Re: [APD] BGA Control - Blackout vs. Antiobiotics.

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

With a new tank, in the situation you describe you are
probably addressing a temporary imbalance due to the sudden
dosing of organics from the dirt. So the BGA doesn't come
back in that case but it's not due to the ertythro.
Erythromicn doesn't address any "cause" of BGA, it only
kills off what is present when the Erythro is dosed. BGA is
widely present. One can probably get it started in any tank
with the right conditions without having to take any
specific action to intentionally infect the tank. In
general, the "cause" of BGA manifesting in a tank is the
condition of the water, not a lack of supplemental toxins.

Using antibiotics when they aren't necessary makes it more
likely that you and everyone else may come face to face
with an erythro-resistant strain that has no competition
from other strains -- the BGA that just won't die, even
with Erythro. If that happens, we'll have to resort to
things like black outs for our aquaria -- I'm not sure what
it might mean in general but it doesn't sound like a nice
thing to have happen.

Scott H.
--- Bill D <billinet at comcast_net> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> Tom said on the subject of BGA control:
> 
> ". . . Good, now go tell 10 people that think using
> antibiotics is good and
> blackouts aren't. . . ."
> 
> Let me be the devil's advocate, or maybe the devil.  Why?
> 
> Whenever I set up a soil substrate tank, no matter how
> heavily planted it
> is, within a week or two I will have a BGA outbreak.  I
> treat this with
> Maracyn (erythromycin).  After that, I remove the dead
> and dying BGA, and,
> if necessary, repeat the procedure once or twice.  Then
> the BGA is gone from
> that tank forever.
> 
> The blackout alternative is to eliminate all light from
> the tank for three
> to five days, then remove the dead BGA and do a water
> change.  That works
> too.
> 
> My question is, what is wrong with using the antibiotic? 
> To me it is
> easier, it produces tangible results in a day,
> and it works, long term.
> 
> Sure, the use of an antibiotic won't be effective if the
> basic cause of the
> BGA outbreak isn't addressed, but that is also true of
> the blackout method.
> 
> Some might be concerned about the danger of creating
> antibiotic-resistant
> strains of BGA, but I can't find any evidence of that
> happening in an
> aquarium.   (Note that we all carry zillions of
> antibiotic-resistant
> bacteria on and in us.)
> 
> BTW, I keep fish with my plants and I have never used any
> medications.  Nor
> do I add any other chemicals to
> my tanks to enhance fish appearance, plant growth, nor
> anything else except
> fish food.
> 
> So, is this a Green thing, or is there something that I
> am missing?
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
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