# BGA... Did I fix my problem? Will It Just Go Away?



## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

thought there were pros here... wheres the feedback at?


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

I might pull all my foreground up where it's at... well just the HC... clean it off... or actually might mix a bunch of excell in a cup with some water and just dunk pieces in there clean them off the best I can and then replant and stuff... what do you guys think? might buy like 5-8 plants of hc today too... i've wasted so much money on the stuff... I think some has just decayed and dissapeared.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

ripped up HC... threw a lot of it away  .... soaked what I kept in excell with water for 5-15 minutes... replanted maybe a quarter to half of it... bought 5 plants of it today... pieced it into little bundles and planted it nicely... gravel vacced the gravel really nicely... there was a lot of mulm and brown stuff... I know thats good bacteria but my tanks for the most part cycled and has a XP4 on it now...

everything looks really good now and I'm pretty happy... I don't think any algae should come back...

tank should be pretty well balanced... happy.


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## jaybugg13 (Sep 4, 2007)

Do you know what causes BGA? You can take as much out manually as you can but if you don't figure out why it grew in the first place it'll be back.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

then explain whats wrong with my system...

it had old bulbs... it had a crapy magnum 350 with horrible current... it had a bubble ladder...

I got new bulbs for 265 watt CF fixture... i even bought new coralife fixture same one cause the old one broke it was a replica... 

I bought a new filter Xp4...

I bought a nice glass diffuser from GLA... the biggest they sell...

I did a fatty gravel vac... threw away old Dwarf HC... bought 5 new small pots of it... cut the pieces into small bunches and planted them about a inch apart... their spreading decently... i got airstone at night... had 8 hour photo period with 2 hours in between but now going 10 hours straight...

took a week off fertz and been overdosing excel...

now switching to dry fert again with flourish for trace every other day... switching off between macro and micro...

dosing excell with pressurized c02 just till i run out soon... been dosing double rate...

there are still little bits of it but nothing like before... it's barely growing in there... maybe tiny bits popping up but barelllyyyy anything...

so whats wrong with tank... 4 small koi angel... 30 rummy nose tetra... 5 otos's, 1 bristle nose.... I guess I can gravel vac the harder spots to reach now... but I covered at least 85%+ of the gravel really really well...

I dosed a bottle of beneficial bacteria when I switched filters and put foam pad from magnum into xp4 so I wouldn't lose bacteria... I dunno... some dust algae formed the week I didn't dose fertz... obviously... I mean I had the c02 running still and dosed excel so i can understand that... I think I just need to really cover the ground with HC... it's only about half covered because I had to throw away dying plants from GBA...

I can buy more friday-sunday sometime when my LFS gets more in... there was like one spot of GBA that I missed on hairgrass and it hasn't really grown since the last time I posted... so I know it's not really growing...

a few tiny spots have popped up... nothing huge... I'm gonna LOAD it with HC buy all of it that they have.... basically be a covered 72 bow front with dwarf hc with some dwarf hairgrass thats growing somewhat tall and a lighter green then in my other tanks... weird... maybe fertz haven't kicked in and the older bulbs made it grow taller or something...

I dunno it's a 72 bow front... flourite... 

help.


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## Mr. Fisher (Mar 24, 2009)

What are you dosing for N?

BGA isn't algae it's photosynthetic bacteria that usually is due to a lack of N.

a 3-day blackout works with erythromycin.

add nitrate, do a 3-day blackout, and add erythromycin.

you have to physically remove as much as possible, first. a filter or air hose works for this...siphon it out.


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## tbonedeluxe (Mar 10, 2008)

Do a search on BGA in the Algae thread,and you may get some more definitive answers from others who have had it and others who added thie own experiences on how to treat it.http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
http://www.rexgrigg.com/Algae1.html
Good luck my friend1 ;-)


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## tbonedeluxe (Mar 10, 2008)

Here's another!
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/90393-cyanobacteria-how-get-rid.html


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## tbonedeluxe (Mar 10, 2008)

Last one.
http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/


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## TheCryptKeeper (Mar 9, 2008)

I have had it too and it is a real pain in the ass to get rid of it. make sure when you are cleaning if off of the bottom that you aren't letting it get away and float somewhere else because it will start from there too.

good luck!


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi three105,

From a previous post I did here on TPT:

"I recently got rid of the cyanobacteria (BGA) infestation I had in one of my aquariums for over six months. The tank has medium light, no CO2, weekly 33% water changes, and was dosed with ferts per the PPS-Pro method. I tried the Excel (Glutaraldehyde) 2X normal dosage treatment that has worked on other algae problems in the past without success. It was very frustrating, not only unsightly but the tank had a definite smell (musty/moldy) when I opened the lid.

