Massive BBA outbreak

[Prediscus23]

How can I treat my whole tank for BBA and stag horn algae? I went on vacation for a week and I obviously ran out do co2 while I was gone, and the latter ensued. Help me please!

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I'd reduce the photoperiod, spot treat with hydrogen peroxide with a syringe, and overdose on excel a bit... but don't go too overboard with excel. If the BBA or staghorn is on sensitive stuff like moss, you can spot treat excel on those areas (h2o2 will harm moss more than excel would). Do the spot treating with the filter off. Let the h2o2 and/or excel settle on they problematic areas for like 10 to 15 minutes. Do a partial water change after. Make sure co2 is consistent thereafter.

 

[Sk3lly]

I would leave the filter off longer than 15mins. I was treating hydrogen peroxide and started the filter up too soon. Its killed off my BB in my filter. I spent all day yesterday doing water changes to get my parameters in check

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I would leave the filter off longer than 15mins. I was treating hydrogen peroxide and started the filter up too soon. Its killed off my BB in my filter. I spent all day yesterday doing water changes to get my parameters in check

I've done it that way many times with no issues.. You must be using a lot h2o2 near the filter intake or something. But, H2O2 breaks down to water and oxygen not long after it gets in contact with the water in your tank, to my understanding.

 

[Sk3lly]

I've done it that way many times with no issues.. You must be using a lot h2o2 near the filter intake or something. But, H2O2 breaks down to water and oxygen not long after it gets in contact with the water in your tank, to my understanding.

Yea your very correct. I was naive and spot treated near the filter. Its perfectly safe if you use caution, i was just highlighting. Yea its an oxidiser as far as im aware. Sends the tank into an explosion of o2 bubbles shortly after contact with the water

 

[Prediscus23]

It would take forever to spot treat. This stuff is everywhere, is there a mass treatment option?

 

[eeconstable]

See my replies in the forum "how long is too long for lights" under the planted tanks thread. If you can't find my comments on BBA there let me know.

 

[jwh0818]

Some people have success with treating the whole tank. Not sure how that would pan out but spot treating is simple

 

[eeconstable]

Do you know in what concentrations for whole tank treatment? It would be incredible if it were truly effective!

 

[jwh0818]

Do you know in what concentrations for whole tank treatment? It would be incredible if it were truly effective!

I'm not sure of the dosage or if its even truly safe but someone here knows, I read it just a few days ago and they didn't lose and stock or plants

 

[eeconstable]

I wonder if it couldn't be used as a preventative.

 

[DragonFish71]

I mixed H2O2 with water in a spray bottle and gave things a light mist and it worked out just fine. No problems with the fish, no plant loss, just dead algae. A 50/50 mixture. Ran out of Excel so thought I'd give that a try. It's something I'll definitely use again if I need to.

 

[Sk3lly]

To the OP. Will you be looking into how this algae break out got so bad in the first place?? After you treat it, its just going to return if the same conditions remain

 

[Rivercats]

If the tank has live stock it's hard to do a whole tank treatment. If there are only plants in the tank you can dose 8ml of H2O2 for every 1 gallon of tank water and let it sit 30 minutes. If the tank has livestock you can get a jump start on the algae by doing a 3 day black out (only for really heavy algae infestations) then once it's done, reduce lighting and photoperiod. Only run lights 6 hours daily. Increase CO2 and also use a liquid carbon daily (unless you have any plants that are sensitive to it). You will have to spot treat the BBA doing an area a day. You can spot treat with H2O2 using 3ml for every 1 gallon of tank water. It will take time to get it all spot treated if there is a lot. Also what are your nitrate and phosphate levels and what type of lighting and bulbs are you using?