Say goodbye to BBA!!

**Desewer** · 17th Nov 2009, 16:24

i have that issue also (balance co2 in reactor after lights off, due to lower dissolve rate or excessive co2 rate). but my fish don't gasp for air like yours. maybe you can aerate the tank at night with an airstone? this would promote exchange of gases and hence bring the co2 levels down in your tank when lights are off. or if you reduce your bps rate a little, then the balance co2 would not be so much.

**EddyTing** · 17th Nov 2009, 20:23

Originally Posted by Desewer

Eddy, how about direct application of Excel? Seems like you're not addressing the root cause, which is why they keep coming back.

How strong is your lighting and what is the lighting period? And how is your CO2 injected into the water? Airstone, internal/external reactor, diffuser?

Isn't H2O2 = Excel? Thought I've read in forum saying that H2O2 works better than Excel, that's why I didn't bother to try dosing Excel. I agree with you that what I've done has not really eliminate the root cause.

I'm currently using 4x39W T5HO for 8 hrs/day. CO2 injection through external reactor with 3bps (yesterday just tried up another 3 bps through another diffuser). O...and I'm keeping a bare 3 footer, no sump. Please advice....

**Desewer** · 18th Nov 2009, 00:02

Excel has some kind of ingredient called gluteraldehyde (i hope i got this correct) which somehow affects the algae.

http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewto...p?f=91&t=23638

well, short of a suspicion that your plant mass might not be large enough to overtake algae, i am also at a loss as to why your bba keeps coming back. my own tank has bba and they came back after a heavy pruning, hence i would attribute the bba to being caused by lower plant mass.

**shrimppaste** · 18th Nov 2009, 00:28

Hey that makes a lot of sense. Now that you said it, mine came after heavy pruning too.

**Desewer** · 18th Nov 2009, 00:37

i read somewhere that takashi amano mentioned after a pruning, you should lower your co2 injection due to the lower plant mass. he did not mention anything about the lighting period (i might have missed it if he did say that). he also suggested to increase the co2 gradually in tandem with plant growth.

it does make a lot of sense. but, lest we forget, isn't excess co2 in the water supposed to kill the bba, not encourage their growth? we up our co2 when we get bba, don't we?

i don't know enough about this issue yet to be able to make really useful and contributive posts. let's hope tom barr can correct our posts if there are factual mistakes in what we said.

**shrimppaste** · 18th Nov 2009, 01:53

I think it's not the CO2 but the fact that there are less plants to take in the excess nutrients.

**TyroneGenade** · 18th Nov 2009, 17:29

Originally Posted by Desewer

Excel has some kind of ingredient called gluteraldehyde (i hope i got this correct) which somehow affects the algae.

Gasp! Gluteraldehyde is formaldehyde's big brother! We use it in the lab if we want to fix tissue for ever. This is not a nice substance...

Turning phosphate: so let me get this straight, if I increase the phosphate in my tank then the hair algae I have will not like it and the plants will be able to out compete it for nutrients? This is very interesting. I did a large water change on Sunday and yesterday as I was looking at my tank I noticed that the hair algae had exploded in growth! Phosphate tends to be the only nutrient that accumulates in aquariums regardless what one does...

**EddyTing** · 19th Nov 2009, 19:25

I'm trying the higher CO2 level for my tank now. If it still doesn't work, I'll try Excel. Thanks for all the advises...

**Desewer** · 19th Nov 2009, 20:17

hi, just an update. my bba is slowly dying off. i think it's partly due to my pruned plants (about 3 weeks ago) taking off again. the plant growth is visibly noticeable (accelerated growth) and the bba is turning gray. some have even died off.

i dosed excel into the tank (not spot treatment, just generic) about 4-5 days ago.

**EddyTing** · 19th Nov 2009, 21:07

Wow, looks like I really have to try those Excel...may I know how much you dose each day and how big is your tank? Just simply pour them in the tank?

**Desewer** · 19th Nov 2009, 23:05

i used those push-top containers that are normally used for bath soap, etc. found an unused one at home (think it's $5 for good quality ones at hdb shops, don't buy from muji, expensive!) and used it to store the excel.

i gave it about 10 pushes of the pump once-off! really overkill but all my fauna didnt die (except for the lone suicidal yamato who think's he's superman).

my tank is 60x30x36cm, standard 2ft tank size.

**EddyTing** · 20th Nov 2009, 18:28

Hm...Think i might just try it after this. hope to clear all the BBA & snails before my rescape after CNY.

**chlorophyll** · 3rd Dec 2009, 21:02

My BBA vanished after i rescaped and added a wavemaker under my internal reactor. My guess is that BBA bloomed in my tank due to poor CO2 circulation.