Black fuzzy outbreak!

[Alpo]

Hey guys, ithere is some kind of black fuzzy algae growing in my 10g dump tank that has been there for a while and spread. It doesn't hurt anything but i do kinda want it gone. Here are some pics of it
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z86/icabod169/103_0798.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z86/icabod169/103_0799.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z86/icabod169/103_0796.jpg
what is it and how do I get rid of it?

[rich311k]

That is BBA. it is a menace. Trim as much as you can off. Bleach any hard scape and scrape it off. Excel will kill it. Generally comes from flucuating CO2 levels.

[Alpo]

Bleach any hard scape and scrape it off. Excel will kill it.
wont that kill my plant life?

[rich311k]

Excel is a carbon supplement, your plants will like it.

[Alpo]

k thank you!

[PUNISHER VETTE]

nasty algae.

Take every thing you can out of the tank that has it and do a nice scrub and major bleach of it. Leave it out of the tank as long as possible.

eliminate as many of the plant leaves as you can while treating the ones you keep with a little hydrogen peroxide.

And dose a little excel.

[kennedpa]

Yep BBA..... My tank was close to be taken over by the stuff. Got some Flourish Excel.... dosed the tank with one cap full and hour later another capfull and dosing daily 2ml for about a week. That knocked off a fair bit of the BBA. I am currently still dosing as above, and each week more and more of the BBA is dead floating around the bottom ready to be vacummed up at water change time :-)

[Alpo]

so does BBA stand for something?

[rich311k]

Black beard or brush algae.

[Alpo]

ahhhh thanks rich

[smaug]

I ditto everything said above,especially vettes entry.You have the beginnings of a very nasty case of this stuff and just dosing with excel will do nothing.Spot treating will do almost nothing.Get a hold of it now by elimintating it now.For good measure after you have it cleared out,get a siamese algae eater,if you can find a real one.These guys eat the stuff and they are the only ones that do.They wont put a dent in it when you have that much though.BTW,the stuff comes back very easily.treating with excel will help prevent it.

[kennedpa]

I probably should have started a new thread on this :-O I notice a lot AC folks rely on bleeching rocks, drift wood etc to obviously kill off any nasties. Personally I have never heard of this practice until joing AC :-O For as long as I can remember I have always used and relied on boiling water without any dramas...touch wood ... Just curious as to what the main benefit of using bleech is?

[smaug]

I probably should have started a new thread on this :-O I notice a lot AC folks rely on bleeching rocks, drift wood etc to obviously kill off any nasties. Personally I have never heard of this practice until joing AC :-O For as long as I can remember I have always used and relied on boiling water without any dramas...touch wood ... Just curious as to what the main benefit of using bleech is?
You dont have to take the time to boil waterthumbs2: Bleach is more affective and positively will leave nothing alive.You dont need to have a big enough pot to boil that 20lb pc of wood [image of witches stew pops up]Bleach can be applied with a spray bottle safely away from the tank.A good rinse with a garden hose is more then enough to eliminate any residue.I have used this method twice,in 2 diff tanks,I didnt lose any fish and the bba never made a comeback to anything I bleached.I even use a mild bleach dip on new plants seeing as that is how most bba gets introduced to the tank.

[kennedpa]

[QUOTE=smaug]You dont have to take the time to boil waterthumbs2: Bleach is more affective and positively will leave nothing alive.You dont need to have a big enough pot to boil that 20lb pc of wood [image of witches stew pops up]

Doh all I have been doing is pouring the boiling water over whatever I put in the tank :-) Is there a safe mix of bleech and water or is straight bleech..

[smaug]

[QUOTE=smaug]You dont have to take the time to boil waterthumbs2: Bleach is more affective and positively will leave nothing alive.You dont need to have a big enough pot to boil that 20lb pc of wood [image of witches stew pops up]

Doh all I have been doing is pouring the boiling water over whatever I put in the tank :-) Is there a safe mix of bleech and water or is straight bleech..
For wiping out bba during a tank clean out,I use a 50/50 mix.For plant dip I use around,10% bleach to water.Dont get me wrong here,if boiling water is what you trust,then use it.Bleach for cleaning is not the boogey man its made out to be,just rinse it well.