BBA appearing in a 5 month old tank

[saugata]

Hi! All,

Need some help from you guys. I have a 90g densely planted tank and its about 5 months old. For the past couple of weeks or so I am seeing BBA growth on the Anubias Nana and a few other plants. I have tried to get rid of them by cutting the leaves. What is bothering me as to why is this BBA growth happening? I inject pressurised CO2 and there is decent amount of pearling in my tank. Plants overall are doing ok if not great. Dosing is 15 mls of KNO3 stock solution after w/c and 2.5 mls of Seachem Traces. Light is 216 watts of T8 lights (6500 k) @ 12 hrs. Filter is Eheim Professional 2224. pH is about 6.5. CO2 level is about 25 ppm. Do I need to increase the lights?

Can you pl. suggest where I am going wrong and what to do in order to stop this growth of BBA? I also have the issue of sopt algae growing on the glass walls which I clean every week during w/c.

Regards,

Saugata

[vinz]

When I had BBA appearing when the rest of the tank appears to be healthy, I resolved it by improving circulation in the area where the BBA was growing.

[saugata]

Thanks for the reply but circulation is not an issue in my tank. Any other thing that I can do to stop the growth of the BBA?

[vinz]

Where does the CO2 enrich water enter the tank? Near the top or nearer the bottom. One good solution is have the CO2 enriched water enter the tank from a rain bar placed along the back wall near the bottom, and pointing forward. It's not just circulation, but making sure that CO2 rich water is circulated.

[saugata]

Well, the CO2 reactor is an internal reactor driven by a powerful powerhead. The outlet of the CO2 enriched water is at the bottom of the tank and I have checked and found that the flow of this is decent enough.

[vinz]

Do you dose PO4? That could help with the green spot issue.

[saugata]

I was using PO4 but have stopped doing for the past 1 month or so. I stopped it because I thought the green spot alage on the glass walls is due to excess PO4. Should I again start dosing PO4?

[vinz]

Oh? I remembered the reverse... green spot algae is due to PO4 shortage.

Personally, I'll start up on the PO4 again because is one of the essentials. at most I'll lower the dosage, but not complete stop it.

Errr... try looking up iron and green spot algae. I seem to remember reading a cause-effect relation there.

[mtanec]

try not to scrape green spot algae while you are working on how to remove it.. by scraping, you only make them spread.. becuz upon scraping, all the seeds in the pores are set free and they start to spread thru the tank..

look into the root of the problem.. once rectified, the rest of the green spot algae will slowly die off and unable to produce new seeds and eventually wiping them out.. any seeds that is left over will not grow too when the water parameter is not favorable to promote their growth..

[saugata]

I do scrape the green spot alage from my tank walls as people advice that the more you remove them the better is the chance of them losing out in the long run. My present dosing schedule is as follows:-

After weekly w/c of 50%
(1) 15 mls of KNO3 (stock sol. of 4 tb spoons in 200 mls of distilled water)
(2) 2.5 mls of KH2PO4 (stock sol. of 2 tb spoons in 400 mls of distilled water)
(3) Traces 2.5 mls

On the 4th day

(1) 10 mls of KNO3 (stock sol. of 4 tb spoons in 200 mls of distilled water)
(2) 2.5 mls of KH2PO4 (stock sol. of 2 tb spoons in 400 mls of distilled water)
(3) Traces 2.5 mls

Hope this would be ok? This schedule I am following from the last Saturday?

[PeterGwee]

Add more CO2 (the presence of GS and BBA says it all...you are dosing pretty lean as well as with the "what's this algae" thread as well.) and make sure the CO2 is well mixed in around the tank. Don't assume things!

Regards
Peter Gwee

[saugata]

Hi! Peter,

What dosing pattern would you suggest?

Have also put an additional powerhead for a little more circulation of water. Hope this will help me get rid of this problem. Also have increased the CO2 level.

[juggler]

....Dosing is 15 mls of KNO3 stock solution after w/c and 2.5 mls of Seachem Traces. ...

Hi Saugata,
How did you make your KNO3 stock solution? 15ml of it is how many ppm?
Just like to know.

[saugata]

Hi! Joah,

Well I mix 4 tb spoons of lab grade KNO3 in 400 mls of distilled water to get the stock solution. Thus, each ml of this stock solution will give about 0.3 PPM of nitrate in my 90 g tank. So when I dose 15 mls of the stock solution it gives me roughly 4.5 PPM of Nitrate in my tank.

Hope this helps.

[saugata]

Hi! All,

Sorry I forgot to mention that I have come out victorious against my battle with the BBA. I cranked up the CO2 really high and did merciless trimming including the Anubias Nana. Now all the BBA is gone (touch wood!!!)and the Anubias is also sprouting new leaves regularly.

Now I have cleaned the CO2 reactor and have the CO2 level seems to be ok i.e., about 30 ppm.

[juggler]

Good that the BBA is losing!

[saugata]

Yeah I am dosing PO4 too. For this I have prepared a stock solution of 2 tb spoons of KH2PO4 mixed in 400 mls of Distilled water. This I dose twice a week @ 3 mls after w/c & again 3 mls on the 4th day. 3mls will give me a 0.3 ppm of Phosphate for my 90 g tanks.

However, my problem with the GDA still continues. I had not removed the GDA from the tank walls for a period of 22 days hoping that the life-cycle of the GDA will be over and then cleaned it. Thereafter, I did two 70% w/c one after the other. However, the GDA came back again albeit not as bad as last time. Again I have stopped cleaning the walls and this time I plan to wait for a month or so before cleaning. Hope this time I wil be able to get rid of them once & for all.

Does any one have some suggestions on fighting GDA?

[winston77]

Hi! All,

Sorry I forgot to mention that I have come out victorious against my battle with the BBA. I cranked up the CO2 really high and did merciless trimming including the Anubias Nana. Now all the BBA is gone (touch wood!!!)and the Anubias is also sprouting new leaves regularly.

Now I have cleaned the CO2 reactor and have the CO2 level seems to be ok i.e., about 30 ppm.

Congrats on you victory on BBA... Seems like cranking up CO2 is the way to defeat them...

But are you lowering the CO2 input level now? Tat may re-invite the BBA back...

[cakchew]

is it that increasing the CO2 will reduce algae? i also curious to know that when the CO2 finish what should we do? maintain the rate or decrease back???????

[AquaObsession]

When Co2 finish, u replace it right! You get it fill asap.