# BBA outbreak



## DiscusLoverJeff (Jun 18, 2010)

I have a similar problem myself and was told that my 4-65 watt T5 setup was a bit too strong for my planted/discus tank (95 Gal). So I cut down the bulbs to 2 instead of 4 and about like you for 7/8 hours. Its better, but still having an outbreak once a week right before the weekly water change of 70%. So it is taking apprx 6 days to outbreak.

Hope yours works out.


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## they call me bruce (Feb 13, 2011)

its the sudden change that did it your tank will have to aclimate to the change raise the light to 10 inches for that type tank easy on the ferts for a while you need wisteria right away to suck up the ferts that the bba is using it works wonders sounds like the co2 is good but you should max it out but you need a drop cheaker get your defusser as close to the bottom of the tank as you can--change your water every week 25 to30% and when you do prune the bad stuff and peroxid what you can. it takes time but one day it just gos away dont change the light time I keep mine on for 10 hours cause i like show--Stability is what you want its going to take at least 45 days but it will work you can also use excel if you want--good luck


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## reiness77 (Jul 9, 2011)

Thanks for the suggestion Bruce,
I don't think we have wisteria here, but I guess any fast growth plants will do?
I will try H2O2 treatment tomorrow, let's see how it goes 
Unfortunately, raising the light is not an option as the lightings are built into the hood. What can I do?


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## they call me bruce (Feb 13, 2011)

dont worry about the light height its ok didnt realize your tank is so deep yes any fast growing plant will suck up excess ferts they can be floaters do you have cabomba? that works the h202 works well with a siringe without the needle--is your tank heavily planted? also make sure your nitrates are as close to 0 as possible bba loves high nitrates


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Personally I don't think the plants/tank cares about a sudden change. The plants will take up as much ferts as the light/co2 will allow it. 

You need to crank up your co2. But I'm sorry to tell you that shrimp/inverts are mire sensitive to high co2 then any other animals I have seen so you may not be able to get the co2 levels high enough to deal with the amount of light you have.


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## reiness77 (Jul 9, 2011)

Thanks for all the suggestion, the BBA explosion, seemed to have stop, and the SAEs are once again keeping up. Just need to get rid of existing ones. H2O2 treatment seemed to work in weakening it but BBA hasn't died yet. I'll try upping the dosage and hope my snails and shrimps will make it. Anyone knows if ottos are sensitive to H202? I know that BN plecos are.


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## reiness77 (Jul 9, 2011)

update: H2O2 seemed not too efficient for my BBA, they bubble like crazy after the treatment, some of my moss even turned brown. BBA? Fine as ever. Any other option besides excel (which I can't get here), and removal of infected plant?


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## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

like bsmith suggested, BBA is usually a result of too much light and insufficient CO2, do you have a co2 checker to see how much co2 you have? 
as a temp fix, you can dose excel to kill BBA, dose 3x of recommended daily dosage for a few days.


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## they call me bruce (Feb 13, 2011)

keep it going 30% water changes once a week check your nitrates they should be near 0 ppm keep pruning and using the H2o2 during water changes with the filter off of course

lighting at 10 hours works for me if your dosing with Iron stop it for a while and slow down your ferts as well


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

they call me bruce said:


> keep it going 30% water changes once a week check your nitrates they should be near 0 ppm keep pruning and using the H2o2 during water changes with the filter off of course
> 
> lighting at 10 hours works for me if your dosing with Iron stop it for a while and slow down your ferts as well


Are you suggesting that the OP try to keep Nitrates near 0ppm? In any healthy planted tank nitrated should be in the 10ppm-20ppm area. Without levels in that range you risk bottoming out and starving the plants, allowing algae to start rearing its ugly green/black/red head.


