# BBA - the last stand (hopefully)



## P.Isley (Feb 18, 2020)

Your tank is beautiful!!! I love the balance - really a gorgeous aquascape!!! 

I am not sure you can discard the organic hypothesis - an algae problem slowly rearing its head over the course of months when you aren’t doing anything differently, really points strongly to a build up of waste in the substrate. I’m not sure that seeing the problem continue after adding purigen to the filter rules this out. I’ve had tanks where I have had to use a turkey baster to ‘fluff’ the substrate with a pouf of water alongside the waste hose to get every bit of detritus off the bottom. I have also had to reduce the tube diameter of my waste siphon to slow the flow so that I could get a thorough job done of the substrate before all of the water ran out of the tank. 

Wishing you luck at fixing that pesky algae issue! Hope my ‘two cents‘ helps!


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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

Chemiclean - Follow directions on bottle, and then to keep it away:

Reduce light intensity if possible. 
Reduce photoperiod to 5 hours per day max (until algae has subsided, then slowly increase back up to 8 hours per day over a few weeks).
Ensure you are providing adequate nutrients for the plants (unhealthy plants promote algae).
Dose Flourish Excel or equivalent Met14 at the “after water change” rate on the Excel bottle once per day. 
Manually remove all algae you can. 
Manually remove excess organics in the tank by gravel vacuuming and cleaning filter media in old tank water every water change. 
Manually remove any decaying or dead plant matter.
Increase water change frequency, and the amount of water changed.
Consider spot treating badly affected areas or dipping plants / hardscape in a Flourish Excel, Met14 or H2O2 + water solution. Google search which method you think would work well, and for general ratios to mix a safe solution. Certain plants can’t tolerate these chemicals, so ensure you do a little research prior to dipping / spot treating plants. 
If using CO2, ensure CO2 is dropping the pH of the tank water a full 1.0 – 1.2. To do this, measure the pH of tank water with no CO2 dissolved in it, and then measure again 2-3 hours after CO2 has been running. Ensure the drop in pH is a full 1.0-1.2. If the drop is not there yet, slowly up CO2 over a few weeks until at least a 1.0 drop is achieved, and watch fish / livestock carefully. Adjust CO2 down if you notice fish gasping at the surface and consider running an airstone at night when pushing a 1.2 or greater drop. For example, a tank water pH of 7.5 with no CO2 dissolved in it, should reach a pH of 6.5 – 6.3 for CO2 to really shine, and for maximum plant health. 
Consistency in CO2 levels is key to plant health. Keep CO2 levels as stable as possible once a desirable level has been reached.


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

If I might add one point, I agree that Excel is effective on BBA, but I'd move every Caridina shrimp out of that tank before treatment. And if dropping pH via CO2 that much, make it very gradual and watch the shrimp closely. I have sent more Caridina to an early grave via Excel and CO2 than I am proud to admit.


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## DaveKS (Apr 2, 2019)

If your trying to simulate a natural daylight period you need longer ramp up and ramp down times. Try 3up/3midday/3down.

In nature until sun gets to around 30° above the horizon (think 9-10am) a good portion of the light, especially reds and yellows, are reflected off the surface of the water back up into atmosphere. Full penetration into water column only happens for about 3-4hrs a day. 










Ever been beside a lake or other body of water and have to use sunglasses in late and early parts of days because glare off the water is so intense?


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## Ddrizzle (Jan 30, 2019)

Same fix as any other algae issue, but first I'll comment on your likely issues: EI dosing with 8 hours of light with slow growing plants.

Cut your damn lights off and do two or three extra water changes this week and the next. Red algae LOVES dirty tanks full of excess nutrients whereas most simpler green algae just need lots of light with a seemingly non-existent amount of nutrients.

Double check that your TDS and particularly GH arent through the roof due to stuff like seiryu stone.

But mostly, water chang, water change, water change while siphoning up as much detritus as you can. Then set your light to an hour or two a day and slowly increase it each week until you get algae again. At that point you need to question your fertilizer routine (including your water changes) vs light in.

