Black Beard Algae. What to do.

[kashif314]

I don't have any BBA in my tank but it came with the plant I bought. Still only on that plant and not spreading to other plants. What can I do to fix it? Its a nano 5 gallon planted tank having both caridinas and neocaridinas shrimp so I can't use hydrogen peroxide method. I don't use pressurized co2 so I am putting glut as usual but three days has passed but algae is still there on edges of leaves. What shall I do?

Here is a small video of BBA on edges of leaves

https://youtu.be/6sqo6-FkIRA

Please help. Thanks.

 

[mbkemp]

I would pull the affected plant and do the hydrogen peroxide outside the tank. It will turn pink if it is dead. Don’t let it soak. Spray it on and rinse it off

For me, Anubis with direct light get bba. Try and give it some shoe from direct light

 

[myo]

Seachem Excel gets rid of BBA quickly and easily. Just google it for dosing etc.

 

[Funken_A]

bleach dip is another option... Use a 20% bleach to water ratio let the plant soak for a few minutes rinse it and it shoud be good ot go.

Also once that plant is in the nano tank so are the spores of BBA..... If you have nutrient imbalances you may see it again and again.

i deal with small out breaks and I prune back the leaves that are infected, I spray H2O2 on plants in and outside of my tank.. In your case you cannot do this because of the nano tank size and shrimp.


Mine is very controlable but I am pretty up on all maintenance and water changes

 

[kashif314]

I would pull the affected plant and do the hydrogen peroxide outside the tank. It will turn pink if it is dead. Don’t let it soak. Spray it on and rinse it off

For me, Anubis with direct light get bba. Try and give it some shoe from direct light

Seachem Excel gets rid of BBA quickly and easily. Just google it for dosing etc.

bleach dip is another option... Use a 20% bleach to water ratio let the plant soak for a few minutes rinse it and it shoud be good ot go.

Also once that plant is in the nano tank so are the spores of BBA..... If you have nutrient imbalances you may see it again and again.

i deal with small out breaks and I prune back the leaves that are infected, I spray H2O2 on plants in and outside of my tank.. In your case you cannot do this because of the nano tank size and shrimp.


Mine is very controlable but I am pretty up on all maintenance and water changes

Thanks guys. I took a leap of faith and it worked. I just put four ramshorn snails and they cleaned like 40 percent of plant already and still on job. I didn't want to try any strong method to prevent any harm to shrimps or plants. I hope snails do the rest of the job dome too.

 

[Temporary Saint]

How about that? A natural remedy.

 

[libertybelle]

Throw the tank out and start over.

Just kidding obviously. ... Mostly.

No, but seriously even if your snails are snacking on the bba I would still prune the most infested leaves so it doesn't spread faster than your snails can attack it. BBA can be a real pain to deal with if it gets established.

 

[kashif314]

How about that? A natural remedy.

Throw the tank out and start over.

Just kidding obviously. ... Mostly.

No, but seriously even if your snails are snacking on the bba I would still prune the most infested leaves so it doesn't spread faster than your snails can attack it. BBA can be a real pain to deal with if it gets established.

Thanks guys. I cut the leaves which were damaged but i let the BBA leaves as they were. Snails cleaned the whole plant. No BBA whatsoever. Very surprised really and my nerites didn't show any interest in BBA. But Ramshorn worked and worked and clean it fully.