# Black algae removal that works!!



## GulfCoastAquarian

Hmm, I might do this with my driftwood. The SAE's can't seem to keep up with it any more.


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## ginnie5

so you pulled the driftwood with plants on it and soaked it in pure peroxide? hmm...this could work. Now I just need to find a container my driftwood will fit in. That's the only place I really have bba anymore. I've been religious on water changes and dosing ( and testing to see what the levels of everything are) but I can't get it off the driftwood and keep it off. I've pulled the driftwood and scrubbed it but it just keeps coming back. If I had the $$ for new substrate right now I'd tear the whole thing down and bleach everything. But since it's a 75g right now I can't afford the substrate I'd want to use. Dang house taxes!


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## wellbiz

I cleaned my tank this weekend and decided to that it was time to get the left over algae off of my drift wood, I put the wood in the laundry tub(cleaned tub first) and dumped peroxide over it and let it sit for 10 minutes while changing water the tank water, I rinsed the wood, put it back in the tank. After one day the algea looked like it was bleached two days later it is all but gone. So yes peroxide does a great job at killing algea, funny thing is that there was some java moss still on the wood that was not harmed, heck it looks better now???


Jason


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## Daemonfly

I've been using peroxide for a while now. Lot safer than bleach, but I have seen it "kill" Java Fern.

Still not quite sure on exact "safe" useage ammounts, but ~1 cup to a 2.5g tank(no fish) cleaned up any algae on Java fern & Anubias Nana "pygmy" quite nicely.


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## sirfishmaster

wait a minute, u guys use peroxide and put it right in the tank? or soak them out of the tank?




doug


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## George Willms

You can use a syringe and directly squirt a tiny amount on a plant in the tank, but it's much better to take the plant out and soak them. Do not just dump a bottle of h2o2 into your tank!


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## SueNH

Try a 10 percent hydrogen peroxide solution (1 part peroxide from the bottle, 9 parts water). It's a standard for pretreating flower seeds for fungus before germination. Safe at that rate for delicate seedlings should be safe on a tank plant. 
Also used as a dip when you get new plants in to prevent contagious disease.
Take the plant out and give it a soak for a few minutes. 
Test it with a cheap on first not your tanks centerpiece.
I say test first because I'm assuming tank plants have less of a protective cuticle(not sure if that's the right word) than land plants.


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## nativeplanter

Be careful when calculating the percentage of hydrogen 
peroxide. Normal pharmacy peroxide is 3% (that is, 3% peroxide, 97% distilled water). So, using SueNH's formula, (with 9 parts water and 1 part 3% peroxide), you would get a 0.3% peroxide solution. 

You can buy 10% - 40% peroxide at beauty supply stores, which I'm assuming is not what was recommended. (Although it's a great cleaner around the house!)

-Laura


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## Splash

I soaked my heater and heater protector in 3% hydrogen peroxide this weekend, then scraped off as much bba as possible. The bba remaining came out a very lovely purple henna. Very spiff!!!


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## SueNH

I've got a bit of a bba problem because of my low lights. Had a java fern that was pretty well covered with it. Figured if I didn't do something soon it would die anyway so I took a capful of bleach and put in a bowl that holds about a gallon of water and swished it around. Rinsed it off and put it back and the algae turned white. Interesting thing was my corys started working over the bleached algae the next morning. Was kind of like it made it more palatable. They were kind of sucking it off the leaves like spaghetti. Never saw anything like that. All 4 worked until there wasn't a speck left.

I've got an apongeton that needs something but I'm kind of afraid to dip it. The leaves look and feel so much more delicate. I nipped the worst ones off but don't dare take anymore right now. Think the peroxide would be more gentle? I bought new lights nearly a month ago now but they still haven't shown up. Will need to clean up the bba a bit before they do arrive.

The stem plants don't seem to be bothered with it. The driftwood has a fuzzy dark cushion that looks kind of neat but I'm afraid I need to do it in. Dipping the crypts kind of scares me but they really aren't that bad.


