# How to destroy GDA in a week time



## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

I was struggling with this irritating algae for a few months. It wasn't typical GDA algae however, it was't possible to remove it by scraping it off by fingers. It was like bluish-green regular coat on tank glasses and on plant's leaves (it wasn't BGA). I had to remove it every 2..3 days which was really frustrating and got me really furious. Changing nutrients levels and ratios didn't work well. Decreasing potassium doses helped the most though. (i added 40 ppm K+ to changed water). I decided to use UV lamp and some peat extract added into the water. The extract was prepared in a jar where i put some peat and poured boiling distilled water. It was added innstead of evaporated water so that water in the tank took slight brownish color. At the end of the week i also turned on 11 watts UV lamp in my 200 liters tank for 24 hours. On saturday when i usually do water changes it turned out that GDA had disappeared almost completely ! There are some traces of it on some leaves but these are not too noticeable.


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## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

Siema,
Its going to come back unfortunately. Its a bacteria not an algae, you'll need to get rid off it using anti-biotics and increasing you're KNO3. I had the same problem when I switched my fertilizers, I didn't have the right concentration of KNO3 in my liquid mix. I thought it was GDA for a while but then the bluish-green stuff started to grow on my substrate. No matter how many water changes, scrubing I did it would come back after a week or so. The name of the anti-biotic is Erythromycin phosphate or the common name "Maracyn" by Mardel made for fin/tail rot, pop eye ect.. If you can't find it in Bialystok I'm coming in June 11th and I can bring you some. :mrgreen: It worked very very well with no increase in ammonia or nitrate levels and the water is crystal clean now.










heres my thread when I was looking for it.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...-where-can-i-find-erythromycin-phosphate.html

Wojciech


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## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

Here's a link to the anti-biotic 
http://www.petco.com/product/5969/Mardel-Freshwater-Maracyn.aspx


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## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

> Its going to come back unfortunately. Its a bacteria not an algae, you'll need to get rid off it using anti-biotics and increasing you're KNO3.


I was talking about Green Dust Algae; *not* cyanobecteria ! You can't get rid of cyanobacteria by using peat. Once i had cyanobacteria and i destroyed it by using UV lamp. You can read about it here:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...s/39846-how-destroy-bga-external-uv-lamp.html


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## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

Aha! sorry. I read bluish-green algae that could not be removed says to me bacteria. But ok. Sounds good.


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## CherylH (Jul 22, 2004)

I don't get this type of algae too often, so I don't know if this really works or it's just coincidence. Here's what seems to work for me.

1. Leave to algae on the glass. (i.e. don't clean the glass for at least a day)
2. Drain the tank to below the worst of the algae--leave the algae alone.
3. If it's really thick, you can clean wipe some off the glass with a paper towel after draining the tank, be careful not to get any in the tank.
4. Let the glass on tank dry (algae and all) while watching a movie, reading a book, or visiting a favorite forum for a few hours. The algae will start to have a slightly gray cast when it's dry.
5. Refill the tank.
6. Wait until the next day to touch the glass.

BTW, thanks for all the research you've shared. My tanks are looking much better (and my fish are happier too).


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