# Algae Problem..again...



## dirrtybirdy (May 22, 2007)

Hey guys I have another algae problem in my biotope! I took my water to a pet store and had them test it and everything was normal.

There is a algae bloom that is blanketing my plants, deco and substrate. its not that bad but I want to get rid of it before it causes a problem. Its a darker deep green color. I thought it was BGA and added more current to the tank(put a power head directly on the souce), and its still there. Im going to try and take pictures from my phone today. Any help would be appreciated.

I also overdosed on excel, but it still wouldnt go away. I think its time for me to step up my dosing habits with other elements.

TIA guys


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## dirrtybirdy (May 22, 2007)

pics for reference.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

That looks like clado.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

This is BGA. Something had gone wrong in your tank and the organics had increased. Nitrate, Phosphate - it doesn't matter. By now if you test you may find everything in line but the BGA has taken hold.

Forget trying to fight BGA with anything else than Erythromycin. Start by sucking/manually removing all the BGA you can. Do a small (20% or so) water change. Dose the EM. Dose for 3 days in a row and every time remove as much BGA as you can and do a small water change. 200 mg per every 10 gals. of volume. It gets expensive if your tank is big.

Simple.

--Nikolay


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

niko said:


> This is BGA. --Nikolay


Believe it or not, that's what I meant to say. #-o Clado is something entirely different! Oops.

-Dave


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

I believe you need some potassium nitrate, flourish excel, and Erythromycin. I would dose 1mm of potassium nitrate every other day for a week. You can measure it with a baby med. measurer. I found 1 for a few dollars at Wall-mart in med. section.

Goal is to get nitrate to 10ppm. Level of 10ppm won't hurt any fish. But if your level is zero, and you add enough in one dose to raise it to 10ppm, you will kill fish. Thus if you have delicate fish, as cihlids, you need a nitrate test kit.

Here is a site that describes nutrient defiencies
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm


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