BBA help

[af2373]

Beginners Info Sheet
++++++++++++++++++

Tank Dimensions (2ft x 1.5ft x 1.5ft): 100 litres
Lighting Intensity: 36W x2
Type of Lighting : PL
No. of Hours your light is on: 9 hours
CO2 Injection Rate (bps) : 3-4 BPS
Type of CO2: Tank
Method of Injection: reactor
Substrate Used : gravel
How Thick is your base fert : nil
How thick is your gravel : 5cm
Liquid Fertilizers Used : nutratin plantgro, KNO3, KH2PO4
Frequency of fertilization : twice a week
Tank Temperature : 28 deg C to > 30 deg C
Type of Filter : external
Filter media used : Sponge
How long has your tank been set up : 3mths


Chemical Properties (Fill what you can)
---------------------------------------

Carbonate Hardness (kh): 4
Total Hardness (gH):
PH : 6.6
NH4 (ppm):
NO2 (ppm):
NO3 (ppm):
PO4 (ppm):
Fe (ppm):

Bioload (Your Fish and Plants)
------------------------------
cardinal : close to 50pcs
yamato & malayan : 15pcs
Oto: 2pcs

a small portion of Java Moss on dw
3 small batches of Riccia on rocks
Hairgrass

Additonal info :
water circulation via rainbar (side shooting across tank)
water change weekly 50%
dosing approx 12.5ppm KNO3, 1.25 KH2PO4 & half capful of nutrafin plantgro twice weekly

Describe your problem :

BBA.

noticed bba growing on gravel on the opposite side of the rainbar. majority around the furthest area of the tank. hairgrass (HG) is slightly affected but not much. Java moss on dw placed quite near the rainbar oso not spared. the canister filter's rainbar and the outlet basket seems to have traces of bba. but surprisingly, the 3 baskets placed at the back of the tank to propagate java moss is not affected.

have been constantly picking up those affected gravels for the past few days but my back cannot take alady....seems to hv new growth daily.

wat's the likely prob and the first course of action to take to reduce bba's growth.

[chua]

Your lighting and CO2 seem not a problem to me.

Maybe you will like to share with us the amount of dosage for k, NO3 and PO4.

You can do a search for the remedy for bba. Blackout is one cheap method.

[af2373]

as stated abv, dosing approx 12.5ppm KNO3, 1.25ppm KH2PO4 & half capful of nutrafin plantgro twice weekly. but have stopped doing so since last thursday's water change.

[af2373]

sorry guys, got one piece of info wrong. think my PH is 6.4 and KH is 4. hence my co2 is abt 48ppm. could the high co2 be a contributing attribute to bba?

[hwchoy]

got pic of your tank? is your HG growing well or at all? I have not tried planting HG without base fert and I'm not sure if they feed adequately from the water column.

[af2373]

as below

http://www.arofanatics.com/members/af2373/juneupdate/

[hwchoy]

I don't think HG is going to do well without base fert. Also yours are planted in too thick a clump and yet too sparse between clumps. I got very good results by planting about 5-strands in a clump and about 2 cm between clumps (like fall-in parade square lah).

I would suggest upping the lights as I got very good results with 108W in an 80cm tank. I use 6cm thick JBL base fert under 3cm of Lonestar gravel.

[barmby]

Alan,

there are several postings on BBA. You may check it out.

Summary from these postings are, C02 is 90% responsible for BBA. Double confirm your C02 level from the moment light turns on to off. This is the period that all plants care about.

For big tank, 4 feet and more - there might spots where there isn't enough C02.

When plants grow, algae don't.