Black Beard Algae Poll

[jarrod0987]

Had some thoughts on this recently. Want to see what the experience has been.

 

[coralbandit]

My old 135 Tang cichlid tank used to grow BBA and cyanno with no issue.
I will say I used hard well water and ran lights for twice as long as needed probably.

I still have BBA today in my 180.
I can only kill it if I put forth consistent effort.
It will always come back for me eventually.

 

[ImACoolguy]

I'll be the one to say I've only ever seen BBA in tanks with plants.

I fought this stuff for a while. Spot treatment wasn't cutting it. Got an SAE and not a speck remains.


Caleb

 

[t4runnr]

I've seen it in my tanks with or without plants. More so without plants.

 

[Autumnsky]

Got rid of this for awhile after I got it after my 2 SAE died in a PH crash.

Now have just a little and bought 4 SAE youngsters and they just got put into the big tank a couple days ago after QT.

I think it likes the ferts. I barely dosed anything for a year. No BBA. Then used one bottle of Flourish with good light and there it was again I noticed about a month or so later. But I wasn't looking for it to be honest. It is on a stick of DW near the top and I would have noticed that spot at least.

 

[ScotJudd]

I can go months without any BBA in my tank - heavily planted, ferts, Co2 and no algae eaters. Then it just appears. Spot treated and it goes again. I don't know what triggers it but I suspect my tank conditions are right on the cusp where BBA starts to grow. I can't pin down what triggers it because my parameters are very steady and all the tank equipment runs off timers so there's no variation in light, temp, Co2 etc.


Sent from my iPad in West Yorkshire, U.K.

 

[jarrod0987]

My old 135 Tang cichlid tank used to grow BBA and cyanno with no issue.
I will say I used hard well water and ran lights for twice as long as needed probably.

I still have BBA today in my 180.
I can only kill it if I put forth consistent effort.
It will always come back for me eventually.

That's interesting because I recently discovered my Ca/Mg is 80/80 instead of 30/10. I wonder if there is a correlation.

 

[Delapool]

I have it in the main tank (been there for several years through low tech to high tech planted now ) Mainly have always had plants in that tank.

In the small tank I used to dose ferts and glut, don't anymore and just grow foxtail. It doesn't have any BBA - possibly can't get a toehold for the green algae.