# Maracyn and blue green algea



## Mirkinator (Jan 13, 2014)

It uses erythromycin which typically affects gram negative bacteria ribosomes, Nitrospira and somonas have a strong resistance to it in my experience (more like gram + structure) and I havent had to worry about using it. Plus they usually make a large biofilm that is hard to penetrate. You should be fine, I didnt see any issues when I was treating my goldfish for almost 3 weeks on it. Others may have had different experiences tho. 

But you may want to try H2O2 first. Remove filter and use some powerheads to let it flow for a bit(15-20), add 2TBsp for each 10gal . then do a 50% change


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## Discusdude7 (Sep 14, 2013)

Mirkinator said:


> It uses erythromycin which typically affects gram negative bacteria ribosomes, Nitrospira and somonas have a strong resistance to it in my experience (more like gram + structure) and I havent had to worry about using it. Plus they usually make a large biofilm that is hard to penetrate. You should be fine, I didnt see any issues when I was treating my goldfish for almost 3 weeks on it. Others may have had different experiences tho



Thanks. Is it easy on the fish? How long should I treat for blue green algea


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## Mirkinator (Jan 13, 2014)

Discusdude7 said:


> Thanks. Is it easy on the fish? How long should I treat for blue green algea


I treated my goldfish in a tank with 12 others (loaches, ottos, frogs, more loaches) and I didnt see any problem with them. BTW I did edit my post and recommend H2O2 first and some excel (like the 1-2 punch), but I havent tried it yet on BGA. Just would be alot quicker and cheaper to see if it helps


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## MadRiverPat (May 3, 2013)

I have used maracyn to succeffuly treat bga in two different tanks. Never ran into any problems. I had kuhli loaches, ottos and shrimp. I would also suggest increasing the flow in your tank. Decreased oxygen levels definitely contributed to it appearing in my tanks.


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## Discusdude7 (Sep 14, 2013)

MadRiverPat said:


> I have used maracyn to succeffuly treat bga in two different tanks. Never ran into any problems. I had kuhli loaches, ottos and shrimp. I would also suggest increasing the flow in your tank. Decreased oxygen levels definitely contributed to it appearing in my tanks.



How long did you treat? Any bad effects on bio filter in your experience


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

For cyanobacteria, do 200 mg/10gal once a day for 5 or 6 days. Dose at a specific time, then some 20% water changes 24 hours later and dose again.

Many tablets are 200 mg so say you have a 20 gal tank, it would be 2 tablets per dosing. For large tanks this can get pricy, since the larger/cheaper packs seem to be hard to come by these days.


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## Discusdude7 (Sep 14, 2013)

Will this work


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## HuginMunin (Jan 31, 2014)

That is exactly what I used. I had a major, nasty cyanobacteria outbreak, mostly because I didn't know what it was and was using the wrong techniques to try and get rid of it. After some research and learning I bought that brand of erythromycin. It cleared up the problem very quickly and my CPDs and Otos were fine.


Discusdude7 said:


> Will this work


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## MadRiverPat (May 3, 2013)

I treated for 7 days on my 40 breeder and 10 days on my 20 long using Mardel Maracyn, which is just erythromycin so I assumed that product from API should do the same. Both times I caught it early and tried to remove as much as possible from the beginning. I also increased flow to that area of the tank prior to treatment as well. As far as I can tell, whatever harm was done to my biological filter was able to recover. I think its important to do a large water change after treatment. That will help with if there is any spike in ammonia/nitrite from the cyanobacteria dying and an impaired biological filter. I still am not sure on the full effect it could have on your filter, but from experience it wasn't noticeable.


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## Chris_Produces (Feb 19, 2014)

I've noticed a small amount of cyanobacteria in my tank and I'm going to use that exact treatment from api on a 40gallon tank. I'm going to do treatment for a 20g though so it's half dose (I have berried RCS in the tank so I don't want to do anything drastic). I can post my results here for you if you'd like. I've heard nothing but good success with this so I'm given it a shot.


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