oops. accidentally posted to the wrong group (meant to post it to
r.a.f.plants, and ended up posting to r.a.f.misc!)

hi,

My husband has a 6G tank with 8W bulb at his work. About 3 months ago, I
gave him java fern on a rock and also some anacharis for his tank to keep
his otherwise stark tank a little nicer place for his fish.

he's been combating algae for a while now (which I recently identified as
blue-green algae based on his description), and now he said all the plants
are dead and falling apart so he threw them out...

so.. can blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) infestation kill the "can't
kill me" java plant? I haven't seen the tank since the beginning of the
algae infestation (ugly dark blue-green patch on his "fluorescent color"
gravels...) so I have no idea how "bad" bad is.. except he told me it got
to a point he couldn't see through the glass.. (so he cleaned it all off
yesterday, he said). none are fuzzy green, or brown.. so it seems like all
his "algae" is cyanobacteria from what I can gather.

I've recommended him to do the 50% strength eurythromycin treatment to kill
off the bacteria.. but now he's really gun-shy about putting any plant in
there even if the treatment is successful. so.. I was wondering what else
could
be going wrong, so he can look and fix it first? 8W probably is too
low for anacharis, but should be enough for java fern... (mine is
essentially in etenrnal shade since I have no tank light in my betta tank,
but
it's sprouting leaves and stuff, so I know you don't need much)

he does 30% water change every other week, gravel vacs, eclipse hood with
biowheel and floss cartridge... three danios and a betta in the tank... I'll
be sending him to work soon with all my test kits so he can get a reading on
the tank water.. but... something isn't quite right (cyanobacteria=bad
water condition?). he only feeds once in two days. Fish are fine. the tank
apparently is just hostile visually and to plants...

linda