More Cyano Questions

[BenB]

As I look at the topcis in the algae forum, it seems a lot of us battle this one.

1. Manual removal has mine back to minimal mostly in the crowns of a few plants and some spots on the substrate. I have an air stone running at night. It smells funky when I get close to the tank. I am taking it as a sign the emycin is working. What thinks you?

2. Something I read on using emycin said you must dose it at night. I think I saw it only in one place. Any ideas why someone might think that was the case? To me, antibiotics are going to work best when the algae is growing and active. That's how they work is by disrupting some process in the life cycle. My cyano contracts and almost disappears when the lights are off. Not a sign it is metabolically active. Am I missing something or is this just someone's questionable opinion?

3. I've increase aeration. I have lots of flow. I've manually removed most of it. I'm adding emycin. I try to keep my NO3 around 15. I'm going to test it before my weekly water change to make sure it isn't bottoming out, but for weeks, it's been fine. Is my NO3 high enough? Anything I'm missing?

 

[Koan]

said you must dose it at night

Erythromycin is highly pH sensitive, essentially non-functional below pH 6.5.

Aquarium pH generally drops during the day, this may be where that reference was from. Definitely also turn off the CO2 while you're using it.

 

[gnatster]

Erythromycin is light sensitive. The efficy is reduced by light and temperature.

 

[BenB]

Erythromycin is highly pH sensitive, essentially non-functional below pH 6.5.

Aquarium pH generally drops during the day, this may be where that reference was from. Definitely also turn off the CO2 while you're using it.

Holy balls, this might be my problem. As someone grows E quinguangulare, I horse in the CO2. Maybe it's the reason I've struggled to rid myself of it all these months and no treatment has worked.

Maybe we can get @Dennis Wong to add this to his treatment recommendations for cyano. That's what I've been mostly going on along with @Naturescapes_Rocco. It could be in Rocco's info and I just missed it. I need to read that again.

 

[BenB]

Erythromycin is light sensitive. The efficy is reduced by light and temperature.

Excellent. I put it in last night even though I wasn't sure if the comment was crap or valid, but I thought, what would it hurt. I'm going to test my pH now.... and NO3.

 

[Dennis Wong]

Hmm interesting. I've always thought that in High N tanks, plants can generally out-compete BGA. I have to admit that I haven't had to deal with super serious BGA cases before, so my knowledge in BGA is more limited. How about black outs ? Don't those kill off all BGA also

 

[BenB]

Hmm interesting. I've always thought that in High N tanks, plants can generally out-compete BGA. I have to admit that I haven't had to deal with super serious BGA cases before, so my knowledge in BGA is more limited. How about black outs ? Don't those kill off all BGA also

Everything I've read says blackouts work for Cyano. For me personally, I've gotten the cyano down to just a few small annoying spots. The last time I did a blackout, I set a bunch of plants back. So that is going to be my last resort this time.

As far as the pH per @gnatster and @Koan, I calibrated my pH pen and even after a night with an air stone, my pH is 6.1. This doesn't seem right, but that's all I have to go on. So my tank is getting some small bicarb doses in the next few days to keep the pH up.