Black Beard/Brush Algae

[Jmedic25]

Hey Everyone,
I have an oubreak of BBA starting on my planted aquarium. Let me give you the low down on my setup then ill ask my questions. I have a 36 gal. bowfront. Stock is 4 gouramis,1 black skirt tetra, 1 zebra danio, 1 small common pleco. Plants are 2 small anubias, a good clump of java moss, a medium sized java fern and floating water lettuce and duckweed. I have a large peice of manzinita DW, some river rocks, and a gravel substrate. Im running an airstone, an aqueon 90 HOB filter thats supercharged with potscrubbers and purigen. The lighting is a 55w VHO 6500k light. I have been guilty of over lighting the tank but now I have a timer set up for 8 hrs a day. I dont overfeed. I dose floursh once a week. I change 50% every two weeks but not because the numbers are bad. My general chemistry is Ammo=0 nitrite=0 nitrates=<5, ph a stable 7.0. No salt, I use prime as my declorinator. Im pretty sure I introduced the BBA on one of the plants from my LFS. So my question is what should I do? Bleach dip? Co2? Florish XL?. I need a battle plan. Thanks for the help all. My anubias is reall getting fuzzy and wilting some. The ferns dont seem to care and nothing can touch the duckweed and water lettuce. I have to scoop it weekly, but it crushes nitrates and excess nutrients so I like it.
Justin

 

[mr funktastic]

completely unrelated but u may want to get a few more danios. they prefer to be in schools. as far as the bba. if u cut back on the nutrients it would be better off. bleach dip is the extreme option. is does normally work but can easily destroy plants. my plan of action when i got it was a black out for 2 days and a very handy little fish called a Siamese algae eater. but make sure it doesnt get confused with a flying fox. there useless.

 

[blert]

From what I'm told, BBA is the result of too much light and not enough CO2. Reduce your lighting period, trim "infected" leaves. Bleach dip would be a last resort, the addition of Excel will help. You can also spot treat with Excel or hydrogen peroxide.

 

[revchristinejday]

Dear JMedic25,

I have begun to battle black bearded algae (BBA) myself. I have learned that too much light, too little CO2 and too much leftover food truly creates the perfect environment for BBA. To that end I have learned that blackout alone is sometimes not enough. Flourish Excel adds carbon to the water and contains an algaecide. One of the side effects is that it can wipe out BBA...but it also melts, anacharis and crypts. Topically applied hydrogen peroxide can kill BBA on the more fragile plants. So my battle plan this weekend, after 3 days of imperfect black out, is to remove the anubias, driftwood & rocks into a dark plastic bin, dose the bin with Flourish Excel. Meanwhile treat my floating plants with hydrogen peroxide outside the tank...and then use API CO2 booster, which does not have algaecide when tank is resemble....while researching other CO2 options...

I am also considering adding a Siamese Algae eater or two....

Good luck!
Chriis

 

[Jmedic25]

Cool Chris thanks for the response. Let me know how it goes for you. What is your tank size and WPG? Im trying to stay away from Co2. I dont have a high light tank or plants that should require co2. I think excel is going to be my next try

 

[revchristinejday]

Dear Jmedic25,
I will let you know how it goes. I have a 125 gallon with 6 goldfish, 1 filtration and more than 1WPG and less than 2 WPG: I have 2 strip lights with 4 36" T8 powerglo or flora glo bulbs. When I one had one strip, it was less than 1 WPG...I too am resisting a real CO2 system...Am hoping that Excel fits the bill.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[blert]

There is no reason to fear a CO2 system. It does have a sizable up front cost (~150-200$) but cost of maintenance is negligible. The cost of keeping that large of a tank juiced up with Excel is going to break you.

 

[BBradbury]

Your Algae Question

Hello J...

Have never gone to the extreme of using chemcials to deal with algae problems. Was afraid the meds would stress my fish and the "algae destroyers" with gluteraldehyde weren't an option because I have so much Singapore moss and Java fern. I got some "Ramshorn" snails from the local mom & pop pet store and put them into the tank. They're extremely fast breeders in pure water conditions and all forms of algae and fungus are their favorites.

