BBA & Green Algae

[KengFishTank]

Hi everyone,


I am battling an outbreak of (i think) black beard algae and green algae. After reading online articles and forum posts, I still think I should post here as I would like a customised solution. Would appreciate if anybody give me some advice on how to cleanse the tank and also treat root cause! My setup is below, thank you!


Tank size: 60 gallons. 120 cm x 45 cm x 45 cm.


Lighting: 1 x Arcadia T5 Original Tropical Plant Pro (pink light), 6 hours daily


Substrate and fert: Seachem Flourite Original, about 3cm deep. Seachem flourish tabs distributed evenly and buried in substrate. No liquid fert. No CO2.


Filter: Eheim Classic 2217, but with extra holes drilled and outlet facing tank to drastically reduce flow. The flow does not affect the fish or plants.


Fish: 4 discuses, 5 Rummies, 6 Sterbai cories. No sign of disease.


Feeding regime: Hikari bloodworms daily as breakfast, Hikari discus bio-gold daily as dinner.


Plants: Swords - 3 x E. Bleheri, 1 x E.Red Flame
Ferns – 3 x Java fern (in pots)
Crypts – 1 x Crypt. Wendtii (green), 2 x Crypt. Wendtii (g. gecko)
Vallisnera – 3 x Vallis. Cockscrew (came in 3 pots)
Hygrophilia – 6 x Hygrophilia (refer to picture for exact species)


PWC frequency: I do a 25% PWC weekly.


Water parameters: The tank is cycled. I condition the tap water with Sera Super Peat and Almond leaves before doing PWCs.

The water parameters are maintained at around:
PH: 6.4-6.6
KH:2
GH: 6


Tank water parameters from my area if you want to know more: http://www.pub.gov.sg/general/waters...gWQReport.aspx


Others:
-I have not gravel vacuum since I started the tank 3 months ago.
-I added a little coral sand to act as a buffer.
-Tank contains driftwood.
-Fish were quarantined and plants were dipped in 1/20 beach solution prior to introduction to main tank.
-I can only test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, KH and GH – no test kits for ferts.

[Urban Aquaria]

Your tank specs look okay... the only things i can see which may contribute to algae growth is shortage of Co2 relative to light and nutrient avaliability (which limits the plant growth and lets algae use the excess light and nutrients instead) and perhaps low plant density (not enough plants to compete with the algae).

To minimize algae growth, add alot more plants until the whole substrate is covered (preferably fast growing ones to outcompete algae) and if possible add Co2 injection too (to further help the plants grow faster and soak up more nutrients).

In the meantime, just manually remove the green algae and BBA to reduce their quantity, while you work on increasing the plant density.

[thebaldingaquarist]

i can see that this tank will look great in the future when the crypts are grown in!

for now manually removing the leaves with bba and I would suggest putting some hornworts or amazon frogbits to soak up the nutrients.

let the nutrients run out, the plants you have are root feeders, which do not depend much on the water column nutrients. the nutrients in the water column will most likely be used by the algae instead. introduction of the hornworts will soak up the nutrients in the water column.

Hope it helps. If you stay in woodlands i can pass you some hornworts.

[sfk7]

Just an opinion. Maybe its also time to wash your filter

[Sleepy_lancs]

Hi,
You may want to consider my opinion. If you want a planted tank, you may have to swap out the pink light and use white lights. Look for those 6500K Daylight, I have successfully used normal Phillip daylight which you can get cheaply from any barang store. You may have to use at least 2 - 3 tubes (Keep it around 2 watts per gallon as a rough estimate). I saw you have discus so you might want keep it on the lower light side. I see you do not have any CO2 injection so if you in tend to keep it that way, perhaps you can use lower light plants then just stick to about 2 tubes of white light would be sufficient - consider spreading the light or put it above the higher light requirement like your swords. As for the BBA, you can squirt Seachem Excel directly at it during water change, lower the water level first, switch off the filter and squirt directly on the BBA wait for 5 minutes then fill the tank. Do not do so on Vallisnera (these plants does not tolerate it well). Keep your light hours to perhaps 8 hours to 10 hours (I will go for 8 hours). Your swords will not grow well in this environment so its gonna be tough for you. If you increase the light to 3 tubes, it may work for your swords, but you must supplement the tank with CO2 (either by using Excel - then you must remove your vallisnera, or inject CO2 into your tank.)

Hope my 2 cents worth can help you

[greenie]

BBA is nasty. I had BBA infestation before I went on hiatus. Green algae is due to too much of one particular fert imbalance.
Get at least a 6500K Kelvin light tube. No need find at fish shop, many DIY shop carries this tubes like OSRAM brand.

