# I think it's BBA. How do I get rid of it?



## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

For me the link for your photo is not working. If it is bba(looks like little black/green tuffs) you can spot treat it with H202 or double dose excel for a couple days. Whenever I've gotten it I believe it was brought on by an excess of light. Try dimming your light by raising it, installing a dimmer or getting floating plants.


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## Olskule (Jan 28, 2010)

I was recently engaged in a battle with BBA in my 55 gallon tank and tried the H2O2 method as I saw it explained​ on YouTube. According to that, the H2O2 becomes harmless H2O and O2 (simple water and Oxygen) and won't harm fish. Sounds plausible, right? Yeah, no. Apparently there is a maximum amount you should not exceed, because I dropped the water level and sprayed the BBA directly, then filled the tank again as instructed. Oh yeah, it killed the BBA, but it also killed many of my fish. I suppose the fault was mine, in over-applying the peroxide, but there was no warning about that; it was said to be completely safe and harmless to fish. So be warned, and if you try the H2O2, use it sparingly or halfway refill the tank and drain it back down again to dilute the H2O2 before finally refilling the aquarium for good, or just remove the fish altogether during the treatment.

I'm setting up my large aquarium, and now I'm paranoid about algae of any kind, so everything that will ever touch the water in that one​ will be sterilized with strong bleach, then detoxed, or quarantined for weeks before it goes in. And I mean separate nets, tools, etc. Right now I've dumped everything into it and I'm running filters and all with a whole gallon of chlorine bleach in it! (It took a few hours to turn that @#*√π BBA into fluffy white tufts, but even so, I'll probably still have to scrub it off of everything!)

I have a 20 gallon that I use as a plant grow-out, holding and quarantine tank, and though I even have several plants that I collected from the wild in it, I have no problem whatsoever with algae of any kind. On that tank, I run the lights on a timer, with a split lighting period, four on, four off, four on. I'm thinking about using that method on the 125 when I get it going, although I would prefer to have the lights on all the time for asthetic reasons. Also, I'm wondering if a visually satisfactory light with low PAR might be an option during the midday light resting period so that the aquarium looks good, but there's nothing going on photosynthetically speaking (including algae growth). 

One thing I have learned is that BBA loves light and I found that it starts out directly beneath the lights, close to the water's surface first, then spreads to the high positions​ on leaves, rocks and other decor. That, and it's a #@&$% to get rid of.

Good luck with it.

Olskule


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## paquetja (Apr 10, 2017)

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll try the H2O2 trick. 

What I'm also trying to do is avoid it altogether. Without adding CO2 is it unavoidable? What's the magic balance I should be aiming for? 

Do you think at 6 hours with my finnex, which is supposed to only be low-medium light, that's it's too much?


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## paquetja (Apr 10, 2017)

*Seems to have worked....*



Olskule said:


> I was recently engaged in a battle with BBA in my 55 gallon tank and tried the H2O2 method as I saw it explained​ on YouTube. According to that, the H2O2 becomes harmless H2O and O2 (simple water and Oxygen) and won't harm fish. Sounds plausible, right? Yeah, no. Apparently there is a maximum amount you should not exceed, because I dropped the water level and sprayed the BBA directly, then filled the tank again as instructed. Oh yeah, it killed the BBA, but it also killed many of my fish. I suppose the fault was mine, in over-applying the peroxide, but there was no warning about that; it was said to be completely safe and harmless to fish. So be warned, and if you try the H2O2, use it sparingly or halfway refill the tank and drain it back down again to dilute the H2O2 before finally refilling the aquarium for good, or just remove the fish altogether during the treatment.
> 
> I'm setting up my large aquarium, and now I'm paranoid about algae of any kind, so everything that will ever touch the water in that one​ will be sterilized with strong bleach, then detoxed, or quarantined for weeks before it goes in. And I mean separate nets, tools, etc. Right now I've dumped everything into it and I'm running filters and all with a whole gallon of chlorine bleach in it! (It took a few hours to turn that @#*√π BBA into fluffy white tufts, but even so, I'll probably still have to scrub it off of everything!)
> 
> ...


Well I took out almost all the water, sprayed as much affected leaves as possible with an H202 and Excel solution and let it sit for 20 minutes before refilling the tank. Seems to have worked... most of the algae has turned red and is slowly decaying. I also decided to raise my Finnex up about 6 inches with some coat hangers, because I think that light is just too bright to not have added co2. 

I'm going to try a DIY CO2 setup in a few weeks, once I see if the raised light helps and my balance starts to restore itself. 

Thanks!


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## jellopuddinpop (Dec 12, 2016)

paquetja said:


> Well I took out almost all the water, sprayed as much affected leaves as possible with an H202 and Excel solution and let it sit for 20 minutes before refilling the tank. Seems to have worked... most of the algae has turned red and is slowly decaying. I also decided to raise my Finnex up about 6 inches with some coat hangers, because I think that light is just too bright to not have added co2.
> 
> I'm going to try a DIY CO2 setup in a few weeks, once I see if the raised light helps and my balance starts to restore itself.
> 
> Thanks!


Now that it appears to be receding, be sure to stay on top of your water changes. Depending on how much was in there, you could have a lot of decaying material just lingering around. Combine that with the H2O2 killing some BB, and you could end up with a mini cycle, followed by a Nitrate spike.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


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## paquetja (Apr 10, 2017)

jellopuddinpop said:


> Now that it appears to be receding, be sure to stay on top of your water changes. Depending on how much was in there, you could have a lot of decaying material just lingering around. Combine that with the H2O2 killing some BB, and you could end up with a mini cycle, followed by a Nitrate spike.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


Thanks for the tip. I'm checking my parameters daily, and I went out and bought an Aqueon water changer (simliar to Python) to make me more willing to do quick and more frequent water changes for the next little bit.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

What Jellopuddingpop mentions is something that can sneak up on you if not fully aware. you kill algae, it winds up like all the other debris only lots of it in some cases. So all that debris decays and suddenly it is almost like having a dead fish in the tank. A bit slower but this may overload the bio system. Better to treat small areas, check results and then do another so that you are rocking the boat more gently?


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