BioWheel & Brush Algae

[Heathrjoy]

Hi,
I'm new here and hoping someone will lend me a hand.

I've been keeping fish for about 4 years now, so I have most of the basics down, and I don't murder my fishums anymore. However, this summer I've had some health issues and have not been able to care for my tank as usual. Brush algae - aka - red algae - Audouinella - the stuff that looks like black puff balls - has developed. I've never dealt with this before. Yippee, a new adventure.

This is a 29 gal tank, low fish load of a Kissing Gourami, 6 neons, 3 X-Rays, 2 Tetras, 2 Zipper Loaches, and 2 other fish that my SIL gave me. It's a medium/heavily planted tank. I use a BioWheel for filtration and that's my biggest concern. I do not have CO2 injection.

I'll be having surgery in a week or so, it's not scheduled yet. I'd like to be able to take care of this as easily as possible but not lose my BioWheel in the process. A dump and bleach soak sounds easiest to me even though it means I'll have to re-cycle the tank. I could also bleach dip the plants. Any suggestions on the BioWheel? Will the wheel itself hold up to a bleach dip in a 25% bleach solution? I know I'll lose all the good bacteria, but I don't have a choice at this point.

Any other suggestions on how to handle this quickly and easily? I think it's beyond the point of a SAE taking care of it all.

Thanks for reading all of this and any help you can offer.
Heather

 

[Lonewolfblue]

First, hows your lighting? How much and how long?

Next, where are your Nitrates, phosphates, ph, gh, kh?

For getting rid of brush algae, I wouldn't recomment bleach in the tank, or dipping the bio-wheel in it. It's caused by a deficiency, and will just come back, probably faster than the first time. Read through the stickies, they provide a lot of vital information. Then, once you think all is in line, you can do an Excel dip for the plants. Get some Flourish Excel, and then put about 150ml of Excel in a bucket of about 1G-2G of water, remove the plants and soak in the bucket for 5-10 minutes, and replant. The algae should then start to turn red, which means it's dying off. Now plants like vals and anacharis you cannot do this, as they will melt with almost any Excel at all. And if you are not sure about dipping the roots, then leave the roots above the water. I've had success myself dipping the whole plant, but others had various plants die on them from exposing the roots to the Excel dip.

This will give you a general idea of one thing you can do. I prefer not using bleach myself. What kind of plants to you have?

Also, be sure to read the stickies on planted tanks and using ferts. It will get you where you want to go..

 

[fish_4_all]

With a well established tank, IMHO, cleaning the biowheel with excel or bleech wouldn't mean you have to recycle your tank. The filter media, the plants, the gravel, and everything else in your tank has tons of beneficial becateria. There are even people who use filters that have biowheels but dont use the wheel.

As for BBA causes, all I have been told is a lack of CO2 causes it so as far a deficiencies, I can't help you.

 

[Heathrjoy]

Lighting - 20 w flouro, I've not had it on much recently because of the "light increases algae" train of thought I've had. Maybe 6 or less hours a day.

Water parameters - I know they are out of whack w/o having to test them. It's been a long while since a water change. Hubby has been feeding fish and I know he has overfed them.

Plants - Java Fern, Java Moss, Ricca, Christmas Moss, Vals.

I've done a bit of reading up on BBA, although not in the stickies here. I will get to them asap. Right now I can't sit at the pc for too long, but I will get through the info.

I have some Excel on hand, and had been using it early this summer, although not regularly. I also have some Jungle CO2 Fizz Tabs and some FloraPlan Julian Spring's FW Formula (essential trace elements & micronutrients for fw plants & fish). None of these have been used in the last few months.

I don't know if I'm misunderstanding something or if I wasn't clear enough earlier, but what I was talking about earlier was to dump my entire tank, clean everything with a bleach soak to kill the BBA and then start with a fresh set up.

This is all just happening at a bad time with health issues, etc. I don't want to end up losing my plants, or worse, my fish.

Thanks,
Heather

 

[Jchillin]

LWB understood your first post hence the suggestion to soak the plants in the Excel solution. Cleaning the tank alone is not enough since the algae will still be attached to the plants.

I'm currently battling the same issue. Increasing the amount of water changes, dosing a good amount of Excel and NO3 and giving the plants the Excel dip is working wonders. Yeah, I did kill a plant by soaking the roots...lesson learned.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Lighting - 20 w flouro, I've not had it on much recently because of the "light increases algae" train of thought I've had. Maybe 6 or less hours a day.

Water parameters - I know they are out of whack w/o having to test them. It's been a long while since a water change. Hubby has been feeding fish and I know he has overfed them.

Plants - Java Fern, Java Moss, Ricca, Christmas Moss, Vals.

I've done a bit of reading up on BBA, although not in the stickies here. I will get to them asap. Right now I can't sit at the pc for too long, but I will get through the info.

I have some Excel on hand, and had been using it early this summer, although not regularly. I also have some Jungle CO2 Fizz Tabs and some FloraPlan Julian Spring's FW Formula (essential trace elements & micronutrients for fw plants & fish). None of these have been used in the last few months.

I don't know if I'm misunderstanding something or if I wasn't clear enough earlier, but what I was talking about earlier was to dump my entire tank, clean everything with a bleach soak to kill the BBA and then start with a fresh set up.

This is all just happening at a bad time with health issues, etc. I don't want to end up losing my plants, or worse, my fish.

Thanks,
Heather

My recommendations, start here....

Weekly 50% PWC's (Most important)
Lighting 10 hrs per day
Dose Excel, but only half doses. If the vals handle it, then you can slowly increase the dosing.
Dose Nitrates
Jungle Fizz tabs won't work, don't bother. And with the biowheel, the CO2 will be removed from the tank anyways. The only CO2 that will remain in the tank is when it equalizes with the atmosphere. Excess CO2 will just leave the tank.
Dumping the tank and redoing won't do a thing. The algae will just come back, faster, and probably much worse.

Is the Christmas moss full of algae? If so, do an Excel dip with it, and place it back into the tank without rinsing. The algae in it will disappear in 3-4 days. I did it with my java moss on my driftwood, been algae free for about 3 months.

 

[Heathrjoy]

Dosing with nitrates is something I've never heard of and will have to look into where I can even get it. Any suggestions? No LFS here. Or what am I missing or forgetting? lol

I can remove the Vals from the tank and treat them with something else if you have any recommendations for that. If I lose them I lose them, but would rather not.

I'll have hubby help me with water changes, starting asap.

Thanks for the help,
Heather

 

[jcarlilesiu]

www.gregwatson.com he provides many macros like nitrite, pottasium, phosphates as well as PMDD for micros. Fair prices and good to work with.

 

[wdrury]

Hi all...My tank had a bad case of black brush algae this is what i did and it cleared up in about 10 days..

First i did a 75% water change then every 3 days did another 20% water change..

I also cleaned the glass ontop of the tank to let maximum light in as possible and reduced the amount of light from 10 hrs/day to 8..

I also cleaned the light reflector and the tube.

I dunno which thing it was..probably a combination of everything...but it worked and the tank is 95% back to normal