Chris Fellows
New Member
Hello everyone - I am a relative newcomer to this hobby, and it will not surprise you to learn that I have already encountered many types of algae in my high energy planted tank, including BG algae. Having tried all sorts of alterations to my tank - increasing nitrate, decreasing nitrate, increasing light, decreasing light, snails, otoclinus, armano, increased tank cleaning, etc etc, I was on the verge of using erythromycin to get rid of the stuff, but before I did so I thought I would try one last recommendation which was a three day lockdown on lighting, which more or less eradicated the stuff ( to the point where non was visible when the lights went on again ) until, as expected, it started to become apparent again about 9 days later. I noticed, however, that at this point it was not on the leaves or in the middle of the tank anywhere, but only at the border of the substrate and glass on the two outward sides ( which get direct daylight, but no direct sunlight ) , just creeping onto the substrate. Being a bacteria, I presumed that it might be rather heat sensitive, and so I got a jug of boiling water, and a 20ml syringe, and then, having filled the syringe with the near 100C water, by hand proceeded to inject the water onto the edges of the sustrate where the algae was seen, using about 20ml of the water for every 4cm length of substrate - directed only at the edges. The effect was immediate as the algae lost its bright green colour, and proceeded to die very quickly ( I siphoned it out afterwards ). Early days yet, but two weeks on, not a sign of the pesky stuff. I have no doubt at all that it will be back, but this method, after a lockdown for three days, is very very quick, cheap and appears so far to be effective. I will keep you posted!!