# BBA Algae on Anubias Petite



## isonychia (Nov 19, 2013)

I started getting BBA in my tank.

I was able to trim the stargrass that was effected by it (mostly the older growth was effected) and remove the lava rocks that it started to grow on.

I am not sure what to clean the lava rock with to kill it. So far I have just scrubbed it in the sink and let it sit outside the tank for a few days.

My other problem is my Anubias Nana Petite. I am able to remove them as well because they are attached to small pieces of lava rock. When I had diatoms and hair algae, I simply removed them and placed them in a small bucket of water without light for a while and the algae died off. A rinse with the sprayer in the sink and they were algae free.

Whats weird about them this time is their leaves are rough and the algae on them does not come off. I assume it's BBA, but even a soft toothbrush does not remove this rough coating. Has anyone had this before? It's mostly on the edges of the leaves and is a dark algae. Is BBA that strong that it is hard to scrub off these leaves?

The edges of the leaves looks similar to this photo of another plant.









Thanks,
iso


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

BBA can be tough and time consuming to remove physically. However, excel spot treatment does a great job of killing what you have, turning it purple/pink in a couple days.

Neither of these is a long-term control. It sounds like your anubias is in too much light.. find a shadier spot for it in the tank.


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## isonychia (Nov 19, 2013)

Thanks Matt.

I will try and move it to a more shaded spot and do more water changes.

I tried vacuuming the substrate, but it's difficult with the plants. I don't know why it seems like I have a lot of mulm, (I don't really know whats a resonable amount) but I feel like I shouldn't. I have about 7 small neon size fish and barely feed them. My only thought is the mulm comes from replanting stem plants and the bottom part of the stem rots until it produces new roots. 

I guess my point is, I was able to combat all the other algae stages, but the BBA came out of nowhere. So I assumed maybe a mulm build up??

iso


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## Doppelgaenger (Jul 20, 2015)

If you can remove your rock, put it in a large covered pot with some water in the bottom of it and just steam the crap out of it. Nothing can survive steam for 30 minutes.

always keep your mulm as low as you can, no need for organic bioload when you can avoid it.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

I've not heard of mulm being a contributing factor in BBA... So I don't think vacuuming is worthwhile... if you had BGA, I'd go that route, but not so much in BBA.

BBA is generally a result of light/CO2 balance issues... Specifically too much light for the available quantities of CO2... 

With CO2 injection you can generally raise CO2 or lower light levels.

Without co2 injection you can still have light/co2 balance issues, but the CO2 side is difficult to change, so you have to play with lighting.

Also, very slow growing plants like anubias don't respond as well to solving light levels by increasing CO2.. they just don't take off when you add extra CO2 and just do better with less light on them.


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