The dreaded BBA

[Dreamroper]

Hi All,

I have gotten some advice from Rivercats & Brian_Nano and others regarding BBA that I have in my tank. At first I thought it was a growth of Fire Moss, but now I'm back to the BBA. I should have followed through on their advice immediately, but I really thought for a while that it was Fire Moss that had gotten loose and so I waited. Now, it's gotten worse.

I have spot treated my plants today with the h2o2 mixture that was recommended. I currently have the filter off for the recommended 20 minutes. I will cut back on lights and feeding also, but my question is how often should I spot treat with the h2o2?

Thanks for your help (again!)
D

 

[Rivercats]

After it's treated you should see it begin to turn white, pink, or red in about 24 hours or so which indicates it's dying. You usually don't have to treat a second time. If you have a lot you can treat an area a day.

 

[Dreamroper]

Thanks Rivercats. I'll keep you posted.
D

 

[Dreamroper]

After it's treated you should see it begin to turn white, pink, or red in about 24 hours or so which indicates it's dying. You usually don't have to treat a second time. If you have a lot you can treat an area a day.

Well, it didn't turn any color, but seems to have diminished a bit. Could it be something else? Where it's really noticeable is on my Water Sprite. I've ended up cutting so much of it due to the nasty growth on it's leaves, that it's pretty sparse. My Dwarf Gourami is not a happy camper. It grows quickly though, so no worries there, but I wonder what the heck it is??

Any other ideas?

Thanks-D

 

[plantedtankman]

Could you post some pictures?

 

[Dreamroper]

I'll try, but I only can do it with a Blackberry and they never come out very good. I'll give it a shot in just a few. Thanks-D

 

[Rivercats]

I can't remember the original pictures. Every now and then you have to double treat an area of BBA. But usually one dose of Peroxide starts killing it.

 

[Dreamroper]

These pictures are terrible. I looked at it closely on my Water Sprite and it almost has a cob webby look, but there are definitely fibrous hairs on the driftwood and the edge of the Amazon. It's not growing on all of the plants though. Odd.

 

[plantedtankman]

These pictures are terrible. I looked at it closely on my Water Sprite and it almost has a cob webby look, but there are definitely fibrous hairs on the driftwood and the edge of the Amazon. It's not growing on all of the plants though. Odd.

Hmmm... Doesn't look like BBA to me. Very odd

 

[Rivercats]

It doesn't look right for BBA. What it does remind me of is when I've seen a kind of detris collection stuck on small strands of algae. Can you take you hand and rub or wave it off the plants? Or is it stuck on there solid? It's really hard to tell from the pic's.

 

[Rivercats]

I've seen something similar in some of my dirted tanks a couple months down the road. What I did was rub, gently shake, and cause water current around the "stuff" to bring it into the water column so the filter could remove some. I did this every day or two for 2 or 3 weeks. However long it took to get it cleared out of the tank. I would also do this before WC's.

 

[Dreamroper]

It doesn't look right for BBA. What it does remind me of is when I've seen a kind of detris collection stuck on small strands of algae. Can you take you hand and rub or wave it off the plants? Or is it stuck on there solid? It's really hard to tell from the pic's.

I know, the pictures are terrible. It comes off quite easily; I can rub it off of the wide leaves and gently wave the Sprite and it comes off. I'll do as you suggested in your second post, and clean it off by hand every day for awhile. After reading your post of it looking like detris, that's exactly what it looks like. Do you think that after I hand clean it I should always do a PWC? I hesitate to do so every day since I'm afraid it will get my PH out of whack. I have well water.

I have a pretty large canister filter, so I would think it will clear it up pretty quickly.

Thanks for your help-D

 

[bshenanagins]

I know, the pictures are terrible. It comes off quite easily; I can rub it off of the wide leaves and gently wave the Sprite and it comes off. I'll do as you suggested in your second post, and clean it off by hand every day for awhile. After reading your post of it looking like detris, that's exactly what it looks like. Do you think that after I hand clean it I should always do a PWC? I hesitate to do so every day since I'm afraid it will get my PH out of whack. I have well water.

I have a pretty large canister filter, so I would think it will clear it up pretty quickly.

Thanks for your help-D

You could grab yourself a power head or two to encourage more circulation in your tank. That's what I did, I actually have a BBA infestation. But the power heads do a good job of not letting anything settle and keeps the plants moving. I got two koralia nanos (240 model) they are about the size of a large egg. They don't blow your fish and plants away, just a gentle current that does the job.

 

[Dreamroper]

You could grab yourself a power head or two to encourage more circulation in your tank. That's what I did, I actually have a BBA infestation. But the power heads do a good job of not letting anything settle and keeps the plants moving. I got two koralia nanos (240 model) they are about the size of a large egg. They don't blow your fish and plants away, just a gentle current that does the job.

Thanks! I do have one, but I've also added a diffrent head to my cannister filter so that the water comes out of a tube with holes in it. I noticed that I have a very gentle waving of the plants on the bottom now. So that will help?

 

[Rivercats]

I know, the pictures are terrible. It comes off quite easily; I can rub it off of the wide leaves and gently wave the Sprite and it comes off. I'll do as you suggested in your second post, and clean it off by hand every day for awhile. After reading your post of it looking like detris, that's exactly what it looks like. Do you think that after I hand clean it I should always do a PWC? I hesitate to do so every day since I'm afraid it will get my PH out of whack. I have well water.

I have a pretty large canister filter, so I would think it will clear it up pretty quickly.

Thanks for your help-D

I only did my weekly WC unless I made a BIG mess in the water but mostly I just keep getting it in the water column for the filters to remove. I don't know what causes this but if your diligent you can get rid of it over time.

 

[Dreamroper]

I was able to get rid of a bunch of it tonight. My filter works so good that I went out to feed my horses, and by the time I came back in the water was clear again.

I don't think I'm doing very good housekeeping with the plants. I thought maybe I shouldn't vacuum the substrate and be conservative so that the plants have nutrients, but really I have root tabs and use a liquid fert too, so I should probably start cleaning the bottom better.

Do you think most of this was due to overfeeding?

 

[Rivercats]

I think it's due to not enough current in the tank. I added a couple power heads when I had the problem and once I cleared the tank of it the power heads kept any for being able to settle again.

 

[Dreamroper]

I think it's due to not enough current in the tank. I added a couple power heads when I had the problem and once I cleared the tank of it the power heads kept any for being able to settle again.

Do you think that now that I added a power head and changed my filter output-I can see the chain swords waving gently at the bottom of the tank-that's enough current? I whacked the daylights out of my water Sprite and all I had to do was brush it off. What a doofus I am...

 

[Dreamroper]

You could grab yourself a power head or two to encourage more circulation in your tank. That's what I did, I actually have a BBA infestation. But the power heads do a good job of not letting anything settle and keeps the plants moving. I got two koralia nanos (240 model) they are about the size of a large egg. They don't blow your fish and plants away, just a gentle current that does the job.

I'm going to look at getting one of these power heads. Rivercats agrees that I need more flow. The one I have is fairly strong, but I have it kind of pointed down to keep the water moving. It wouldn't hurt to add one of these koralia nanos I bet.
Thanks-D

 

[NinjaTetra]

Im pretty sure you don't have BBA. The all feared Black Beard Algae looks like a dark green hairgrass clump sort of, from what I know. I may be wrong, but I think you have a simpler hair algae. It is long, light green, stringy(or looks like thin green hair), and is loosely anchored. I have a strand i just got rid of. It catches lots of detritus and got quite long in about a week of me wondering what it was. Anyway, just pulling i out should be fine.