Black fuzzy stuff on ends of leaves

**Lady Hobbs** · 07-20-2008, 02:03 AM

Is that black beard algae? Only pictures I can find online of it are a total take over of a fish tank with the stuff. I had just a bit of it on the tips of some of my leaves so removed the plants for a bleach dip.

Hope this isn't the next step in my planted tank adventure.

Yup. Found a picture of it in The Planted Tank and that's what it is alright!

**Billythefish** · 07-20-2008, 02:44 AM

Head on table? I take my hat off to you for sticking with it this long! :-)

**smaug** · 07-20-2008, 02:54 AM

BBA is a nightmare if you let it get ahead of you.now that you have found it at the beginning make certain you do not let even a little of it get a foothold.If you have the room for them sae eat it,my 2 snarfed every last vestige of it in less then 2 weeks,I haven't seen any since.Check out this pic,I though it looked cool at first.bala 3.JPG
To eliminate it at this stage I took everything but the fish and gravel out and bleached it.Some came back a few weeks later till I get the sae.

**Lady Hobbs** · 07-20-2008, 12:56 PM

Oh my gawd. I go ballistic if I see one teeny smidgen of anything in my tank that isn't supposed to be there. I mean, who do you know that washes the diatoms off their leaves every single day but doesn't run the vacuum for 2 weeks. :)

It drives me nuts to see fish tanks that have the entire sides of the glass all brown with diatoms and they can't take the trouble to wipe it off. grrrrrrrrrr

We need to find one good algae eater that will eat it all. Having a different one for each algae is not gonna get it. I had 5 of those sae and found them mean as heck and after a couple weeks ate no algae at all. Of course having 5 in one tank was not smart.

Billy.......It's called stupidity. A person that's gone thru what I've gone thru in over a year would have given up by now. It's probably the same reason I have played Chuzzle on the computer for 2 years now and never once reached level 10. Determination to not be defeated by a plant!

Hard to believe I had a plant room built on the back of my house, all windows over-looking the woods. I had 54 tropical plants in that room in MI. Tank plants are another whole ballgame and one I am finding far less enjoyable. In FL, I grew imported orchids. But plants for fish tanks?
BLA..........BLA........BLA

**ILuvMyGoldBarb** · 07-20-2008, 01:02 PM

Hobbs, something that may help as well is Hydrogen Peroxide. H2O2 will have the same effect on BBA as bleach but is completely safe for your plants and it only takes a quick rinse before you put the plant back in the tank.

**Algenco** · 07-20-2008, 01:02 PM

direct application of peroxide or Excel will kill it without having to remove the plants

**ILuvMyGoldBarb** · 07-20-2008, 01:06 PM

Gene, I wasn't aware you could dose H2O2 directly into your tank. What kind of dosing level do you use?

**smaug** · 07-20-2008, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by Algenco

direct application of peroxide or Excel will kill it without having to remove the plants

if it is caught early,that will do it.Direct application of excel did nothing to kill the stuff in my tank.I had a worse case condition though.

**Lady Hobbs** · 07-20-2008, 01:10 PM

I will have to get me some then. And also some of Dave's Chem-Pure. I want to try that, as well. I've heard of many that direct dose with Excel and that's a super-dooper idea. Thanks Gene.

**Drip Loop** · 07-20-2008, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by smaug

BBA is a nightmare if you let it get ahead of you.now that you have found it at the beginning make certain you do not let even a little of it get a foothold.If you have the room for them sae eat it,my 2 snarfed every last vestige of it in less then 2 weeks,I haven't seen any since.Check out this pic,I though it looked cool at first.bala 3.JPG
To eliminate it at this stage I took everything but the fish and gravel out and bleached it.Some came back a few weeks later till I get the sae.

What kind of fish is in that pic? Doesnt look like any SAE I have ever seen