# killing blue-green algae



## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

Uuuuugghhhh It's that time of year again when I get more natural light on my 10 gallon and I'm getting tons of blue-green algae. It's so gross. I don't think my live plants in that tank can be saved (it was mostly floating wisteria), but I also have a lot of fake plants. How can I get rid of this stuff? I will be moving my tank (hence re-doing it) soon, so I'm probably going to chuck most of the wisteria :-? but I want to be able to get it all off of my fake plants. I know that since I don't have to worry about killing them, there should be an easy way of getting the algae off the fake plants.
Also, the spot I will be moving it to won't have any direct sunlight and there won't be live plants so I won't have to use as much lighting as I use now, hence less chance of the algae growing.


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## shellieca (Jul 12, 2012)

I had blue-green algae in tanks with no direct sunlight & none in a tank that had direct sunlight. How long are your tank lights on each day? I can only have mine on at the most 9 hrs a day.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

Sometimes I don't turn on the tank lights until after work because I forget in the morning. So in that case they're on for about 6 hours. but when I do turn them on in the morning they're usually on for 15 hours. LOL. The only time I have a problem, though, is this time of year when the sun starts shining through that window.


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## shellieca (Jul 12, 2012)

Interesting. I have my tank lights on timers so I don't have to worry about them. The one tank comes on around 12:00 & goes off at 8PM. The other thing was that I was dosing ferts for my live plants, I quit doing that & I honestly think that was a BIG contributor to the algae. In any case, it is ugly & a pain. I would wipe it off when I did a water change, I thought it would never go away.


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

Bleach will kill it. Dump the fake plants in a bucket with a ton of bleach and algae will come right off.


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## amphirion (Jan 15, 2014)

before using something as drastic as bleach, consider the following:

blue-green algae is a bacteria. bacteria can be killed with antibiotics.
use E.M. Erythromycin (as instructed on the label)
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16818

to prevent BGA from ever getting a foothold again in your tank again, increase the water circulation (might be difficult since you probably have a betta in the tank). BGA tend to aggregate in areas where water flow is stagnant.


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

He's taking the tank down anyway so bleach on the fake plants will be the cheapest and fastest way. In a bucket of water it won't hurt the plants at all to clean them that way. Feel free to dose antibiotics if you want but on fake plastic plants, bleach won't hurt a thing.


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## amphirion (Jan 15, 2014)

@peachii: you're right-- bleach is better if the tank is being torn down.


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

So if I put the plants in bleach, will they be safe to put back in the tank right away? I am just tearing it down to move it and then I'm setting it back up again the same day. 

And yeah, I have female bettas in it, so I'm not sure what to do about more water circulation. I do have a filter, but it doesn't really move the water around much except for at the surface.


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## amphirion (Jan 15, 2014)

OrangeAugust said:


> So if I put the plants in bleach, will they be safe to put back in the tank right away? I am just tearing it down to move it and then I'm setting it back up again the same day.
> 
> And yeah, I have female bettas in it, so I'm not sure what to do about more water circulation. I do have a filter, but it doesn't really move the water around much except for at the surface.


No. You should transfer your bleach washed plants into another container with dechlorinator. Let it sit over night then rinse with freshwater before introducing it back into the tank


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

GAH I hate this stuff! I have it in one of my tanks and can never get rid of it. though I will have to think about using the E.M. Erythromycin on my tank. =)


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

amphirion said:


> No. You should transfer your bleach washed plants into another container with dechlorinator. Let it sit over night then rinse with freshwater before introducing it back into the tank


Ok, awesome. Thanks!


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