Spot treat BBA on gravel?

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PJFISH

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Nov 9, 2013
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My shrimp tank has some BBA on the gravel in spots. I've been trying to remove the individual stones as I see them, but it's not really working. I'm not sure how to spot treat it without harming the shrimp?


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I've used hydrogen peroxide in my community tank with shrimp and never lost any. there's any number of threads telling you how to do spot treatments with it, I'm sure. Or if it's just a piece or two on the hardscape you can pull it out soak it in h202 then drop it back in. No rinsing required and it works very well. I haven't had to deal with this stuff since I got a siamese algae eater but I remember how much I hated it back when I had it!
 
Amano shrimp?? Reduce your lights. If you have any ambient lighting hitting your tank you could try to remedy that as well. When your lights go off throw a sheet over the tank. I know theres a million reasons why algae occurs in our tanks but ten times out of ten for me, when it came to bba it was my ferts, lights, or both.


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo
 
Amano shrimp?? Reduce your lights. If you have any ambient lighting hitting your tank you could try to remedy that as well. When your lights go off throw a sheet over the tank. I know theres a million reasons why algae occurs in our tanks but ten times out of ten for me, when it came to bba it was my ferts, lights, or both.


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo


I have Amano shrimp but I don't think they're eating it. The tank is not close enough to any outside light source. The lights bulbs on my fixture are at least a year old, could that be possible?


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Old bulbs lose spectrum. If anything your other plants arent getting the light they need causing little to no absorbtion of the ferts leaving excess nutrients in your water which would definitely be feeding the BBA. I dont recall reading anything about old bulbs leading to bba but it would make sense. Are your plants doing okay??


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo
 
Old bulbs lose spectrum. If anything your other plants arent getting the light they need causing little to no absorbtion of the ferts leaving excess nutrients in your water which would definitely be feeding the BBA. I dont recall reading anything about old bulbs leading to bba but it would make sense. Are your plants doing okay??


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo


Yeah, they're okay. Probably not growing as quickly as they used to. Thought might have been because I stopped using tabs for fear of copper killing the shrimp.


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Now I just saw a you tube video saying not to use hydrogen peroxide in a invert tank. Is this true?


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There are some who swear by it. Ive never used it because ive lucked out with other methods i have described along with "spot" treating with excel. Id pour my dose into the cap, cover the cap with my palm, and release the excel on top of the infected area. Ive always been skeptical about using hydrogen peroxide with all the mixed comments on personal experiences regardless of what mistakes were/were not made.

As for your other plants....

First of all id like to say that this is advice to be taken into consideration in making your own decision and in no way would i be comfortable instructing someone to spend their money only to be left with an unsolved issue.

BUT

If i were you, for the health of my other plants, id replace my bulbs. If youre using co2 make sure your co2 hasnt run out as that is also a common recorded cause for BBA. If you arent using co2, consider using excel as a carbon source SECOND, and spot treating the BBA as priority ONE. Because i can say that does work.

Since i havent used hydrogen peroxide i cant answer your question relating invert health to it. Ive only killed one shrimp by my own doing and i wasnt paying attention and dumped a bucket of water ontop of him
Thats what I would do.


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo
 
There are some who swear by it. Ive never used it because ive lucked out with other methods i have described along with "spot" treating with excel. Id pour my dose into the cap, cover the cap with my palm, and release the excel on top of the infected area. Ive always been skeptical about using hydrogen peroxide with all the mixed comments on personal experiences regardless of what mistakes were/were not made.

As for your other plants....

First of all id like to say that this is advice to be taken into consideration in making your own decision and in no way would i be comfortable instructing someone to spend their money only to be left with an unsolved issue.

BUT

If i were you, for the health of my other plants, id replace my bulbs. If youre using co2 make sure your co2 hasnt run out as that is also a common recorded cause for BBA. If you arent using co2, consider using excel as a carbon source SECOND, and spot treating the BBA as priority ONE. Because i can say that does work.

Since i havent used hydrogen peroxide i cant answer your question relating invert health to it. Ive only killed one shrimp by my own doing and i wasnt paying attention and dumped a bucket of water ontop of him
Thats what I would do.


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo


Ok, that's very helpful! I used to use excel, but ran out recently. I'll try dosing that. I believe it's shrimp safe.


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Yep its shrimp safe.

And no problem! Hopefully it works out for you!


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo


Do you think spot treating excel onto the BBA will speed up the process?


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Spot treating BBA with a syring or my ghetto way will stop the BBA 100%.

Takes a couple days but youll see the BBA stop progressing then it turns grey then white and then itll look 5 o clock shadow-ish then youll wake up one day with no signs it was ever there. Not to mention plants love it


- St Charles Almendras Geraldizo
 
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