Firstly provide the type of algae you encounter. Secondly post image of the algae if you are not sure.
Then we go from there.
Firstly provide the type of algae you encounter. Secondly post image of the algae if you are not sure.
Then we go from there.
BBA stands for Black Beard algae as the black fuzz looks like a beard.
I use the 1-2 punch chemical attack for BBA. Remove any snails temporarily out.
Items to get :
1. Small syringe.
2. Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) (local pharmacy like Guardian or Watson sells 100ml or 500ml bottle)
3. Seachem Excel
Step 1.
Determine your total water volume. With filters running, add 10ml per 4L tank volume of water direct to tank. So if your tank water volume is 50L then add (50/4) x 10ml Hydrogen peroxide = 125ml. Let it run for at least 12 hours. Important to calculate the water volume minus the hardscape and substrate to prevent overdosing.
Step 2.
50% water change after 12-24hrs. Do vacuum your substrate, nook and cranny of any debris, mulm and waste.
Step 3.
At 50% tank level, stop your water circulation. Make sure water is still as possible before using a syringe to spot squirt any visible BBA you can find like pipes, stones or wood. Wait for 5 mins for the Excel to further weakened and destroy any surviving BBA from the H2O2 dosing before running back your filter/pump. The Excel also is good source of carbon for your plants anyways but don't over dose, spot treat sparingly.
Step 4.
Fill up your tank, add any necessary additives eg anti-chlorine and observe for 2 to 3 days. BBA should turn red follow by grey or whitish. Yamato shrimp will eat the dead BBA.
Please note that you need to constantly monitor your fishes and critters for any signs of stress, remove them if necessary. Most scaleless fish like Cory and Oto don't handle well with this treatment but mine seems able to tolerate and survive the ordeal. For shrimps, they usually would start doing laps after laps in the tank if stressed. I had 1 CRS turn turtle during 1 episode of me using the 1-2 punch but recovered after a few hours.
Reintroduce your snails in 2-3 days. Good luck.
Last edited by greenie; 19th May 2020 at 11:10. Reason: add
Thanks for the advise Greenie. A question though, doesn't Zebra and Spotted snails eat BBA?
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Almost nothing eats bba. Sometimes when there's really no food, they might graze on it.
But don't bet on them. BBA grows faster than any snails can eat. Unless the nuked bba, even SAE will gobble them up.
Lol! Thanks. Now I have to find Seachem Excel during CB
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If you stay west side, LFS at C328 are open for business. In fact, just bought a bottle from Polyart yesterday.
Shouldn't be anytime soon, if done with the correct dosage.
And as long as you don't accidentally reintroduce the BBA through fishes or plants that is not properly quarantined before adding to your tank, your tank will remain BBA free.
I will always shy away from LFS that have BBA in their display tank as I deem all their tanks are already BBA infested. But if a particular plant or fish that I'm looking for is only available at that shop, I will still purchase it and then proper quarantine procedure will be done before adding to tank.
In fact thinking of it, ALL plants and animals bought will go through quarantine procedure before adding to my tank, not only those I suspect with BBA.
Simplest method I used is using bleach. Yes, ordinary bleach. Not the coloured or scented ones.
19 part water to 1 part bleach. I soak or dip plants depend on type. Hardy ones like Nana on rocks I just soak the entire thing in the solution for 30mins. Rinse and dechlorinate in a container.
Then using a fresh container of water, I soak the plants in high doses of Seachem Excel. For the second step some plants cannot tolerate the high dose of Excel and will melt, not necessary actually and sort of overkill. But I will do it for hardy plants especially those tied to rocks or wood.
Plants grown in gel media like from Tropica, can skip this as it is assure to be algae and pest free.
For fishes, please don't use bleach! Instead quarantine in separate container and add meds to kill any diseases like ich.
Just note that many hobbyist tend to kill their fishes during the quarantine period due to over dosing of meds or putting different meds all at once.
BBA spores could be brought over from the water when the fishes are pack, so I step is I will add the H2O2 and Excel method during this phase too. Sounds a lot of work but you will thank yourself from future headaches.
@greenie thanks for the advise. Managed to get most of the BBA and Hair Algae turned whitish. A few casualties along the way too, but lucky not many.
After changing 50% water today, the smell of the water condition is stronger than usual. I'm not sure what it smells like, maybe fishy smell, but definitely today I noticed it than before.
Is this normal?
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