Sometimes it can be difficult, as well as very expensive, to try to cope with an explosion of cyanobacteria just by cleaning up and exchanging water in our aquariums ... I am an adept at all ways of achieving ecological balance in our tanks. but we have to recognize that sometimes "diseases" happen from a variety of causes, and in those moments it may be necessary to treat them so that we can resume healthy habits with the minimum of losses for the animals we love.
From sight and hearing, cyanobacteria are very ancient beings and very prepared to compete, in the niches they occupy, for the limited space. If any imbalance (either upward or downward) of available nutrients, especially nitrate, occurs in a context where some other limiting element is also missing, an outbreak of cyanobacteria may occur, and once they "settle" themselves will be enforced by their rapid multiplication and what is lacking for their competitors will still be lacking.
In some outbreaks I faced, sometimes against the nexus of "well-adjusted parameters," I understood that the path of chemistry, because of its speed, low labor, and low cost, could be the most appropriate, and it is obvious that chemical treatment only makes sense if it is possible, after treatment, to work with the necessary effort to bring the aquarium to balance and keep it balanced.
There are many effective chemical treatments to combat outbreaks of cyanobacteria, but for my choice, what I have successfully used and I have recommended is AZITHROMYCIN. Azithromycin is a human drug that is bacteriostatic to most bacteria and bactericidal to some. It is of the class of "azalides", chemically related to the macrolides, such as erythromycin, which is the active principle of "Red Slime Remover", but much more efficient and cheaper.
Azithromycin, in the United States, is branded ZITHROMAX (Pfizer Lab) and is sold in 500 mg tablets. The tablet dissolves very easily and spontaneously in sea salt water, so it is very easy to apply.
The dosage required to treat the aquarium is 1 mg / liter and, in order to dose it (SINGLE DOSE), it is sufficient to dissolve a single tablet in 500 ml of water of the aquarium itself, thus having a solution of 1.0 mg / ml ... and according to the total water volume of the aquarium, the quantity of 1.0 ml of the solution per liter of aquarium water is poured, directly on the display, in front of the flow of the circulation pump, to guarantee a good distribution throughout the aquarium.
The activated carbon and skimmer cup should be removed so that they do not remove the medicine before they do their work, the UV filter must also be turned off because it degrades azithromycin.
Generally, in 48 to 72 hours. the cyanobacteria will have been eliminated and, then another 48 hours, to return with all filtration equipment to the line. In a few hours, 0.5 liters of activated carbon will be sufficient to remove almost all the medicine from the aquarium water, then a water exchange (if the parameters indicate that it is necessary), and activated carbon should be changed again by a fresh, returning to the usual care of the aquarium.
In my experiments I only saw the nitrite slightly increased. Ammonia was not detected and nitrate remained stable.
Regards