I haven't had any visible forms of algae in my tanks for several years, but I do have quite of number of the snails. They come in three colors as near as I can tell, brown mostly. But, I have red and white kinds too.

The nice thing is, they only eat dead or decaying plant and fish material. I have heavily planted tanks, but the snails have never bothered anything that's healthy. They're always cleaning plant leaves and cleaning up the occasional dead fish.

Just a thought.

B

 

[FishN00b83]

BBA could be the result of too much light (and/or not enough Co2), too much left over food, or bad water circulation. It could be a combination of things, the hard part is pin pointing what exactly is causing it.

I would cut down on your light time (or raise the fixture higher off the top of the surface), make sure you fish eat everything during feeding time (if not vacuum up left overs right away), and make sure your water circulation is good. BBA is free floating until its able to land on something and populate, good water circulation prevents that.

Co2 is not needed by any means, but youd be surprised how well it works when it comes to fighting algae. The only problem is, if you arent consistant with it, it makes the algae problem A LOT worse.

For the BBA thats in your tank now, you can scrape it off driftwood. If it's on your plants, just break off the leaves that have it (break the stem as close to the main as possible, that prevents rotting and promotes new growth).

I just battled a pretty bad BBA outbreak. I found out that my Co2 system had a crappy needle valve. After scraping the crap out of all the driftwood and fixing the needle valve, ive been BBA free!

 

[revchristinejday]

Dear JMedic25,
Thought I would update you on my war against BBA. Friday I removed all the plants in the tank except the root only pothos. I placed the anacharis in a large gallon pitcher and everything else in a 20 gallon rubbermaid tub have scrubbed off what I could from the slate and driftwood and anubias. I then dosed the rubbermaid tub with Excel per directions. I put the top on the tub and put a towel over it to keep light out--my kitchen is very sunny. Cleansed all the other stones and returned them to the tank. Spot dosed the anacharis with hydrogen peroxide. I then dosed the tank after gravel cleaning and water change with Excel. I continued to add Excel as per bottle to both the tank and tub each day.

On Sunday, having noticed that a lot of the BBA had fallen off, I took the plants etc. out of the tub and scrubbed and scraped off more. Many plants were almost free of the BBA and the slate & driftwood were free of it. So I cleaned out the tub, placed the plants etc. in and redosed the tub.

Meanwhile, the pothos roots which had been covered in BBA, where now clear, so I replaced the anacharis in the tank. I have also decided to reduce the light in the tank--It was almost 2wpg--after all I have primarily goldfish proof anuabias--so I carried the second set of lights to the basement...

My plan is to continue dosing the tub until Friday with hope that the plants will be clear. And to lighten the dosing of the tank to every other day..
Peace,
Chris

 

[Austin.b]

Dear JMedic25,

I have begun to battle black bearded algae (BBA) myself. I have learned that too much light, too little CO2 and too much leftover food truly creates the perfect environment for BBA. To that end I have learned that blackout alone is sometimes not enough. Flourish Excel adds carbon to the water and contains an algaecide. One of the side effects is that it can wipe out BBA...but it also melts, anacharis and crypts. Topically applied hydrogen peroxide can kill BBA on the more fragile plants. So my battle plan this weekend, after 3 days of imperfect black out, is to remove the anubias, driftwood & rocks into a dark plastic bin, dose the bin with Flourish Excel. Meanwhile treat my floating plants with hydrogen peroxide outside the tank...and then use API CO2 booster, which does not have algaecide when tank is resemble....while researching other CO2 options...

I am also considering adding a Siamese Algae eater or two....

Good luck!
Chriis

I'm pretty sure API CO2 booster does have an algaecide in it. Hopefully someone else will chime in!

 

[jetajockey]

Those supplements do not contain an algaecide, they are an algaecide at high enough concentration.

 

[revchristinejday]

Dear JMedic25,

Well it's been more than a week and most of the leaves of my plants that were in the tub are now clear of the BBA. So I cut off any remaining leaves that were effected and replaced their greenery back--and the SAE were happy to find roosting places. When I did the cleaning/water change there was no algae to scrape of the glass for the first time in over 2 months. I hope there's just enough to keep the SAE happy. The anacharis have adjusted to the lower maintenance dose of Excel. All are happy as clams including me.
Chris+