Blackwood
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- May 3, 2006
- Messages
- 48
I originally posted in this group because of a severe infestation of Black Beard Algae (BBA). I was a bit overwhelmed with all the advice on how to balance nutrients, PH, K, N03, etc.
I had been doing water changes with strictly R/O water and doing no fertilizing or nutrient replenishment.
After posting a bunch of questions in another thread (Algae and Anarchy), I decided to do an 80% water change with Tap water for balance and trace replenishment. That seemed to slow the if not stop the creep of the green slimy algae on the glass, but I still had a ton of BBA to contend with.
I went to a different LFS and was asking about Siamese Algae eaters and American Flag fish as I had read that they both did well with BBA. Naturally, they had sold out of both of them the day before. The guy working there suggested Scats, as they are omnivorous and are great with Algae. He stated that they are known to clean up algae problems very quickly.
I figured this was just a shot to get me to buy some fish since they were out of what I wanted, but I like Scat's, so I figured what the hell and bought a green and a ruby red scat. Both were no bigger than a 50 cent piece (a bit smaller actually). I put them both in the tank and they were nibbling at the green fuzz algae within a few minutes. I didn't really expect them to touch the BBA.
Well, that was 3 days ago. I have been too busy to pay much attention to my tank until today. I just about crapped when I noticed that literally 90% of the BBA is gone. Not whittled down, GONE. Both scats are noticibly thicker.
I had a large broad leaf plant that had all it's leaves rimmed heavily with BBA, as well as many clumps across the leaves. There isn't a trace of BBA on it now. All the driftwood and fixtures that were heavily infested with BBA are now clean. I am amazed at how well and how quickly they've cleaned it up. They are only two little Scats!
I'm sure the water change had something to do with slowing the growth, but there's no way a water change got rid of all that in 3 days. There isn't any in my wet/dry filter floss (100 micron), so it's definitely been eaten.
The green fuzz algae is a bit thinner too. It seems they went after the BBA first. Works for me.
So if you want to get rid of a bad BBA infestation, crab a couple of Scats. They cleaned up my 125 gallon tank of 90% (that's not an exaggeration at all) of it in 3 days. Well worth the $5 each I paid for them.
Blackwood
I had been doing water changes with strictly R/O water and doing no fertilizing or nutrient replenishment.
After posting a bunch of questions in another thread (Algae and Anarchy), I decided to do an 80% water change with Tap water for balance and trace replenishment. That seemed to slow the if not stop the creep of the green slimy algae on the glass, but I still had a ton of BBA to contend with.
I went to a different LFS and was asking about Siamese Algae eaters and American Flag fish as I had read that they both did well with BBA. Naturally, they had sold out of both of them the day before. The guy working there suggested Scats, as they are omnivorous and are great with Algae. He stated that they are known to clean up algae problems very quickly.
I figured this was just a shot to get me to buy some fish since they were out of what I wanted, but I like Scat's, so I figured what the hell and bought a green and a ruby red scat. Both were no bigger than a 50 cent piece (a bit smaller actually). I put them both in the tank and they were nibbling at the green fuzz algae within a few minutes. I didn't really expect them to touch the BBA.
Well, that was 3 days ago. I have been too busy to pay much attention to my tank until today. I just about crapped when I noticed that literally 90% of the BBA is gone. Not whittled down, GONE. Both scats are noticibly thicker.
I had a large broad leaf plant that had all it's leaves rimmed heavily with BBA, as well as many clumps across the leaves. There isn't a trace of BBA on it now. All the driftwood and fixtures that were heavily infested with BBA are now clean. I am amazed at how well and how quickly they've cleaned it up. They are only two little Scats!
I'm sure the water change had something to do with slowing the growth, but there's no way a water change got rid of all that in 3 days. There isn't any in my wet/dry filter floss (100 micron), so it's definitely been eaten.
The green fuzz algae is a bit thinner too. It seems they went after the BBA first. Works for me.
So if you want to get rid of a bad BBA infestation, crab a couple of Scats. They cleaned up my 125 gallon tank of 90% (that's not an exaggeration at all) of it in 3 days. Well worth the $5 each I paid for them.
Blackwood
