BBA?

[Buu]

Is this BBA? If so how would I go about treating it? Should I take it out and treat in another tank? I just got the plant from a LFS to help fill out the back of my tank, of course after I plant it (hard work! In sand) I see that growing on it!
Also will it infect any of my current plants?

 

[Rivercats]

It looks like the start of BBA. You could spot treat it with Hydrogen Peroxide 3%. Pull up 3ml of Peroxide in a syringe then slowly squirt the algae as close to it as possible. Be sure to turn off your filter and lights before treatment and leave off for 20 minutes. If there is alot you might have to spot treat more than once. Also only run your lights 6 hours until the algae is under control.

Next time you get new plants you can soak the plants in a container with Peroxide and water for 20 minutes or lay papertowels down in the bottom of a sink, lay the plants on top of them, squirt the entire plant with Peroxide, wrap the wet papertowels over the plants and let sit 20 minutes before planting. Don't rinse them, just plant them in the tank after treating. This process will kill algae and usually any 'live' hitch hikers and most snail eggs.

 

[Buu]

It looks like the start of BBA. You could spot treat it with Hydrogen Peroxide 3%. Pull up 3ml of Peroxide in a syringe then slowly squirt the algae as close to it as possible. Be sure to turn off your filter and lights before treatment and leave off for 20 minutes. If there is alot you might have to spot treat more than once. Also only run your lights 6 hours until the algae is under control.

Next time you get new plants you can soak the plants in a container with Peroxide and water for 20 minutes or lay papertowels down in the bottom of a sink, lay the plants on top of them, squirt the entire plant with Peroxide, wrap the wet papertowels over the plants and let sit 20 minutes before planting. Don't rinse them, just plant them in the tank after treating. This process will kill algae and usually any 'live' hitch hikers and most snail eggs.

That's great to know! I would have thought peroxide would kill the plant. What would be the ratio of peroxide and water? I'm going to have it already prepared in a spray bottle and ready for new plants. And do the towel trick each and every time!

Hmm I'm thinking of just gently taking it out and putting them in QT and doing the peroxide. I am too scared of it affecting my Khulis! It doesn't seem like a lot, like most pics I see googling BBA. Just that minimal amount on a few leaves edges. Would I need to treat my other plants as well? The only one showing signs is the amazon I just bought. Also, would BBA harm my Khulis? Probably a dumb question!

 

[Rivercats]

Seems I forgot to finish the usage amount... it should have read 3ml of peroxide to every 10g of tank water. You don't have to treat other plants unless they start to show signs of it. I swear once you add a plant that has BBA or hair algae in your tank the stuff just seems to magically pop up on other plants if the conditions are right.

Just be sure to really soak new plants completely before wrapping them with really dripping wet peroxided paper towels.

 

[Buu]

Seems I forgot to finish the usage amount... it should have read 3ml of peroxide to every 10g of tank water. You don't have to treat other plants unless they start to show signs of it. I swear once you add a plant that has BBA or hair algae in your tank the stuff just seems to magically pop up on other plants if the conditions are right.

Just be sure to really soak new plants completely before wrapping them with really dripping wet peroxided paper towels.

Got it! Thank you so much! You sure know your plants. About to go got that darn amazon sword out and put in QT and treat it!

 

[aqua_chem]

I'm not sure why you would QT a plant... The algae is in the water as well as the plant, much like Ich acts. You really don't get anything from QT.


The first thing we need to know is what your lights are, what your fertilization regimen is, what your CO2/liquid carbon setup is, w/c schedule, etc.

 

[Buu]

I'm not sure why you would QT a plant... The algae is in the water as well as the plant, much like Ich acts. You really don't get anything from QT.

The first thing we need to know is what your lights are, what your fertilization regimen is, what your CO2/liquid carbon setup is, w/c schedule, etc.

I'm just paranoid of peroxide with my Khulis. I know, I know but I am so scared of killing them accidentally. I love them! It's not that big of a deal, I already put it in QT lol and did the peroxide treatment on it. Sofar I see no BBA on any of my plants/decor. It's from the LFS. I saw they had some in some tanks before I knew what it was! And I picked the sword from a distant tank that didn't appear to have any but then I saw. And also know how to pretreat any new plants thanks to rivercats! I just got the sword. So know its not from me.

-lights currently are single bright just to hold me over until I get new lights in. They are on about 10 hrs a day.
- Fert is just laterite (under sand) and root tabs for some. Been thinking about getting flourish but worry about my anacris. I see how petsmart here killed theirs by over doing it. No co2!
-Lastly I do a w/c every Friday and all my stuff looks good! No amm, trates or Trites. Been testing a little crazy because I just got my kit recently, and it is a little addicting!!! So I know all that is good.

 

[KoobLis]

Best thing I ever did for my tank was put in a couple of siamese algae eaters.. They constantly prune my plants of any and every algae and they never bother any fish. Make sure that they are true siamese algae eaters though not the chinese, flying fox, or false siamese algae eaters.

 

[Rivercats]

You really should be dosing at least a liquid fertilizer such as Seachems Flouish Comprehensive weekly. Flouish Excel is a liquid carbon that can melt some sensitive plants such a anacharis. It's not a fertilizer. Have 0 nitrates in a planted tank isn't good. 10-20ppm nitrates and .5-1ppm phosphates are good levels for a planted tank.
Also depending on what type lighting your getting 10 hours might be too long and cause algae to rear it's ugly head. You might only want to run them 8 hours and can go as low as 6 hours daily if you have algae problems.

 

[Buu]

You really should be dosing at least a liquid fertilizer such as Seachems Flouish Comprehensive weekly. Flouish Excel is a liquid carbon that can melt some sensitive plants such a anacharis. It's not a fertilizer. Have 0 nitrates in a planted tank isn't good. 10-20ppm nitrates and .5-1ppm phosphates are good levels for a planted tank.
Also depending on what type lighting your getting 10 hours might be too long and cause algae to rear it's ugly head. You might only want to run them 8 hours and can go as low as 6 hours daily if you have algae problems.

Yes, I've been trying to educate myself in liquid frets, now that I am venturing into more plants. Thanks to AA! My previous plants never showed any deficiency, always green and forever growing.

Could you explain to me why nitrates are important in a planted tank? Sorry I am new to this hobby! I was reading about someone here not able to get theirs up, and I thought maybe I just read it wrong (in my mind, I thought nitrates were bad and that plants eat them so shouldn't have any?). But now that you said that, I see it truly is something. I don't know if it matters, but it's 30 gallon (that I recently upgraded to. Maybe 2 weeks ago? But used old media) and only has 4 Khulis right now. Verrrry small bio load lol.

Update on the BBA- It seemed to fell off overnight, and all on the floor of QT. I wiped off leaves and returned it back to main tank (which still, thankfully, has no signs of BBA).

 

[Rivercats]

Nitrates are a macro nutrient that plants need. The problem with a 0 reading is that there is none of that nutrient available in the water for plants to use.