# BGA Help



## Sharpey999 (25 May 2014)

I don't have ferts and only ever used tropica daily as was unsure where to start

My co2 retailer badly let me down and I was without a refill for over a month after numerous promises 

I tried DIY while I was waiting but the inefficiency of it bloomed hair algae so stopped and just water changed every day

Then boom as soon as the co2 was back on the diffuser BGA everywhere

I tried in vain to remove daily but has hit me today

What should I do?

Pics to follow


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## sciencefiction (25 May 2014)

You can either manually remove the BGA or do a 3 day blackout. Then you'd need to dose fertilizers daily. Are you adding enough? BGA points to low nitrates, or lack of flow to spread them.


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## Alastair (26 May 2014)

On top of the main points science fiction just said, I'd see about getting some potassium nitrate (kno3) from aquarium plant food and sprinkling a little in the areas it's popped it's ugly head up then focus on flow etc. If your still struggling then manual removal along with east life's algexit will rid the tank of it but the root cause needs solving


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## Sacha (26 May 2014)

Actually you want Blue Exit, not Algexit. It's specifically for Cyanobacteria. And use hydrogen peroxide to kill it.


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## tim (26 May 2014)

I'm with science fiction and Al, improved flow manual removal and increased nitrogen based ferts like tropica specialised should work, IMO I wouldn't use hydrogen peroxide unless you have no livestock present or definitely know how much to dose.


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## Sacha (26 May 2014)

I've used hydrogen peroxide several times as a treatment for BGA with no ill effects to fish or inverts. 1-2 ml per US gallon of 6% H2O2 is how much to dose. Stick to 1 ml per US gallon if you want to be on the safe side. 

Turn your filters off. Spot dose the peroxide directly onto the algae. Leave filters off for 30 minutes. After 5 minutes the cyano will start bubbling and turn red. Then it dies and your fish eat it.


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## tim (26 May 2014)

Always good practice to follow up advice with instructions sacha, I have considered using h2o2 to treat the bba I've had in my tank for a long time, just not comfortable with livestock present.


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## Sacha (26 May 2014)

Tim don't worry about it at all. It just turns into oxygen and water when it's in contact with water.


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## Richardbunting (29 May 2014)

Is it the green tropica fert your using or the yellow one?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Sharpey999 (14 Aug 2014)

I got my frets from aquariumplantfood and have started daily dosing 

I ripped out over £200 worth of plants and cleaned all the soil
Cleaned all glass and filters tubes etc and started again

New mopani roots and different plants
I've upped the co2 and reduced the photoperiod from 8 to 6 hrs
I've bought a power head 2200 lph for my jewel rio 180 and my filtration is fluval external 306

After 5 days now I've just noticed some more BGA

What am I doing wrong?

Old scape



New scape


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## ceg4048 (14 Aug 2014)

Flow and Distribution schemes are probably poor.

Cheers,


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## Sharpey999 (15 Aug 2014)

What would you suggest for my 180l bow front tank as per pictures above

Thanks


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## ceg4048 (15 Aug 2014)

Well, in Bow tanks and corner tanks it is extremely difficult to solve the riddle of flow/distribution. Because of the awkward geometry it's difficult to guide the water to all the locations evenly.

Your photographs are more intended to show the tank contents, but really, it would be more useful to show exactly how you are distributing flow and what the placement scheme of  your various pumps and filter outlets is.

It looks to me from photo #2 that you have a powerhead pointing from the front of the tank to the rear left, which is the worst possible angle because that is the longest distance between any two points on the same plane in the tank. The flow spreads out in a conical shape and  the energy is disipated everywhere, which essentially means it goes nowhere. I can see that the Vallis-type plants are bending over to the left, possibly from that powerhead. The plants located under the powerhead are not gaining any benefit from that.

I'm not seeing how the flow from the filter is arranged. I'm guessing that it is located somewhere along the top, pointing at a different angle and outside the plane of the powerhead's effluent. If so then there is probably collision, or at least interference of flow and cancellation.

When you add multiple pumps to a system they must work together as a team of horses pulling the cart along the same plane and in the same direction. From what little I can see of the photo it appears to be in chaos.

As usual, the powerhead should be moved to one of the back walls, preferably alongside the filter outlet tube and pointing in the same direction, preferably towards the front bowed glass.

As mentioned by other posters, KNO3 is the best nutrient addition to avoid nitrogen deficiency, so you ought to be adding that.

I cannot analyze further without more detailed images.

Cheers,


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## Sharpey999 (16 Aug 2014)

Hi pal

The flow is as per pictures
Both from the rear and horizontal with the power head lower than the lily pipe

If it will help I can move the power head

Where should I site my co2 diffuser?
Also I did have one inline but it snapped one day while tightening up so reverted back to in tank

Is my media correct too

Coarse white sponges in the design on the 306
Then black sponge
Then ceramic cylinder stones
Then carbon bags with fine particle sponge to top


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## ceg4048 (17 Aug 2014)

Yes, as suspected you have your filter outlet pointing in the opposite direction to your powerhead. This is counterproductive. It's like peeing into the wind.

The first step is to allow the two units to work together and to NOT OPPOSE each other.

The basic problem here is that you have selected a flow/distribution scheme which send water across the length of the tank instead of across the width of the tank, which is a smaller distance. So because of the longer distance, more energy is required to carry the water across the tank. Handcuffing the pumps in this way is even worse when they are cancelling each other out. This causes dead spots and stagnation of flow, so the nutrients and CO2 don't quite get delivered to the leaves in some areas.

I would rearrange the lily pipe so that it faces left to right and then also move the powerhead to the left wall and mount it parallel to the lily pipe so that both effluents are moving water from left to right. If you can't change the angle of the lily pipe so that it faces left to right instead of diagonally then adjust the angle of the powerhead so that it will also be diagonal and parallel to the lily pipe. Try to keep both on the same plane as much as possible.

As far as the CO2 diffuser, I would mount it directly under the filter inlet pipe so that the inlet pipe sucks up as much of the gas as possible.

Do more water changes of at least 50% tank volume and keep the lily pipe as clean as you can. This also affects flow.



Sharpey999 said:


> Is my media correct too
> Coarse white sponges in the design on the 306
> Then black sponge
> Then ceramic cylinder stones
> Then carbon bags with fine particle sponge to top


I advise to immediately remove all ceramic cylinder stones and substitute another sponge. Instead of having a bag of carbon, open the bag and spread the carbon out in the tray. This will reduce drag in the filter and will improve flow throughput.

Cheers,


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