The Puffer Forum

Corvus wrote:Ah... it's even a planted tank (your fahaka seems to be a nice one)... that's good news...

I hope you have a green thumb.
Promote plant growth and the Cyanobacteria will go away with a little patience.
Do you use bulbs for plants, CO2 and aquarium plant fertilizer?
If not, you may want to consider that.
Plant growth will also help somewhat with the phosphate levels.

I have 3 bulbs on each 3' section 6500k, no co2 and I was using seachm flourish (haven't lately). I stopped when the algea bloom started. I just scrubbed the driftwood, scrapped all the algea off the glass, got as much off the plants as I could, scooped it out of the sand and did two 50% water changes. I'm about to put the driftwood back in.

Troender wrote:With that number of phosphate, there's a chance for BGA if you have low nitrates, which you have. Believe it or not, but higher nitrates will help (or at least is supposed to help - I haven't tested it myself).

I only have the BGA in the one tank, the other tank never had that problem and it has the same level of phosphate. The only difference between the two is the ph. (see above), gallons and the substrate. I use the same kind of lighting on both tanks.
The other tank without the BGA is actually overstocked. If I were having this problem in that tank I could understand why. I'm at a loss on this one.

Here's a picture of the other tank:

It's probably because you have a higher CO2 and nitrate level in that tank, they will help your plants grow faster and out-do the algae.

Are you talking about natural co2?
I don't use co2 on either tanks.

Here's a short video of the clean tank. We'll see if it comes back in a week. There's very little duckweed in there, not even sure where it came from. Val grass, corkscrew grass, anubias, dwarf sagittaria, a couple of sword plants and one lilly plant. I'm guessing all of these are slow growers? Please excuse the cloudiness I had just put the driftwood back in. It's already clearing up. I guess I should have taken another video.


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I've made up my mind to try the adding nitrate trick myself in one of my puffer tanks (of course not so much nitrate that it will be too much for the puffer). I've added some ferilizer that contains nitrates. I am really curious how this will end. I am starting with very small amounts, and will keep an eye on everything from this day on.

Troender wrote:I've made up my mind to try the adding nitrate trick myself in one of my puffer tanks (of course not so much nitrate that it will be too much for the puffer). I've added some ferilizer that contains nitrates. I am really curious how this will end. I am starting with very small amounts, and will keep an eye on everything from this day on.

Let me know how that works for you. If it works for you I may try it.


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When was the last time you changed your lights?

Increasing the water flow will hopefully help, I forgot about that but yes, that's a big part of discouraging it.

You might want to also consider trying that filter media that removes phosphates, its like a filter pad? But I don't know if that will really help you long term if you have it in your tap water.

If you do the backout you can still feed the fish.

I've never really heard much about the ferts/co2/nitrates coming into play with BGA, so I can't help much there. I fought it like crazy a while back and I think it was low current that caused mine.

yunachin wrote:When was the last time you changed your lights?

Two - Three weeks ago on the single tube set, the double tube set are one year old (almost excatly). I had to look it up. I know that I have been fighting this algea outbreak since Feb.-March. It really all started when Annabelle got sick. I used the meds in her tank and right after that: algea bloom. I read on one of the web pages when it suddenly comes up like that it means there was ammonia in the tank. This part is true, after I treated her for the worms, her tank went through a mini cycle and I used the tetra safestart (mid march)to push through the mini cycle. That's about the same time this algea bloom started. I'm wondering if that's what started it. I treated the other tank with the same meds, no mini cycle and no algea outbreak, and the lights are over a year old. Which reminds me I probaly need to change them.

Myaj wrote:Increasing the water flow will hopefully help, I forgot about that but yes, that's a big part of discouraging it.

You might want to also consider trying that filter media that removes phosphates, its like a filter pad? But I don't know if that will really help you long term if you have it in your tap water.

If you do the backout you can still feed the fish.

I've never really heard much about the ferts/co2/nitrates coming into play with BGA, so I can't help much there. I fought it like crazy a while back and I think it was low current that caused mine.

Well there is a heck of a current in there now. I think Annabelle is really enjoying it too. I don't know anything about co2 either. That's why I choose low light, no co2 plants. I'm trying to take baby steps with my planted tanks. I thought about the phosphate pads but I really don't want to have to deal with those. I feel if the other tank can do good without them, then this one should also.

I do know that most lights have a life span of 6-9 months and when they start losing spectrum they can feed cyanobacteria like crazy. Considering you are having a blue/green cyano I am thinking that there is too strong of a red spectrum that could be caused by those older bulbs. You can try switching them out and doing another black out and see if that helps. I know that is what causes most of my cyano problems when I do have them.

edmlfc1 wrote:Are you talking about natural co2?
I don't use co2 on either tanks.

Yes I was talking about the CO2 and waste produced from the fish.

Tiger Lilly's seem to be quick growers, val is about medium, anubias not so quick and i don't really know about the others.

yunachin wrote:I do know that most lights have a life span of 6-9 months and when they start losing spectrum they can feed cyanobacteria like crazy. Considering you are having a blue/green cyano I am thinking that there is too strong of a red spectrum that could be caused by those older bulbs. You can try switching them out and doing another black out and see if that helps. I know that is what causes most of my cyano problems when I do have them.

Which would you suggest:

Power-Glo
36" 30W
or
Ultra Sun Trichromatic
36" 25W
Power glo because it has more wattage? Both are 6500K
Power glo says good for planted tanks Ultra sun says good for community tanks.

Iliveinazoo wrote:

edmlfc1 wrote:Are you talking about natural co2?


I don't use co2 on either tanks.

Yes I was talking about the CO2 and waste produced from the fish.

Tiger Lilly's seem to be quick growers, val is about medium, anubias not so quick and i don't really know about the others.

Thanks, although Annabelle "will not" allow any other tankmates. I can't add any fish to her tank or they will become lunch. I increased the circulation and I'm going to order replacement bulbs and see if that helps.


Just cleaned the tank yesterday and already today there's BGA growning on the sand! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

I have always favored the Power-Glo. They have done excellent on any of the planted tanks I have had.

Ok but if you still get problems then consider extra ferts. Poor mans dosing drops (PMDD) dosing using dry salts appears to be the cheapest option and the one that I use.

Let me know if a change of lamp helps - i might be able to cut down on the amount of ferts i go through if that's the case!

4-Bulbs changed (check)
Remaining two bulbs removed (check) (need to pick up two more bulbs)
3-50% water changes in two days, syphoned out 95% of the algea (check)
Took out decor and scrubbed algea off (check)
Cleaned all glass including back (check)
Added more circulation (check)
Annabelle getting knocked around by current (check)

I guess now it's just a waiting game.......