What algae and how to get rid of it?!?
- Thread starter AngelaColon
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Cactuspixie
Aquarium Advice Addict
It's black beard algae. I'm really good at growing that, so maybe I should tell you what I do with my tank, and you can do the opposite
I hate BBA. It can totally ruin the look of an expensive Anubias
Things that have lessened my BBA- not using my blue LEDs.
Only using my lights 6 hours a day. This is hard! Not because I don't have timers, but because I want to see my tanks!
I think if I could suspend my lights so there was a greater distance between the light source and the plants, I'd have far less trouble. The plants with leaves that are closest to the light get more BBA, and sooner than those that are further from the light.
Rivercats has posted some great tips on how to deal with BBA- if you search the forum using the term 'BBA' and username 'Rivercats' you'll pull up some of her posts on the topic
AngelaColon
Aquarium Advice Newbie
It's black beard algae. I'm really good at growing that, so maybe I should tell you what I do with my tank, and you can do the opposite
I hate BBA. It can totally ruin the look of an expensive Anubias
Things that have lessened my BBA- not using my blue LEDs.
Only using my lights 6 hours a day. This is hard! Not because I don't have timers, but because I want to see my tanks!
I think if I could suspend my lights so there was a greater distance between the light source and the plants, I'd have far less trouble. The plants with leaves that are closest to the light get more BBA, and sooner than those that are further from the light.
Rivercats has posted some great tips on how to deal with BBA- if you search the forum using the term 'BBA' and username 'Rivercats' you'll pull up some of her posts on the topic
Thanks for the response ! I'm bummed about it but can't give up!
Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
Most of the time algae growth is caused by an inbalance of ferts, light, and co2. 90% of the time it is a co2 deficiency.
The first step is to decrease the amount of hours the light is on down to 6 hours per day as was said above.
It can be spot treated with either hydrogen peroxide or excel. Take a small amount into a syringe and then turn all sources of water flow off. Then you need to squirt it onto the BBA and leave it sit for 15 minutes before turning the filters back on.
After that, if it helps and it doesn't come back then all is well, just be sure to keep the light on for no more than 8 hours.
If it comes back then you need to look at the amount of light vs the amount of ferts you are putting in the tank.
The first step is to decrease the amount of hours the light is on down to 6 hours per day as was said above.
It can be spot treated with either hydrogen peroxide or excel. Take a small amount into a syringe and then turn all sources of water flow off. Then you need to squirt it onto the BBA and leave it sit for 15 minutes before turning the filters back on.
After that, if it helps and it doesn't come back then all is well, just be sure to keep the light on for no more than 8 hours.
If it comes back then you need to look at the amount of light vs the amount of ferts you are putting in the tank.
a blackout wont kill BBA. do you dose excel? if you do keep dosing and it will go away eventually or you can spot dose as the other poster said. i would double dose the excel for a week but im not suggeting you do because i dont want to be responsible for any deaths. when i first battled BBA i double dosed ( double my recommended daily dosage ) for about a week or so and it dissapeared in a month until i got my tank stabilized.
Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
Excel is very safe. I am currently using 20ml daily in my 55g tank which is a 4x dosage. However it isn't killing my green hair algae. I would suggest direct application of the excel if you are going that route.
