Dealing with BBA

[Shadow]

That odd, I also use a syringe and spray Seachem Excel directly on to the BBA. It usually killed within 3 days. Also I did nbot turn off the filter. Turn off the filter should increase its efficientcy, I just to lazy

[EvolutionZ]

yea... it does turn alittle red.. but it always turn back black..

[torque6]

I believe algae develop resistance to certain treatments after awhile. My bga seems to be returning as well, dispite changing to a pressurised co2 system. No overfeeding, weekly water changes, airstone providing oxygenated waters 24/7 and BGA seems to be spreading. But the good news is comparing now vs previously, its creeping relatively slowly than before.

[ADA SG]

yea... it does turn alittle red.. but it always turn back black..

Hi,
what we do in our tanks and also teach our customers of manual removal is to scrap the algae off using the air tube or finger nail and let the air-tube which has a siphon already running remove the bba out from the tank. We stress the need to always do manual removals first and then let the algae eating critters remove any leftovers, before chemical actions.

Like what the other members mention, it is necessary to fight the cause of the problem and fix the system, so that it creates a balanced system for plants to grow and thereby combating the algae.

Cheers.

[alechim]

I am experiencing BBA and green algae. Currently had reduced light, up CO2 until drop checker showed yellow, fert with Step2 & brighty K. BBA still grows and the green algae will come back after I scrub them off the tank glass.

Tank Dimensions (LxWxH, specify units):2ft x 1ft x 1.5ft

Lighting Intensity(No of Watts) : 48watts
Number and type of Lighting (FL/PL/MH) :2 tubes of T5
Age of light bulbs : 6mths
No. of hours your lights are on : 10hours

CO2 Injection Rate (bps) :2bps
Type of CO2 (DIY/Cylinder) :Cylinder
Method of Injection (e.g. Diffusor/Reactor) iffuser with a small Boyu canister to fully dissolve CO2

Liquid fertilisers Used (Product name. E.g. Seachem Flourish) :ADA Step2,Brighty K
Fertilization regime (Frequency and amount per dose) :3mil everyday

Other fertilisers (Product name. E.g. Root Monster) :nil

Other additives (Product name. E.g. Seachem Prime) :nil

Type of Filter (overhead/internal/canister, Product name/model if possible) :Canister, eheim 2026
When was the filter last washed :Last Friday
Filter media used :Susbstrate Pro and bamboo charcoal
When was the media last changed :New
What was changed :nil

Age of setup (i.e. since initial setup or last major re-do ) : 3mths

Water change frequency nce a week
Amount changed :50%

Water surface movement (None/gentle/turbulent) : gentle
Circulation (None/gentle/turbulent) :gentle

Tank Temperature :26degrees

Chemical Properties (Fill what you can)
-------------------------------------
KH (dKH): 2 (after buffered with ADA amazonia)
GH (dGH):
pH : 6.8
NH4 (ppm): 0ppm
NO2 (ppm): 0ppm
NO3 (ppm): 0ppm
PO4 (ppm): Not measured
Fe (ppm): Not measured

Bioload (Number and type of fish and plants)
------------------------------------------
10 x yamato, 4 x oto, Tank planted 3/4 with hairgrass, micro sword, HC, a mesh of fissiden and a mesh of peacock moss

Describe your problem :
BBA, green algae comes back quickly after scrubing off glass.

[Quincy]

Guys just to share my experience in dealing with BBA. Most people will ask you to increase CO2 when they hear you have BBA and thats what I did and increase my bps which further push my ph from 6.4 to 6.2 but this stress the fishes after about 5-6hrs. After seeing the fishes grasping for air for 2 days and BBA still growing wild, I decided to cut my CO2 and surprisingly BBA reduced quite alot. My current ph now is 6.6, KH should be 5 which was last measured last mth. Therefore I believed the that if ph were to drop too low, BBA will strive. Maybe a 0.5 drop in ph is about just right. Maybe guys with BBA can try this out and post their results.

[PeterGwee]

Guys just to share my experience in dealing with BBA. Most people will ask you to increase CO2 when they hear you have BBA and thats what I did and increase my bps which further push my ph from 6.4 to 6.2 but this stress the fishes after about 5-6hrs. After seeing the fishes grasping for air for 2 days and BBA still growing wild, I decided to cut my CO2 and surprisingly BBA reduced quite alot. My current ph now is 6.6, KH should be 5 which was last measured last mth. Therefore I believed the that if ph were to drop too low, BBA will strive. Maybe a 0.5 drop in ph is about just right. Maybe guys with BBA can try this out and post their results.

BBA is still a CO2 issue. You need to know that other than cranking up the bubble rate, mixing of the CO2 rich water with those lower CO2 areas is also very important. Think of syrup mixing.....slow current = thick concentrated syrup at one area slowly flowing through while higher current mixes things faster.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[MacDuff]

I would agree with Peter Gwee. You CO2 seems like enough. You need to get the circulation of the CO2 in the tank up. I would put a powerhead or two to get the CO2 blasted to the BBA regions of the tank.

