. 

As I've found it to be safe and effective I'd rather knock the cyano bloom out instead of having my plants and other things having to suffer through waiting for it to cycle away by itself, and having to look at the nasty stuff meanwhile.


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