Getting rid of bba

[AquaShark]

My aquarium has a nasty infestation of bba. I have heard of people spraying hydrogen peroxide or liquid Carbon (cant remember the name). Spray it and leave filters and everything off for 20 minutes. But is their a risk of harming my fish by doing this?

 

[Rivercats]

First off are you sure it's BBA? Can you post a picture? How long do you run your lights daily? If you have that much algae go down to running lights a max of 6 hours daily and preferable only 4-5 until you get the algae under control. How often are you doing WC? Also how much do you change out when you do them? What are your nitrate and phosphate readings?

The reason for all the questions is even if you spot treat and kill the algae it will just come back unless you fix the underlying problem causing it.

Is your tank planted or can you remove the decorations, etc., to treat them? This will determine what method I can tell you in how to spot treat with either liquid carbon (Excel) or Hydrogen Peroxide 3%.

 

[AquaShark]

Its a 29 gallon aquarium. It is planted. I was using 48 watt t5HO until the algae started becoming an issue, so I switch to 30 watts cpf and all the other algae stopped growing on the glass. I currently run them 8 hours a day. The driftwood I can remove to treat. I cant take a picture right now, ill try getting one later tonight, along with nitrate test. I dont have a phosphorus test kit but I can pick one up next time im at the fish store.

 

[bshenanagins]

Its a 29 gallon aquarium. It is planted. I was using 48 watt t5HO until the algae started becoming an issue, so I switch to 30 watts cpf and all the other algae stopped growing on the glass. I currently run them 8 hours a day. The driftwood I can remove to treat. I cant take a picture right now, ill try getting one later tonight, along with nitrate test. I dont have a phosphorus test kit but I can pick one up next time im at the fish store.

Cut photoperiod to 6 hours. That helped me somewhat. Are you dosing Co2 or excel/glut?

 

[Rivercats]

It's a phosphate test..lol! You can remove the DW,lay some paper towels down in a sink, lay DW on them and literally pour Peroxide all over the DW. Be sure to treat the entire piece. Then take the Peroxide drenched paper towels and lay them over the DW especially on the worst areas of BBA. Let it sit 20 minutes. Then you can either scrub it off or just put the DW back in the tank and let the BBA die off naturally. The peroxide won't hurt the fish. Do you have a lot of plants with it on them? What type of plants? Spot treating in the tank is different than the above out of tank method. Also if it's as bad as you say I'd seriously consider reducing light to 4 or 5 hours for a couple weeks then go up to 6 max until all the algae is gone.

 

[bshenanagins]

It's a phosphate test..lol! You can remove the DW,lay some paper towels down in a sink, lay DW on them and literally pour Peroxide all over the DW. Be sure to treat the entire piece. Then take the Peroxide drenched paper towels and lay them over the DW especially on the worst areas of BBA. Let it sit 20 minutes. Then you can either scrub it off or just put the DW back in the tank and let the BBA die off naturally. The peroxide won't hurt the fish. Do you have a lot of plants with it on them? What type of plants? Spot treating in the tank is different than the above out of tank method. Also if it's as bad as you say I'd seriously consider reducing light to 4 or 5 hours for a couple weeks then go up to 6 max until all the algae is gone.

Today I did a water change and lowered the water low enough to spray the areas directly and let them marinate for a but until I did the WC. Ill see tomorrow if that helps more than applying underwater

 

[Rivercats]

Today I did a water change and lowered the water low enough to spray the areas directly and let them marinate for a but until I did the WC. Ill see tomorrow if that helps more than applying underwater

Were you trying to bake or roast them after marinating?

 

[bshenanagins]

Were you trying to bake or roast them after marinating?

Your something else you know that? Lol

 

[AquaShark]

Here are some tank pictures. I just reduced the lighting.

 

[Rivercats]

Okay glad I asked for pic's as that isn't BBA. Someone else just had this problem and what your seeing is detris trapped and building up on little algae hairs. Take your hand and wave it back and forth to make a good current and see how much releases into the water column. I've seen this before occasionally and it is usually when there isn't enough current in the tank. Each day you need to wave your hand around in the tank, brushing off plants and other objects, so the detris gets into the water column to be removed by your filter, which I hope is strong enough. You may need to add a small power head like a Koralia Nano 240. It might take doing this a few times a day for a couple weeks to get rid of it all. I would also lower lighting to 6 hours for now to help with the algae part of it. Once you get some of the settled detris gone if the algae is still there you can spot treat it.

