pacolopezmujica

Well, it has been almost 2 months since I started this thread and would like to send a picture of my tank at this moment. I got rid of BGA but still have places of Green Dust Algae or what we call it around here, TEMPERA, cause it dyes your fingers.
I'm using my Magnum Diatom filter with the diatom powder. Hosing the pebbles that are painted with the tempera, cleaning them, not many GDA on plants, but if it appears, I'll shake it and the Diatom filter absorb it. I haven't eradicate it but I consider it controlled. I'm doing weekly 1/3 water changes and using half RO and half Tap water.
Thanks for all your help and I'm trying to find here in Puerto Rico KNO3, see if that works.
Thank you all,
Paco
We shall overcome!

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hoppycalif

One last report on my own GDA odyssey - I hope. After exacly three weeks of neglecting the GDA I was left with a very thin haze of it, splotched by snail tracks. I did a thorough cleaning of the glass, plant pruning, and water change, but left the back glass alone. Now, after 4 more days I have no GDA haze forming on the glass! Usually I can see the haze starting over again after only two days or less. So, I am ready to declare victory over GDA!

For anyone who hasn't been following this, the method is to just ignore the GDA, don't disturb it at all for two to three weeks. That lets it live out its natural life cycle and be eaten by the snails and fish. Then you clean it off thoroughly, keeping as much as possible of the scrapings out of the tank water. The GDA should not return again. I found that if you remove any of the GDA before the life cycle is over, the cleaned area is just re-colonized by GDA spores and you have to start the two to three week wait all over again.

IUnknown

I wish I had known about this a year ago. I ran a tank for a long time doing everything right, but having this algae come back every week. Drove me crazy.

upikabu

Thanks for the info, Hoppy! I can definitely vouch for 2 weeks or less being too early to start cleaning the glass. Also if you see green algae on the surface of plant leaves, don't clean it, leave it alone (I think it's also GDA even though it looks different than the glass one). I'm on my 3rd attempt now after the first 2 attempts failed (14 days and 10 days). The algae is thinner everytime, but it still came back after a few days. Will let it go for 3 weeks this time.

hoppycalif

My plants were also covered with a green fuzzy algae while the GDA was active, but that went away along with the GDA. I think it is GDA too. So, apparently the "fix" for that green fuzz is to ignore it and let it live out its life cycle too.

asincero

I have a question. Would filtering the tank with a diatom filter be able to get rid of the GDA spores? Or are they smaller than 1 micron? I hate having to scrub the tank down every week, but letting the 'ol Vortex run overnight once a week is certainly no big deal.

hoppycalif

I can't answer the question, but I do know that GDA is usually a reccurrent problem when people get it, and I hadn't read any success stories for those who tried other methods. It would help a lot of people if you try this for a month or so and report back how it worked.

upikabu

I didn't use a diatom filter, but tried a similar method using a quick filter attached to a Hagen powerhead. That didn't work. But, I can say that leaving it alone for 2-3 weeks seems to be working best. I'm on my 3rd ignore attempt right now (previous two attempts only up to 14 days max, and GDA returned each time, albeit not as bad as before), and after a little over 2 weeks, I only see very small patches of GDA left on the glass. It definitely seemed to have cleared up on its own.

Zapins

Diatom filters do not help to slow its growth neither do UV lights. I used both a vortex diatom filter and a 13w UV sterilizer on my 55g tank during the outbreak and it did nothing.

Lowering the light as I said before seems to severely limit its growth and make things more tolerable as well as leaving it for 2-3 weeks.

asincero

Do dwarf otos eat this kind of algae?