Hair Algae & BBA attack.

[alex76]

HihI,

My 1.5ft tank was attacked by BBA and hair/staghorn algae... The BBA grows on my ET and glosso leave so I removes them mechanically, and up the CO2, and now totally remove without recurrence so far.
but the hair/staghorn algae has been haunting my tank all the while.
Those mosses was newly tied to the DW 3months ago. Waited patiently for it to flourish, but now being tied by those hair/staghorn algaes....
I've gone thru a lot of thread by those who faces the same problem, it seem the only solution was to remove those infected plants and only re-introduce those clean plants.... sigh... I'll be very sad if I throw away all the moss tied to the DW as I have been waited so long for it to grows
The background plants (ID still unknown) stems had been fully wounded by the hair algae which make it looks dark green instead of brown.
Which means now literally I have to remove the whole DW and the background plants... Thank God that the Riccia and glosso/ET are still untouch.

My tank substrate has only 1 very very thin layer (just only soil thick) of some Japanese soil and the rest are lapis sands.
I dose with 1/4 teaspoon of PO3 and NH4 weekly after 1/3 water change...with 2bps CO2 and 24W PL lighting.

Any other alternative without having to throw away the mosses??

Image taken when tank still "clean"

[Shadow]

put some yamato for the hair algae, and inject florish excel to the BBA every day. BBA will turn white after few days. You can also manually remove the hair algae.

[grey_fox]

I think to inject excel on a daily basis is not a solution in the long run. Try to re-evaluate your dosing regime & also check on your CO2 distribution and its PPM. Pinpoint the root of the problem and solve it from there. There's only so much that the algae crew can do.

You can find lots of topics/suggestion/solutions on BBA and its eradication on the boards.

[Shadow]

Agreed you still need to balance your system, otherwise it will always grew back.

[PeterGwee]

You dose NH4????

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[|squee|]

I think he meant 1/4 teaspoon of KNO3

However, you are dosing 1/4 teaspoon of KH2PO4 and a 1/4 teaspoon of KNO3? You should reduce the dosage of KH2PO4... one rice grain worth will be good enough.

For me, staghorn means there is a lot of rotting matter in the tank (for my case, dead leaves from emersed plants converting to submersed) and BBA means CO2 issues. Are you using DIY CO2 or cylinder?

You have to remove as much of the algae manually as possible, then correct conditions, and introduce algae eaters like Yamatos and SAEs.

How big is your tank?

[alex76]

I think he meant 1/4 teaspoon of KNO3

However, you are dosing 1/4 teaspoon of KH2PO4 and a 1/4 teaspoon of KNO3? You should reduce the dosage of KH2PO4... one rice grain worth will be good enough.

For me, staghorn means there is a lot of rotting matter in the tank (for my case, dead leaves from emersed plants converting to submersed) and BBA means CO2 issues. Are you using DIY CO2 or cylinder?

You have to remove as much of the algae manually as possible, then correct conditions, and introduce algae eaters like Yamatos and SAEs.

How big is your tank?

yeah yeah KNO3..

hmmm... my tank does not have rotting matters... I'm using cylinder CO2. Now no more BBA problem after I manually remove all the infected moss and leaves.
I have 4 Yamatoes and 1 SAE and 1 oto in the tank.

tank is 1.5Ft.

[grey_fox]

Hey alex76,

Now that you've manually cleared up the BBA infected moss, you should eyeball the condition of your tank and also tweak your CO2 & fert regime to suit your plants needs.

[wasabi8888]

I am confused. shouldn't it be 1/8 tsp of KNO3 and 1/32 tsp of KH2PO4?

[low]

to get rid of BBA, increase Co2 or decrease Co2 ?

Thanks

[|squee|]

Now no more BBA problem after I manually remove all the infected moss and leaves.

Great, now you have to heed grey_fox's advice, ensure that CO2 doesn't go wrong anymore, otherwise you can induce the algae to return.

I am confused. shouldn't it be 1/8 tsp of KNO3 and 1/32 tsp of KH2PO4?

How come I didn't find anything wrong with that in the beginning wasabi is right! How come you're dosing so much?

to get rid of BBA, increase Co2 or decrease Co2 ?

Increase CO2 to good levels, ensure input is as stable as possible. Improve circulation, remove existing BBA otherwise BBA will just continue to grow even when you have corrected conditions.

[low]

Great, now you have to heed grey_fox's advice, ensure that CO2 doesn't go wrong anymore, otherwise you can induce the algae to return.


How come I didn't find anything wrong with that in the beginning wasabi is right! How come you're dosing so much?


Increase CO2 to good levels, ensure input is as stable as possible. Improve circulation, remove existing BBA otherwise BBA will just continue to grow even when you have corrected conditions.

thankyou.

[ronald_t80]

hi Squee, so how many bps for the c02 inject than consider good? that part i also blur???

[|squee|]

Hi Ronald, it's not about bps, rather it's about the concentration of CO2 in your tank. If you want the maximum amount of CO2 you can add to your tank, increase the bps very slowly day by day until you see that your fish is gasping at the surface at night. Once you see this, lower the input down to the "yesterday's" point.

This will mean that you are injecting the highest amount of CO2 your tank can take. The rest is water circulation and how consistent CO2 is being dissolved in your tank and spread to the plants.

[alex76]

Finally, the hair algae have succesfully over take my entire tank..... the Riccia was covered with a layer of dark green hair algae and the mosses too...... everyday I spent half an hour making "green candy floss" out of the hair algae but they grow even faster.....

think I need to decommission the whole tank liao

[grey_fox]

Hi alex76,

Don't allow this to dishearten you. It's all but a learning process. I learnt the hard way myself. I was faced with BBA, Staghorn, Hair algae, BGA, actually most of the algae you can find and name, I've got it in my tank before.

You'll need to do more reading up and you will begin to understand what your plants actually need. If you're practising dosing ferts the estimative index way, search for posts on fert regimes, and CO2 PPM rates that's optimized for your tank.

It'll take a while and lots of experimentation to get the hang of it but if I can do it, so can you.

[|squee|]

alex... the green candy floss thing, does it have small green "bubbles" attached to them?

[alex76]

alex... the green candy floss thing, does it have small green "bubbles" attached to them?

hmmm... don't have.... these are strands of hair algae that I use a bamboo stick to roll it n pull it away from the mosses

[|squee|]

Oh ok, because there's the possibility that they might be one of those aquatic weeds often found attached to plants you buy from the LFS. Takes over a tank in no time.

Yours is staghorn algae I think. You have a lot of decomposing matter in that tank. Try fluffing up your moss and Riccia when you next do a water change. Try to feed lesser, and improve water circulation.

[alex76]

Oh ok, because there's the possibility that they might be one of those aquatic weeds often found attached to plants you buy from the LFS. Takes over a tank in no time.

Yours is staghorn algae I think. You have a lot of decomposing matter in that tank. Try fluffing up your moss and Riccia when you next do a water change. Try to feed lesser, and improve water circulation.

Oh ok.... here some updated photo to identify the actual algae... don't worry about the food residue, I seldom feed that much, I just pour in the food before doing a blackout for 3 days..... I'm so tempted to peep at it after covering it up to see if the fishes ok or not

Is it BGA?


Another closer look


Hair algae right?


Overall tank about 3 months old, compare to the first picture above