 

[AquaShark]

Thank you so much!!! Im so glad it is not bba. I have a Eheim 2215, thats not enough flow? I will start waving my hand around until I can afford a powerhead.

 

[Rivercats]

One way to tell if you have enough flow is if all your plants sway slightly. It's not uncommon for there to be dead spots in tanks even with big filters. Try repositioning your outflow unless it's a spray bar. Make it bounce off the glass and push through the tank better. But you still might need a power head.

 

[bshenanagins]

One way to tell if you have enough flow is if all your plants sway slightly. It's not uncommon for there to be dead spots in tanks even with big filters. Try repositioning your outflow unless it's a spray bar. Make it bounce off the glass and push through the tank better. But you still might need a power head.

I'm sure you can attest to this Rivercats, but even flow, plants provide a significant barrier from the output to the input. It's just natural that they collect microscopic debris. The powerheads definitely help crud from settling, but I still have to shake my javas and my amazon once in a while. If I could only get rid of my gosh darn BBA lol, slowly but surely.

 

[plantedtankman]

Good thing you reduced your lighting. Your tank seems to have a lot of algae on the glass. It is a good thing that you don't have BBA though. It is a nightmare for a planted tank owner like me. I'm switching to dry ferts and I'm about to use glut. If I were you I'd invest in an algae scraper

 

[Rivercats]

I'm sure you can attest to this Rivercats, but even flow, plants provide a significant barrier from the output to the input. It's just natural that they collect microscopic debris. The powerheads definitely help crud from settling, but I still have to shake my javas and my amazon once in a while. If I could only get rid of my gosh darn BBA lol, slowly but surely.

Oh yeah even with flow tiny little particles of detris can and will still settle on plants but no much. I never have to shake plants anymore in the 220 since I changed to 4 evenly spaced filters and 3 powerheads. Plus the oto's and 6 loaches along with snails keep what little detris collects in the biofilm on the plants. It's just finding that right amount to keep major detris like in the picture from settling. I actually had that happen in the beginning in the 220 before I got the right amount of current going all through the tank.

 

[AquaShark]

I was letting the algae on the glass grow out a bit so when I got some ottos or a bristlenose pleco (not sure which I want yet) they would have something to eat but I started getting busy and never got around to buying them. I have an algae scraper and I try keeping the front and right side clean when I can.

 

[AquaShark]

What size powerhead should I be looking for?

 

[Rivercats]

A Koralia Nano 240 would be a perfect size for the tank. I use them in a few of my tanks and they are really nice little powerheads.

 

[bshenanagins]

What size powerhead should I be looking for?

Koralia Nano 240, about $20 on amazon I love mine. And just an update for you, I have BBA as well and in the process of narrowing down my issues, this is what I have done. I have 130 watts over my 40 gallon tank (3+ WPG). It originally sat just 14 inches above the substrate. It is now hanging 20 inches above for more even distribution. In regards to dosing, I have completely cut out nitrate and phosphate dosing as I get enough via fish waste. What I have done recently and is working fantastically is upping my potassium dosage. I have dry potassium, but for convenience I got seachems potassium from my local store. Everyday I have been putting the normal dose and a little extra. According to what I've read and with the help of Rivercats, potassium is essential for the uptake of nitrate and phosphate in plants, so if little or no potassium is available then significant lack of growth would result. In turn, algae comes in and soaks up what the plants are unable to use. I have added cabomba, Nesaea, and another root feeder I can't recall at this time and all are responding greatly. As has been argued by many on here, it is not that algae thrives on high levels of nitrate or phosphate, but the fact that there is a factor contributing to why the plants are not utilizing both nitrate and phosphate. So in my situation, my lighting is good, co2 optimum, but a lack of potassium was a major limiting factor. Good luck I hope you find your kryptonite. The addition of SAE and spot treating with H2o2 is working great for me.