The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone. Sorry it’s been a while since I was last one. Between working full time and chores and a social life it’s been hard finding time to sleep none the less get on here. Anyway I plan on being on much more often now. So here’s my problem, BGA. I’ve been battling it for the past few months and I’m finally feeling beat. It is in two spots completely coving my sand. And then I also have a recent out break of green algae one every glass surface in my tank (including the heater) other than the front of the tank. My otos wouldn’t touch it so I have moved them to my 20 gallon community tank with plans of getting a new algae eater (open to suggestions). Anyway here’s the tank specs.
0-0-0(due to live plants)
pH: 7.8
Hardness: very hard (off test)
Plants: java fern, Brazilian sword, anubias nana
Fish: 2 bumble bee gobies, 1 figure eight puffer (please don’t turn this into a lecture about keeping a f8 in freshwater, this is my choice based off knowledge and personal experience)
The tank has been cycled for 2 years now, temp is 78ish, using an aquaclear 20 powerfilter, dosing nutrifin ferts and a co2 system, and 25% water changes weekly. Gets about 14 hours of light a day. I’ve tried black outs multiple times, dosing with both the full line of seachem ferts and now nutrifin, and using co2. I’m at wits’ end with this stuff. I don’t want to resort to using e-myacin, and seeing as I can’t get it without a prescription in Connecticut it seems out of the question. Any insight would be great. Thanks everyone.

My guess is way too much light and nutrients in the water from waste or plant fertilizers. Id really only use ferts if your not using powerful enuf lights to see growth. I give a good clean everywhere on the tank. Feed less and less light and stop the additives for a while. Your plants shouldnt die or anything. Thats what id do.....

to me 14 hours of light seems a bit to much. I run mine for a total of 8 hours a day and am doing ok on algae.

You could try shrimp, sometimes they live with puffers ok

more snals will help. a pleco etc.

ok. i use the ferts becuase my swords start to turn yellow if i don't use them and i was previously informed that the ferts would help with the bga to balance out the nutrient in the water. i'll stop using the ferts and cut back on the light. should i stop the co2 as well or continue with it?

I doubt you need co2, I dont use any in my 55 and my plants are growin great

ok. i'm doing a water change tomorrow morning adn will stop dosing with the ferts and start cutting back on the lights. does anyone know a good timer i could get to use for the lights so i can be consistent with them even when i'm away for more than 8 hours?

I switched to 50/50 bulb and put on for 5 hours a day on a timer

You can use Maracyn (streptomycin) to kill the BGA, but as already said, XS light XS or imbalanced nutrients, and/or too few water changes with at least light substrate vacuuming can all promote algae, but BGA is really not an algae, it is a photosynthetic bacterium which develops superb biofilms. Once the biofilm is established, it is impossible to control short-term by nutrrient control and balance. You must either kill it or physically remove it. The mixed-colony biofilm is a superb recycler - it can maintain with few or no water column nutrient for months, in part on what it gets by diffusion from the substrate.

It is also somewhat sensitive to current - increasing the flow at the substrate level makes forming the biofilm much more difficult.

HTH

What kind of light are you using??? maybe its enuf for algae and not enuf for the plants growth without ferts.

BGA follows my Frankie no matter what tank I have him in. I changed my lights, reduced the time, increased flow, added ferts, used Excel, and every other trick and it just comes back. It coats my plants and my driftwood. I finally succumbed and used antibiotics for a couple of days but then Frankie had an issue that may have been either the meds or a defective heater leaking voltage but now I'm afraid to try the meds again! If you find the magic answer, I'd love to hear it!

Maybe frankie introduced it into the aquarium. I seen large sponge outbreaks from a puffers poo. Still I really dont se the need for ferts. THere is also a bedding you can buy when setting up a planted tank. I forget what its called but its like a mulch with all kinds of vitamins etc for the plant. Youe plant your plants into it then use sand or gravel above that. Then you can skip the ferts. But IME Ive never needed ferts. I have two full bottles of excel and flourish and basically used them once and never again cuz I didnt need it. Maybe your Phosphates are high. Try testing that, Its usually another root cause of Algae. In reef system ppl strive for 0 phosphates so they dont get nuisance algaes

I read that plant growth might slow if there is a limiting factor, allowing the algae to opportunistically take over. His tank was 65 g and heavily planted, and I did frequent pwc's, so my trates were always 0. I tried supplementing just in case that lack left the plants unable to take up the other nutrients, contributing to imbalance...

That substate was Eco-complete, which is a great product, specifically for plants...

Now he's in a 30g, also heavily planted, with regular gravel, and the same problem has followed.

I barely cleaned up the 65g when Frankie moved out. I left the same gravel and plants, vacuumed a bit, and moved my tropical community in (in order to use their 90g for Zephyr when he came to me) and I haven't seen a spot of BGA in the 65 since!

We definitely have phosphates in our water but it doesn't cause BGA to grow in any other of the other tanks I use tap water in! (I have a filter and use RO in my marine tanks but don't want to risk ph swings in my FW tanks...)

SammyDee wrote:Maybe frankie introduced it into the aquarium. I seen large sponge outbreaks from a puffers poo. Still I really dont se the need for ferts. THere is also a bedding you can buy when setting up a planted tank. I forget what its called but its like a mulch with all kinds of vitamins etc for the plant. Youe plant your plants into it then use sand or gravel above that. Then you can skip the ferts. But IME Ive never needed ferts. I have two full bottles of excel and flourish and basically used them once and never again cuz I didnt need it. Maybe your Phosphates are high. Try testing that, Its usually another root cause of Algae. In reef system ppl strive for 0 phosphates so they dont get nuisance algaes

We've given up at trying to get rid of algae. There's never any deficiencies because we dose EI. Now we're just looking at things to eat the algae Not the best method but whatever We've got 3 ottos in QT right now and we have added some nerite snails. We have a few plecos but they aren't doing a good job, they can't get the leaves. We tried shrimp but they were eaten.

My suggestion would be to reduce your lighting period. Our high tech tank only gets 6hrs of light per day. Next I think you should do a lot of research on the different planted tank methods and you'll then be able to make a better decision about what's best for your tank. Don't get rid of the CO2 as I think it can only be helping the situation. I wish I could help more but the planted part isn't really my department. I've got the fish while my SO did all the research about the plants. I take care of them but he's the one that actually knows the nitty gritty about what's going on

i use 2 15 watt full spectrum bulbs. there already is a current in m tank and where one of the BGA spots is growing. i manually removed all the BGA i could and did a 50% water change. i didn't dose with ferts today, and i actually rearranged the tank and replaced a rock with a large piece of driftwood. i stopped using co2 (mainly becuase i tried using a new yeast that was TOO active and bubbled out of the top of the reactor) so well see how it goes. if i start using the co2 again what kinda of yeast do you recommend using becuase the prepackaged nutrifin stuff at the stores is way too expensive.