Your Solution to BBA?

[Julia]

So, I've been plagued with BBA (Black Beard Algae) for about 2 months now. It came after I started being lazy and not dosing my aquarium with easy carbo everyday as I had been doing before.

I've since started dosing Easy Carbo with 2.5ml a day and am planning on upping that 4ml per day. I don't want to do it right away, just in case doing so can affect my fish.

I was just wondering if anyone has had success with this method or if you've possibly found a more effective means of doing so.

The BBA is definitely not as bad as it was, as I gave the aquarium a good scrub with a scraper, pulled the polluted plants and scrapped at the bogwood.

SAE's are out of the question as my aquarium (a Juwel Lido 120) is nowhere close to being large enough for them.

[Aeonflame]

Scraping the bba will only serve to release spores that will spring up as other colones elsewhere. I treated my BBA with hydrogen peroxide sprayed directly at it with a syringe.

[Julia]

Thanks for your response. I did not realize that spore were released when scraping! Definitely will not do that again, then.

Does the peroxide not harm your fish at all? How much peroxide do you put into your syringe? Would it have any ill effects with Easy Carbo? And also, how many times a day/week do you do this?

Sorry for the load of questions!

[chrisfraser05]

you defo have to be very carefull treating with peroxide.

I haven't had to do it myself, prefer natural methods.

I have seen the leftovers of a badly treated tank where all the fish and most of the plants died after peroxide treatment.

A couple of Ottos might be a better solution long term!

[Aeonflame]

Otos do not eat BBA. If you want to go with natural methods then get a true Siamese algae eater. When treating with peroxide, make sure its a 3% solution with no other additives. Obviously, when spot treating you wont need to use that much, but anything under 3ml/gallon is considered safe. Your fish should not be affected, just dont spray the peroxide directly at them. For best results, I keep the syringe as close as I can to the tufts of algae. If you are treating algae on plants, expect some damage to the treated area. I did this just before a water change. An hour later the bba had turned pink, and within a few days was dead.

[rich311k]

I generally throw out plants that get it, or at least trim them ruthlessly. Any decorations or equipment is bleached and scrubbed. The stuff is tenacious.

[Julia]

Thank you for your responses! Oto's do not eat BBA (I have four of them and they do not touch the stuff). And I also mentioned that my aquarium is nowhere near large enough to house a shoal of SAE's.

LFS will also not sell fish if the aquarium they are going into is not large enough/already over stocked.

I have no large tufts of BBA at the moment. It's mostly spotting on the juwel internal filter, in rows on the bogwood and on the glass.

Would you recommend, then, a water change directly after spot treatment?

I assume it would be better to have the filters off when doing this?

[Julia]

Missed your response, Rich! Bleach for me is not an option as I have plants growing on the bogwood that I do not want to kill off. Also, I have been removing the leaves that become over run and that seems to be working somewhat as the plants are nowhere near as bad as they were before!

[Aeonflame]

The small spots of it will respond just as well as large tufts. You'll know when you see them fizzing. Looks kinda cool actually. Turning your filters off to reduce flow is a good idea. Just spot treat before your water change, you dont have to do it then, but I was more comfortable doing it that way.

[kennedpa]

SAE's are the way to go. I have never had any BBA ever since I added SAE's. I tried flourish with minimal effect. SAE's have totally cleaned it up and it has not returned for over 12 months now.

[MCHRKiller]

I am battling it in my 100G, proper fertilization dosing...cutting light back an hour or two per day and keep up a strict regimine of dosing. It will take time but it will work in time...and I havent removed a single leaf. BBA comes primarily from low or flunctuating CO2 levels and deficiency.

[kennedpa]

[QUOTE=MCHRKillerBBA comes primarily from low or flunctuating CO2 levels and deficiency.[/QUOTE]

I disagree on your theory of where and BBA exists. Where I live, BBA spores are in the water supply.

