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nuking cyanobacteria
Hi! At the risk of being thoroughly thrashed by the experts who know far
more than me, a newcomer, I will share a tip that I found on the Krib. I
feel like this tip was a lifesaver. My particular cyanobacteria was a nasty
black green slimy thing that grew faster than anything I had ever seen. I
did water changes, I scraped, I siphoned, I tested for nitrates, ammonia,
nitrites, I found nothing and nothing I did slowed this stuff down a bit. I
also heard that this stuff fixes its own nitrogen. It was killing my plants,
and my fish were not happy either. It got so bad that it was literally
blanketing the entire tank. I nuked the stuff with 2.5 milligrams per liter
of erythromycin and it died almost immediately. I know that it is considered
a bad move by a lot of folks but I was desperate. I believe that the stuff
had grown to the point that I needed a strong weapon to get it under control.
I know that it can come back again unless you address the underlying causes
and that it can be resistant to antibiotics the second time. I increased
light a little and put in water lettuce (a little easier to control than
duckweed) to sop up extra nutrients and so far so good. I also heard that
sometimes it appears in new setups like mine and then disappears as the
system matures. Anyway there it is for what its worth. If I hadn't heard of
the erythromycin thing, I might have given up entirely. It was really bad.
Thanks, Teresa