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BGA-What is the BEST way to treat

I reported the following in APD #617, in the treatment of a BGA outbreak:


"I finally decided to use Maracyn.  24 hrs after introducing 1000mg. into
the
tank there was positively no sign of it anymore and it was literally
"gone".  There is confusion over the proper dose.  I chose to treat the tank
with an additional 1000mg 24 hrs after the first dose to avoid a recurrence
(i.e. recurrence, not resistance, by the way).  24 hours after the second
dose the tank became cloudy, and there was still no bga in site.  I
concluded that there was a "cure" (i.e. a complete kill) of the bga, and
have now place Purigen back into the Fluval canister filter that I'm using,
and I made a 10% water change.  There has been no change in the last 48 hrs
in either ammonia, nitrate or nitrite."

Follow-up:  the cloudiness disappeared in one day.  There was never a change
in ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at any time.  The fish all did fine.  The
plants all did fine.  THE ALGAE HAS NOT COME BACK and the plants in the tank
are now doing better than ever.  The cure was simple and complete, with no
harm to the biosystem that I can detect.

Since I reported this I also reported a friend's experience with potassium
permanganate in APD #627, which also seemed to work (although not as
completely as erythro did in my tank), and there has been one post
suggesting that hydrogen peroxide is a better agent (Dwight-APD #639).
There have also been two posts using erythromycin at lesser doses than I
used (10mg/gal in APD#636 and 1mg/gal in APD#639); my dose was 20mg/gal.

There is no doubt that BGA can be a serious and vexing problem in a planted
aquarium that, in my view, bears little relation to water quality, and whose
growth habits are not entirely understood.   It can also be harmful to the
plants in the aquarium and the environment in general (see APD#627).  The
problem comes up all of the time, as can be seen by the frequency of posts
on the subject. Can we develop a consensus about treatment.

What is the best treatment--erythromycin, H202, or potassium
permanganate--and why?
And what is the best dose of erythromycin to effect a complete cure and
avoid cyanobacteria resistance and changes in water and filter bed quality?
And what is the best dose of H202 and potassium permanganate to effect the
same thing?

Robert Sirota
Huntingdon Valley, Pa.