Got the blues...blue-green algae that is! Help!

[C. Andrew Nelson]

So I've manage to develop blue-green algae in my 10 gallon holding/quarantine tank. It's running rampant. Admittedly I've neglected this tank due to a crazy family and career commitments as of late. I know I need to reduce the number of hours the lights are on, be careful not to over feed the fish, and get back to a regular water change schedule to help combat this plague (which isn't really a true algae). I've also purchased a small air pump & airstone to help oxygenate and agitate the water. I'm wondering what else others here recommend as a course of action. Anyone had good luck winning the war on blue-green algae?

[Crazygar]

Yup. Daily water changes, no light, reduced feedings (use high quality foods with little or no phosphates), manual removal and increased water flow to ensure all areas of the tank receive something.

It's Cyanobacteria (as you already know), but once it's in, it takes a bit of elbow grease to rid yourself of.

Gary

[Diana]

I would add a lot of plants, something like Guppy Grass or other drifting plant. As a Q-tank it should not have substrate, but you could plant in pots. The thing with Guppy Grass is that if for some reason the fish in quarantine die you can throw away the Guppy Grass and sterilize the tank before getting more fish. Then just get some more Guppy Grass. It grows fast, so it will remove a lot of the nutrients that are feeding the BGA. It will also keep the water conditions better for the fish in quarantine, removing a lot of the nitrogen in any form: ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

[mikeman]

Product called slime away or slime off, not sure exactly but I'll let u know when I remember. Worked excellent for me

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Yup. Daily water changes, no light, reduced feedings (use high quality foods with little or no phosphates), manual removal and increased water flow to ensure all areas of the tank receive something.

I made the mistake of not putting this tank on a timer (even though I bought one for it ages ago) so it's gotten way too much light each day. I have a timer on now. I can't go completely dark 24/7 because of the plants. These fish get fed mostly freeze-dried tubifex worms which they dearly love, which I see now looking at the label has L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate as the third ingredient listed. Time to switch foods.[/quote]

It's Cyanobacteria (as you already know), but once it's in, it takes a bit of elbow grease to rid yourself of.

Yeah, I already figured it would take some serious work to get rid of the Cyanobacteria. I know there is no quick way to deal with this. Just looking for the more effective and efficient methods.

On my next water change (tonight) I plant of removing all the plants which are floating in there and manually remove the Cyanobacteria scum off of them before putting them back into the tank. Fun fun fun!

[C. Andrew Nelson]

I would add a lot of plants, something like Guppy Grass or other drifting plant. As a Q-tank it should not have substrate, but you could plant in pots. The thing with Guppy Grass is that if for some reason the fish in quarantine die you can throw away the Guppy Grass and sterilize the tank before getting more fish. Then just get some more Guppy Grass. It grows fast, so it will remove a lot of the nutrients that are feeding the BGA. It will also keep the water conditions better for the fish in quarantine, removing a lot of the nitrogen in any form: ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

I have the tank filed with plants, but no guppy grass. I've got Rotala rotundifolia, Rotala sp. "Green", Cryptocoryne cordata, Nymphaea rubra, Nymphaea zenkeri, Cypress helferi, Hygrophila corymbosa, a little Anubias, and a truckload of Java Fern floating in there, none of which I suspect are nutrient gobblers. The tank is bare bottom.

The fish are all healthy (thriving in fact). Some of the plants are stunted, but others are doing just fine. My goal is to get everything - the plants and the fish - moved out of there and into their permanent home by mid-October. (They've been in this holding tank almost half a year now. LOL!) I'm hoping not to bring the BGA with them.

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Product called slime away or slime off, not sure exactly but I'll let u know when I remember. Worked excellent for me

I have not heard of that one. I wonder what's in it.

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Has anyone used Hydrogen peroxide to treat BGA?

[Crazygar]

Try phosphate removing beads. The product is called "Phosban" and does work well. Try this out in conjunction with your other methods. You need to battle this on all fronts.

Gary

[C. Andrew Nelson]

I found Phosban on Amazon for a decent price along with Seachem's version called PhosGuard. If I don't see it at my LFS I'll order it online. Thanks for the info, Gary!

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Just to update everyone,...

Last night I did a 50% water change on the BGA infiltrated tank. I drained out half of the tank's water, sucked up as much of the BGA as I could with the siphon hose, and wiped the Cyanobacteria off the glass. I cleaned the filter too. Then I filled a bucket with tap water, pulled all the plants out of the tank, cleaned them off by hand one by one, and put them in the bucket of tap water (discarding those that I felt were too far gone). Then I poured some hydrogen peroxide into the bucket of tap water and let the plants soak in that while I finished cleaning and refilling the tank.

I set up my new aPUMP Silent Air Pump (which truly is silent) and airstone to help oxygenate & agitate the water. Nice little pump the suction cups to the outside glass of your tank. Pretty decent air flow too. Then I added the plants back into the tank. And as I mentioned before, the lights are on a timer now.

Basically it comes down to me not doing proper maintenance on this tank for the past two months because of family & career commitments. I lost quite a few plants. Some I had to toss (some Rotala) because I could get the slime off the leaves, some didn't have BGA on them yet we scraggly starved plants, and some were gone...completely disintegrated like the Downoi I had floating in there. Even the traces of duckweed that had hitched a ride with the Downoi has vanished. The Java Fern and Anubias were completely unscathed. Indestructible plant. Not sure how many of these plants I want to use (if any) in my Aqueon 16 Widescreen Aquarium which was their planned destination. The last thing I want to do is introduce Cyanobacteria to the show tank. Ugh.

[mikeman]

It's called ultralife blue green slime remover. Its on amazon. I tried all those other methods but this is the only thing that worked for me, and it worked fast too.

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Thanks, mikeman. I'll keep that in mind.

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Just a quick update:

Since doing the 50% water change, manually cleaning the tank & plants, doing a hydrogen peroxide dip on the plants, and chucking the plants that were too far gone, the tank is looking great now. I also added an airstone and have kept the water level about two inches below the rim. Between the airstone and the water pouring back in from the HOB filter there is plenty of surface agitation. As a result, the last bits of cyanobacteria that I could still see in the tank have now disappeared! Thank you to everyone for your help. I'm probably still going to implement some of the other treatments you all have suggested.

[ScottFish]

That's all good news. Great job!


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