GBA advice

[Imorpher]

Hi,

I am having some trouble with what i believe to be GBA in my TB Shrimp tank and struggling to think of the best way treat it without damaging any of my shrimp. Has anybody else been able to get rid of this in their shrimp tank as I would appreciate any advice on the matter.

I spent a decent amount of time every couple of days removing as much as I can but it seems to come back worse each time in the same spots.

Tank : 30cm cube ~ 27L
Lighting : Beamswork 18W raised ~6" above tank on 50% for 8 hours a day.
Filtration : Boyu EF-05 ("150L/H")
Ferts : 2x dose of Tropica Premium per week.
Water : RO Re-minerialised with Bee Shrimp GH +

Water parameters (According to tests)
PH : 6.1
Ammonia : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 0 (Apparently)
GH : 6
KH : 0
TDS : ~190
Temp : 22-24c

Obviously the issue is related to the nitrate because I believe this arguably the main cause for GBA as well as poor flow. But I am unsure what I can do about it too much because I don't want to risk the Shrimps health ideally. Is there any products I could use to help out with this?

I probably also need to look into getting another filter but I am uncertain as to whether this one is related to flow because even the leaves that are getting hit with the flow have the algae also. I have the spray bar covering the width of the tank pointing towards the front but don't really much swaying from the leaves in the direct output from the filter.

If anyone has any advice or similar experiences I would greatly appreciate it, starting to get bummed out about continually removing it.

 

[Julian]

3 day black out will get rid of it, but it will return unless you fix your parameters. It's always been too much light in my experience.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

as above, 3 day black out (no peeking!) afterwards give it all a bloody good cleam and swop your tropica premium to tropica speciaised which contains nitrates. Try to increase the flow a little. Hang on filter are good for shrimp tanks with eheim liberty being my nano filter of choice if you can find one.

 

[Imorpher]

Cheers for the advice both of you.

I'm away this weekend anyway so sounds like a perfect time for a blackout. Is there anything I should be concerned about with oxygen levels or a rise in parameters if all the bacteria dies off? There is a fair amount of it so would be worried about a potential spike as there is currently baby shrimp in there.

On regards to the filter I think I am going to have a poke around for a small Eheim canister, I much prefer canister's nowadays if I can and it helps to keep the noise down as that tank is in my bedroom. For the time being I think I will take the sponge out of my filter as I already use the Eheim sponge filter intake which should help out with the flow.

In reference to the Tropica Specialised ferts - I presume they are shrimp safe? I can't find the link at this time but I could have sworn I read something about it not being any good for shrimp tanks but I guess I could take it easy at first and judge it by eye.

 

[Noman]

With GBA. I always triple my flow and introduce seista timing in my lighting period. i.e. 2-3 hours.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

tropica specialised is totally shrimp safe.

 

[Imorpher]

3 day Blackout worked a treat. No GBA anymore, just needs a good clean. Did lose one shrimp though which was odd, might have been due to the heat though.

Going to get some specialised delivered for tomorrow so hoping that will help keep it at bay. I removed some media from my filter and that seems to have improved the flow so going to see how that goes for the time being. First sign of it again however I will upgrading the filter.

Cheers for the help all.