# BBA Black Beard Algae Help/Suggestions



## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

I've been doing some reading and I've read the following:

1. Use excel, dosing carbon will kill it
2. Black outs will not work against BBA
3. Should turn pink when it dies
4. If I dose ferts (I'm thinking Seachem Flourish Comprehensive) for the other plants in the tank the BBA should die if the other plants are flourishing (due to being out-competed?)
5. Use H2O2

I am going to try dosing excel (spot treatment) and seachem flourish... but is there any risk of me making the problem worse by dosing seachem flourish? 

I thought algae would generally thrive off excess nutrients (I think BBA was caused by excessive lighting in my tank [I don't dose this tank at all, so if I start would I be introducing an excess of nutrients?]).

I've also read some people use H2O2, but I have some Java ferns and moss in there ATM so maybe I will remove it and try it if my initial attempts fail...

The tank has no livestock currently so if anyone has any more efficient/effective methods to combat this problem then please let me know  ... I've been pouring boiling water and spraying vinegar at it lol

Thanks for reading.


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## steven p (Jun 22, 2012)

My mosses have never been harmed by peroxide. Najas is the only thing I can recall damaging. Java ferns seem too leathery to be bullied by the stuff.


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## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

I thought BBA was only an issue in CO2 injected tanks?

As for ferts and the theroy of to many nutrients causing algae, this has been shown to not nessarly be true. Algae comes in when the plants aren't thriving.

As for flourish products, they tend to get quiet expensive in the long run your pocket book would be better off with the purchase of a fert package from GLA or the equilvant there in Canada.


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

I have a hand down seachem flourish bottle (a good amount of it too). I am only going to use it temporarily till this algae is gone.

I recently tore this tank down so I'm using the lack of tank inhabitants to dose the plants with some supplements to give them a boost (having them thrive to the extreme) while trying to get rid of BBA.

The plants never really had an issue thriving in the shrimp tank, I am assuming because of the high phosphate levels due my substrate expiring and me leaving the lights on too long caused this BBA problem.

Some of the BBA got on my filter equipment so I plan to dose those directly in either H2O2 or bleach.


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## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

The filter equipment could be cleaned with a bleach solution to kill the BBA. The plants can be treated with H2O2 or even spot dosed with excel.

Since you don't have any live stack might I suggest; http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=203684


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

I killed some thick and healthy Java moss by directly spraying H2O2 on it. I was trying to kill some algae it had. Sprayed it directly underwater using a small spray bottle, 3-4 days in a row. The moss turned brown instead. I stopped the treatment but the affected areas went on to die completely.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

I've been able to get rid of BBA with normal recommended glut dosages, without spot treatment, though spot treatment kills it faster. It also kills hydra and planaria.

Bump: Also, no. 4 is just wrong. That may be true for other algae, but not BBA.


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## IiScaPeJuNkiEiI (Aug 7, 2013)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> Bump: Also, no. 4 is just wrong. That may be true for other algae, but not BBA.


Not necessarily. I read a couple posts by Tom Barr where he purposely put BBA covered rocks in his tank and the BBA stopped growing and died off....:thumbsup:


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

Yeah that's where I read that and put it as "4." lol.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

IiScaPeJuNkiEiI said:


> Not necessarily. I read a couple posts by Tom Barr where he purposely put BBA covered rocks in his tank and the BBA stopped growing and died off....:thumbsup:


I can do the same thing for many algae; that's how I usually get rid of algae infested plants. However, simply dosing fertz at normal levels will not get rid of BBA. (Exceptions are spot treating with salts.)


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## StrangeDejavu (Jun 23, 2014)

Nothing worked for me until I did the One-Two Punch whole tank treatment- it's been gone since.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> I've been able to get rid of BBA with normal recommended glut dosages, without spot treatment, though spot treatment kills it faster. It also kills hydra and planaria.
> 
> Bump: Also, no. 4 is just wrong. That may be true for other algae, but not BBA.



Did it ever come back? If not, what do you think was your cause? Same questions to Strange Dejavu... Thanks!


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

Solcielo, another question: what do you mean "with recommended glut dosages"? Do you mean what Seachem recommends for normal usage?


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

Yes, Seachem's normal dosage. It comes back if my CO2 is unstable, which often occurs when I'm trying to find just the right amount to add. Otherwise, it stays away.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

Thank you Solcielo. That happened to me too, BBA appeared when my Co2 was unstable, until a month ago, then I stabilized it, but BBA is still around. Did you dose 5ml/40gl or 5ml/10gl? Thank you again.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

Initial dose was 25ml/55 gallons. Then 5ml/daily-ish. I dosed for a week and just left the BBA alone. It fell off on its own after a couple more weeks.


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

Since I'm using the 1-2 punch method I assume that a water change isn't going to be necessary?

