Serious BGA & Brown Algae Problem

[mojosodope]

So I'm experiencing a serious BGA and Brown algae outbreak, I've increased my water changes, removed the driftwood and vacuumed all the substrate beneath it, lowered the amount of time the lights are own and even tried some Dr Tim's waste away which I had remaining. My Discus have begun to hide and are now very skittish much like how newly introduced Discus behave. I see they're various chemicals such as Chemiclean (which I'm unsure if its freshwater safe) that safely remove cyanobacteria. I would just like some recommendations on what to do in this situation.



Here's the blue green algae.


Also you can see the brown algae on my background in this post which I assume are diatoms which makes no sense considering my tank has been well established almost a year now. It's mostly prevalent on the background and giant sword, which is much worse now, what to do?




Thanks

[nikelodeon79]

Do you inject CO2? If not, that might be the missing link. I use DIY CO2 and whenever it runs out, I have crazy algae issues.

[mojosodope]

No CO2 and the lights are marineland doublebright leds, so they're low - medium light.

[Cliff]

Try some chemipure in you filter. Diatoms need silicates to survive so you must have some silicates in your water supply (not uncommon). Chemipure works pretty good at removing silicates. Once the silicates are gone so will your diatoms.

[mojosodope]

I just added a second pack of biomax in the second basket so I'll remove that and put in the chemi pure elite grande but I'm going to try the chemiclean, anyone know if I should get the liquid or powder form?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...m?pcatid=24842

[Cliff]

Here;s some other good info on BG algae, which is really a form of bacteria and not algae

http://www.myfishtank.net/articles/b...algae-article/


I have not used chemiclean before so I can not comment on it. I once had a really bad outbreak that I could not get rid of no matter what I tried. In the end, I had to use antibiotics to clear it. Just make sure if you chose that method, you pick a antibiotic that will not kill off your BB and you should be fine

Edit: sorry, I had the wrong link in this post, I just changed it so it is now the one I intended to post

[Cermet]

I had chronic BG algae in my discus tank and it was mostly due to high phosphates (tends to be absorbed by sand and slowly released over time) and my large water changes did keep the nitrates under 5 ppm but that was not good enough. The algae scrubber solved the problem and allowed my daily 50% W/C (which weren't doing much since this tap water also had nitrates!) to be reduced to 50% bi-weekly and NO more BGA!

As for chemicals - bad move with discus and antibotics work but aren't the best thing in the world for fish or humans (avoiding these when not needed is always best; I'm NOT saying don't use them when needed!)

[mojosodope]

Thanks for the link Cliff, I knew bga is actually cyanobacteria but theres some pretty good info in that article.

And Cermet I know Discus are really touchy with chemicals so I was going to use that as my last alternative, I'm already seeing the effects of that cyanobacteria on the fish and I can't afford to lose any fish right now.

So let me get this clear, the BGA went away after you increased your water changes and introduced the algae scrubber?

[mojosodope]

Well the plants that are buried all have 1 or 2 flourish root tabs each, ill see if I can get some Flourish excel imported, it's just that liquid is heavy so I try to stay away from that so shipping costs won't go through the roof.

I don't see the point in creating another thread for this so ill just ask here. What should be my dosing schedule for the excel....I'd assume with 150 gallons of water ill have to use more chemical each dose but I don't want to be burning through the stuff, anyone have an idea?