Black Beard Algea problems

[Dubs1281]

I have a tank thats being taken over by BBA. How do I get rid of it? Ive tried removing it from the plants, but it grows back fast, ive cut back on fish food, and cut back on plant nutrients.
I first combated it with SAE and they did a phenomenal job untill they ran out of food and started latching on to my discus. So they are out of the question.
Should I cut the lights back? I have them on for about 10-12 hours as of now.
Should I stop dosing nutrients?
Is my CO2 a problem?

Id prefer to stay away from chemicals as much as possible.
Thanks for your help.

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[clarkm]

In a planted tank lights should be on 6-8 hours a day. I run mine 6 hours a day and plants growing good. You can spot treat it with excell or h2o2. Just fill a syringe and squirt it on the algae. Turn filters off before treating though. Wait 20 min then turn filter back on. It will turn red after a day or so and that means it's dying.

 

[imissmytruck]

When my 55 g was over run, I made the tank go dark for two weeks. And did what clarkm suggested. I preferred treating with excel over the peroxide, but I won the battle. I dealt with the BBA for two months before doing that, and after two weeks of dark and cutting back on light times I have never had a problem since.

 

[aqua_chem]

Spot treating with peroxide is only going to treat what's there, but it's not going to address the issue that's causing it to growth. Generally, you want to address the issue and treat what's already there.


Tell us everything you can about your setup, especially your light levels, co2, fertilizer, etc.


Also, I'm having trouble picturing a SAE 'sucking'. Are you sure it was a SAE and not a Chinese algae eater?

 

[Dubs1281]

Spot treating with peroxide is only going to treat what's there, but it's not going to address the issue that's causing it to growth. Generally, you want to address the issue and treat what's already there.


Tell us everything you can about your setup, especially your light levels, co2, fertilizer, etc.


Also, I'm having trouble picturing a SAE 'sucking'. Are you sure it was a SAE and not a Chinese algae eater?

I use flourish excel for co2 and dose as nessisary. My lights are current usa satalite led +. And I was dosing iron, nitrogen, and flourish but recently switched to brightwell aquatics plant solution. (After BBA outbreak)
The SAE didnt have a sucker mouth, but they did eat off of my discus's slime coat and then they came down with colomalaris. Not going to use them again.


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[ScotJudd]

I find the BB grows mainly on older leaves, which I remove anyway. I spot treat with excel which is very effective. This also works well for green hair algae.

 

[Mr. Nowhere]

How do you spot treat with excel? A syringe as well?

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[Rivercats]

If you spot treat with either a liquid carbon or hydrogen peroxide 3% you use 3ml of either to every 1 gallon of tank water. Turn off filters and slowly squirt algae. If you have a lot of algae in the tank you will have to do an area a day. Leave filters off 20 minutes.

Only run lighting 6 hours until algae is under control and I also suggest using liquid carbon daily at a rate of 1ml for every 2 gallons of water. You will want to build up to this level and you need to do it daily.

But as Aqua Chem said you need to post specific's about your tank especially the type of lighting and bulbs your using along with how many hours a day your running it. If you don't fix what's causing the BBA your going to be fighting a losing battle.