A couple of months ago I came across a post on one of the planted tank forums indicating the BGA is caused by a nitrogen deficiency. I decided to try increasing my nitrogen. I started dosing KNO3 at the rate of 1/8 teaspoon per 10 gallons daily. All other factors remained the same including the 33% weekly water changes. After a few weeks I noticed that the new leaves on the plants were not being covered by the BGA. I continued the dosage and after another couple of weeks the new leaves remained BGA free. In addition the BGA on the older leaves seemed to diminish and the "smell" in the tank decreased.

As of last weekend it has been two months and I have not had any additional growth of BGA in my tank. The new leaves remain BGA free and the leaves that were affected have much less BGA on them. I removed the affected leaves leaving only the new leaves that are BGA free. The tank no longer has that moldy/musty smell but instead has that sweet/earthy smell my other tanks have. Nothing changed in the tank except the addition of KNO3 at the higher dosage."

Another GSAS member here in Seattle had problems with BGA as well. She treated her aquarium per the post above and six weeks later was BGA free. It is simple and worth a try.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

upped my dosing of kno3... I mean I've been dosing it and obviously there aren't that many fast growing plants in there... but I do have pretty good lighting and c02 pumping so the java fern is growing pretty quick... it is... it is... the dwarf hairgrass has grown to maybe 5-8 inches varying in length and grown really well... the HC struggles and is trying to spread but developes brownish tint and green blue algae spots are appearing but not like they were when i had the magnum 350, the tank's plants were still maturing, and my bulbs were old...

ugh... this is so annoying... should I do a black out for 3 days and then see if gba comes back? It's growing really slowly but the GBA is around... I can't pick every single little freaking piece of it out... how can I KILL it because i don't think it will come back... my tank should be pretty balanced now... I just don't have TONS of plants to compete with it... maybe I'll throw all of my floating riccia in other tank, and grab some stems from my other tank... good idea?


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

oh I also picked up 6 new pots of dwarf HC today and planted them through the tank... the whole tank ground has half inch x half inch plantings of dwarf HC... some bigger some smaller patches... the older hc about a week or two old now is trying to spread but getting sort of brown tint to it... mannnnnn if it rotts and gba comes back I willlll beeeeee soooo pisseddd.... I might go buy flourish excell get my dropper thing out of one of my fert bottles and squeeze excell onto as much of the dwarf hc as I can every day maybe triple the dose.... just soak the hc underwater with squirts of excell the just hit areas and make my way across the tank... luckly the brown patches are on one side because I didn't have enough HC to cover the left side but now my 6 pots of HC covered the whole tank pretty good... hopefully they compete well for nutrients against GBA and if I spray excell all over them with filter off and just let tank sit for 30min - an hour the excell will help and the dwarf hc will flourish


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

CAN!... I!... DO IT!!!! Can I cure GBA without a black out, antibiotics, or any method other then getting a new filter, ordering my new bulbs, getting a glass diffuser in place of bubble ladder, and dosing excel (now gonna try to squirt it onto HC clumps and where GBA is growing on back of drift wood that I can't really get to... AHHH


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## jaybugg13 (Sep 4, 2007)

Not if you don't also start dosing N to prevent it from coming back.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

I have been dosing N... I ordered the dry fertz from that main website

I started dosing a little late but I have been... I orginally just put in flourish a couple times a week... maybe the GBA came around that time? I can't remember...

I'm in process of doing a 3 day black out... started end of the other day with a blanket over the tank... I've been dosing Excel during this period... soooo... is that all I need to do for 3 days and will the GBA literally die? Because I think i've corrected every problem in the tank... I REALLY don't see how I could have a lack of KNO3 (nitrate) am I right on that one?

because...

I started dosing it man!!! I put in 3x the amount I should have been I think... for some reason I looked at my writing on the bag as 3 teaspoons when it's really 3/4 teaspoon... which is what I wrote but I finally caught myself I was like wow... have I really been dosing 3 teaspoons of nitrate every time... I follow the chart you know?

like... sunday I change out at least 4 buckets of water... sometimes 5... (5 gallon buckets) then dose dry NPK... I think it's 3/4 tsp. nitrate... maybe like... 1 teaspoon sulfate... then 3/16 phosphate or whatever... you guy's know... so sunday - dry npk, monday - Flourish, tues - dry npk... each day it changes between NPK and Flourish... not FLOURISH TRACE, Just FLOURISH... I think FLOURISH has all the trace I need anyways... 