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## sherry

the other looks sick

I used pharmacuetal peroxide. Dipped for a minute

then rinsed and rinsed and rinsed

swished in clean water

rinsed again

swished in water rinsed some more.. and then finally swished it in water treated with prime to make sure I didnt put any chlorine back in my tank

this morning the first SAE was dead.
and tonight the second one looks bad. 

both were eating the black algae that seemed to taste better to them after treatment. 

I am very sad. and I am not at all sure I like tihs cure.


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## Daemonfly

These are the values I've experimented with, got them from the krib. This is for *3%* hydrogen peroxide.

Plant only - 1oz per 5g 
With fish - 1oz per 12g 
with fish AND Otos - 1oz per 20g. (I'd also include snails & shrimp in this one)

1oz = 2 tablespoons so I started out with one tablespoon in my 20g as it has 2 otos and I wanted a light "starter-dose". Staghorn started turning gray, and the BGA was no longer slimy, it looked more like green felt. No effect on my fish, including Otos, amano shrimp, and various snails. I'll probably up the dose to the 2tbls and see how it goes. I ended up picking out the BGA as it was just too thick & choking out the plants. Most of the staghorn is still there though.

I did try this on my 2.5g (no fish) before when it was a holding tank and dumped about 1/2 cup into it (too much). Algae turned white and died, gone within a few days. The Java ferns didn't do that well, some leaves died off, but the plant survived. The Pygmy Anubias Nana got through it just fine.

*As this is an experiment, I can't recomend it to anyone yet*


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## sherry

my poor dead fish may have been a coincidence. Haven't lost any before or since.

I'll follow your experiments with great interest.


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## salito718

ok, so what now,

I did the 4 ounces for 2 days in my 55 gallon, it seems like it did not have any adverse affect on my ottos or shrimps. but a have a bunch a plants wearing pink wigs, what will happen now, I did a water change and the algae is still there but all of is now a hot pink with white (bleached) ends.
is it dead? what do i need to do to remove this stuff, it is still tough to pull..

do i just let it deteriorate?

I have been dosing 2 tbsp of hydrogen peroxide everyday in order to try and kill any spores from teh algae, i guess it will have the same effect as barley in ponds, what do you guys think of this, since i started doing this i havent seen any adverse effects and no new black (grey or what ever you want to call it) take hold


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## Daemonfly

In my latest 2.5g setup the algae eventually disolved away after a week or so, this was just green hair algae though. No snails or anything to eat it, etc... just went away on it's own.

In my 20g, I have really thick & clumpy staghorn that tends to just stick around, even after a treatment. I have to manually pull it off, as it doesn't seem to fade away that quickly. Pretty much the same for the BGA.

Glad to see you didn't have problems with the peroxide. I still can't honestly recommend it to anyone, but so far it's worked. I've done it with direct applications up to the recommended doseages, as well as just adding it to the general water column. Got my CO2 regulator in, and need a tank, and got my chems for fert dosing, so hopefully I'll be able to stabalize the tank & keep the algae at bay without the peroxide.


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## Ag

I gave this a try and it didnt seem to kill the BBA,but I did notice an explosion of plant growth over the last 3 days. Anyone else have the same outcome?


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## conny1908

salito718 said:


> I did the 4 ounces for 2 days in my 55 gallon...


I have had a problem with black brush algae in my 55g for a couple of months now and would love to get rid of them.

What kind of peroxide did you use, Salito? Just the regular kind you get at the store? Did you dilute it and then just poured it in the tank?

As to my tank: 

*Setup & lighting:* standard 55g Walmart setup; used to have two hoods with two 15" Power-glo bulbs. I just purchased a new hood that covers the entire tank. It has a 48" Flora-sun bulb (high emittance in the red and blue spectrum; I have one of those on my 46g bowfront and it's great! No algae whatsoever!)