To get better light control, I suggest a fluval 3.0 plant light.


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## Rotala macrandra (Mar 2, 2020)

From my experience, BBA grows when nutrients are conducive to its growth. If you're using CSM+B, then it can help BBA's growth bc plants will be deficient in key nutrients relative to other nutrients which is when BBA starts to grow. Any attempt to fix the problem in the way you're doing it is just addressing the symptom, not the root cause. I've been there, tried almost everything. The only thing that stopped it completely was figuring out what plants were deficient in and what was being dosed in excess.


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## Asteroid (Jul 26, 2018)

Rotala macrandra said:


> From my experience, BBA grows when nutrients are conducive to its growth. If you're using CSM+B, then it can help BBA's growth bc plants will be deficient in key nutrients relative to other nutrients which is when BBA starts to grow. Any attempt to fix the problem in the way you're doing it is just addressing the symptom, not the root cause. I've been there, tried almost everything. The only thing that stopped it completely was figuring out what plants were deficient in and what was being dosed in excess.


BBA isn't plant specific. It will grow in any tank, whether that be fish only, plants only, high or low light. The one thing these tanks have in common are organic waste and light. It's balancing these things that prevent BBA. Spores become alga when a threshold is breached. That threshold is lower with stronger light and less plant mass (uptake.) There is a big difference between nutrients from decomposing organic wastes that release ammonia (spore food) and the nutrients we dose.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

qoob said:


> So I've been having trouble with BBA appearing in my high tech EI tank.


High tech EI tanks are not the best approach to slow growing low light plants....which is mostly what you have. Many of those plants need very, very little light....or ferts or anything really. Even the stems you have are considered easy low light plants too. 

My guess is that too much light is the bulk of your problem. I would reprogram at a total of 8 hours. This includes ramp up/ramp down, and I would turn peak light WAY down. Again, the bulk of your plants need very, very little light. It would be nice to know the PAR those lights are providing, because you probably need only 30 - 50 PAR at the substrate range for this tank.



qoob said:


> For ferts I do EI - I use a ready-made liquid for macros and micros and dose them daily in multiple small doses throughout the day using an auto-doser. So ferts are always on point and I never "miss the schedule".


Not sure I understand the charts? Is that based on dosing? What ferts are you actually dosing and how much? It would be helpful to know, but in general you are never going to solve a BBA problem by adjusting ferts, unless you have fast growing stems that are severely underfed.

Have you taken readings for NO3/PO4 or Mg/Ca?? Might be helpful to understand what is going on. 




qoob said:


> Tank is 120 liters with about 100 liters of water. I use ADA Aquasoil, and I even have some root tabs in it.


With ADA aquasoil and your mix of plants, you may need very little fert dosing. My guess is your Aquasoil is bringing your PO4 way down, and you might need to bump that up a bit. And you certainly don't need root tabs if you are water column dosing. How old is the Aquasoil? If it's still leaching ammonia that could be another factor. An ammonia spike can bring on BBA quickly. I don't use aquasoil, but maybe @Asteroid can help??

IME, BBA is usually caused by too much light, too many dissolved organics in the system, poor maintenance, too much/too little flow, a spike in ammonia, and in general plants that are not in peak health. 

It sounds like you have been concentrating on better maintenance, and that is a good thing. Keep that up as an uber clean tank is the best defense against all algae. And keep in mind a well managed balanced tank should not have any BBA, and you can get there.


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## Amphiprion1 (Jan 17, 2016)

Any particular reason for not leaving the surface skimmer on (or off) consistently? That makes a dramatic difference in CO2 flux on my particular tank. I prefer to leave it going all the time and have noticed BBA crop up a bit when, for example, the skimmer tube was getting sucked beneath the surface on and off again and concentrations going up and down throughout the day for a few days or a week. With it on, I am able to really diffuse large quantities of gas into the tank (100 L) and keep concentrations pretty consistent. I know people see various causes for BBA, so just something I happened to notice on my particular system.


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