Next, the only way to rid BBA is to remove your fishes, empty your tank water and spray every nook and cranny of your tank with Seachem excel and wait for 5 minutes. For me I'll go the extra mile to drain out my filter and hoses of the water and pour 1 bottle of excel in the filter media, destroying as much BBA spores residing in it. But in the process killing some of my BB in my filter too. That's how tough to remove BBA once introduce in a tank.

After refilling your tank, you will have a mini cycling of BB therefore must monitor your water parameter.

BBA is like an itch that won't go away. Do consider a C02 cylinder/solenoid/timer setup. It's beneficial both for your plants and fishes as these 3 fishes species prefer ph 5.5-6.5 like in their natural environment. Though I don't keep discus anymore after restarting, I remember they do colour up under such conditions. My current tank running Ph 5.4 using a CO2 controller during lights on and Ph will drift slowly during the night to Ph 6.2. My Cardinal tetras, Panda Corys and Otos looks fine since I setup almost 1 year now.

So far my tank is BBA free as I will dipped every plant I bought in concentrate excel. I also will look in fishshop tank for BBA infestation and will not buy anything from that shop even fish to prevent any BBA spores to be introduced. So far I see both fishshop in C328 BBA safe. GreenChapter do have some tanks with BBA and I won't buy plants or livestock there.

[KengFishTank]

Thank you everyone for your replies! Below are a few updates, general questions:

I condition my water in a separate container with API stress coat, almond leaves and Sera Super Peat before doing PWCs. Do you think that will aggravate the algae problem?

And, I have recently gravel vacuumed, and washed my Eheim filter. Got some SAEs too. Will be getting more hygro and crypt to suck up the extra nutrients in the water column

Also, should I increase my current lighting (Arcadia T5 Original Tropical Plant Pro) duration from 6 to 8 hours?

Does anyone know where I can get Seachem Flourish tabs in Singapore?

Will the Seachem Excel method affect the fish? Esp the discuses? Will the swords get damaged? I’m not planning to continually dose CO2 long term though.

A person from another forum suggested increasing KH till 3 via baking soda, to combat algae. I have my reservations about this technique though. Any one can comment on this?

Just to be extra safe: From the picture at the end of this reply, I AM facing BBA (Black beard algae) right?


Urban Aquaria and Eric,
Thank you, I am planning to add more hygro and cypts into the tank. Eric, thanks for your kind offer!

sfk7,
Thanks, I have done that already!

Sleepy_lancs,
I read the same thing about pink light and BBA on anoher forum. Unfortunately, I won’t be changing my lighting soon as I’ve just bought it some time ago.

Will the Seachem Excel method affect the fish ? Esp the discuses? I’m not planning to continually dose CO2 long term though.

Greenie,
Thanks, but I want to try other suggestions first – it’s really a lot of work to remove everything!

Side question: How do you PWC? Do you add the tap water into the tank directly? And since your PH is so low, are you afraid of massive PH swings? I added some coral shells intp my filter to stablise the PH.

[Dodofish]

You may consider adding aeration to your aquarium. Somehow it help me when I have an affected rock or dw which is infested with gsa. But I am not sure how it will impact your plants.

[siatc]

I'm also having problem with BBA. It grows on top of the substrate and the hairgrass. I'm fighting with Seachem Excel now

[thebaldingaquarist]

Hi KengFishTank,

you have a mild case of BBA or Staghorn.

Plant some more.

Do remember that every tank has some algae. its only a matter of how much.


There is a consequence to planting more though.. your gavel, will need more effort to vacuum. May need to uproot the plants then vacuum.

The other thing is the root feeders will need some ferts in the gravel. some root balls or root monsters (general ferts).

[Naraki]

Since it is 4ft. Why not DIY a small algae scrubber? A small one will do. Check out Uarujoey algae scrubber on YouTube. Easy and effective

[greenie]

Greenie,
Thanks, but I want to try other suggestions first – it’s really a lot of work to remove everything!

Side question: How do you PWC? Do you add the tap water into the tank directly? And since your PH is so low, are you afraid of massive PH swings? I added some coral shells intp my filter to stablise the PH.

You don't need those coral shells as long as your KH is not 0deg. I do 50% WC, 20% every other day twice followed by 50% WC again. During 50% WC pH goes from 5.4 to 6.1 but back to 5.4 in 2 hours. Night time pH drifts from 5.4 to 6 in 12hrs.

The swings does not stress my fishes at all.

[Sleepy_lancs]

Hi,
If you are not planning to continously dose seachem's excel, then you should consider either shortening the light house to perhaps 8 hours and reduce the light amount below 1.5 wpg. You do not need to replace the lightset, just replace the tube in the lightset. They are rather inexpensive.