I've also been dosing excel quiiettt a bittt

but had a week break from it this past week or so... after I ran out... I bought a bottle just to dose at least 2 cap fulls a day after doing the initial 7-8 capfuls in the beginning... 

anyways... how can my setup be bad? 72 bow, coralife 265W CF 6700/10000k, XP4, Glass Diffuser, Pressurized CO2 (probably running 2-4 bps... it was going fast when I set it... I need to fill bubble counter with water tho) spray bar for the xp4 that kind of mistsss the CO2 bubbles about... Flourite... kind of old... probably was sort of dirty from past tank that had turtles and stuff... but I just gravel vacced the F out of it when I threw away all the old HC... got a heater in the tank... or wait... I don't my room keeps the tank perfect... like 78-81 degrees... uhhhh... I dunno drift wood... water's kind of hard from well right now but I'm moving to school soon where the water is really soft... uhhh My pH was around 6. something when I checked it... nitrate is always around 10ppm when I test it, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia... I dunnoo... It's hard to gravel vac cause a lot of the time I'll cause HC to some lose which is a bi***... maybe 8-10 hr Photoperiod... 30 rummy nose, 4 medium koi angel, some otos, bristle nose, maybe some amano's if their still alive... Java fern on drift wood... Dwarf hairgrass in corner... HC planted in little bunches all over the gravel that's open... I dunno... after this black out I'll continue with Dry fert dosing... I'll stick to regular dosing plan, 3/4 tsp nitrate, and blah blah blah, whole regimen... tell me what I'm doing wrong!


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## Wö£fëñxXx (Dec 2, 2003)

Dosing N isn't a cure for BGA, that stuff is nasty, which is not even an algae,
it is an infection. 
Dosing Excel will not affect BGA either, though, plants love it.
a 3 day blackout or use Erythomycin will put a serious hurt on it, _but_ if
you do not address the issue, it will return rather fast.

To address the issue cut your light intensity way back, if you have the 265w
fixture just sitting on the tank, that's not working, do something different
and add as much air to the tank as you possibly can for the next several weeks,
After lights out of course and all night every night for awhile.
I bet you that your substrate as turned hypoxic/hypoxia.

In all my years keeping the many tanks, and having had my share of BGA this
is how to keep it gone and never see it again.

All water weeds under high/er light must have N,P,K, Trace Mineral, good Co2
diffusion and distribution & moderate lighting, the tank/substrate/ bacteria
need air.

You don't need as much light as you may think to grow water weeds.

Nature is the best teacher.

Regards


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

I've been running air stone at night via air pump

I pretty much have it on full blast now... during the day I don't run it... just because I don't want to lose C02

Maybe I'll turn my photo period down. 8 hours sound reasonable? longer darkness, more air during the darkness...

I'm gonna stay my course with typical dosing of dry npk but, I might up the dose of N from 3/4 tsp. to 1 tsp.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Put another way, one I tend think about more.........

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I focus on what induces algae/BGA's to grow and germination/bloom in aquariums.

If you know what triggers cause the algae, then you can avoid it.
Then you have excellent plant growth and no algae. Prevention is a far better approach than having to control a problem.

If you allow the N to drop, and/or allow to the filter to clog, too much organic filth laying around etc, then you might also get it. Raising the NO3 alone and cleaning the filter etc once you have an established algae bloom will not cure things. You have to be more aggressive once the algae is there.

Still, staying on top of dosing, cleaning etc, and good general care cures every algae I know of. Plenty of method suggets that their method controls algae, but that is not realy the case, the focus is healthy plant growth.

When plants are not doing as well, particularly N and CO2, things go downhill pretty fast and algae comes in. This might help you to not worry so much about algae, and focus more on the plants.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

I am focusing on plants and I always go at it from that perspective... If you know whats right for the plants then algae should not be around. However, since I got to things a little late and the GBA came around before the diffuser, bulbs, a thorough cleaning the gravel, etc... it grew and became established... 

I think my only problem now is killing it and keeping gravel clean... thus, doing the 3 day black out right now... I will follow with a thorough gravel vac and it should be cleared out nicely... if there is a little left around I suppose it could come back but I really hope my HC takes off along with all of the new HC I bought to really compete at gravel level for nutrients... I may add some stem's after I do water change to keep up the competition until I have a Dense Dense Dense carpet of HC throughout the whoel ground of the 72 bow... all except under the drift wood...


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

along with dosing 3 capfuls at the very least of Excel daily through the black out...


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

UPDATE:

Removed blankets after 3 day black out... Most GBA has died off...

the few bits that remained I tried to gravel vacc...

a couple of my rummy nose died during the black out... but I got them out of there as soon as I saw them dead... got the c02 pumpin now... the dwarf HC leaves look like they got a tiny bit bigger during the black out so maybe that will help them grow now that the lights back on...

I did a water change and gravel vacced what I could without messing up the plants... I got quiet a bit of debris and stuff... well not a ton but a decent amount... tanks really clean now and I hope to not see any more GBA... so lets hope it doesn't come back...

