# alge



## myles (Feb 27, 2005)

well i have had this tank running for close to a year now, and all of a sudden out of the blue, i started gettign these big patches of bright green alge on the top of the gravel. and i cna barely pyphon it out tis so heavey, only like half of it goes up the tube. and then it jsut starts growing again. the only difference was about a month ago i changed this fish form the tnak and put another fish in it instead. eny ideas? thanx


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

Can you post a pic in order to see which type of algae is that?

What is your lighting system?How many hours you leave the lights on?


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## myles (Feb 27, 2005)

hey there, im acualy unable to take a pic right now i dotn have a scanner, or a digital cam. but its jsut these thick patches of dark emeraled green. the lights are on for about 10 hours average maby a little longer soemtimes, with 2, 40 watt tubes(80watts) and its a 90g. thanx


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## petfish (Sep 16, 2005)

myles said:


> hey there, im acualy unable to take a pic right now i dotn have a scanner, or a digital cam. but its jsut these thick patches of dark emeraled green. the lights are on for about 10 hours average maby a little longer soemtimes, with 2, 40 watt tubes(80watts) and its a 90g. thanx


 Damn, I'm not too sure but it sounds like you got some cyanobacteria in your tank. It is like a emerald / blue-green color and comes off in little sheets when you scrape it or try to siphon it out. Its looks like a patch of film more than a plant. Let me know if that describes it or not?


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

A good article to read on algae
http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9


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## myles (Feb 27, 2005)

yes! that totaly discribes it, and its like jsut a patch here and there that keeps growing, all spaced apart. and yes its all over my rocks to and builds up and almsot lookes like a smooth goo,nuthing like the stuff on my glass.

ok i just read the article(thanks a bunch for the link by the way







) and looked at the pic and it deffinitly is that smear algea called cyanobacteria. enyways it has that stuff i can use tog et rid of it but it sounds a little dangerious, but i only have one fish in there and i give a 25-50% water change a week too, and my water quality is always good, my ph is jsut a bit high. so have eny of you ever tried treating this and how was your experiance, did your ammonia go crazy? also do you think i should cut doen on cylce them to help stop it?


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## petfish (Sep 16, 2005)

Cyanobacteria is the worst pain in the a** that i've ever had to deal with in my aquarium. It is damn hard to kill! I tried using that marycin that was suggested to kill it and it ended up killing both of my caribes and the cyanobacteria still survived. I only dosed it one time and followed the directions as it says and it wiped my fish out in one night. I dont know if other people have had the same experience but I HIGHLY don't reccomend that stuff!! Anyway from what I've read it cam survive low temps, high temps no light and even if you can get it to disappear from the time being ( by water changes, siphoning all you can see..etc ), it'll stay dormant in the water and will return once the conditions are right again. To make a long story short, I ended up starting over and nuking the entire tank with bleach and boiling water. Sounds a little extreme but all my fish were dead and I had nothing to lose. Tanks doing fine now. Good luck


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## myles (Feb 27, 2005)

ah sh*t u serious thats nutz, dman well imsertanly not gonana try doin that i friggin love the fish i have right now hes so kool(fahaka puffer) so il jsut clena alot i guess and see if enyone els has eny ideas, unles si cna transfer him and then use thats tuff, cuz i dotn wanan take that chance. thanx for ur advive tho im glad i herd that b4 i did enything


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

myles said:


> ...it deffinitly is that smear algea called cyanobacteria. enyways it has that stuff i can use tog et rid of it but it sounds a little dangerious, but i only have one fish in there and i give a 25-50% water change a week too, and my water quality is always good, my ph is jsut a bit high. so have eny of you ever tried treating this and how was your experiance, did your ammonia go crazy? also do you think i should cut doen on cylce them to help stop it?


Myles,

You have Cyanobacteria (BGA blue-green algae), which is actually bacteria, not algae.
And yes you can get rid of it. It is not difficult, you just have to know what you are doing.

First of all, *do not* use chemicals (algae killers). They will stop photosynthetic activity and your plants will certainly suffer more than bacteria.
What you need to know is that BGA needs yellow-green light, high pH, phosphates. Some species do not even need nitrates (Anabaena, Nodularia), they can fix atmospheric nitrogen (N2). they will survive in any temperature where fishes can live.

So the remedy is as follows:
1) Do not overfeed. Also note that if you have overstocking situation it is easy to overfeed.
2) Change water regularly (like 10 % per week), BUT treat the new tap water before you put it into your tank. You need chlorine and chloramine removers and a good practice is to add humic acid too (blackwate extract).
3) Lover the pH to about 6.5 - 6.8. this will help combatting other algae too.
4) Use bulbs meant for aquatic photosynthesis; like Sylvania Aquastar or Philips Aqua. They usually have a color temperature of 10.000 K. Some plants do not like them at first but they will adapt to it.

If the BGA problem has already become severe, it might be a good idea to remove all the visible BGA as well as you can with about 30 % water change (to bring phosphates down) and then start with a full 3 day blackout.

Regards,


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## myles (Feb 27, 2005)

oh awsom, thanx for all the info







by the way will a three day blackout effect my fish?


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

no, ps love the dark


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## myles (Feb 27, 2005)

oh sorry, this tank acualy has a fahaka puffer in it, but im sure it dosnet make much difference. he'l jsut have a nice nap haha :laugh:


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