UPDATE

Well, thought I'd got it all under control and was getting some nice new growth, then in the last week I've had mega Cyanobacteria, have upped my Nitrate dosing but not experiencing any improvement - its rapidly overtaking and now starting to smother the swords

Thinking about ripping all the plants out, binning them and doing a 7 day blackout?

PS...still cheesed off!

BGA is bad stuff. Dosing in my experience does nothing to solve the problem once it starts. The single biggest thing that was always the cause of my bga problems was a lack of water changes/gravel vacs to remove built up crud in the substrate which causes this stuff to go wild when in combination with even just moderate light intensity. My suggestion would be:

1. Blackout for three days
2. Manual removal of any and all bga that you can (prune leaves that you can't clean)
3. Let it settle and follow with a 50% water change with a super deep gravel vac
4. Repeat this daily for the three days of blackout
5. Dose ALL your micros and macros and reinstitute lighting (but personally I would reduce the light intensity by a good percentage if you can....high light intensity will cause bga to grow extremely fast)

Then see how it goes. BGA does not just go away, if it starts at all, it's telling you there's a problem that needs fixing. Waiting won't accomplish anything with this stuff.

If it still comes back after this, you can try antibiotics as a last resort. However I've always been able to get rid of it by increasing water changes/gravel vacs and dosing.

thanks, in the middle of the 3 day blackout now

any top tips to reduce re-occurrence?

The two things that seem to cause it at least in my case are too much organic waste deteriorating in the tank (usually dead plant material and fish waste in the gravel) in combination with high enough light intensity to get it growing. Therefore in my case to keep it away, I just make sure to do a gravel vac regularly along with a water change, and keep my lights at no more than low/moderate intensity since the plants I have don't require high light anyway. Also, since I don't have heavy root feeders, I keep the amount of substrate to a bare minimum. Less substrate means less space for organic material to build up. Crypts are the only true rooting plants I have (aside from stem plants and roots don't really matter to them) and they do fine with a small amount of substrate, in my non-co2 tank I only have about 1/2" of plain gravel, just enough to cover the roots. It seems to flourish much more in non-co2 tanks so I am more careful with the amount of substrate and gravel vacs I do in that tank making sure to keep things a bit extra clean. I know lots of people can have lots of substrate, high light, etc. without problems, but in my case since I've had serious problems in the past, I keep things as bare and clean as possible and only as much light as necessary, and that works for me and makes for an easier maintenance tank in the long run. Once things are established in the right direction in a tank everything should stay on track, it's the first 3 months that are the hardest and most prone to problems.

Actually come to think of it, it was a serious problem with bga that led me to start searching for where I went wrong, and led me to this forum originally. It killed off all my plants, but that was a small sacrifice compared to the amount of education that motivated me to seek out.

Thanks for the advice, one of the things I'll do is reduce feeding.

I think we can sum it up so far in getting the nutrient balance right, which is probably my main problem. Did a bit of thinking yesterday based on the following; please share your opinion

1. plant growth is based on the right balance and right amount of nutrients. Nutrient numero uno is Light. I have 1.7wpg, so that should be OK (not brilliant but I'm not prepared yet to spend the money required for 4 x t5s!). So I realised, when was the last time I replaced the original bulbs as I bought the tank second hand - then I recalled the seller saying to me, "I was into plants myself, but if you are then I'd replace the bulbs"...so I bought 2 plant bulbs yesterday and replaced them. Light sorted

2. Next most important nutrient is CO2. I have presurrised. Second reflection / realisation is that I had been fiddling with CO2 as I had fish hanging at the surface. I have then realised that it may not be the amount injected but saturation was coming about due to lack of flow causing CO2 build up at one end of the tank - I had hindered the flow due to bogwood positioned to hide ugly filter outputs - bogwood has been moved - so CO2 will be sorted

3. Next one is fert dosing. I use EI doisng as it suits the efforts I can put in through the week and the time I have at weekends in comparison. The big water changes aren't a problem. On reflection I'd been doing full EI dosing on plants that were not fully grown or growing well. So I think I came to the decision to start of at 1/2 dosing to start and slowly build up to full EI dosing as the plants take hold again.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue with the blackout and add Excel to kill off all algae thats in there.



Thank you again, and please keep the opinions and advise coming on this one - it's extremey helpful in supporting my thoughts on getting this one right - and I'm absolutely determined to make this tank a success!!!

Dosing full EI doses, with a partially grown plant load, will not cause problems if you always do the 50% weekly water changes. Those water changes keep the buildup of ferts within a safe limit. In my bigger tank I have always dosed full EI doses (usually 2X the EI dose of KH2PO4) and I have seen no problem caused by that, even when I have just finished a major pruning operation.

1.7 watts per gallon of T5 light is more than enough for growing almost all plants. Those are very efficient watts.

So, another update.

I've put new bulbs in, added a small internal above the CO2 diffuser, fiddled with the other filters to get better flow, planted bigger swords from another tank, added other plants - egeria densa, cabomba and 3 large Alternanthera Reineckii. Despite have Eco-Complete under the gravel I've added root tabs for the swords and Reineckii.

Happy with the way it looks and all the plants are south american. Got a calculator out and discovered I actually have 1.9wpg, not 1.7wpg as previously stated.

Last weekend I finished the blackout, so far at Thursday this week no sign of any algae whatsoever.

The only problem I've had are the Festivums nibbling the Reineckii, but as soon as I add courgette their interest goes their instead, so guess I'll just have some in most times.

Thanks for all the help, fingers crossed!

have you checked with the source of your swords? are your parameters the same with the ones the swords are used to? it can be a factor.. IMO..

hi red, hand't thought of that, however had been told they take a few weeks to acclimate...but i thought that was down to root establishment more than anything

i've looked in the tank today and have green dust algae starting

strangely not seeing growth in the cabomba or egeria yes, i know its only a week but i thought it was faster growin than that

the reneickii is doing well except the shredded leaves and the swords look ok, except on leaf has been murdered by the festivums

well, a little patience helps.. ^_^
i also have cabomba dying on me on the first couple of weeks, but before i gave up on them, i went to another source.. although both specimen were healthy and good overall coloration, the ones from my second source grow fast and healthy in my tank that i have to prune them weekly!
good luck on your plants, a little patience and tlc goes a long way...