[MCHRKiller]

BBA spores are probably present in most tanks either from water supply or brought in on plants or decor. That isnt what causes an outbreak...flunctuating CO2 levels and plant deficiencies is what causes outbreaks. Think of BBA as the algae equivelent of the Ich parasite, very commonly found in aquariums...only becomes an issue if conditions allow it to get a hold in the tank. Optimal plant growth and proper CO2 levels keep algae at bay. :22:

[robflanker]

I had an issue with BBA and tried spot treatments with hydrogen peroxide but could never fully shake it or get it under control using that method.

I ended up removing fish, draining tank, removing plants and bleaching them, then dumped an entire bottle of hydrogen peroxide into substrate and let it stew for an hour or two. Then did a couple of rinses of fill the tank and drain to remove hydrogen peroxide. Placed everything back in, and no more BBA

[Julia]

SAE's may be the way to go but, I have no space in my aquarium, as has been stated about three times now.:ssmile:

C02 is the exact cause of BBA becoming uncontrollable. I stopped dosing Easy Carbo regularly and BOOM! BBA showed up.

My BBA is not so bad that tearing down the entire aquarium, killing off the bacteria and stressing the fish, is the option to go with. But it would be something I would consider, if the BBA was affecting a great part of my aquarium.

I'll do the spot treatment over a 3 week period and see where that leaves me.

Thanks everyone. :shappy:

[robflanker]

The majority of the bacteria is in the filter - which was put with the fish when they went in a QT tank. Thus, not impacted by bleach nor hydrogen peroxide

They were not stressed and I did not lose any bacteria.

Good luck with it

[Lady Hobbs]

When the city water here shut their water treatment plant down and put us on well water for two weeks, I got BBA from H***. I had never had it prior to that and was not aware my pH had plunged from 7.6 to 6.0. I would have simply put off my water changes had I been aware this would happen.

I used Flourish Excel for two weeks at regular dosing to get this stuff under control then did a lot of trimming. Now if I see a tiny bit I just trim off the plant. I do not run CO2 in my tanks.

This is what my plants looked like after using that well water. I'm embarrassed to even show anyone the mess I had.

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[gadget228]

When I got BBA I checked here on AC and a lot of members recommended using flourish excel and it worked wonders for me, my tank is light-med planted and I don't have c02 either.

[Julia]

Wow! That's exactly how my BBA looked until I pruned tall the plants away. Now it looks more like hairy diatoms.

Flourish excel is incredibly expensive here and I'm about to start school so can not afford to use that instead of Easy Carbo. Would love to; stuff is amazing from what I have seen!

I have to find a syringe that will allow me to better aim. I have one that would be used to give cats medicine right now that that won't do the job properly.

Will post you all my results with it in the next few weeks!

Wish me luck! Lol!

[Plant Man]

BBA spores are probably present in most tanks either from water supply or brought in on plants or decor. That isnt what causes an outbreak...flunctuating CO2 levels and plant deficiencies is what causes outbreaks. Think of BBA as the algae equivelent of the Ich parasite, very commonly found in aquariums...only becomes an issue if conditions allow it to get a hold in the tank. Optimal plant growth and proper CO2 levels keep algae at bay. :22:

100% correct! Some people just don't want to hear the truth!

My understanding of the whole BBA/algae issue. I have enduced and wiped out BBA/GSA/BGA twice now. I am confident that MCHRKiller and I are correct.

Linky on the subject,

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[fins_n_fur]

Flourish excel is incredibly expensive here and I'm about to start school so can not afford to use that instead of Easy Carbo. Would love to; stuff is amazing from what I have seen!

No worries about needing to spend money on Flourish here in Europe where it is much more expensive than Easy Carbo. It's nearly the same stuff. As Seachem don't have manufacturing sites in Europe, it's shipped in, thus the price.

[Wild Turkey]

Hydrogen peroxide has always worked for me. Lacking a syringe, you can use a turkey baster.



Sounds like what you were doing was working originally, I would go back to that and treat the existing algae with the H202.