"Sandy Birrell" wrote in message ...
Scott wrote:
doesn't it have to get into the tank on plants or from water that
fish come in?

It is everywhere, it has even been found thousands of feet up in the
atmosphere. It is a bacteria, you can dry it out and years later add water
and it will grow. It doesn't need light to live and it can process the
nitrogen in the air to feed. The only way to realy kill it is to use an
anti-bacterial agent.

HTH.


No, this is not true. This tgenus is Oscillitoria, they don't use N2
gas unless they have heterocyst, no heterocyst, no N2 fixing.
You have generalized an entire group here and the species that infest
our tanks is a particular species.

You can kill it with antibiotics but then the air born spores land and
20-30 days later you can get it again. Mt St Helens had it after 20
days after the blast in 1980. Fire ecology finds these genus appearing
20-30 days an intense fire.

And it does in fact need light to live and grow. The spores are very
resistant, but the tank you have has is in there, it's waiting for the
right conditions to grow.

That's why I suggest adding KNO3, generally, low N levels cause it to
occur with poor plant growth stunted from a lack of N.

The BGA is NOT N limited in the least, you don't have a test kit that
can measure the needs and limits of BGA.

Well unless you work at research lab specifically on water quality
parameters and can speciate BGA's.
I do and can.

Regards,
Tom Barr