*Filtration:* Rena FilStar XP2

*Maintenance:* 30% water changes weekly

*Plants:* The tank is heavily planted with an assortment of anubias, water sprite, baby tears, java fern, cryptocornes, and some mystery bulbs from Walmart. It has been set up for more than six months and is fully cycled. None of the plants are new, and I didn't add any plants recently. Wonder how the BBA got in there!!

*Fish: *1 blood parrot, 5 otos, 1 rosy tetra, 7 cherry barbs, 3 kongo tetras, 2 honey gouramis. They get fed twice a day.

*Water parameters: *pH between 6.5 and 7, 0 ammonia/nitrite, nitrates between 25 and 40 (some weeks it's at 25, others at 40 - can't figure that one out!).

Any suggestions????


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## salito718

I used regular over the counter peroxide, and I injected in straight at the algae with a syringe, you will see it starting to ixidize immidiately and in 24 hours you should see it strat turning fusio, hot pink or so, i gave it one more treatment after this , an dthan i allowed it to disintegrate on its own, it took about about another week for it to fully disappear, sinc emy last treatment i am starting to see small amounts making a come back, i will wait another 2 weeks and repeat the treatment....


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## conny1908

I squirted some over-the-counter peroxide on three leaves Saturday. The algae emitted tiny bubbles for a while. No change in their appearance so far. I'll keep watching them!


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## rich9521

Be careful as I just found out the hard way...peroxide and fish don't always mix!


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## conny1908

The peroxide didn't do anything at all. Fish are happy and healthy, so are the algae.


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## wellbiz

conny1908 said:


> The peroxide didn't do anything at all. Fish are happy and healthy, so are the algae.


It usually takes up to a week for the algae to die and fade away after treatment....It will come right back if you dont get to the cause of the problem(usually a nutrient imbalance)


Jason


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## Fat Guy

It makes me feel better that many of us have BBA, because I had a major outbreak of it on my driftwood after I reshuffled the layout of my 29. Thanks for the Hydrogen Peroxide tip!! I haven't tried it but will. The last time I treated my driftwood, I pulled it ouf the tank and ran boiling water over the BBA which immediately died. I also put a piece of driftwood that it was covered with in my 38g tank that has absolutely know visible algae. In two days, the algae turned red and died. Probably not the best idea because I could have introduced some BBA into my 38g. But my 38g has about 0.4wpg on it, so I really didn't have a problem getting rid of the BBA that way.

Anyway, again, thanks for the tips all.


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## corigan

I used the bleach method on some A. Coffee that I had and it worked well. All the BBA turned bright pink and died off a few days later, the anubias is still doing well and sending out new leaves. I finally go rid of my BBA when I got pressurized co2. I know this isn't your case since you have plenty of co2. My SAE's were fortunate enough to actually eat the BBA though. I still have some reminents of it, but it's more just the black spots left on some leaves I haven't pruned yet. Atleast it isn't the puffy stuff that is growing everywhere. Good luck with the fight fatguy, I know you will succeed.

Matt


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## putty

I had a BBA infestation and decided to go with the direct peroxide 2-minute dip. I did java fern, various anubias, calistratum, bolbitis as well as various driftwood.

The results are as follows, algea turned red a couple of days after the dip and most of it fell off. The only casualty was the bolbitis...it did not seem to like the dip at all...all the fronds turned transparent brownd and are in the process of falling off. There is however new growth from the rhizome, so I don't think I killed it.

Moral of the story, dip away, but don't dip your bolbitis.


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## doncam

Hey Daemonfly, looks like you could be onto something, I'll follow your tests with interest also, as I have the same problem, and a beautiful Anubias to save.

Thanks.


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## EricSilver

I agree with the comments on the effectiveness of peroxide, and the warnings about using too much. 

I have found Peroxide to be very good at killing green algae. It is also does a great job of ridding a tank of most of its snail population. (Malaysian Trumpets in my case, although that was not my intent.) 

