BBA?

[Mommaof4boys]

Hello all, I'm having some issues with some algae in my tank. I was thinking it was bba? Would I be correct or is it something else? What do I do about it and why is it there? I'm thinking it's the light? I have a Solarmax T5 Double strip light with moonlights. It's a 55 gallon.

 

[aqua_chem]

How long is your light on? BBA is usually caused by an issue with light and CO2.

 

[Mommaof4boys]

Umm, I usually just turn it on when I get up and off before bed. 10 hours give or take. That pretty much answers why I have it! :/

 

[aqua_chem]

I would probably cut that down to 6 and see if that helps. You'll also have to get rid of what you already have. I prefer spot dosing hydrogen peroxide, but some people prefer Excel. You could also start dosing Excel in earnest which should help the BBA problem further.

 

[Mommaof4boys]

So I can't just clean it off by hand or anything?

 

[aqua_chem]

It's pretty tough stuff. You probably can't get it off by hand.

 

[Mommaof4boys]

bummer... its on the entire rhizome of my one anubias and all over a piece of driftwood. How do I take care of it without hurting my fish?

 

[aqua_chem]

You can bleach dip your DW and whatnot outside the tank. The hydrogen peroxide can be dosed directly into the tank. I've never had it hurt anything, as long as you tank proper precautions. I've discussed spot dosing with H2O2 several times before on this forum if you can dig up one of those threads.

 

[CrashCourse]

I just recently got advice here in the same thing. I believe mine was a combination of too much light, and not enough co2.
To be honest, I don't fully understand the specifics, but what I can gather is that the bba thrives when there are not enough nutrients in the water for the pants. The pants metabolism slows down, leaving enough nutrients in the water for the algae to consume and grow.

I ended up taking out my decorations and scrubbing the algae off with a new toothbrush, and I started adding liquid co2. The worst/most covered leaves got cut off, because I don't think there is a way to effectively clean them without destroying the leaves. It's not completely gone yet, but since adding the co2, I haven't seen any new growth of the bba, and what was in there is starting to turn white and die off.

I use flourish, and plan to get excel, as that was what was recommended to me. They were out when I went in, so I ended up with the Tera brand, which seems to be working ok.