# Black Beard and now Blue Green Algea



## DefStatic (Feb 19, 2013)

SO I had done some research on Black Beard algae, but I really wanted to discuss it with people here. This is my 30 Gallon near jungle in my signature. 

I moved about a year ago. Before I moved things were hectic house hunting and stuff. I started getting bad about my water changes. During this time I also got a type of grass plant from someone for free. I think there was some algae or something with it, maybe it was a coincidence.

The next thing I know I have a crap ton of what I think is black beard algae. These small things of algae that look like little black bushes of dune grass.

Even after I moved I was still barely able to keep up with water changes. So the problem got worse. About 6 months ago I started trying to fight it. I read something about hydrogen peroxide. I was manually removing the stuff and soaking anything I could remove in peroxide. I had started to make progress. 

I should mention that when I moved half my stock died. So I have been slowly replacing it too.

I was starting to win the batter, but then the peroxide just kind of stopped working after a few month. Does it go bad quickly or something?

And now not only do I have the black beard problem, but I am getting sheets of blue green algae covering things.

Any thoughts? Do I need to add some circ pumps to increase flow? I never had a problem like this for years. Do I need to man up and start doign water changes once a week instead of once every two weeks?

Any help or advice is much appreciated. I do not mind looking up stuff either I just like to converse about topics as well.


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## longgonedaddy (Dec 9, 2012)

Yes, peroxide does go inert somewhat quickly. A month seems quick, though. Did you leave the cap loose or the bottle in the sun, or in a warm place? 

I got brush algae under control by reducing light, and giving it a one two punch with peroxide and glutaraldehyde. Note I said under control. I'm not sure if anyone ever fully beat it back.

I've seen it in grow in high flow spots, and it used to grow first on my filter outlet. I don't buy the high flow theory of fighting it. 



As far as the cyano, I haven't had that in a tank since the Mid 90s, so I'll someone else address that.


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## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

I feel like there are different stains of bba. When I was fighting it in my tank, what I had was green and h202 would do nothing to it but glut would.


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

Manually remove as much as possible. Turn off all filters and water movement. Give the tank a few minutes to chill. Then take a syringe and fill it up with h202, and very slowly squirt it at the affected areas, moving slowly so as not to create water movement.


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## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

What do you mean by stopped working ? If you pour some of it in a jar with some organic material do you still notice bubbles ?

I would make the BGA the first priority. Left uncontrolled it could lead to major problems in plants and fish. There are many methods to deal with it. Personally, blackouts and water changes did not work for me. If it is already well spread only erythromycin worked. If only in some spots than excel or H2O2 spot dosing. I find this algae appears in areas/times with low N. 

BBA is mostly linked to high organics/damaged plants. Increasing water changes freq. and your aquarium husbandry level should work. Current colonies can be treated as described by the other members.


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## MtAnimals (May 17, 2015)

ultralife blue green slime remover worked best for me on BGA.The other thing that really helped was getting all the dead plant material out.out of the tank,out of the filters.

I had the worst outbreak after setting up my first planted tank with 40 Vals that all melted at once.


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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

I would point to your light, but that's just me. Maybe an over simplistic view, but over many years, I've been browbeaten to always reduce light first.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

i would also consider light but IMO if you are seeing BGA and BBA you probably have some nasty stuff in the tank. IMO BGA only shows up when things are 'dirty' (mulm, dying plants, etc...).

keep things clean, focus on growing on lots of healthy plants, make sure light is not too high (yours probably is), etc...

pics still needed... your journal's pics are like 4 months old and do not look like they are having issues


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## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

klibs said:


> IMO BGA only shows up when things are 'dirty' (mulm, dying plants, etc...).


Interesting how time after time (dif aquariums) Bga originates from clean pure sand areas and not from the aquasoil which you might argue allows more debris collection. Much to learn about algae I guess... 


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## TINNGG (Mar 9, 2005)

Mmmm... I got it(BGA) in a bare bottom grow out tank that got 80% w/c every other day. 3 whole plants, no dead leaves, and the sponge filters got quite a bit of inadvertent cleaning when I tried to get them to sink on set-up. OTOH, had a neglected tank go for years with only a pathetic anubia for an occupant and next to a window - no BGA.

Had it show up again in my main tank several weeks after nuking with erythromycin...and vanish, never to return, after several weeks of mild fertilizing. Go figure.

I'm thinking if the plants are dying, the BGA is likely the cause rather than a symptom.

BTW, there seems to be two forms (or two species) - the typical nasty green slime, and this equally nasty spongy reddish stuff.


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## DefStatic (Feb 19, 2013)

Nlewis said:


> I feel like there are different stains of bba. When I was fighting it in my tank, what I had was green and h202 would do nothing to it but glut would.


I will have to look into this glut stuff.



timwag2001 said:


> Manually remove as much as possible. Turn off all filters and water movement. Give the tank a few minutes to chill. Then take a syringe and fill it up with h202, and very slowly squirt it at the affected areas, moving slowly so as not to create water movement.


I've been doing this for 6 months now, LOL. the removal. My bottle of h202 was working quite well at first. I would turn off the filters and air stones, and take about 6 ml and squirt it around. Within a couple weeks the stuff growing o my drift wood was gone. Then the h202 stopped bubbling so much. I think maybe I will get another bottle, it is cheap, before trying this glut stuff. 



dukydaf said:


> What do you mean by stopped working ? If you pour some of it in a jar with some organic material do you still notice bubbles ?
> 
> I would make the BGA the first priority. Left uncontrolled it could lead to major problems in plants and fish. There are many methods to deal with it. Personally, blackouts and water changes did not work for me. If it is already well spread only erythromycin worked. If only in some spots than excel or H2O2 spot dosing. I find this algae appears in areas/times with low N.
> 
> BBA is mostly linked to high organics/damaged plants. Increasing water changes freq. and your aquarium husbandry level should work. Current colonies can be treated as described by the other members.


Nothing else has changed other than I did have a high amount of plants die off a bit and then come back. I lost quite a few fish in the move that I had to slowly find and take out. Pretty sure I missed a few. And I was for a few months unable to do proper water changes.

The only other thing I have not really addressed is the water source now. I think the water is harder than where I was before. If I leave water in a glass for a couple nights, and empty it out, there is a harsh stain of a white stuff that only comes off with a good scrubber, not a normal no stick scrubber. 

Should I get my water tested? I have a kh/gh test kit but damn that kit is difficult to do and read.

Bump:


klibs said:


> i would also consider light but IMO if you are seeing BGA and BBA you probably have some nasty stuff in the tank. IMO BGA only shows up when things are 'dirty' (mulm, dying plants, etc...).
> 
> keep things clean, focus on growing on lots of healthy plants, make sure light is not too high (yours probably is), etc...
> 
> pics still needed... your journal's pics are like 4 months old and do not look like they are having issues


I have even though about doing a blackout. Or reducing lights, but I haven't changed my routine for years and never had a problem. Problem didnt seem to exist until I was unable to do more than one water change a month and had new water.

I will see if I can get some pics soon. The journal hasnt been updated in a long time. And yeah, that was it in its prime. It looks better right now, but only because I ripped out a ton of it and some more plants that were just too covered. Also, the slime algea seems to come off when I suck it up during the water change.


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