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## shrimpNewbie (May 6, 2011)

Co2 it up, cut back on the lights, they are ho or Super HO? I doubt you need more than 2 bulbs but I could be wrong, I have luck in not having bba in my tanks, though it tried to creep its way in, solved it by setting up temp co2 and dosing excel and shortening my lighting, i raised my lights also but not till after it was all gone, I wish you luck getting rid of it, couldnt imagine having bba in a 125


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## shrimpNewbie (May 6, 2011)

bsmith said:


> Are you suggesting that the OP try to keep Nitrates near 0ppm? In any healthy planted tank nitrated should be in the 10ppm-20ppm area. Without levels in that range you risk bottoming out and starving the plants, allowing algae to start rearing its ugly green/black/red head.


I thought the same thing =p


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## DerangedCorgi (Oct 15, 2010)

Just nuke them with H2O2. I had some on a couple pieces of slate and I just directly applied it with a syringe. They bubbled like crazy and by the next day they were down to half of their original size.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

reiness77 said:


> update: H2O2 seemed not too efficient for my BBA, they bubble like crazy after the treatment, some of my moss even turned brown. BBA? Fine as ever. Any other option besides excel (which I can't get here), and removal of infected plant?


Did you use a whole tank treatment (pour H2O2 in) or a spot treatment (turn filters off and squirt H2O2 on BBA with a syringe)? The latter is much more effective for the treated areas, and tends to have less collateral damage. Typical dosage is 1-2 tbsp. per 10G for either treatment, with the lower number more appropriate for you since you have sensitive flora and fauna.

Also, the form of BBA matters.

The fuzzy/hairy version is easier to kill. If killed, it will start turning a weird reddish gray color a day after treatment; but otherwise appear unchanged. It takes a few days for it to start breaking down, at which time it will start to flake away, and the algae eaters will suddenly decide it's tasty.

The hard, flat spotty version is more difficult; because the H2O2 can only reach and kill the top layer. It takes repeated, small spot treatments every 2-3 days to gradually shrink it, often focusing on specific areas due to the limited H2O2 dosage. Total removal takes a lot of patience.

I agree reducing the light by 50% was a good move, and necessary for your tank.

Trying to get nitrates down to zero would be a very bad idea though. 

BBA prefers organic waste as food, not chemical fertilizers. It can use chemical fertilizers, but it takes a lot of extra energy (light) for it to do so. That's why it starts growing so rapidly when there's too much light. Once light is reasonable, to keep it from growing at all you need to starve it of organic wastes.

Plants will consume both organic wastes and chemical fertilizers. They can keep organic wastes near zero if you:

1) Provide the bare minimum of chemical fertilizers, forcing them to consume organic wastes instead; which is the approach Bruce is suggesting. It works and I've done it, but it's tricky. Too little of any *one* nutrient and the plants develop a deficiency. Consequently, growth slows down, which is counterproductive as it reduces their appetite. And they'll be unhealthy, which causes the leaves to break down and release organic waste that tells algae the plant leaves are a food source. Even with two bulbs instead of four, that's still enough light driving plant growth that it's almost impossible to limit nutrients without causing severe deficiencies. This approach is only feasible with low lighting, and not appropriate advice for your medium/high light CO2 injected tank.

2) Or pile on the chemical fertilizers, lots of CO2, and a reasonable amount of light. The plants will grow fast enough that organic wastes will be rapidly consumed despite the large amount of chemical fertilizers. And they will grow healthy, without attracting algae. Much easier to attain and maintain.

Wisteria, or any other fast growing plant, will mop up organic wastes with spectacular efficiency as long as it's growing fast and healthy.


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## reiness77 (Jul 9, 2011)

Thanks for all the input guys; just an update

as of right now BBA are almost gone, only a bit left on substrate and the glass, and filter.
reducing my SHO bulb from 4 to 3, upping the CO2 and adding more SAE (they go to town on that stuff) seem to work.

as for the H2O2 treatment, as I had lots of shrimps, snails and catfish (which I heard are very sensitive to H202) I didn't want to use spot treatment and chose bath/dip instead. What I did basically is dump the plants infected with BBA in a bucket and pour a whole lot of H2O2, and let them bubbles for 10 minutes. 

But now I have green spot algae *facepalm* oh well, at least I can scrape them pretty easily.


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