BBA or GBA? Need assistance

[evildoer85]

Hi Guys,

Recently i have either BBA or GBA bloom... its on my hamburger sponge, my rain bar, driftwood, plants etc...

Please advise whether the below attachment is BBA or GBA...

How do i remove it safely.... Please take note that i have CRS/Bee shrimps and bristlenose pleco inside and there are many shrimplets.. If possible i would wan to avoid chemicals...

Btw what causes BBA/GBA to bloom? My tank is about 5 mths setup and previously there was 0 algae....

Await for your advise

Many Thanks



IMG_1669.jpg

[Urban Aquaria]

Looks like BBA to me... its usually introduced as algae spores (maybe hitchhiked on plants or shrimps that you recently added into the tank).

BBA usually flourishes when there is too much light, not enough Co2 or not enough flow to get the Co2 around.

For non-chemical methods, maybe can try fishes which reportedly eat BBA, like SAE (but they also like eating mosses) or american flag fish (but they also like snacking on shrimps)... so there are some trade-offs, and they may not fully eradicate the BBA.

The most effective documented method so far involves chemicals (ie. H2O2 + Excel tactical strikes) and subsequent manual removal, but you may lose some fauna in the process so it'll be best to transfer them to another temporary tank when doing the anti-BBA chemical treatment.

[Shadow]

since it is on wood, why don't you take it out and clean it. Never ever brush BBA inside your tank, it will just spread like crazy.

[Grapphery]

Yeap BBA! I had that experience with my first tank.

You should manually remove the rocks, driftwood and some part of soil that has BBA on them asap, otherwise it becomes unmanageable when left untreated.
BBA usually known to develop in a tank with a high nitrate level. After you remove all the BBA, you might consider putting Crossocheilus siamensis and Cardina japonica in the tank, they help to eliminate BB algae.

Hope this is useful

[Navanod]

@Urban Aquaria:
I would say forget about SAE. They only eat BBA when young and when starved. It's quite cruel actually and you end up with big lazy SAE that fights for food with your shrimps in a few months once they grow big.

Also, it's near impossible to get the correct SAE in singapore. If you have trouble sleeping at night, you can take a look at this very old thread I started about it long ago

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ht=algae+eater

[Urban Aquaria]

I agree, most people use them initially to try to clear algae but then end up have to give them away later when they grow too big for their smaller tanks.

[stressed]

Not knowing what your hardware consists of, I was successful with increase frequency of water change to reduce or dilute nitrate, increase co2 through a pressurized tank and increase frequency of fertilization for the plants over a 2week period helped me eradicate bba. This also includes an SAE as occupant of the tank all this while.