[Quincy]

Yes I do agreed that circulation is important, just wanted to share that increasing bps of CO2 not necessarily is the remedy to eliminate BBA for me I actually decrease the bps of CO2 and see lesser BBA. I maybe wrong but this really happen for my tank.

[alechim]

I have to agreed with you, I increased CO2, BBA still grows...
Now i switched from lilypipe to rainbar..see if everything improves.

[uklau]

It took quite sometime for the BBA to gain foot hold. Naturally, it's going to take some time for the BBA to disappear, after you correct the root cause

[alechim]

Its a time taken to find the root of the problem which is killing

[larlee]

My tank specs:
60x36x36
3x24w T5HO
CO2 4-5 bps with diffuser
8hrs lighting
GEX Soil
Temp: 28c
Hairgrass 2/3, Masilea 1/3
WC 20% & 30% a week
Eheim 2222
Lushgro Aqua + Micro + Excel

No BBA so far (touch wood) but got green spot algae.....

[Puffer]

BBA is still a CO2 issue. You need to know that other than cranking up the bubble rate, mixing of the CO2 rich water with those lower CO2 areas is also very important. Think of syrup mixing.....slow current = thick concentrated syrup at one area slowly flowing through while higher current mixes things faster.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

Peter,
I'm currently experiencing growth of bba on my nana leaves. Since you mentioned that having good co2 circulation is important, why is it that bba tends to grow wildly directly on areas where the little holes of rainbar shoot out water+co2?

[Puffer]

Hmmm...Have I asked a silly question? Can anyone clear my doubt please? I'm currently using a 1.5 year old Atman filter but the rainbar is only covering about half the length of the 3 ft tank. I noticed bba tends to grow more on the areas where the little holes of the rainbar shoots out water current. Why? I've since upped the co2 to 2-3 bps (from 1 bps).

[lEddyl]

Hmmm...Have I asked a silly question? Can anyone clear my doubt please? I'm currently using a 1.5 year old Atman filter but the rainbar is only covering about half the length of the 3 ft tank. I noticed bba tends to grow more on the areas where the little holes of the rainbar shoots out water current. Why? I've since upped the co2 to 2-3 bps (from 1 bps).

here's what i do if flow is not the issue
manually remove all BBA. increase co2 progressively till you notice there's no more new bba growth or bba looks stunt.
finally spot treatment with excel or just snap them(cheap and fast)

[Kane]

if i don't use co2 tank in my tank will i have a high chance of getting BBA? cos everyone say BBA start when co2 is low, so if my tanks don't use co2 will it be in trouble soon?

[Shadow]

Hmmm...Have I asked a silly question? Can anyone clear my doubt please? I'm currently using a 1.5 year old Atman filter but the rainbar is only covering about half the length of the 3 ft tank. I noticed bba tends to grow more on the areas where the little holes of the rainbar shoots out water current. Why? I've since upped the co2 to 2-3 bps (from 1 bps).

Same thing happen to me when I use rain bar, BBA grow at the holes of the rainbar where the water come out. I'm using external reactor so the water come out from the rainbar should be reach of CO2. I'm asking the same question before and according to Stanchung, BBA need to bind with some particle, can't remember the name, before it grow into BBA as we know. So cleaning up your filter will also reduce the BBA occurance.

Also in one of my tank, I'm using those seperating container made from nets. The strange thing is BBA grow all over the net but no BBA on all of the plants, rock and driftwood. So the particle theory might be correct, the nets is traping the particle and BBA grow on it.

Will try to find my thread on this particle/dirt/what ever you name it.

[Shadow]

ok found the similar discussion, "Build up of detritus is a BBA trigger"

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=33150

[PeterGwee]

BBA loves current and CO2 in a moderate range. The issue here is really about response time which most folks cannot measure if they use ADA or peat laden substrates unless they have a CO2 meter (dropcheckers are slow in response time). The light intensity dictates the amount of energy input that drives photosynthesis and if you use a lot of light, you would need higher levels of stable CO2 once the lights are "on". How fast can your CO2 system get the CO2 up to 30ppm and keep it there for the time the lights are "on"? Quite a number of folks have trouble doing that within 1/2 to an hour and may take hours just to get there. What happens to the plants during that time? They just stall and wait for the CO2 to get up and high before they can start using it again (this is not so simple and you would need to look into boundary layer issues that affects aquatic plants uptake of both CO2 and nutrients. They don't take up 30ppm of CO2 but rather the higher CO2 sort of improves the diffusion rate into the plant leaves but is still slow due to boundary layer issues.) whereas algae response much faster.

If you seek easier management of CO2, use less light but make sure it is well spread out and that you don't let other plants overshadow the foreground ones or they will get leggy. I'll suggest you folks read more in depth into photosynthesis and plant physiology in order to understand better.

Regards,
Peter Gwee