BBA Help?

[pankelephant]

Help! I've been battling BBA in my tank for a while now, and it seems to be getting worse.

Details:
The tank is 15g, planted with a couple of small swords, one crypt wendtii, several crypt parva, some bacopa monnieri and a couple of vals. I also have lots of anubias - barteri, petite and nana, and a healthy crop of flame moss.

Ferts:
PPS-Pro (including magnesium), dosing 1.5 ml/day of each solution. Also dosing glut at the same amount. Lights @ 10 hrs/day. The fixture is an Aqueon modular LED system with one Day bulb and two Colormax. I have no idea what the wpg are, and I couldn't find it online which means it's probably crap. That said, the plants are growing, albeit slowly.

Heavily filtered and regularly tested.
Ammonia & Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 10
Phosphate = ~4 (it's ~3 out of the tap) (I know that's ridiculously high, but I don't know what to do about it.)
GH = 4, KH = 3 (they're 2 & 1 out of the tap)
pH = 7.0

Stock is 6 harlequin rasbora, 4 albino cories, one mystery snail and 6 (newly aquired) Amano shrimp.

The BBA seems to be exclusively on the anubias, and it's on all of them, even the new (3 weeks) ones. I do have some other kind of algae which I haven't identified, but it's on the glass and easy to clean so it isn't really bothersome. I got the shrimp to help with the BBA, but obviously they aren't going to be enough. I don't want to use SAEs because the flame moss is expensive and is doing so well. I have read that H2O2, glut and/or bleach works. The anubias are all attached to the same piece of driftwood and so easily removed from the tank. My thought was that I could just dip that into something to kill the algae. But the moss is there too so I don't know if it would be safe.

Of course, I also don't know why it's so prevalent. Any advice on how to get rid of it and keep it gone would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rivercats]

Most likely your problem is due to running lights 10 hours. Put them on a timer and only run them 6 hours daily until algae is gone. Then you can slowly over weeks up you light to a max of 8 hours but if at any time algae begins to form you have to stop and back them down.

You need to spot treat what has BBA. For what can be removed, lay paper towels in a sink, put the item/s that need treating on top of them. Next thoroughly pour hydrogen peroxide 3% over all the BBA. Cover the items with the peroxide drenched paper towels and let sit 20 minutes. Don't rinse, just put back in the tank.

For what's in the tank you need to turn off the filters. Next pull up 3ml peroxide in a syringe, hold right up to algae, and slowly squirt. Let sit 20 minutes before turning on the filter. If you have a lot you might have to spot treat an area a day.

 

[pankelephant]

Okay, I can do that. Do the phosphates need to be addressed? I've read that high levels can increase algal growth. You've said in another thread that you've found the opposite to be true, but I'm wondering if 4+ is too much.

Also, will the H2O2 kill the moss?

 

[Rivercats]

I keep my phosphates at 5-10ppm and IMO they are not cause for algae issues. I wouldn't worry about them unless they keep creeping up but they can be controlled with WC's.

H2O2 won't kill moss.