Unfortunately, excessive peroxide (say, five or six ounces of 3% solution added to a 29 Gal) will prove equally deadly to most small, thin-bodied fish such as ottos, neons, serpae-type tetras, cories, etc. (Don't ask me how I know this. :icon_redf ) The ottos and cories will generally be the first to show ill effects, and die. 

Large, full-bodied fish, i.e. full grown angelfish, will show some slime coat damage in the form of cloudiness over their fins and eyes, which will clear up completely in a day or two after a 50%+ water change. 

Excess peroxide will also damage your more delicate plants. Crypts will completely melt. Wisteria (hygrophilia difformis) and red ludwigia will drop most of their leaves, but will otherwise remain intact. Immersed-growth Amazon sword leaves turn brownish/transparent white, but the main veins remain green and, if not excessively damaged, the leaves will recover fully. Emmersed-grown Amazon Sword leaves may either be unaffected, or turn yellow/brown and die. 

Annubias barteri and Java Ferns will be unaffected. Nitrifying bacteria were also unaffected, in my experience. 

Used carefully and in controlled doses, peroxide will solve your algae problems. Should you have a reason to us large doses, i.e. a massive algae or snail infestation that you need to get rid of in a hurry, first remove your fish and delicate plants. Add the peroxide and let it circulate overnight. In the morning do a 50 to 70% water change. Just about all the snails will be dead, and over the next few days the algae will die off and disappear.


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## wenhamjj

Has anybody tried Seachen Excel? I had BBA smothering my plants and mt LFS suggested using excel. He said my BBA problem was due to a lack of co2, which I now believe because about 3 weeks ago I stopped my DIY co2 because I didnt think it was really doing anything. One thing I did see though was a increase in BBA. I always had it but it got worse when I stopped CO2. I has so much BBA tha my plants were out-competed by the BBA. The excel has in one week of use for the most part eliminated it. After 2 days use the BBA turned red then it started turning gray now its gone.


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## Georgiadawgger

Would Potassium Permanganate work to get rid of BBA? I've used it to sterilize plants before putting them into my main tank and I always see a "ring" of crap on the edge of the bucket the plants are soaked in. I just use Jungle's Clear Water and add drops until the water is pinkish. Anyone tried this?


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## bullosa

The last time BBA got into my tank, I introduced 10 wild caught SAE. They cleaned everything out by the next morning.


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## conny1908

The BBA outbreak in my 55g has become worse and I decided to treat the whole tank with peroxide at a dose of 1 tablespoon per gallon. 

I have two questions, though: will the peroxide disintegrate or be broken down by bacteria or does it need to be removed by water changes? Do I need to repeat the treatment and how soon?

Thanks for your input!!


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## abc

*wow! the peroxide works great for dipping!*

Well, I've had some major bba problems. I'm too much of a chicken to add the peroxide in my water since I have a freshwater moray eel, and he'll probably react terribly to the peroxide. So I took out my most heavily affected plants and dipped them in half 3% peroxide and half water for five minutes and after a day the algae is either all gone or turned a bright red color which my rosy barbs are picking at!

great suggestion! thanks!

abc

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## conny1908

*Update on BBA removal*

1 TBSP/g didn't do anything, so I tried 8 TBSP to the whole tank. 

I removed about one third of the water last Saturday, poured the peroxide as close as possible onto the algae-covered plants, and filled the tank back up. The algae immediately started emitting a stream of tiny bubbles. This lasted several hours.

Today, most of the BBA have turned a reddish brown, some a greyish brown, and my cherry barbs are picking on them. The fish are all ok, including the two rubbermouth plecos I bought Sunday (theyr'e hard to come by around here, so I had to buy them that day - and they were only $5 a piece!).

It seems to work!!! I'm giving the tank a peroxide break now. If the algae aren't mostly gone in two weeks, I'll repeat the treatment.


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