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Easylife Blue Exit

I was thinking the same thing myself. I will add another teaspoon or two into the macro mix I think. Thanks again!
 
easerthegeezer said:
i totally agree with you in principle, sadly, when your tank has a bacterial infection such as BGA anti biotics can be the only solution apart from a tear down. Vets in this country will not prescribe without seeing the infection and UK vets dont home visit for aquariums, just another example of how animal welfare in this hobby is not promoted and treated as it should be. Sadly aquarium fish are considered expendable by too many.
Do you have some suggestions as to how to eliminate cynobacteria without antibiotics?
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Antibiotics are a prescription medicine for a reason. Your approach to your tank is a good example why drugs are controlled. You don't have an infection. BGA is a reality. If you manage your tank properly you can prevent it and there are ways to to rid your tank without antibiotics.

Vets will visit to treat fish ( not get rid of algae ). There is not a vet in the UK that would dispense antibiotics to treat what in essences is an algae infestation.

Your understanding of what constitutes an infection is exactly why antibiotics are not available over the counter. Look to your tank management.

I would recommend increasing your nitrates. Stop using antibiotics inappropriately and creating resistance.
 
I've seen that product also . I'm thinking about to use or not use that .

I've read that topic and i'm confused ... at the end , do you suggest me to use or not to eliminate little infestation of cyanobacteria and long hair green algae in my tank ?

(p.s. sorry for my bad english)
 
Hi all,
Antibiotics are a prescription medicine for a reason. Your approach to your tank is a good example why drugs are controlled. You don't have an infection.
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I think Tyrophagus has made a really valid point and we all have a duty to behave responsibly. If you look at the data there is a an almost perfect correlation between countries where antibiotics are available over the counter and the incidence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and this is really serious for all of us. The Scandinavians have much more prescriptive controls on antibiotic prescription than we do and a much lower incidence of MRSA
etc. <http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/antibiotic-resistance-scandinavia-gets-it/>
..In Europe, according to the ECDC, 25,000 people each year die as a result of multi-drug resistant infections, causing an additional cost to society of 1.5 billion Euros ($2.02 billion): 938 million Euros ($1.27 billion) in hospital and outpatient medical costs, and an additional 596.3 million Euros ($806 million) in lost productivity...
Click to expand...
from: <http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/running-antibiotics-europe/#more-86894>

Even though I run all my tanks nutrient depleted, I very rarely see any cyanobacteria, other than the occasional smear on the undersides of Pistia (Nile Cabbage) leaves. That is not to say it isn't present, if you look under the microscope any sample of upper sediment layers or the biofilm from leaves and structures will contain plenty of cyanobacteria.

In fact looking back through my entire aquarium and waste water career it is very much something I would associate with new tanks and systems which lack any stability or biofilm development.

cheers Darrel
 
I used erythromycin back in the mid 90's to treat a tank with a bad infestation of BGA.
I followed the instructions from the the Krib

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/cyanobacteria.html

It was a total disaster. Initially the BGA was killed off totally but the erythromycin must have killed a whole range of other bugs causing the tank water to turn cloudy white (it is supposed to be safe for the gram -ve filter bacteria). Despite several water changes and physically removing all the dead BGA and other dead gunk we couldn't clear the cloudy water. As the tank was on display in a work place we decided to strip the tank down and start again from scratch.

My own experience and the arguments of antibiotic over use mean I would now never use erythromycin again for BGA control - ironically others in the above link had reported similar issues.

Back then in the 'old' days it wasn't totally clear - at least to the general fish/plant keeping hobby the link between BGA and low nitrates so ppl myself included used to pull their hair out trying to battle BGA. Now I find treating BGA very simple just add more nitrates or reduce the demand for nitrates by pruning plants/lowering light levels etc. I usually take action at the first sign of BGA - little patches on stones or on plants. After battling a few outbreaks you will spot the early signs a mile away.

Reading the above Krib link again its interesting to read many of the same points of discussion we are having today.
 
Hi guys !

I have been away from home for 2 weeks and cyanobacteria have thanked me 😳
When i came back to home i saw my tank very infested by cyanobacteria and by filamentous green algae 😳
I've tried to use BlueExit Easylife but it didn't had any effect . After 2 week of treatment , i've changed 50% of water and i've used Eritromicina . Now , after 1 week of Eritromicina , cyanobacteria are leaving my tank (very very slowly) .

A question for you : how could i remove Green algae now ? I have to wait 1 week before insert Protalon707, because i have eritromicina in water ?

Thank a lot !
 
Just thought I'd add my own experience of BGA. I've got a 125l tank for barbs. Its got a few low light plants in but I don't class it as 'planted' and I wasn't adding any nutrients. Recently this tank got quite bad BGA in it and after looking on here and seeing this was associated with low nitrates I started adding a bit of potassium nitrate (no measurements as I add my ferts to the tank dry). Every day for about 4 days. The BGA was gone in less than a week! I'm adding nitrate 3 times a week now and so far no sign of it coming back.

Viv
 
Hi,

Been getting BGA in certain spots in my tank now for a few weeks, seems to have started from beneath the substrate and krept along. I scrape when i can off during water changes but comes back pretty fast, read this thread and i already dose KNO3.. shall i up my dose?

Cheers
 
Hi all

Mike
I would up your KNO3 dose.
I had an outbreak of BGA when I set up a 95L low tech tank a few years ago. I was dosing James' All In One at the rate recommended by Tropica (5ml per 50l per week). This I found was miles too low for the plant density that I had. I thought I'd get radical and chucked in 2 teaspoon of KNO3. The BGA was gone in 4 days 😀 . It probably sent my ppm off the scale, but the fish and Cherry shrimp were fine. After that I increased my All In One dosing and never saw it again. The tank ran for 3 years and has only just been stripped down, but I was never bothered by it again.
 