Based on:
"Unlike bleach, Hydrogen Peroxide (H202)will turn into harmless water and oxygen after 24 hours in contact with water. It is therefore the perfect solution for use in the aquarium environment."

and the fact that CO2 excel will eventually be used up by the plants?

I plan to cycle the tank after I treat all the algae.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> Initial dose was 25ml/55 gallons. Then 5ml/daily-ish. I dosed for a week and just left the BBA alone. It fell off on its own after a couple more weeks.



Thanks for the info, this will be useful for me, I have some BBA I'd like to get rid of. It is interesting how that stuff appears when the tank is out of balance, and then it stays there a long time after the tank has been restored and balanced... Hard to see it go away by itself, isn't it?


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## birbaliktanki (Jun 18, 2014)

i used to have nasty bba problem too. but it's almost gone now and i attribute it to 2 changes i did:

1. i removed my night lighting which i think before was still too bright to generate photosynthesis
2. i stopped feeding those floating cichlid pellets and just stick to flake food. maybe there is some ingredients in those pellets which are very conducive for bba growth. or perhaps its due basically to reduced feeding.


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## Slippryrock (Mar 15, 2011)

I fought this fight for a long time using process of elimination and tried a lot of things. This is what worked for me in the end.

56c. 
pressurized Co2. 
moderate to high light. 
Marineland C series.
Had been using RO water with equilibrium. 
pH 6.3ish TDS 400ish
no measurable phosphates

I followed Amano's advice for treating it. Cease Co2 fertilization and raising the pH to 7.6 using potassium carbonate. (too hard to find in small quantity) I just used straight dechlorinated hard municipal city water. low 8's.

I physically removed as much as i could. i removed driftwood, filter return and pick up and misted with peroxide then scrubbed under hot water.
tweezed out about half a cup of infected pieces if substrate.
i stopped Co2 and did a series of 30 to 40% WCs bi-weekly.
in the past,within a few days of physically removing it i would normally see it start coming back. This time it never did. So i knew i was finally on the right track.

after the first WC i found that the pH was where it needed to be but the TDS meter told another story. i was still hovering around 500. 600 to 700 is more desirable. so on the second WC i added seachem equilibrium to raise it another 100 points. I still had it covering the stuarogyene repens that are planted in front corners. A 56C is 30" x 18" x 24" tall. Turns out the tank had some real dead spots in lower front corners. I dropped in a small 240 gph circulation pump i had and let it runs for about a week. after about 4 days I saw a huge improvement. Circulation pump as been out for about 2 weeks now and all is well. I have resumed Co2 after about 2 months of treating for BBA. So far so good. i think i have found my balance for that tank. on a side note, so far i do NOT have hard water stains. After raising African cichlids for so many years i totally despise hard water build up. after changing my water make up i am very leery but so far so good.

hope this may be helpful to somebody


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## StrangeDejavu (Jun 23, 2014)

shrimpzoo said:


> Since I'm using the 1-2 punch method I assume that a water change isn't going to be necessary?
> 
> Based on:
> "Unlike bleach, Hydrogen Peroxide (H202)will turn into harmless water and oxygen after 24 hours in contact with water. It is therefore the perfect solution for use in the aquarium environment."
> ...


Correct. I treated my tank with the One-Two Punch and left my AquaClear running the entire time. I know some turn them off, but I didn't want to risk algae spores remaining "safe" in the filter. Unless it happened over night while I was asleep, it never broke my cycle. I tested the following morning, that night, and that next morning. I also added shrimp a few days later and had no casualties.


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

StrangeDejavu said:


> Correct. I treated my tank with the One-Two Punch and left my AquaClear running the entire time. I know some turn them off, but I didn't want to risk algae spores remaining "safe" in the filter. Unless it happened over night while I was asleep, it never broke my cycle. I tested the following morning, that night, and that next morning. I also added shrimp a few days later and had no casualties.


Good to hear  I will also be running my filters as well during the treatment to get all the carbon and H2O2 circulating around the tank as well as those that lurk in the filters.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

shrimpzoo said:


> Good to hear  I will also be running my filters as well during the treatment to get all the carbon and H2O2 circulating around the tank as well as those that lurk in the filters.



So, do you use carbon in your filters during the treatment?


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

fablau said:


> So, do you use carbon in your filters during the treatment?


I won't be running any carbon media in my filters ever, definitely not during treatment lol.

Only exception is if I ever have the misfortune to use medications for some sort of outbreak.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

Well, I must have misinterpreted what you wrote above about "carbon"... What carbon are you referring to? Thanks


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## artemis (Oct 21, 2004)

fablau said:


> Well, I must have misinterpreted what you wrote above about "carbon"... What carbon are you referring to? Thanks


I believe he's referring to bioavailable carbon used by plants for photosynthesis - in other words, CO2 or glutaraldehyde (the main ingredient in Flourish Excel).


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

Got it. Thanks!


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