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Re: Re: Battling BGA



>>Many people seem to think that water circulation is one of the keys to
eliminating BGA. Based on anecdotal evidence, I would discount that. Our
tanks have trivial amounts of BGA and it occurs in the trickle filter
skimmer box (water swirling and cascading around) and the trickle filter
siphon tube (!). If
good circulation ("water movement") prevents BGA, these two areas would be
the last places I would expect to find it.<<

My "anecdotal" experience coincides with this. I had a horrible case of BGA
that was covering literally every plant in the tank, the back glass, and the
spray bar of my Fluval cannister filter. My feeling was that the circulation
only served to spread it around the tank. I tried for nearly 4 weeks to
treat the BGA with daily waterchanges, lights out for a week, deep cleaning
of the substrate around the plants, and nothing made a huge impact. After
reading the archived APD discussions on this at the Krib, I decied to try
Maracyn. I wont bother quoting it, its certainly easy enough to find on
Erics search engine, but there seemed to be enough data presented to support
the idea that Maracyn doesnt kill "good guy" bacteria, but its all the dead
BGA that can cause a problem. Well within a weak of treatment all the BGA
was dead. After water changes, removing all the plants and doing deep
vacuming to get all the dead stuff out of the tank, the BGA never returned.
I didnt lose any fish, and if my bioload was affected, it must have
recovered quickly. That was last year, and it to this day has never
returned. I only wish I didnt get caught up in the phobia of using Maracyn
and did it much sooner.

Robert Paul H
http://www.aquabotanic.com
Check out Ryan Stovers article on "Zen Aquascaping"!