# [Wet Thumb Forum]-BGA, Maracyn and Discus



## warhau (Jun 9, 2003)

I've had some BGA going for about a month now, and would like to get it under control. My water conditions all appear fine, except I may have been overfertilizing Trace and Iron. Can fertilizer aggrevate bacteria growth?

Anyway, it sounds like Maracyn is a preferred method off killing BGA. Is this treatment going to have a negative effect on my new discus? I have 2 that are 2 weeks out of quarantine, and one that is only a couple days out of quarantine.

Is the BGA going to go away by itself without antibiotics, if I cut back on my ferts and change more water more often?

Sort of unrelated, but maybe somebody can answer this too. While investigating, I noticed my water has about 190 TDS. I have been using only rainwater (0 TDS) and RO (4 TDS) for at least 5 months. Also my KH is 4 and GH is 6.

I realize that the TDS is affected by everying in the water, but what causes water with 0 hardness to increase to those numbers? Does it have something to do with CO2 injection for constant 6.6pH?

I would like to get my hardness down for the discus, but I am not sure what more I can do besides 100% RO water.

Less of a newbie...

http://www.severed.us/plant_tank.html


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## warhau (Jun 9, 2003)

I've had some BGA going for about a month now, and would like to get it under control. My water conditions all appear fine, except I may have been overfertilizing Trace and Iron. Can fertilizer aggrevate bacteria growth?

Anyway, it sounds like Maracyn is a preferred method off killing BGA. Is this treatment going to have a negative effect on my new discus? I have 2 that are 2 weeks out of quarantine, and one that is only a couple days out of quarantine.

Is the BGA going to go away by itself without antibiotics, if I cut back on my ferts and change more water more often?

Sort of unrelated, but maybe somebody can answer this too. While investigating, I noticed my water has about 190 TDS. I have been using only rainwater (0 TDS) and RO (4 TDS) for at least 5 months. Also my KH is 4 and GH is 6.

I realize that the TDS is affected by everying in the water, but what causes water with 0 hardness to increase to those numbers? Does it have something to do with CO2 injection for constant 6.6pH?

I would like to get my hardness down for the discus, but I am not sure what more I can do besides 100% RO water.

Less of a newbie...

http://www.severed.us/plant_tank.html


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Can fertilizer aggrevate bacteria growth?


Bacteria need the same nutrients that plants use but very few bacteria depend on the mineral nutrients used by plants. So the general answer is No.



> quote:
> 
> Is this treatment going to have a negative effect on my new discus?


I don't know of a negative effect on fish from Maracyn, but I suppose every action has some possibility of a bad response.



> quote:
> 
> Is the BGA going to go away by itself without antibiotics, if I cut back on my ferts and change more water more often?


It can go away without antibiotics but it isn't likely to go away by itself. You have to change something in your aquarium. In fact, if you don't change something then you will probably find that the antibiotic is only a temporary fix. Cutting back on fertilizers and doing more water changes are probably the wrong actions.



> quote:
> 
> Sort of unrelated, but maybe somebody can answer this too. While investigating, I noticed my water has about 190 TDS. I have been using only rainwater (0 TDS) and RO (4 TDS) for at least 5 months. Also my KH is 4 and GH is 6.
> 
> I realize that the TDS is affected by everying in the water, but what causes water with 0 hardness to increase to those numbers? Does it have something to do with CO2 injection for constant 6.6pH?


Most everything you add to an aquarium will increase the TDS. TDS should increase over time. It's possible that you have something soluble or reactive in you substrate or decorative material.

Using rainwater and RO may be part of your problem with BGA. Low nutrient concentrations and the kind of nutrient imbalances that come reconstituting such "stripped-down" water supplies sometimes favor BGA. How's the plant growth?



> quote:
> 
> I would like to get my hardness down for the discus, but I am not sure what more I can do besides 100% RO water.


If keeping discus is your only goal then use bare-bottomed tank.

Roger Miller

------------
_"The indispensible first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want" -- Ben Stein_


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## skunky (Jun 22, 2003)

Personally I wouldn't be to concerned about the TDS for the Discus, 190ppm is fine. If the fish are youngsters and the water is to soft then it may cause some developmental problems. I've spawned Discus in 280ppm although it is easier with softer water and hatching is more likely. 

Stability is the key with Discus. Well filtered, warm water with water changes of no less than 50% a week is advisable!

As for the bare bottom tank I would strongly disagree. IMO this just creates stress caused from the fish being spooked by the constant reflection of themselves off the bottom and the light. Discus are foragers by nature and like nothing more than searching around the substrate, bog wood etc for food!


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## warhau (Jun 9, 2003)

Thanks for the responses! Plant growth has been great.

Substrate is 100% Flourite Red. The only thing that really changed in my 7 month old tank was swapping out half my 96W 7100K lights for 6700K.

Nitrates seem a little high, but not over 25 mg/l. I had been dosing Flourish + Flourish Iron + Flourish Trace + K2SO4 and KNO3. I guess I will go ahead and try the Maracyn and cut back to only regular Flourish, until Nitrates come down and see if that makes a difference in the rebound of BGA. I think I will also add a new filter and a UV sterilizer for the discus sake.

Is Maracyn going to kill good bacteria also?

Less of a newbie...

http://www.severed.us/plant_tank.html


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## warhau (Jun 9, 2003)

Here are a couple of pictures of the stuff on Baby Tears and Java Fern.

www.severed.us/tank/DSCN0373.JPG
www.severed.us/tank/DSCN0384.JPG

Less of a newbie...

http://www.severed.us/plant_tank.html


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## SoCalSar (Feb 4, 2003)

I used Maracyn to rid my tank of BGA. I had the stuff everywhere and fought it for a couple of months with manual removal and water changes. After treating with Maracyn AND being smarter about how I dosed the tank it's been gone for three months and there's no sign of the junk.

To treat with Maracyn:
1. Remove all the BGA you can manually. I used a small tube (1/4") and siphoned out all I could. 
2. Water change. I'm not sure if this is necessary, but it can't hurt. You're siphoning it out already so might as well.
3. Dose maracyn at half strength. It will readily kill the BGA at this dose. I have heard that a 1/4 dose works also, but I'd gone this far and wasn't taking chances. Also at this point I just wanted the BGA DEAD.
4. Clean up all the dead stuff after it's kicked the bucket. It'll die fast.

Since it does kill bacteria I think it is detrimental to your bacterial filter but I had no problems in my 60 gallon. It's a well established tank that's been going a year.


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## warhau (Jun 9, 2003)

I treated last Tuesday, and it was completely erradicated in 48 hours. I used half dose. I found this page which talks about what kills nitrifying bacteria if anyone might find it useful.

http://article.dphnet.com/cat-02/do-and-dont.shtml

Less of a newbie...

http://www.severed.us/plant_tank.html


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