I did my water change and will wait for fertz till tomorrow after I change out another 10 gallons just because and then dose dry fertz... I will do regular dosing...


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

Looks like some of the HC kind of decayed... but still have a few stems that are pretty glowing green... so maybe they'll shoot up new stems with leaves on them... that looks like whats happening... hopefully some of the decay doesn't bring on algae... I'll do another 3-4 bucket water change today... I did 3-4 yesterday... then I will dose Dry fertz...


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

UPDATE: was gone for a lot of the day so didn't do 10 gallon water change till end of day but did it and added 8-9 capfuls of excel with 10 gallon water change along with dry fertz... instead of 3/4 tsp of nitrate i did 1 tsp...

maybe a tiny bit extra potassium... about same for rest

bought some hygro today just a couple stems of it but they have hugeee long leaves, long long leaves for any hygro i've ever seen... just put um towards back where the worst gba was on drift wood... just to combat any algae and add a little competition for nutrients until dwarf HC really spreads well... also bought one cup of dwarf hc they only had one left but I added that... gravel vacced what I could... wasn't much debris tho...

no signs of any crazy algae coming so far tho... end of day 2 after 3 day black out...

will keep you guy's updated with a picture soon...

thanks, peace.


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## topfrog007 (Dec 30, 2007)

While on vacation, my 55G had a large bloom of BGA. I suspect it was due to the babysitter not dosing correctly/at all. 

Anyways, I tried a blackout and vaccumming, I could get lots of it, but not all of it. 

Eventually someone recommend: "Ultra Life Reef Products Blue Green Algae Remover"
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/24479/product.web

That stuff works great. I did the recommend dose, no fish were harmed and plants seemed unaffected. In 2-3 days I was completely BGA free. 

It's now been about 4-6 months and I'm still BGA free.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

Update: No GBA around... ordered $50+ worth of dwarf HC... will be here tomorrow....

will place inbetween old HC to fill most of ground cover in 72 bow...

hopefully this will help compete for nutrients and spread somewhat quickly...

maybe like a week hopefully? or at least somewhat take hold ina week...

I'm gonna have to really seperate it if I want it to take hold in a week I think.

I'm moving the tank this upcoming tuesday I think...


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## CLASSIC (Feb 25, 2009)

I have a 72G Bow, its torn down at the moment due to moving. I had a problem with BGA also, i always thought it had to do with the depth of the tank, and being able to get a current that moves the top and bottom of the tank with out blowing the plants to smitherines lol. I lessened my photo period, bought 2 fluval 205s one for surface using the outlet it came with and the other i attached a horizontal spray bar to and aimed it down and towards the front on the opposite side of the tank from the other 205. I ran them full blast since they are rated for a 40 gallon tank each. Kept cleaning the the BGA, upped the co2 slightly and fed the fish less and it went away.  i didnt use any fertalizers as that tank had mineralized topsoil in it. Hope this helps


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

Update: got dwarf HC, planted it among tank... moved the spray bar for 405 up a little... well I mean I aimed it up a little more so the HC on the ground doesn't get "blasted" The older HC seems to be growing but some of it has decayed and a new layer seems to be forming... I hope the HC is able to suck up nutrients and keep the tank in balance... I also tried to put patches into creveses on drift wood to see if it would grow down the drift wood or around it in general... would look really cool if it does... with dry fertz going into water column and flourish for trace, with pressurized c02 I'm pretty sure anything could float and grow in there... especially with the high light... we shall see... I'm guessing roots will grow long and the dwarf hc will grow along drift wood obviously probably not really attaching itself to it but hopefully it will grow... Main problem would be java fern covering it for light but I suspect that it will grow to the light that it does get... should be interesting... will get picture tomorrow.


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

UPDATE:

I decided to skip the water change yesterday because I'm going to school tomorrow and moving tank... (on tuesday) so today, on monday, I dosed dry NPK but I added a little extra of each and right now I can see a lot more pearling? could I be adding not enough? I've been following dry fert dosing regimen but maybe it's not enough with 265W CF with c02 injection 2-4 bps ?


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

topfrog007 said:


> While on vacation, my 55G had a large bloom of BGA. I suspect it was due to the babysitter not dosing correctly/at all.
> 
> Anyways, I tried a blackout and vaccumming, I could get lots of it, but not all of it.
> 
> ...


It's just an antibiotic.
We know those kill BGA alogn with a dozen or so other products, so does a 3 day blackout which is Free and resolves the root issue when done with KNO3(the same is true in marine systems BTW).



Regards, 
Tom Barr

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## Xcomx5 (Mar 24, 2009)

I did the 3 day blackout, and it worked like a charm, but I also used the Ultralife BGA remover to mop up what might have been left behind, because I could still see a few small areas left alive, and I didn't want to take my chances on the areas I could not see


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