CeeJay said:
Hi all

Mike
I would up your KNO3 dose.
I had an outbreak of BGA when I set up a 95L low tech tank a few years ago. I was dosing James' All In One at the rate recommended by Tropica (5ml per 50l per week). This I found was miles too low for the plant density that I had. I thought I'd get radical and chucked in 2 teaspoon of KNO3. The BGA was gone in 4 days 😀 . It probably sent my ppm off the scale, but the fish and Cherry shrimp were fine. After that I increased my All In One dosing and never saw it again. The tank ran for 3 years and has only just been stripped down, but I was never bothered by it again.
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,

thanks for the info, i already dose 5 teaspoons in my 500ml mix so ill up to 6 and see what that does. I'm already at 400 ppm and i live in an area where the water is below 50ppm out of my tap so go figure haha.

Cheers
 
Mike,
TDS meter can only tell you about TDS. It cannot tell you about NO3 ppm. The "T" in TDS means "Total". That means it's the sum total of all things dissolved in the water, which by the way even includes other liquids such as acids and alkaloids.

You have to calculate the NO3 ppm, and even so, you don't have enough data to determine the final number. The total NO3 concentration will = water report value + the amount you dosed + NO3 due to biological activity (i.e. breakdown of waste products) - plant removal.

So you can get a pretty good estimate from the amount you dosed, but you don't know if the water report value is the same as what's in your pipe and you cannot know how much is being produced by the germs. We can probably throw out the NO3 content due to microbial action as being much smaller than the other values and we can assume the mean water report value to be correct (usually they give you a mean value or you can average the high and the low values to get a quasi-mean value). You can also throw out the uptake value because it will also be very low in comparison. Of course it's easy to calculate the amount you dosed, so when you do all these assumptions you are left with the amount you dosed+the water report mean value. That's very easy to do.

The TDS value tells you absolutely nothing mate. Yes, when you dose more, the TDS will increase, but you cannot use this number as a direct indication of NO3. Absolutely not.

Cheers,
 
tyrophagus said:
easerthegeezer said:
If you run out of ideas i have some enthromycin i got from the states, dosed for 4 days, has no effect on the filter or fauna and BGA hasnt ever reappeared... 6 months on now i guess.
Im happy to send you what you need as well as the dosing schedule i ran. Do remember that it is supposed to be a one shot wonder as the bacteria is rumoured to be resiliant after it has been exposed to it...???
PM me anytime if you want to go down that road.
Click to expand...

Be careful talking about importing antibiotics on a public forum. It's a criminal offence. Erythromycin might be widely available in the states but it's not in the UK. Not only as you point out do you get resistance to the antibiotic but you then empty the water back into the environment which is not ideal. Erythromycin is a useful antibiotic to fight disease, don't use it to make your tank look nice (then complain when we you get a superbug in hospital). There's a reason you have algae, find it.

/ end rant
Click to expand...


EM is not prescribed much in the states for healthcare, but in the pet industry and the livestock industry, it is widely used. Thank our Big Pharm lobbyist :evil:

The 3 day blackout in combination for any BGA killer + dosing KNO3 should be very very effective also.
The 3 Day BO + KNO3 will kill most folk's issues, those with more persistent issues can opt for the killers.
There are about a dozen chemicals that do no harm to aquatic live stock but roast BGA and few other species.

H2O2 spot treatment is very effective for many species. Sodium percarbonate also good, large water changes, a misting of H2O2 or a diluted amount works, same for Easy Carb/Excel.
 
same here Tom, Erythromycin is now only used as a fourth line now. We use it very very rarely now. It's even been taken from our drug cupboards as most of it was going out of date.

It'll be back though, they always rotate the use of ABX, it stops us mortals from becoming resistance.
 
plantbrain said:
tyrophagus said:
easerthegeezer said:
If you run out of ideas i have some enthromycin i got from the states, dosed for 4 days, has no effect on the filter or fauna and BGA hasnt ever reappeared... 6 months on now i guess.
Im happy to send you what you need as well as the dosing schedule i ran. Do remember that it is supposed to be a one shot wonder as the bacteria is rumoured to be resiliant after it has been exposed to it...???
PM me anytime if you want to go down that road.
Click to expand...

Be careful talking about importing antibiotics on a public forum. It's a criminal offence. Erythromycin might be widely available in the states but it's not in the UK. Not only as you point out do you get resistance to the antibiotic but you then empty the water back into the environment which is not ideal. Erythromycin is a useful antibiotic to fight disease, don't use it to make your tank look nice (then complain when we you get a superbug in hospital). There's a reason you have algae, find it.

/ end rant
Click to expand...


EM is not prescribed much in the states for healthcare, but in the pet industry and the livestock industry, it is widely used. Thank our Big Pharm lobbyist :evil:

The 3 day blackout in combination for any BGA killer + dosing KNO3 should be very very effective also.
The 3 Day BO + KNO3 will kill most folk's issues, those with more persistent issues can opt for the killers.
There are about a dozen chemicals that do no harm to aquatic live stock but roast BGA and few other species.

H2O2 spot treatment is very effective for many species. Sodium percarbonate also good, large water changes, a misting of H2O2 or a diluted amount works, same for Easy Carb/Excel.
Click to expand...

Hi Tom, i am having consistent issues with BGA. No matter how much i scrub it away and move the substrate about where it stems from it still comes back a week later!

When you say 3 day blackout + KNO3 how much of this do i dose? Do i dose it with water mixed or dry? I want to get rid of this once and for all!

Cheers
 
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