"Iain Miller" wrote in message ...
"Barry Byrne" wrote in message
...
Just curious what the 'latest' thinking was on killing cyanobacteria
with erythromycin was?

Been reading The Krib, and this seems to be the best solution for my
tank, which has a huge outbreak since removing my floating wisteria
plants.

Don't know what country you are in but here in the UK Erythromycin is not
obtainable over the counter....if you do get some I would think you'd need
to be quite careful with it - it is an antibiotic after all.

Interpet seem to now do an anti-slime algae treatment - you might want to
look into that (I've never tried it & have no idea what's in it!). I had a
bit of Slime Algae in one of my tanks a couple of months ago - just sucking
it out with a syphon over a week or two seems to have god rid of it & I
havn't seen it since.

rgds

Iain

BGA is easy to get rid of in 3 days. Whether or not it comes back will
be up to you. You'll know what to do next time you get it and why it
often appears.

3 day black out. But you have to go in, clean well, trim, remove as
much as you can first. Use a net, get rid of all detrital floating
matter etc. Clean filter. Turn off CO2, do 50% water change(add KNO3
at this time), cover up so that no light at all gets in.
Remove after 3 days, net up any junk, do a 50% water change, add all
nutrients back into the tank.

Now keep up on the NO3, PO4, K, Traces and most importantly, the CO2.

The plants did not do well when you use an algicide, most plants don't
since they have the same pathways algae do. That method is no better
than a blackout.

The key is to grow the plants well, not kill algae. You have algae
because your plants are not doing well at some point for too long.
Once you correct conditions in the tank, you need to remove the algae
that is already there and established. THEN correct conditions. Don't
correct conditions and expect the algae to keel over and die, attack
the algae by removing it from the tank. That + good conditions takes
care of most all algae issues. Herbivores top that process off and
insure even more plants dominance.

Better to take care of that before spending $ on algae kills and
antibiotics not to mention your own time. You cannot do much without
addressing CO2 levels/nutrient levels. Need to get at the root cause,
not simply treat a symptom. Black out will kill the algae faster than
the antibiotics and it doesn't cost a thing.

Note:
Blackout will cause the Gloss to become leggy, the other plants will
be fine.

Regards,
Tom Barr