Black Beard Algae ""HELP""

**smaug** · 08-08-2012, 09:47 PM

sae reach about 6 inches in length and are a very active fish that simply needs more room then a 30 gal tank can provide. Most keepers agree they need groups of 5 or so to stay content but that is honestly not my experiance. They shouldnt be in anything less then a 55 gal. Btw,many of our profiles here are not really that accurate and are in need of a serious overhaul

**Gogi** · 08-09-2012, 02:20 AM

Roger that smaug. They are currently 3 inches big. I have grown attached to them. I ll hold on to them a little bit longer but will rehome them as soon as they reach 4 inches. Its gonna be hell to get them out, but i will. Sometimes we just have to do whats right for the fish

**DrNic** · 08-14-2012, 02:53 PM

I went through a BBA problem recently myself in my 75G. Initially I tried Excel and that didn't work. Then I tried using some small CO2 yeast/sugar fermenters to injet CO2 and that didn't seem to work. Finally I picked up a pair of SAEs and although they were eating it it was still all over the place and they couldn't seem to keep up.

I recently started using 2 larger CO2 fermentors (made from juice bottles) that seem to be giving a much more steady injection rate and last MUCH longer between restarts. So you might try something like this.

One thing that's important to note is that BBA looks almost identical when dead and alive depending on the light you have in the tank. About a month ago I trimmed back all my plants that were carrying the BBA and scrubbed down all the decor to clean everything up. Thus far it hasn't come back. I suspect that something I did killed off the BBA but the SAEs just haven't been able to get to it all yet.